Strike Back

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

"You cannot." He told her simply as he removed the last of her armor, pulling it away and dropping it to the floor before leaning forward and kissing her neck.

"A kaggath is sacred." Perhaps she would find all of this laughable, but Sith culture wasn't easy to follow. This was something they had been raised in, something that they had learned from their fathers and ancestors. One couldn't deny a Kaggath. "If you turn the Kaggath down, ignore it, other Sith are supposed to shun you for it. You forfeit automatically and your life is either taken or your name is stricken from all records. You become a ghost."

He frowned for a moment as he pushed her back into the bed.

"A Kaggath is fought with armies, intelligence, everything. So stabbing him in his sleep is more than fair." He mused for a moment.

"Still, I'm unsure if I could defeat Berilin in one." His hand slowly floated over her stomach as he considered, palm flattening as his fingers brushed over her skin and slid lower. "He's spent centuries building up his little armies."

And Vrak had none to speak of.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

"Ridiculous Sith customs." She said, her neck turning to allow Vrak to do as he wished, though she remained passive of the advances. "Everything about your people hinges on deceit, subterfuge, misdirection and outright lying." Sera fell back as she was pushed, leaning only with her elbows upwards towards the red skinned man before her, eyes filled with desire and hunger unlike that which she had become accustomed to seeing after victories. "Why would you then have a challenge that undermines everything your people stand for, in place of something that is borderline noble?" Even if the tactics used for these Kaggaths were less than noble, the gesture itself, the act of declaration and the inability to reject such a thing was noble, and to Sera, absurd.

Emerald eyes followed Vrak's hand as he caressed her. "You couldn't." She said flat out.

She couldn't either. Not unless he managed a way to get her inside this man's circle to murder him in cold blood. His caste was not built with starships and powerful warriors. He was an intelligence caste, subtlety was his way. In that regard, she could help him, but only if it guaranteed success. She wasn't about to put her life on the line for no reward. That wasn't her kind of bargain. No, there had to be something in it for her, something more than she already had.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

His fingers continued to trail down her body, slowly slipping beneath the hem of her pants and hooking in place there for a few moments.

”I didn't say I agreed with it.” He reminded her.

In fact his own thoughts were much the same as Seraphina’s. Kaggaths were an ancient, outdated, and utterly foolish custom. The idea of being challenged to one was ludicrous, and actually having to participate? Even worse. He would lose against Berilin unless he thought of some grand scheme, and if the old man decided to just outright confront him with the challenge? Well there was no way he could deny it.

”Im going to avoid such an ordeal.” He told her simply as he began to remove the last of the cloth from her skin. ”Were going to kills his apprentices.”

As had been their plan all along, yet their conversation had put things in a new light for him, one that would likely please her. ”Then we're going to kill him.”

As he said the words Vrak dropped the last of her clothes to the floor.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

The Twi'lek pulled her legs back, allowing Vrak to remove the clothing before setting her feet back onto the floor. Perhaps now he might pay more attention to her words than oogling her. She was rather surprised that he had shifted his plan to killing Berilin before a Kaggath was called. Perhaps he was afraid that it would surely come, and knowing that he would lose, this was the only alternative.

"Who will you place in his stead then, with him dead?"

Just how many Sith Vrak believed capable of the job, or even trusted to do it she wasn't sure. He rarely spoke of others, and when he did, it was rarely positive. Maybe he didn't even have a plan save for killing these apprentices and Berilin.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

Though she didn't realize it, it had been Seraphina's own words that had pressed him into changing his mind.

She was not his adviser and didn't even pretend to be, but her open critiques of his plans often lead to him changing his mind on certain things. It was somethiing that she hadn't taken note of just yet, or if she had she'd never actually mentioned it to him before. Either way, Seraphina was influencing him whether she knew it or not.

"There are a few candidates." He said as he caressed her skin. "Most of them simpletons."

He mused. "Zejar would do well."

As his puppet of course. Vrak leaned forward and kissed the nape of her neck.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

"Of course." She said, leaning back away from the Sith. "All are simpletons in comparison to the great Lord Nashar."

Playing to his ego, even when offensively obvious, was something that gave her amusement, especially when he was in a mood, one that she could further extort. As the woman leaned back she pressed her fingers against his chin, and pressed against his chest with the toes of her right foot. "Ah, ah." She said, shaking her head.

