Retribution

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

His eyes bulged open as the force threw him back once more. He went crashing back, thrown well clear of Jamie and tossed into a set of bushes. There was a crunch of sticks and a slight coughing noise as Vrak spat out some leave, but within half a moment he was standing once again.

A scowl carried on his face as he saw Jamie begin to rush away. "Now!"

Vrak bellowed as he began to step forward to follow after her. For a moment nothing happened, but after a second of lull there was a quiet snap located on the roof behind him. A blue bolt of light flew through the air and directly towards Jamie, the shot from a stun rifle carried by one of the snipers that had taken up residence on the top of the roof. One of the men that Vrak had placed at the beginning of the fight just in case someone else appeared. Now they would serve an entirely different purpose.

The shot would either land and take her down, or Vrak would catch up with her.

The Pureblood broke into a sprint, the darkside flooding him as he chased.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Her heart was pounding faster than ever before. She knew there wasn't a chance to win, at least not then and there. The girl had so much on her mind she was too easily distracted with the dozen other things going on in her life that this Sith was hardly at the forefront of things. When she had returned to Naboo, her mind was a mess of things like Suravi, Kurt, her training, the Republic, her parents and half sister. So many things, and more still. This man was not one of them. She'd thought very little of him after having left Prakith, aside from finally seeing a real Sith of the species. He was otherwise just another Sith, evil to the core and conniving.

That also meant she hadn't seen the people on the roof either. Jamie heard the shot, but she was so close to the doors that led to the inner palace that she didn't stop running. When it hit her she felt a sudden numbness over her body as she screamed again, her legs instantly losing mobility as she fell forwards, and despite her commands, her arms refused to catch her fall. The weapon in her right hand fell, the blade disappearing before it even hit the ground beside her. The last thing she saw was the feet of the Sith beside her before life went dark.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

The next few seconds went by quick. Her screech had been loud enough that someone had surely heard, the halls of the palace had been built as an echo chamber, or something like it anyway. Vrak reached Jamie in no time, his lightsaber switching off as he looked down at her. A small smirk grew on his lips, fingers wrapping around the lightsaber.

He considered leaving it behind though knew that doing so would likely only arouse suspicion for anyone that found it. With one had he scooped Jamie off the floor, slipping the silvery cuffs on her wrists before tossing her over his shoulder like a ragdoll. A minute later a length of rope dropped down from the roof, a small electrical device attached to the end of it. Vrak lazily tied himself to the end of the rope, grasping the device and pressing a small button. There was a loud whir, and seconds later he found himself carried to the top of the roof.

As soon as he reached the top he handed Jamie to one of the men. "Take her back to the lake district."

He frowned for a moment, then continued.

"Make sure she isn't harmed." He wasn't a complete brute.

If someone was going to hurt and kill her, then it would be him. The Pureblood smiled, then headed in the opposite direction of where his men were going. It was best that they split up, lest Naboo security forces think them suspicious.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Consciousness faded in and out, most of it simply a blur of shadows and shapes with an occasional splash of colors and clarity. Muffled voices rang through her ears during periods of time where she was semi-awake. The girl did manage to perk up enough once during the trip to wherever it was they were taking her to look around, nearly screaming for help before having a rather forceful hand cover her mouth and nose with something to quickly send her back into the void of darkness.

Wherever they were taking her, she knew was bad. Whether that was on Naboo or not mattered very little. She knew what he was capable of. She saw how little regard he held for life back on Prakith. If she didn't find some way to escape quickly, her death would likely be incredibly painful and slow. Jamie didn't take him as the type to kidnap and ransom, more so as a trophy to parade about his self-glory until finally deciding to end her life.

Ugh.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

When Jamie finally awoke once again she would find herself not in the Palace, not on Prakith or anywhere more sinister, but instead within a small country manor in the Lake district. Specifically in what appeared to be a large sun room. Huge windows sat before her, a few of them open, a grand view of the lakes on display as birds chirped and the distant sound of some sort of creature splashing in the water sounding out. She would probably recognize it instantly.

The day was bright, as it always was on this world.

