The Cost of Revenge

[Haytham Kaze]

Bespin.

Cloud Nine.

It was a place that Darth Vanitas had remained on for quite sometime. It was where he had trained, it was the only place that he had ever met with [member="Darth Orcus"]. The at the time Sith Acolyte hadn't needed much training from the hulking whale, instead he simply needed direction. That was what their relationship was based off of. Giving the now Sith Warrior that was more akin to warrior direction.

A purpose. Was also a good word.

Black hair hanging just above his shoulders, he spotted the doors to Orcus's chambers on Ruusan. The new HQ of the Sith Triumvirate after the battle for the planet. In his opinion, it had been a waste of time. They shouldn't had advertised their being there so openly, but in the end it didn't really matter. It didn't matter how many people Darth Vanitas had killed. He was still not in a position of power, he still didn't have enough influence within either the One Sith or the Triumvirate to actually make the difference he wanted.

But trying to figure out why he was with the Triumvirate in the first place wasn't why he was there.

No.

(( OOC: When there's no pictures of your playby opening double doors. ))​

His knuckles rapped against the door. He waited a handful of movements. Whether he got an answer or not, he shoved open the double doors. After all, it wouldn't do to have an average size door for the Herglic. He was after all... Huge.

Vanitas strode through the open doors. It was time to employ his newly found trait. His curtness. Orcus was a businessman he knew, perhaps he'd enjoy, or rather be amused with the 'straight-to-the-point' manner of speaking that he had adopted. Or rather... Re-adopted. "Did you hear of the news of what occurred on Cloud Nine?" It did play on the HoloNet. That much was for certain, it was after all, a luxury city. Anyone with enough credits who wanted a vacation would definitely have a different outlook on the place, at least for a while after finding out there was an attack.

After a few moments, he added, "Master?" Perhaps a little too sarcastically.

 

[Gorba the Hutt]

Three Herglics stood inside the foyer and all three massive heads swung toward the young brazen Darth when he entered. Two were a dark purple, nearly black. The third had an alabaster throat and belly, the rest was sleek jet save for the two white stripes atop his head. It was the third who shooed the others away with a simple motion of his flipper.

"I'm sorry my friends, we will discuss this at another time."

Air whooshed from their spouts, a distinctly cetacean noise. They filed out past the human, their impossibly deep voices conversing in unintelligible Herglese.

Orcus ran a flipper over his bald, shiny pate, a wide smile on his noseless features. A bit too wide, to be honest.

"Ah yes, I became quite familiar with the many Vanitas-sized holes in the walls. As did my accountant.... and my checkbook. You caused quite the stir. It took some doing to even maintain my own residence here, much more to prevent you from receiving a permanent ban from these estates."

The magnate clacked his teeth together loudly. "It seems I neglected to train you in a basic principle: do not defecate where you eat."

He waved his flipper, as if dismissing the matter. "But yes, you were attacked. And from the lack of a prisoner, or body, it seems you lost. Yet, you did not burn down the whole of Cloud Nine, so I suppose there is that..."

[member="Haytham Kaze"]

 

[Haytham Kaze]

Vanitas didn't bother sparing any extra looks for the Herglics as they headed for the exit that he had just entered from. Staring past them, his grey eyes would seek out Orcus past their mass when they were gone, and he'd step further into the room, his eyes sweeping about the interior of the room to take it all in.

He didn't answer right away, but when he did, he said, "I'm sure you didn't have to spend too much of your riches. My... Opponent certainly had to pay for the majority of the damages." He shrugs his shoulders. Nikias certainly would've had to pay for much of the damage that they had caused. If only because Vanitas had made sure to vacate the area quick enough that the authorities hadn't been able to apprehend him to go through the process of paying what was owed.

Curious why he didn't follow me to the higher floor.

After his stray thought, his face broke out into a smile. If, someone could genuinely smile after being confronted with a failure of their own. "I underestimated my opponent." His shoulders rose up and down into a shrug. "It won't happen again." His arms clasped each other behind him in the small of his back, safely hiding the right hand that had tightened into a fist.

"When I find him, I am taking everything away from him."

[member="Darth Orcus"]

 

[Gorba the Hutt]

Herglics couldn't really shrug on account of having necks as squat and wide as an oaken stump, but that didn't stop Orcus from trying.

"Good, good."

It seemed a valuable lesson had been learned. Orcus approved of such lessons, though he wished it had cost him less. No matter. Life was a gambler's game, best the boy learned how to play.

