Akio swallowed the vomit down. This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be who Meli sought to make a deal with.

"Six!" Jacque clapped his hands together, a broad grin spreading across his snake-like face. "You survivor you. Like the eyepatch, it suits you." He winked, as if trying to charm her.

Akio knew better than to fall for his facade. Standing up, he walked towards her. Akio tensed, clenching her cybernetic into a fist with a loud clang. "What do you want, Jacque?"

"After all the fun we had, I didn't expect to see you alive, much less a rebellion leader." Jacque placed a hand on her shoulder, leaning down to whisper in her ear. "It seems you're quite the survivor. Like a bug that never dies."

Grabbing his hand, Akio removed it from her body. "We're done here. I'm not going to be doing business with you."

"Why ever not?" Jacque blinked innocently and lit a cigar. "I'm the only one stupid enough to provide what you need." Taking a long drag, he blew the smoke in Akio's face. "Did your friend not tell you how many he tried to make deals with before me?"

Akio glanced at Meli who looked down at the floor, shame pulsed from him, heavier than the scent of smoke in the room. He knew who Jacque was, he knew what he did, and yet he sought a deal with him anyway?

"I'm all you got, love," Jacque declared, sitting back down in his large chair behind his desk.

There was something wrong here. Akio couldn't read Jacque which was unsettling in itself, but the air, it screamed forbidding. The oi'ek moved restlessly beneath her beanie.

"Is this not suitable?" Meli asked, his water swirling green in confusion. "I found what we needed, Akio."

"Akio?" Jacque's brows shot up and he took another drag. "I like it, much better than six."

"Meli," Akio growled, turning to face the entity. "This vermin is a sex trafficker, among other things. I don't care how desperate we are, I'm not paying to endorse that."

Letting Jacque live had been her biggest mistake. She fell for his schemes and he got away. He continued to hurt many helpless being's, like he hurt Indra, like he hurt her. She wouldn't let him leave here alive. This was her chance to right her mistake.

Akio flicked the knife out of her leg, catching it in her hand, putting it to Jacque's throat. "You're going to let me take what I need. If I leave alive, I'll slit your throat instead of starting with your genitals."

Shrieking in surprise, Meli started pacing in a panic. "This is foolish, so foolish. We're going to die."

Jacque continued smoking as if this were a starshitted tea party and she'd asked him if he wanted sugar. "You know what you've never seemed to understand, Six?" Jacque kicked something under the desk. "When to stand down."

Armed guards burst through the door, spraying the room in laser fire.

Akio dove under the desk, grabbed the leg and threw it forward. Wood shattered in all directions, some shards cutting into the guards arms.

"Well. . ." Jacque took another drag. "That was unexpected."

Grabbing one of the guns, Akio shot two of the guards in the head and another in the stomach with calculated precision. She leapt back in time to avoid being stabbed through.

Akio slammed her elbow down on the assailant, snapping their arm. The weapon slipped from their grasp. Akio dropped the gun and caught the sword, stabbing her attacker in the eye and out through the back of the head.

Blood dripped down her arms as she spun around, hacking the head off of the only one remaining. They squealed, until their vocal chords were cut alongside the last tendrils of their head.

Jacque whistled. "Now that's a true weapon. Need me one of those."

Akio growled, throwing the knife to land between Jacque's legs as a threat. There was something off. Very off here. Beyond his chilling calm, it was like Jacque knew something Akio did not.

"You know, I had a feeling after I got intel of who the new leader was that this wouldn't go well." Jacque grabbed the knife lodged between his legs, and twirled it between his clawed fingers. "You see, Six, I play the winning side. I'm not a fan of losing."

Meli exchanged glances with Akio. This was it. This was what he was hiding. There was never a deal to begin with. It was a trap. It had always been a trap.

Jacque laughed. "If you run fast enough, you might make it off this planet alive. But. . ." He threw his cigar on the floor, stomping it out as he stood to his full height, casting a shadow across the room. "I'm sure your ship has already been overrun with so many weapons that the floor is bending beneath the weight of their cybernetics."

Before Akio could lodge a dagger in his cackling throat, Jacque pulled a lever that opened the floor beneath him and disappeared from sight. The floor closed behind as alarms started to peel through the air.

"Meli." Akio pressed a button on the floor labeled, 'weapons'. "How about you let me seek out these sort of things from now on, hmm?"

Meli nodded as an arsenal of weapons appeared as the wall swung around. Meli stepped forward, grabbing a large bazooka and tossed Akio a rocket shooter.

Catching the heavy weapon in her hands, Akio loaded it. "What now?"

"Now." Meli adjusted the large weapon on his shoulder. "We blow up our ship."