Her hands were bound behind her, knotted with both the cuffs she had used on Vrak as well as a thick length of some sort of rope that ensured she had little room to move. Her legs were tied with the same length or ope, tightly bound to the chair itself which had been bolted down. If she craned her neck she would spot two hulking brutes standing by the door, Massassi warriors that Vrak had earlier left behind when he'd taken his jaunt to the palace.

"Lovely view isn't it?" Vrak said from behind her as he slowly wandered into the room.

At firs the didn't seem to acknowledge her save for his words, simply walking past her and towards one of the larger windows.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie looked around, not recognizing whatever guards were present in the room. Alien to her in every way. She recognized the area though, where she was. The tiniest fragment of comfort that it afforded. Her jaw shifted, sore from the position she'd been forced into during the trip on the speeder. The blonde pulled on her arms, the rope giving almost no slack, same with her feet. Her blue eyes shuttered closed as she heard Vrak speak just behind her.

The sound of his voice made her nose scrunch, lips shifted to the side in displeasure.

She said nothing. If he was going to kill her what was the point in talking?

Her eyes followed his form as he moved about the room, waiting for him to reveal what exactly his grand scheme was. There was no question about it. He had been the one. He attacked Naboo. Done for no other reason that to bring her to where he knew he could find her, somewhere that other Jedi did not take residence.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"You are fantastically predictable." Vrak began as he finally turned around to face her.

He could have killed her of course, probably should have by now, but...that wasn't his way. Sith were petty things, narcissistic and based entirely on ego, Vrak was no exception. He loved to gloat over his enemies. No matter who they were or what they had done to him. Back home it wasn't out of the ordinary for anyone to do so, though of course Jamie would be used to it as well. He looked down at her and smiled, fingers lacing behind his back as he wandered towards her.

"Easy to find." He said with a smile. "Simple to lure you back here."

He grinned. "Capturing you...well I must give you credit for that at least."

It was a backhanded complement really. Sure she had fought him, sure she had resisted, but...well he had won in the end. If he called it an easy victory then really it would only cheapen himself. Vrak wasn't about to do that.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Her face twitched, hearing him speak was almost painful to listen to. He spoke simply to hear himself, to enjoy the sound of his own voice and self-congratulations. It was no different from any other Sith she had come across. No different from a common thug. No different from the nobles who betrayed those they spoke for. All the same. Pitiful. Stains on the galaxy.

Simple to lure someone home when someone is destroying it.

Still, she kept quiet, her eyes simply staring back him from the chair. She blinked a few times. The girl was obviously nervous, though not because of him, or anything he would do to her. She had resigned that she was about as good as dead from the moment she awoke, but that tiny moment right before death. That was what actually frightened her. That single instant between the two realities. That was what she feared. Nothing he could do to her would change that.

The blonde shifted, trying to blow a single strand of hair away from her eye that was causing a bit of a nuisance.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

For a moment he simply observed her. It was curious really. He had encountered a few other Jedi in his time. The one on Zygerria, Ruusan, his run in with Thaeera. They had all been different in a way. The man on Zygerria had attempted to kill him almost as soon as he had laid eyes on him, Taheera had actually healed him then attempted to capture him, and this one...well this one had actually captured him and then let him go. A foolish mistake she must have now realized.

Slowly Vrak wandered towards her, gently pulling a second chair from just beyond her view. He sat himself down in front of her, his lips thin. "Do you wish you'd killed me now? Back on Prakith? You had plenty of opportunity."

He remember the moment quite well, the look in her eye, the rage after he had killed the troopers. It had been glorious, and were he not so selfish he might have tried to push her over the edge with a simple word. She would have fallen, he knew this, but his own life would have been ended. That was something that didn't sit well with home, mostly because like all creatures Vrak preserved himself above all others. Without him after all, Athiss would remain stagnant.

"It's funny how our fortunes change." He smiled again, apparently not expecting her to answer the earlier question.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie decided to speak, even if it were brief.

"No." She said, her voice oddly calm. "I don't carry a lightsaber to kill. I'm not a Jedi to kill."

The woman leaned forward as best she could. "I respect life. Even yours." As difficult a pill as it was for her to swallow. She was in fact glad that she hadn't killed him. Perhaps that made her foolish, given the situation she was in now, but she believed that killing was always the wrong path. What she had felt on Prakith was wrong. What she nearly came to do was wrong. She had regretted it. But she had also learned from it. That situation would not come to bare again, if she happened to survive this.