"I don't think you've earned it today. After all, I did have to save your ass from being skewered by an assassin's blade like a stuck Bantha."

Denying him was also considerably amusing to her.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

His hand immediately wrapped around her ankle, fingers tightening for a moment as he glanced down at her.

There was amusement on his face again. He'd gotten used to these little games by now. In the beginning they had infuriated him, brought him to a rage that couldn't be described as anything but childish. Now...now he quite enjoyed it. The back and forth, the grasping of power, the control he could exact over her. Vrak enjoyed it. "Oh?"

Vrak said as he pulled her ankle away, letting her foot slide across his chest as he removed the impediment and slid himself between her legs.

"Do you really think I would've been killed by him?" He mused as his grip floated further up her leg. "How do you know I didn't allow you to kill him?"

Vrak suddenly pulled her closer. "So you could feel useful."

His other hand wrapped around her hand, drawing it over her head and against the bed, pinning her in place.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

White teeth bared in contrast of pink skin as she gave him a furious snarl. "Of course you would have. That's why you keep me around." She eyed him, her voice turning to one filled with mockery. "Or is it something else? Something more --" Her tongue clicked against the roof of her mouth, "sensitive." The snarl turned to a wicked grin. "Love."

Her head turned, sharply biting into the arm that held her pinned.

With the other leg still on the outside of Vrak she pulled back, fighting against him, digging her toes in between his ribs to force him to release his grip on her. This was a game that she played well, of course she typically allowed him to win in the end, but it was the act itself that gave her entertainment. Making him work for the things he wanted, while all others pandered to his every need.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

A snarl pulled across his lips as he felt her teeth sinking into his flesh. Bicep flexed, and he could feel the sting of her bite as she broke his skin. "I Just wanted to provide entertainment for my pet."

Vrak reacted immediately, his knee suddenly came up onto the bed, pressing hard against Sera's inner thigh as his hand slid from it's place. He pinned her leg there, using his other hand to reach across himself and push his fingers into her ankle. He wrenched her away from his ribs, a spot that she knew was his vulnerability. His palm struck against her, pushing her foot away from his ribcage before she could do any serious damage. Still he could feel the ache of pain there.

"Love?" His voice was a rasp, his fingers suddenly releasing from her wrist and pulling down. "Is that what you wish for?"

His fingers wrapped around her lekku, grasping just beneath the two rings as he enveloped the sensitive head tails.

Vrak wrenched her head back, enough to hurt her, though not permanently.

His knee dug into her thigh, one hand held her other ankle and the other grasped her Lekku, threatening further harm if she fought again.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

Suddenly all harshness to her fell away, replaced by a sudden gaping jaw the moment he pulled her head by the twin tails. Her breathing stuttered as she cried out, quickly following the direction his hand pulled to prevent from hurting herself further. The pain from his knee pressing harshly against her was hardly comparable to the sensitivity that was her lekku. It was an unfair weakness, one that she often wondered about. All resistance against Vrak fell away, replaced by a terrible tremble in her arms. Her hands both reached for his, the one holding that which pained her.

Sera didn't pull, or claw, or scratch at him, her fingers laced around his wrist together, voice soft as a whisper. "Please, let go."

For all her strength, the single most thing she was entirely incapable of ignoring was an assault on the most vulnerable part of her body, something she specifically chose to hide and protect when it came time for fighting. She repeated herself, the single word spoken only as a breath, broken up by the tremble in her voice. "Please."

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

For a second he hesitated.

This was the first, and really only time that Sera had shown him any sort of vulnerability. He'd quite literally beaten her, stabbed her, cut her, even placed an explosive in the base of her neck, yet through all of that she had never lost her spirit. She had never looked at him as she did now, pleaded with him the way she was doing now. Vrak didn't feel pity, not ordinarily, but in an odd sort of way he did in that moment. Not because of her begging, but because she had to beg in the first place.

For a second his grasp lingered, Vrak watching as the tears welled within her eyes.

Then slowly, he simply let go. His fingers unlaced around from her Lekku, his facial expression did not change, the pressure upon her thigh did not let up, and the hand on her other ankle didn't budge. Yet the palm that had been so tightly wound around her Lekku released.

He said nothing.