"How exactly do you plan to do that?" asked the Sith Lord, not unkindly, as he moved over to pour himself and [member="Haytham Kaze"] a glass of fresh water from the table. "For that matter, what is the origin of your quarrel? A former comrade?"

He offered a glass of water to his apprentice.

 

[Haytham Kaze]

Haytham's grey eyes watched Orcus's movements, always attentive as he strode closer to him when he saw that he was pouring a glass of water.

Had the situation not be as serious, or had they a relationship based on pure friendship instead of using each other, he certainly would've laughed aloud. Would he not prefer to just dump the contents of the dispenser over his head? Or did he put a flipper in every now and again?

"Simple really," he started out with a shallow shrug of his shoulders. "When I find his home planet... I'll torch it."

Orcus spoke again and when he was done Haytham had been offered a glass of water.

He took it.

He paused for a moment, gulping down a large portion of the glass before he put it as simply as he could.

"A past relationship gone sour. I...Beat her, likely she told him, and he came after me." Shrugs.

He was past the event entirely, even if others weren't. He couldn't do what he wanted if he lived in the past.

[member="Darth Orcus"]

 

[Gorba the Hutt]

"A tad bit excessive," Orcus noted politely before gulping down his own glass of water. He set it down with a clink. "There are better, simpler methods of vengeance that do not entail such wanton destruction. Do you truly think he loves his whole planet? If you want true, distilled suffering you must aim for the heart."

So he beat the girl? Well, that was unfortunate, but in the end what was done was done. Flights of passion could prove rueful enough, but factor in the Dark Side and they became more or less inevitable.

Reaching out, the Sith Lord laid an enormous flipper on Vanitas' shoulder. "This girl you spoke of, clearly he cares for her. She could be the bait. A hologram of her, or perhaps the genuine article. Make it appear as though she is in danger and ready your forces, then spring the trap.

"Or, you could find his family. Hauum. Yes. If you wish to make him suffer you must strike with precision. Only the incompetent use a mallet when they could instead use a scalpel.

[member="Haytham Kaze"]

 

[Haytham Kaze]

His grey eyes lowered to the glass of water in his hands. He lifted it to his lips again and took a sip, a more conservative one this time as he set it down on the table.

"There are always going to be better options. I've taken note of them, and have elected to ignore those notes. If they want to hide from the Galaxy and remain hidden, then I'll give them an actual reason to do so." He bit out, perhaps too bitterly. The hand that had been holding the glass, clenched, tensing for a moment. Had he been wearing thinner and tighter clothing, his muscles likely would've ripped through the seams of his shirt as he involuntarily flexed.

But then there was the mention of family, and he resisted the temptation to turn his head away from the gargantuan humanoid whale. If he were a lesser man, he would've shivered at the thought of family. He would've shivered at his lack of a true home, of parents to see once more.

"She's not going to be bait." He frowned. "She's not going to know."

Pause. He let the tension build for a moment. He had spoke chillingly. He was adamant on not using Joza in such a way.

"I'd be reusing what he did to me anyway, it'd be pointless." He shook his head, black hair falling out of place as he said, "If he thinks he can come and try and teach me a lesson, he's delirious. Just his family?" He shook his head. "Kriff his family."

Haytham smiled. "Wanton destruction? Maybe. The purpose is for him to have nothing. No one to console him. No one to help him get revenge. Just himself, alone, alongside the dead that he will join when he comes to get revenge. If he's going to make the mistake of letting me live, let alone get away, then I'll instill in him the best tool to bring any man like him down." Haytham felt as if he understood Nikias better than he had given him credit for. After only one engagement with the Hellyni, he knew they had similar morals. Which was why he wanted to snatch everything he had out from under him.

"I'll make him blame himself."

[member="Darth Orcus"]

 

[Gorba the Hutt]

The flipper on Haytham's shoulder tightened. A surge of disapproval came in through Orcus' heart, black water that beat on the sands of disappointment.

He still has much to learn.

Irritation foamed upon the waves of those dark emotions.

I did not throw away salvation to leave my legacy to a murderous youth.

"Your zeal for revenge is admirable, but misguided. What of the people of his planet, what do their deaths benefit save to sate your thirst for blood? Hauum. Are you no better than the One Sith? If you have no purpose, then you are like them. A rabid dog. You must remember that we sacrificed our consciences for a reason. How does the destruction of a planet benefit the greater good?"