"You're not fortunate." Jamie looked to the window, observing the countryside without elaborating what she meant.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"I would disagree." Vrak said with a smile. "Things have gone extremely well for me as of late."

He wasn't just speaking of this little venture either. Back home on Athiss he had recently secured more than half of the world's mines, had eliminated his greatest rival, and in a few months time would be raised to a position on the Council. This trip was sort of a victory lap for him, something to do before the real work on Athiss began once again. He leaned back in his chair and smiled slightly at Jamie, gaze briefly looking towards the Massassi guards behind them.

Vrak let out a sigh.

"I suppose you're wondering what I have planned for you." Death was the obvious decision, but not the one that he would be taking here. Vrak had always been a more...pragmatic Sith. Sure killing her would have been enjoyable, maybe even fun for a brief few seconds, but that would be fleeting.

No, what she had done deserved a special sort of treatment.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

"Not really." She said in return.

Whatever he planned to do to her was rather irrelevant. "But I can't help thinking you're going to tell me anyway, just to hear yourself talk some more." He was the type that simply loved the sound of his own voice, especially when it was his belief that he had somehow won. He'd still lost. He lost way before he ever arrived on Naboo. Vrak had lost on Prakith, when the loss of his attempt to murder her had driven him to the point of focusing solely on his revenge against a person who had done him no real wrong.

"I'd much rather you just get on with it, if it's all the same to you."

Her eyes rolled, shaking her head.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Fair enough. I do like to hear myself talk." He could admit his faults, especially when they were so obvious. Even the lowliest Pureblood thought himself the greatest orator in the galaxy, it was a mark of their species. Most of the time they just talked and talked with one another until eventually the other got sick of it and either walked away or killed the one that was speaking too much. Their species was...well they held some odd traditions.

A blade slipped from somewhere within his robe. A knife no bigger than the span on his hand, marked and etched with half a dozen different Sith runes. The handle was ornate, trimmed with gold and laced with silver within heavy wood. Clearly a nice piece of work.

His lips thinned.

Then suddenly the blade came down with a sharp strike right above her knee.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Her eyes bulged and instantly filled with a well of tears, her face jerking forward as her body shivered and writhed in pain while violently trying to free herself from the bindings she was trapped within. The woman's jaw fell open and a deafening shriek came from it, drawn out over the course of several seconds and loud enough to put cracks in windows. Her eyes clamped shut, forcing the eruption of the water that had collected to run down the sides of her cheeks as she tried to regain some measure of composure. Jamie clenched her teeth together, groaning through tightened lips.

The blood lifted from the open wound and around the edges of the knife, running down the length of her leg to the chair and floor. Her arms and legs trembled in uncontrollable pain. Her knee felt like it was on fire, a burning inferno lit around the area. Her head lifted up to stare at Vrak, her facial features contorting several times but no words came out, just strained whimpers. The lump that formed in her throat was difficult to swallow, nearly choking her into unconsciousness.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Vrak's face remained completely neutral. He didn't say anything to her, he showed no signs of pleasure from stabbing her. In fact if Jamie looked closely she would see something very close to...distaste. Yet he kept the blade within her knee, blood slowly dripping from it's side even as he held the knife in place. His lips thinned ever so slightly as she stared at him, though there was no remorse for what he had done. His hand slowly unwrapped from the handle of the knife.

The blade was kept in place. "You had an interest in us."

His voice had lost all sense of amusement now, there were no jokes, no taunting, nothing. He looked her up and down for a moment, the tears streaming down her face. The Pureblood straightened in his chair for a moment, hand returning to rest on his knee.

"Sith." Vrak clarified. "The ruins that we built and the tombs that we constructed."

He of course didn't expect her to answer at this point. She was likely in a great deal of pain, and her resentment for him would only be growing greater the longer the blade stayed in place, but it hardly mattered. He was gaining his vengeance, his retribution. This had to be done.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

For all she knew Vrak could have been beginning to tell her the story of his birth, right up to this very moment in time, entirely in its' truth and the words would have been lost on her. Something she had no training in was ignoring pain. Wasn't in the repertoire of Force ability. Every stinging sensation her nerves sent through her body she felt in their fullest.