No taunt. No cruel joke. Nothing.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

She blinked several times, remaining quiet, even embarrassed. Only a few times in her life had that happened, though each time was just as bad as the last. It wasn't quite something one could train to ignore, to forget about. It was sheer, unhindered pain. Just about any other physical abuse she could withstand, but but there was no simply denying when someone managed a hold of her lekku that she was capable of anything short of begging. For that exact reason she chose to generally conceal or otherwise protect them at all times. The fact that she afforded him the trust to touch them to begin with was relatively surprising.

The pain itself subsided rather quickly, though the trembling in her arms remained despite efforts to cease it.

Emerald eyes finally shifted to look up at him, afraid that she may have just revealed something terribly disadvantageous about herself to him. A weakness he hadn't thought she had. One that could in fact be very costly. Perhaps that was the end of her value right there.

She wouldn't apologize though. It wasn't something she could apologize for, no more than the fate of her height, or the color of her skin.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

Everyone had a weakness. No matter who or what they were. Many of his kin would have denied it, many of them would have claimed that they were all powerful and impossible to defeat. Humanity was much the same, they claimed to be unbreakable, unbeatable. There were so many in the galaxy that thought themselves Kings and Emperors when they were nothing but peasants, but true Kings, the truly powerful knew their own weakness.

Vrak knew his. It was a combination of his anger and the injuries he'd received through his incarceration on Naboo. The Pureblood knew that both things might eventually be his downfall, and he knew to watch them carefully.

Until now he had never given Seraphina's weakness a second thought. He had never really needed to consider it. He had always considered killing her of course. How he would do it if the time ever came, but for him it had always been easy and straightforward. Simple brutality would have been his way. This? This was something new, this was something different. For a moment The Pureblood let silence linger within the air, watching her emerald eyes gaze up at him.

The Pureblood lingered a second more.

Then he kissed her.

It was the same forceful press of his lips that she always received, tinged with lust, hunger, but now more than ever, control.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

She kissed Vrak in return, though there was no aggressive biting, no snapping at his neck or clawing at his back this time. Unlike all the times before she was more sensual, gentle, and delicate, even against his still forceful display. The trembling in her extremities would eventually subside entirely, the green eyes that had been watching him carefully before closed, opening again only when he parted from her.

Silence lingered again between the two for several moments.

"Now you know the truth." Back when Seraphina and Vrak had first encountered one another, she had never quite revealed the extent of her lekku's vulnerability. Even now, he wasn't entirely aware just why she would be brought to near immediate tears from pulling on what admittedly appeared to be little more than a pair of tails used for communication between her people, and otherwise display. "Lekku aren't just for communication between Twi'leks." She said quietly, "Our brains are also partially situated within them." She looked away, "A substantial enough force near the base of either could kill me."

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

He quietly listened to her explanation, watching the look in her eye until she avoided his gaze.

Vrak had asked this of her long ago, when they had first met all those months ago. He had always been suspicious that she hadn't told him the whole story, and of course he had been right. The more she spoke, the more it all made sense. Not only her reaction, but other things he knew as well. The communication of the lekku, the fact that they could also be a source of pleasure, and of course the function of the rings. He had wondered why they attached there, and now he knew.

It all made sense, and the small realizations that were striking him were more than a little helpful. If he ever did decide to kill her, he now knew how. It would be quick, easy, and far more efficient than simple brutality. Yet oddly enough Vrak didn't even think of that. He had no mind for killing her, not yet, perhaps not ever. Instead he simply observed her vulnerability, the odd sort of shame that she felt.

His hand reached out again, and very slowly, very gently he caressed the curious head-tails. "I see."

There was none of the usual harshness to his tone, no sign of anger of bitterness. His other hand slipped from her leg, fingers gently cupping her chin as he tipped her gaze towards him. Bright yellow eyes locked on shining emeralds.

"Is that the last of your secrets?" He asked, his voice almost soft.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

For half a second she flinched as his hand drew near her lekku once more, clearly fearful that he would repeat the act again. A small tremor surged through her while at the same time a shaky exhale pursed through her lips. Though when the pain of a tight grip around the highly sensitive head tails did not come, instead one of a light and gentle caress, she managed to at least in part, relax. Seemingly of the own accord each one moved independently of the other, shifting subtly beneath her.

