Class Is In Session (Prazutis)

[Ashin Varanin]

As both employee and part-time continuing education student at New Habat University - go Gundarks! - Ashin tended to study at work. With the Shambhala in dock, her primary duties took her to the university's small spaceport. She'd found a good quiet spot just outside the shuttle bay, a stone bench surrounded by trees. In their shade, she scrolled through potential sources for an essay due not so far away. She'd met up with Spencer earlier and shared a snack; now she nibbled at the leftovers while scrutinizing her datapad. Such was her life these days.

[member="Darth Prazutis"]

 

[Darth Prazutis]

​New Habat University, Varunda IX
​​On Site...

​​In through the double doors of New Habat strode an individual unlike any they've ever seen in their halls before. A walking tower swept through the hallways clad in an designer suit a pair of black gloves pulled over his hands. A small black earpiece sat on his head of short, black hair slick with gel, groomed black facial hair, and deep emerald eyes. A monster well dressed and cloaked in the guise of a businessmen. But where was the thick smog of pure darkness that permeated his frame? Where was the darkness that choked out the light and turned all hope to ash with its coming?

Suppressed.

A taozin amulet sat tucked around his neck well hidden under the folds of jacket and suit, its power corralled the darkness concealing it from the highly attuned senses of force sensitives around allowing the Dark Lord to move about where he wished in secrecy. It was a necessary precaution when he wanted to ensure he was never seen conducting sensitive affairs. In the arts of subterfuge the former Director was a master, with the right tools and skills necessary to get the job done.

For today the tools were secured in his person and a black suitcase slung around his neck and a suit instead of armor and weapons. Today Darth Prazutis had pressing business that brought him to New Habat, that spurred him through the halls.

[member="Ashin Karrde"]. The puppetmaster, the black widow at the center of a complex web of schemes. Better known as Ashin Varanin, onetime Empress of the Old Sith Empire prior to a dastardly coup that dethroned her. When intel of her true identity reached his desk an opportunity sprang up in the Dark Lords mind, like pieces on a chessboard a new move opened up to eliminate threats, move plans forward, solidify alliances with Ashin through the one thing even the Empress hasn't been able to achieve.

Vengeance.

Vengeance for [member="Spencer Varanin"] for the atrocities that occurred on Selvaris, for the torture she endured by members of the One Sith Empire. Prior to the fall of the One Sith the massive databanks of the former Dark Lord, all sensitive files were extensively, covertly taken under authority of the Dark Councilor himself. The files of what happened on Selvaris were quite extensive, and through his recent discoveries through a fallen alliance with the Spider, he found the truth of who the perpetrators were and precisely what lives the disappeared off into. Through the vengeance seeking Varanin, he would crush threats to House Zambrano indirectly.

​"This is the last place I would expect to see someone of your stature. But adaptability is a defining trait of those who wish to survive in this world, isn't it your majesty?" Darth Prazutis said.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Darth Prazutis"]

Doing her level best to move without hurry or fluster, Ashin deactivated her datapad and tucked it away in her bag. She leaned back on the stone bench and laced her fingers over her belly.

"Braxus Zambrano, Darth Prazutis. Uncle and sidekick to my old vizier. Stature is an illusion of a very specific kind, Lord Prazutis. Prestige is self-deception which centers on putting stock in others' opinions. I don't remember the day I stopped caring what others thought of me, or how I measured up against them, but I'm fairly sure it was a good one.

"What can I do for you?"

 

[Darth Prazutis]

[member="Ashin Karrde"] was certainly well informed. Each word spoken carefully chosen from the one time Empress who appears throughout history. It was extremely hard even for the royal intelligence, the massive agency torn from the One Sith prior to its fall and relocated to the Pacanth Reach to track her movements. There were massive gaps in supposed "appearances" to the world she was still publicly deceased following the dastardly coup by the Shadow Emperor [member="Darth Voracitos"].

​"I have something you might be interested in Mrs. Varanin...and it involves a topic we are all too familiar with: Vengeance."​ Darth Prazutis said his gaze subtly shifting around them at potential passerbys. "Is there somewhere...secluded we could speak?" ​Prazutis asked. Vengeance was a notion all too familiar to the Destroyer, all throughout his life vengeance had come into play many times. Most notably when [member="Gabriel Sionoma"] stood up to and killed his nephew [member="Darth Carnifex"]. Even if Kaine survived in one form or another it didn't matter, family is all that matters in this world. One man sought to do harm against his family, and he readily joined the scheme that brought about both the God-Kings return and saw the great Jedi Master crucified to the cave walls.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Darth Prazutis"]

"I'm always willing to talk about retribution." Ashin pulled a small device from her bag and laid it on the bench beside her. The background noise of the campus grew quiet and dull. "I'm also comfortable where I am. We can't be overheard or subject to electronic eavesdropping."