Those enormous black eyes glittered in the light.

"Are you a Sith, or are you an animal?"

[member="Haytham Kaze"]

 

[Haytham Kaze]

Haytham's arm came up and brushed the Herglic's flipper off of his shoulder. He hadn't come here to suffer the disappointment of his Mentor.

"The greater good of a planet that would have nothing to do with the rest of the Galaxy. Hardly detrimental to the greater good." He shook his head from side to side, ebony hair shaking lightly as he head went from side to side. "They won't join us. With them gone, their planet could be used for territory." In truth, he hadn't really thought past destroying the population of his planet. Slavery? Haytham wasn't the type of Sith to employ that method of control.

He also saw destroying them as a necessary evil. It didn't matter if he'd appear to be like the One Sith, what would the difference be if Nikias died with or without people mourning him?

Delegating to not answering Orcus, Haytham said, "I didn't come here to ask for approval. I came here to tell you what I was going to do," he stopped himself before it turned into a tirade. Within, his emotions were a raging ocean. On one side he knew that it would be better to just do as he suggested, killing and torturing his family and attracting the Dark Jedi like that, or from simply killing him. The other part of him had him tugging in the direction of wiping out an entire species.

When he had first set out to be a Jedi, he remembered saying that he wanted to help people. To bring order and justice to a Galaxy that would otherwise reject it as the last few years had shown, to prevent families from being separated and destroyed because of the wars of Jedi and Sith...

Deep down... I was doing it to be remembered.

His darker wants lost this time, submerging in the depths of the raging ocean within himself to re-surface at another time.

"I don't need to find his family. I figure they are on his home planet. I will not search an entire planet to find those he potentially holds close." He huffs, "I'll just kill him instead."

[member="Darth Orcus"]

 

[Gorba the Hutt]

"Killing him seems an ideal recourse. However, I am afraid you have not swayed me to help you burn any planets merely to satisfy your slighted honor."

Orcus reached a flipper inside his suit jacket, paused a moment, fiddling around, then produced a sheathed dagger, a cubit in length.

"I expected you might come to me over this matter. Long ago the Sith of Kesh killed their most hated enemies with glass daggers. Thrown or wielded in hand, you'll find it a sturdier blade than you might think. Though a simple twist is all it requires to snap the blade off at the hilt, leaving the remainder your foe's body."

He extended the blade toward [member="Haytham Kaze"], hilt first. "Consider it a gift."

"Now, allow me to ask you a series of questions. Do you know your adversary well? Does he make a traceable income? If yes, where do you think he sends at least some of that money? If not, the are other methods to track his family down. Tickets for public transit and otherwise. It should be fairly easy when we have him in our facial recognition database, or did you not know that everyone who enters my estate is scanned by the Gorgons?"

[member="Haytham Kaze"]

 

[Haytham Kaze]

Haytham closed his eyes for a moment before he nodded his head.

He wouldn't admit it aloud, but he had come to Orcus to request his aide. Was he really that transparent? He chewed on the inside of his cheek as he rolled his broad shoulders back. Placing each of his hands on his hips, he looks to the hilt that he was offering him and he... Frowned while he took it, and then he realized it was a gift.

Sending a hand through his black hair, Haytham said, "I'm already figuring where the money was routed from to pay for the damages on Cloud Nine." He shot a look at [member="Darth Orcus"]. I'm not that transparent.

He wasn't going to give his question an answer, instead, he said, "There's something else." He said, turning his head away for a moment. He closed his mouth and waited for answer, Haytham did have a flair for the dramatic after all.

 

[Gorba the Hutt]

Orcus nodded. At least the boy had had the sense to uncover that much, though his immediate reaction had been somewhat... hasty. Not to mention incredibly rash. Even so, Vanitas could learn. He would learn.

Else the Darth would have to resort to other methods of instruction. All far less pleasant than simple leading questions.

​Perhaps I've been too soft on him. A weak hand makes a fragile blade, but unrelenting fires forge truest steel. Maybe a change of regimen is in order after all.

Black eyes narrowed beneath a protruding brow.

A sense of theatrics or else genuine apprehension led that lingering statement. Something else. Besides threats to burn a planet to cinders? Forsaken oceans, what else? Orcus attuned himself to the wavelengths of emotion drifting from his apprentice, looking for their origin and type as one might scour the ocean for a sunken wreck.

"Well, speak it," he prodded.

[member="Haytham Kaze"]