Copper for the Charlatan

Correlian Stand-Off

She stepped through the doors, leaving her mask on as she addressed the issue at hand "I'm going to be brief and to the point. I lied to you in the hangar. Hux is my General, but also my friend. I've been suspicious of you since the day he brought you aboard. After finding a vial of extremely potent sedative in your cargo I brought it to his attention, and unfortunately he assumed you were going to kill him with it."

She wanted to be angry at Phasma, but the last sentence caught her off guard. "He, sorry, what?? How in the hell did he come to that conclusion?"

"As General of the First Order he has had multiple attempts on his life. It will come as no surprise to you that he has... handled... a lot of people to get to his position. It's not just the Resistance that wants to take his life, many more trying to move up the ranks have attempted that as well."

Stars... that ruthlessness is just something else to love about the man. Oh stop it! What is wrong with you? She cursed herself for how deep he had sunk his claws into her.

"Your force abilities help you to find these traitors better than I can; because of this it is in my interest that you stay here. I also hate seeing him like this- frankly, he's too neurotic to know how to apologize like a regular human being."

"That may well be the case, but he's made it blatantly apparent he doesn't want to apologize, nor does want me here. I'll be leaving in a few days and then we can both have peace."

She sighed. "The man is a high-strung mess, Ichara. I hope that by understanding why he is this way you can at least forgive him enough for him to function. He's on the verge of a heart attack and it's interfering with my work."

"Alright, I'll speak with him." she grinned and shook her head, "If I really wanted to kill him I wouldn't have to be so underhanded, you know. I'm almost offended."

Phasma said nothing and just stared at her.

"I mean, I don't want to, of course! I thought that could go without saying. Trust me, if I had my pick it would be Kylo Ren." she followed with an awkward laugh, unsure in her still groggy state if threatening the Supreme Leader to a captain was really a good way to start the day.

Phasma almost smiled under her helmet in appreciation of the sentiment. "Agreed. I appreciate you speaking with him." with that she left.

The more Ichara thought about everything, though, the angrier she got. Years of being alone made her unused to scrutiny and having to work well with others. It was frustrating to constantly have people looking over her shoulder, and absolutely ridiculous that Hux would suspect something like that from her.
-

Again, the General was in his office early. He wasn't expecting to see her and jumped slightly when she strolled through the doors, stopping at the edge of his desk.

"Let me see your hands"

"No." His palms were littered with tiny cuts from the night before, and he had been making a point to press his fingertips to the wounds every time she crossed his mind, as if the stinging would teach him a lesson.

"It wasn't a question." Even through her vocoder he could tell her voice was strangely non-combative. He hadn't known what to expect and the dread had been twisting in his chest like a serpent since he'd risen.

He glared up at her, unmoving.

She sighed, and held her hands out- he clenched his hands into fists at the strange tingling sensation, noting that the stinging pain from earlier was gone. "That was all I wanted." she said somberly, drifting around the desk to stare out at the stars.

He was uncomfortable with her lurking but did his best to pay her no attention. He had decided any emotions unattached to work needed to be killed off. His life was dedicated to the First Order, to ruling the galaxy, and she was a distraction in a way he had never dealt with before. Interfering with my work holds back the First Order. It's tantamount to treason. He kept repeating over and over, wanting desperately to believe it.