She gestured at the stone bench beside her, on the other side of the anti-eavesdropping unit.

"Have a seat, Braxus. Tell me what vengeance you came to discuss.'

 

[Darth Prazutis]

Great minds indeed do think alike when [member="Ashin Karrde"] pulled out the anti-eavesdropping unit and placing it right beside her. It was going to be the first step that he had in mind before they began speaking, activating a similar device he had inside his suitcase. After a moment he nodded sitting down on the side of the device opposite Ashin, he then sat his suitcase down on the remaining space close to his side of the bench's end and unlocked it. Inside was a myriad of items including a similar small device, and a series of folders containing prepared files he brought for the conversation today. Each had a purpose for the step by step plan he was putting into motion, and Ashin would certainly see them in time.

Prazutis picked up the first file in the form of a black folder it was a prepared copy of the mission report from One Sith operations on Selvaris. "What I have come to discuss involves vengeance you have long sought out but even with your resources never could achieve." ​Braxus said pulling a single document from the folder, a basic after action report that held no revealing information about the operation or its conductors just enough to get her interest, the top of the document he also clipped on there a surveillance photo of the structure that Ashin's wife was held in. "Vengeance for Selvaris." ​He handed Ashin the after action report. He didn't need to say anything about the specifics that went on there. "You may not think it but I understand your hunt for it. The hunt to find those responsible for hurting your family. I know it all too well."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Darth Prazutis"]

The high-level after-action report lacked detail, intentionally, but everything important was written between the lines. Tension flooded her. “This is the first time I’ve seen the body count,” she said, trying hard to keep her voice level. “In numbers, anyway.” Between her Mandalorian sniper rifle, Sarge Potteiger’s backup efforts, and her juggernaut charge through the grashal, a decent number of Yuuzhan Vong had lost their lives that day. Not enough, though. Not nearly enough.

On a whim, she used the Force as Warren [member="Valik"] had taught her a decade back - psychometry. She caught murmurs of the physical file’s short past, but nothing substantive.

She lingered on the familiar holes in the grashal. Going on seven years now and she could still see the gashes in her mind’s eye, the damage she and her enemies had wreaked while fighting over Spencer’s freedom. The black hate she’d felt then rushed back. She put the file aside, between them. Her voice sounded distant in her ears, forced.

“This is because of my discussion with your nephew, I assume. Trusting a Zambrano’s empathy is a fool’s bargain, so let’s talk bargains. The rational guess is that you’re looking to explicitly or implicitly trade information on my wife’s torturers in return for me forgetting what I owe to Kaine. Is that accurate?”

 

[Darth Prazutis]

​Clever.

​It didn't take very long for [member="Ashin Karrde"] to narrow down exactly why he was here and she was on the right track. There were many reasons that brought Darth Prazutis to Varunda IX and only one of them was to settle the debt that Varanin owed to his nephew, and hope that the Varanins and the Zambranos can move forward once more. But another reason was that he saw an opportunity. A chance to unleash death and destruction upon his enemies, a chance to wipe potential threats off the board. Most truly didn't understand exactly how powerful knowledge can be.

​"In part Mrs. Varanin yes. I've come to settle the debt House Zambrano owes to you. I understand the blood price owed to your enemies they sought to do harm to your family, regardless of who they are the price must be paid in full. We recognize this and seek to make things right so we can move forward into the future together." ​Braxus said letting the black folder he pulled the report from rest on his lap. "Now do we have an accord?"

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Darth Prazutis"]

"We have a common intent, yes. A firm agreement, not yet - but I'm listening."

She leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees, staring at the ground.

"If it had been someone he cares about, I would have intervened for any number of reasons. At the most basic level, I would have stepped in because I respect the capabilities of your family. Because the rescue would have been an investment. When your nephew left my wife to be tortured, he demonstrated that he considers both of us worthless and harmless. I make it my business to correct impressions like that, in my own time. I'm not inclined to forgive. I'll forget the day he apologizes to my wife in person."

She sat up straight again and met Prazutis' eyes. "But give me your files and I'll make sure to leave you and the rest of your house out of the matter."