Doppelgangers and twisted mirrors
"So, where do you suppose the nearest or biggest bar is on the station?" Spiegel asked Diziara as they walked down the corridor they found themselves in as they left the airlock behind. It didn't take much to find directions to the promenade.
"We're supposed to be acquiring supplies, and you want to hunt down alcohol. There's enjoying your job, and there's getting your priorities skewed," Diziara commented.
"Oh no, I intend to both work and play at once. Best place to gather information is always the local bar," he insisted with a grin. "If I just happen to sample some of the local booze, well, happy bonus." He grinned wide, and she shook her head.
"...And I thought I had no shame," she commented, but couldn't help grinning. They passed people as they made their way to the promenade, but no one paid them much mind, other than the occasional unabashed leer at Diziara and her choice of "shopping" attire. They found the business listing when they reached the promenade, and stood skimming over the list. Diziara was still pondering the names when Spiegel had already moved onto comparing the list of bars to the size of the space they occupied.
"This one looks promising, it's three levels," he said, and started off before Diziara could blink. She growled as she took off after him, quick to respond but falling behind in the crowd due to his weaving skills acquired during his youth in New York city. She'd almost caught up again when he darted in the entrance of the bar in question.
“How many times do I have to tell you, I can't watch out for you unless you avoid running off on me,” Diziara growled as she turned the corner to follow Spiegel into the bar. She arrived just in time to see a human, a few inches taller than her, grab Spiegel by the collar. Something about him looked familiar, but she dismissed it as an expected side effect of being in a mirror universe.
“Diz, help,” Spiegel yelped, spying her over the guy's shoulder. She sighed.
“If you'll be so kind as to drop my friend, I won't be obligated to kick your ass,” she calmly said, coming up behind the guy and reaching for her d'k tahg out of habit. He didn't release his grip on Spiegel, but turned around so that she could see his face. She took a surprised step backwards, “Travis?” His eyes moved up and down her body, clearly in evaluation.
“I'm sure I'd remember you if we'd met before,” he stated with a suggestive smirk, but let go of Spiegel. The pale skinned, dark haired, engineer darted to take cover behind Diziara, not yet taking in the fact that she was stunned and felt like she was looking at a ghost. “What happened, cat get your tongue?” Travis took a step closer to Diziara, then looked down at her hand resting on the handle of the d'k tahg strapped to her thigh. At this point, Spiegel realized what was wrong.
“Diz, it's not him... You have to remember where we are,” he said in her ear softly, resting his hand on her shoulder.
“I'm not who, shorty?” Travis shot over Diziara's shoulder at Spiegel. Spiegel made a point to stand up as straight and tall as he could, and Diziara seemed to note this by watching the movements of this doppelganger's eyes. Finally working past what looked to be a knot in her stomach, she moved forward so that she was right up in his face. An observant person might catch a twitch in her face to indicate a feeling of deja vu.
“You will address him with respect, or I will make you,” she hissed. An amused smile played across his face, and he turned his attention away from Spiegel.
“Ah, so the kitten does want to play,” he shot, and pulled a diving knife from the sheath on the inside of his thigh. Diziara had her d'k tahg out as quickly, and blocked his knife with hers. They pushed apart, and the crowd in the bar formed a circle to watch, giving them plenty of room.
“Definitely not my Travis,” she muttered, and this provoked a raised eyebrow from her opponent. He rushed in for another attack, and she spun out of the way of his knife thrust, grabbing his arm to twist behind his back. He went limp, and she pushed him away from her instead of supporting his weight. He came up rolling with a laugh.
“You are probably the most attractive opponent I've ever tangled with,” he shot, provoking a laugh from Diziara.
“And you look like my dead lover, we'll call it even,” she answered his barb, getting a laugh in return.
“Surrender and I'll take you to bed. How's that sound, Red?” he suggested with a leer. Spiegel sucked in his breath at the guy's mistake. Diziara's eyes flashed as she charged, and quickly had him on his knees with his knife under her boot, and her d'k tahg at his throat.
“How about you grovel for your life, and maybe I'll use you for my pleasure,” she directed, voice low and almost soft, but still forceful. He let out a nervous laugh.
“So you don't like being called Red, my mistake,” he finally said. She took a fist full of his hair in hand, and tilted his head back to look up at her. “Mmm, nice view,” he murmured appreciatively. “What are you, half Trill, half Klingon?”
"Why were you picking on my friend?" she demanded, yanking at his hair. The crowd that'd been watching the fight started to drift off, leaving Spiegel the only spectator.
"Harder," he breathed up at her, provoking a growl.
"Why?!"
"I've got some whips, leather cuffs, and other goodies back in my room, if you want to interrogate me properly," he offered, and licked his lips. The way Diziara froze, the look on her face, indicated the knot in her stomach had turned over as she tried to decide how to handle this offer. She regarded the man kneeling in front of her; there was a coldness, a distance, behind her eyes, but a small half smile played across her lips, a warmth of familiarity behind it. He took this as an invitation to push her d'k tahg away from his neck by grasping around her hand on the handle. "I apologize for causing distress to your friend, he looks like a coworker of mine who is always too busy chasing women to do his job. I'll be happy to make it up to you, though,” he said softly to her, and leaned close. As he raked his teeth across the skin above the waistband of her pants, she closed her eyes to gather her head.
There was a smirk on Travis' face as he relieved Diziara of her knife, and caught her behind the knees to bring her down to his level. Finding herself eye to eye with him, awkwardly straddled across his lap, the string of curses that escaped her lips would have made even a seasoned Klingon warrior blush. His grin widened as he leaned forward to catch her in a kiss, his hand that was holding her d'k tahg was the one that moved to the back of her head to cradle it. His other hand, it found the small of her back, which seemed to trigger a reflexive arch to her back. Suddenly there was the chirp of a combadge.