The wildfire of agony tearing from her leg kept her focus entirely.

Tears continued to stream down her face by the second. Her breathing had become a series of stutters mixed with gasps. She was a mess really.

Looking up she turned her head to the windows, looking outside for some measure of peace to try and limit the sensation of pain running through her body. Beads of sweat formed on her neck and forehead. Suddenly it was a lot warmer in the room. The warm trail of blood had stained the dress all around the area the blade had been driven through her skin. Her teeth had bit so forcefully down against her inner lips that she could taste the blood that was now slowly leaking there as well.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Let me show you." Vrak said as the force began to flood into him.

He wasn't a Sorcerer. He had never had the potential to be trained as one of the Masters. He couldn't force illusions into someone's head, he couldn't turn them into beasts or change what they were, but he could control them. With enough strength he could move entire armies. He could get into someones mind, but other things? Showing things? That required a little bit more leverage. That was what the knife was for. The blade was an artifact, a simple thing really, just a tiny nexus that would allow him to do as he wished.

"Let me show you the past." Vrak said as he slowly reached out and placed the tip of his index finger on the hilt of the blade. "As a gift to you."

The power that he had held within himself suddenly flooded through himself and into Jamie. "So you can judge us for yourself."

All her talks of cowardice, all of her talks of pettiness. Perhaps what he showed her would prove her right, but it didn't matter, he knew this would be painful for her, he knew that this would damage her, and in the end that was what he wanted. As the darkside flooded through the both of them Jamie would be torn from reality, thrown into visions, stories of the past.

The atrocities that his people had suffered and committed. The slaughter of billions, the wars of thousands of worlds. Everything that Vrak could give.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

She let out another horrifying scream, the combination of the contact, the sequence of things, the knife still very deep in her leg, blood continually flushing from inside of her. Had her tongue been anywhere near her teeth she would have bitten it clean off. Instead she nearly shattered her teeth against one another the moment he had begun what he planned.

For several minutes, or perhaps even longer, Jamie wasn't entirely sure, her mind was flooded with visions and memories. The life and death of so many came and went one after the other. Countless acts of evil, each one more so than the last. There was no way for her to retreat from the wave after wave of information and sensory overload.

A sudden surge of bile filled her mouth, which made her quickly snap her head forward, expelling the contents of her stomach before she passed out once more.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

The bile spilled onto the floor, some getting on his arm as he quickly pulled himself back. A scowl carried on his lips, and then quickly his hand lashed out to smack her across the face for the affront.

She couldn't help it of course, the act was hardly on purpose, but it had happened and Vrak...well Vrak didn't take too kindly to such things. He scowled at her and prepared to move forward again, not wanting to allow her a chance to react when suddenly the doors burst open. A servant came rushing into the room, an urgent look on his face. His expression was grim, his eyes falling on Vrak as the Sith signaled for the slave to approach him.

"My Lord. A ship just landed carrying a Jedi...she's headed here."

He frowned slightly. How? Was she carrying a tracking device? No they had searched her...they had jamming equipment in place in case something got through. There was no way anyone could do. "Begin preparations to leave."

Vrak frowned, slowly stripping off the now bile covered garment and tossing it to the floor.

"Do you see now?" He asked Jamie as he stood up. The Pureblood had wanted to press her more...but now he was pushed for time. "Do you understand?"

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie peeled her eyes open again, despite her body's reluctance to do so. The slap across the face was hardly worth note, given the far more painful knife buried in her leg at the moment. Her face shifted as the man struck her, leaving a small hint of red behind after several seconds had passed. The question confused her more than anything. Jamie wasn't really certain what exactly he was getting at. He had shown her visions of what she took to be the past, but what he intended for her to be enlightened by? She hadn't a clue. All he had done was show her the evidence of his people, what they had done, what had been done in turn to them.

"I'm sorry for you." She said, between shallow breaths. Her eyes looked up focusing on him. "So consumed by blind hatred."

Jamie heard the words of the servant as he rushed in, alerting Vrak to Aela's arrival. A small smile spread across her face, though she assumed the girl would be too late anyway. The expectation was already there that she would die in that chair, that whatever this was for was simply for his own personal sadistic enjoyment before actually killing her like he had wanted to do several times before.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]