Still, her eyes displayed the discomfort of her vulnerability even as he tipped her head to force her attention upon him.

Sera swallowed the knot in her throat, the one blocking her ability to speak, if only for the time being. When her voice returned it was still rather quiet, even though it scraped for some measure of confidence.

"Yes." The affirmation came, though her eyes still steered off towards the wall after she answered. Until now all Vrak had ever seen the Twi'lek display was sheer willpower and strength. In that singular instance it was as if everything had been torn away, leaving her in some kind of broken state.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

"Then you are mine." The words came without hesitation, without pause or thought.

Perhaps she felt ashamed, perhaps she felt broken, perhaps she felt exposed and open, it didn't matter. For Vrak only one thing mattered. Himself. He didn't care if Seraphina saw it as a weakness, he didn't care if she felt like it lessened her some way, mostly because in his eyes it didn't. He was sure there were others who knew of this, but she had managed to hide and protect herself from him for over a year. He was confident in her abilities, confident that she would and could continue to serve him.

That was all that mattered.

She was still exactly the same as she had been. She had the same skills, the same will, the same everything. She was one of the few, if not the only person that he could trust. This was no reason to throw that away, such a thing would be beyond foolish. Yet he saw the opportunity in it, the way that she acted, the way that she differed to him.

As if she couldn't even stand to look at him.

His fingers tightened slightly on her chin, his hand guiding her to once again look at him, eyes fixing on hers. "Utterly, and completely."

There was no weakness, not unless he said so.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

So that was it. After a year he had finally won the game. The back and forth, the constant shifting of power between the two, the constant dragging through the mud of their two respective egos. In the end he held something of greater power, that simple bit of knowledge that she had thus far kept hidden away under the guise of another reason. Perhaps she simply hadn't thought he would ever be so bold as to grab them quite so forcefully, naive as it were of her.

Green eyes followed his guidance once again, feeling the stern direction of his hand on her chin to look him in the eyes once more.

Her response came as a slow nod, rather than a vocalized answer.

In the seconds that followed she continued to remain still and silent, almost as if she were awaiting his direction or order, though why she wasn't entirely sure. In part is was due to her not quite realizing what exactly he meant by the words he just spoke, aside from their literal possessive intent. What that came with was still rather unknown.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

Power was a grand thing. It was the drive of many people across the galaxy, not just Sith. Politicians, Chief Executives, even Jedi. All of them craved power in some way, the ability to reign over others, whether it was to protect or harm them. For Vrak it had always been his ultimate goal, the unparalleled mark of victory that game with attaining power.

For a year he had fought with Seraphina, he had struggled with her, battled her in both wit and body, and now? Now he had won. Perhaps it was a simple thing, perhaps it wouldn't change anything at all between them, but for Vrak this was victory, as sweet as raising the Empire, as grand as anything else he'd ever wanted in his life. For a moment he watched her, letting the silence sit within the room as his fingers slowly slid over her body once more, trailing down until his knee gently slid from her thigh.

A few more heartbeat passed.

A breath filled his lungs, and then Vrak leaned down.

This time his kiss did not hold the same bruising force, there was no sharp bite of his teeth into her lip, no forceful press that held her head back against the bed. Instead their lips met in a soft, tender embrace. The Pureblood slipping am arm beneath her to pull her into him.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

A part of her still recoiled a bit when he drew near her, regardless of her best efforts to force herself to remain steady and assertive. She had only ever felt that degree of suffering a small handful of times throughout her life. Never had she stuck around long enough for the perpetrator to be afforded another opportunity. It was a debilitating, crippling agony that immediately triggered her most basic instincts. The mere fact that she hadn't immediately sought refuge from him following that assault was surprising. In truth however, it wasn't quite like she had many places to turn to aboard the shuttle.

Just what he intended to do with this newly discovered dominance over her was yet to be seen.

An odd replacement for his typical aggression was felt when he gently touched her, lifted her and kissed her. There was no brutality or forcefulness to him, something that certainly confused her.

Sera's chest filled with oxygen as she placed her hands carefully on Vrak's shoulders, returning the gesture in kind with a tender grace. Unknowing what exactly to expect, her eyes opened midway through the embrace though she held the kiss until the Sith pulled back and away from her. He was, after all, still on top of her for the most part, so there wasn't exactly much she could do, even if she wished it.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]