"Spiegel to Connor," Spiegel said, causing Travis to break the kiss and snap his head around to look at Spiegel.
"What happened to radio silence?" came Noelle's voice from the combadge. A look of recognition crossed Travis' face as Diziara took this opportunity to free herself from his grip, picking up his knife as she pulled back.
"What the hell is going on here?" Travis demanded as he stood, holding the d'k tahg defensively.
"Diz kind of found a ghost from her past, we could use some help," Spiegel explained.
"Okay," Noelle said quietly, and a sigh could be heard over the com channel. "Where are you?"
"Tri-story bar, middle of the promenade."
"Oh, Quark's, I'll be right there. Connor out." The combadge chirped as the com channel was closed.
"You're from the mirror universe," Travis finally said. Diziara's head snapped about, her body tense, until she realized that the crowd that'd been watching them had dispersed, then she relaxed a little.
"I'll thank you to keep your mouth shut," she directed, grabbing him by the arm. He swung at her with her knife in hand, and she had to twist quickly to avoid getting cut. In doing so, she had to release her grip on him. They circled each other, eyes locked.
"I've never been good at keeping my mouth shut, but if you keep it occupied, you won't have to worry about what comes out of it," he suggested with a grin. Diziara growled, which only provoked him to grin wider. He took advantage of this relative lull in the standoff to look at her d'k tahg. "This is a nice piece you have here, haven't seen one like it before."
"I'm obligated to kill you because you took it," she cooly informed him. When he laughed again, she lunged forward, clearly starting to lose her temper. She attacked with his blade, and clearly was steamed that he was using her blade to block, so she laid a solid punch, using her left fist, across his jaw. This sprawled him across the table that'd been behind him, and he dropped her d'k tahg as a result of this. Before she could move in to collect her involuntarily borrowed equipment, Travis picked himself up off the table. He licked the blood out of the corner of his mouth as he lunged for Diziara.
Travis caught Diziara by her midsection, and threw her over his shoulder. Spiegel had only just darted in to grab the d'k tahg and was getting out of the way again as she landed on the table Travis had been laid across a moment before. The table decided that was enough, and fell apart under her. She automatically tucked into a roll to get back onto her feet quickly, only to notice she'd dropped Travis' knife in the middle of all that, and he'd recovered it. She glanced around for her d'k tahg, and saw Spiegel helpfully holding it out for her, so she was quick to grab it from him.
"Gorgeous and deadly, such a sexy combination," Travis taunted, holding his knife at the ready. "Promise me if you win, you'll use me thoroughly before discarding me."
"If?" Diziara questioned in return, and grinned at him. He cocked his head to the side slightly, and smiled.
"Ah, you're starting to find amusement in this. Win or lose, I can die happy now." As he said this, Noelle approached, having made good time from the airlock to the bar. She stopped next to Spiegel, and leaned close to ask him what was going on. Travis looked at her a moment before he commented, "She's a spittin' image of the crazy bitch I work for." He tossed his head to indicate Noelle. "Speaking of the crazy bitch, I'd probably get some brownie points if I rounded up you lot and brought you to her."
"You're having enough trouble keeping up with me, what makes you think you can take the three of us?" Diziara challenged, and he laughed again.
"I had you pretty well handled a short bit ago, your buttons couldn't be easier to find it I was handed a color coded map." He sauntered closer to Diziara, clearly trusting her to not attempt to gut him alive. "I may not be him, but it's been a while and I could be close enough for the short term at least, yes?" He dared to lean close enough that there was only a millimeter between his lips and hers, and she was caught frozen like a deer in headlights. It was only when he reached to disarm her that she snapped out of it, and twisted free of his grip. He cursed under his breath as he tried to grab hold of her.
She danced away from him, then managed to catch him with both arms behind his back. Standing on tip toe, she leaned close to whisper into his ear, "You almost had me until you tried to disarm me again. I won't fall for it twice."
"Damn, Trav." When Diziara, Spiegel and Noelle looked at this intruder, they found Spiegel's doppelganger, better dressed and sporting a less chaotic head of hair despite the fact that he embraced the natural curls he had. "Clearly those who insist I'm a lady's man haven't seen you at work, she's practically eating out of your hand," he dryly observed. This provoked a laugh out of Diziara, and Travis grinned despite his compromising position.
"Next time my hands aren't so full, I owe you a sound ass kicking," Travis shot back, which resulted in a laugh in return.
"I fully expect you to be laid up in the infirmary for a month after this, regardless of if you consider the end results a win or a loss. Pleanty of time for you to forget whatever it is you think I did this time."
"You know, given how poor at combat my Spiegel and Travis are, and were, respectively, I think this should prove interesting to watch," Diziara mused, and smacked Travis on the ass as she released her grip on him. "It does seem a shame to risk harming one or both of those pretty faces, but sometimes my entertainment is worth more than a pretty face." Diziara's grin was wide and predatory.
"You heard the lady, Luke, let's go," Travis said with a chuckle. Luke stepped backward blindly, only to find a chair in his way. As he spun to deal with it, he caught sight of Spiegel and Noelle watching, unsure if they should get involved in the chaos Diziara was brewing.
"Well, hello me," Spiegel finally said to his double. Luke blinked, and Travis came up behind him, catching him around the neck.
"Thank you kindly for the distraction," Travis shot over Luke's shoulder to Spiegel. "Your counter part is a slippery devil, doesn't take his ass whooping with dignity."