Things In The Night

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

As soon as his fingers found purchase on her neck Vrak tightened his grip.

She was stronger than him in the force, but in the end he still had the upper hand in raw physical strength. The muscle density of purebloods was higher than that of most humanoids, including Twi'leks, that meant Vrak was on average stronger than most male humanoids. For a woman? More so.

He felt the grip on his lightsaber, but it's use was not his intent.

Instead his hand tightened around her throat even more, cutting off the oxygen supply to her lungs just as she had done to him earlier. His fingers gripped hard around her throat, a more than bruising touch as he wrenched her to the side.

With one quick move her tried to slam her into the bulkhead next to them, ignoring the grip on his lightsaber and seeking to simply knock her unconscious.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

The struggle was brief, She fiddled with the saber against Vrak for a few moments, searching desperately to find the activator on the hilt. Her finger passed over the end closest to her, but for whatever reason she could not find the second switch in time. The oxygen was quickly fading from her, the crushing grip against her windpipe turning her face an entirely different color in contrast to the vibrant pink.

Her jaw opened, as if that might somehow allow a breath in. The last of her air trapped inside her lungs as she held it together for another few short seconds. Sera pressed her hands against the Sith's chest, but her concentration simply wasn't there. The Force remained idle. She cursed, Green eyes flaring with intensity towards him. She wasn't going to die. Not to this welp. This child.

Her body and head collided with the wall of the building with a resounding thud.

Vision became hazy, consciousness faded. Still no words came from her. He wouldn't get the satisfaction.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

The Twi'lek went tumbling down onto the floor with a loud clatter of her body, the armor rattling slightly as Vrak released her throat. His lightsaber immediately fell besides her, the Pureblood dropping to his knees as a hand came up to pull off the mask that had been covering his face. As soon as the mask was gone he took in a deep breath, filling his lungs and touching the wound on the side of his head. A loud hiss passed through his teeth as his fingers prodded the burn.

The wound was comparatively mild, though would leave a scar. He frowned for a second, pushing himself back up to his feet. He spent a moment inspecting the mask, then slowly slipped it back onto his face. His lightsaber was scooped up, along with the woman's, both hooked onto his belt.

"Send a speeder." He said into the static of the comm as he scooped up the assassin. He still had no idea who she was, but as he tossed her over his shoulder he relished in the thought of finding out. He was no inquisitor, and torture was hardly his forte, but there were a few things he knew on the subject. A small smile crossed his face as he wandered down the hall, stepping over broken benches and split water fountains as he carried Seraphina back towards the other end of the starport.

Once there a speeder quickly found them.

The trip back to the warehouse was, surprisingly quick. The Alliance weren't looking for people traveling away from the starport, and much of the commotion within the hall had gone unnoticed, at least for now. Thus Vrak had been able to make his retreat back to his lair here on Coruscant without much issue. No one had attempted to stop him or even speak to him, apparently thinking he was just a bounty hunter or a man carrying home his drunk Twi'lek wife.

People in the Slums didn't really question such things.

When Seraphina awoke she would find herself tied to chair.

Her lightsaber was out of sight, her hands were bound to each individual armrest, her legs similarly tied. A thick length of rope wound it's way around her neck and pulled back towards the base of the chair itself, keeping her from moving her head too far forward lest she choke herself. A single light illuminated the room she was in, nothing else apparently present within the room itself save for a computer console on the far left and a chair opposite her.

In the corner by the console stood Vrak, his mask off, hair slicked back. No lightsaber hung from his side.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

A torture room. How familiar. How unsurprising. How fitting.

Seraphina had been a slave for a time. A slave to the man that had also served as her mentor and master of sorts. The depravity of the man vastly exceeded anything that this punitive little man could conceive of. When she awoke her green eyes fluttered about. Her armor was notably removed, weapons confiscated. Neck, arms, and legs bound to the chair. All of the standard procedures for rudimentary torture. Sadly for Vrak the woman had endured substantial brutality as her time as Kaine's subject. Sure, she would scream from pain, but not even death itself would break her, for she had already been broken.

Her pupils found Vrak, off in the corner, his own weapon notably absent.

She sat quietly. He would tell she was awake by the shifting of each lek behind her head. Likely insulting him via gesture through a language he did not comprehend. Her expression was notably the same as it had been during their initial scuffle. Empty and devoid of emotion. Whatever he was going to do to her she had already experienced it, or worse. It was just another day, really.

Life was pain.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

Vrak noticed the shifting movement of her lekku from the corner of his eye, his gaze falling away from the screens just head of him and back towards her. For a few seconds he simply watched the odd little head tails twitch and move.

They reminded him of Korriban sand snakes. The creatures were simplistic in their nature, deadly poisonous and predators that more often than not went for prey three or four times their size. They moved in a hypnotic fashion through the sands, not hiding, but instead trying to create as much movement as possible. When someone saw them, like a tuk'ata, they waited for the creature to strike...and then instantly fought back. Jumping towards their prey's neck and injecting them with deadly poison.

He frowned for a moment, then slowly began to wander past the woman.

When the Servants had undressed her and pulled the armor from her skin Vrak had seen the multitude of scars that criss-crossed her body. Knife wounds, lightsaber burns, half a dozen others that he couldn't identify simply from looking. It told of a life raked with either torture or battle, or perhaps both. It was a telling thing really, and served as a small piece of information for Vrak to take hold of.

Slowly the Pureblood wandered around the Twi'lek, pacing for a second until finally he sat himself down in front of her. "Hello."

Vrak said with a polite smile.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

Seraphina watched him approach her, wander around her, observe her. She remained silent, unmoving. She neither struggled against the restraints nor made any attempt to plea for release. She knew well how these things generally went. He wanted something of her if he hadn't killed her at the end of their initial meeting. It was only a matter of time until he revealed what it was. She hadn't gotten much of a look at the man behind the mask before, though it struck her as odd that a Sith, an actual Sith, would have been lingering about on Coruscant. He was certainly a bold one. Stupid, very, very stupid, but bold. Perhaps that was why his people were so rare. The majority of them were in fact, stupid.

Her eyes raised, hearing him speak. The head tails shifted again, falling forward in front of her shoulders.

Still, all she did was blink. The niceties would quickly fade away regardless of how she greeted him, so there was little point in the wasted greeting. Whatever he wanted would likely follow. Or the threat of torture if she didn't appease his greeting. Perhaps he would simply skip all of it and just get to the torture part. Sera was hardly interested in receiving it, though she was curious to know what he thought he could do to her that hadn't already been done.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

Civility, he often found, was lost on those who were improperly raised. To Vrak of course that meant a greater portion of the galaxy, almost all of it, lacked totally in civility. It was really only the nobles of the great houses that knew how to properly communicate. At times he wondered if the galaxy wasn't all that dissimilar from the slums of Coruscant. Everyone seemed to be trudging around in some great darkness, living their depressing little lives.

"You killed the Senator." Vrak stated simply, not asking a question, but not accusing either.

He watched her Lekku as he spoke, as if they would somehow give him the response that he sought. Athiss had a few Twi'lek slaves, Vrak even had some himself. They were a people well suited for Servitude, or so they had been taught for the last several thousand millenia.

For a second the Pureblood stayed quiet, then went on. "Why?"

Vrak still had no idea why she had killed the Senator, whether she had done it for herself or an employer. Either way he needed to know. If it was for someone else they could be of use to him, if it was just for herself? Well then he didn't particularly care. He would slit her throat and be done with it. From the scars that raised all around her skin he knew that torturing her would likely be ineffective, she would either lie to get out of the pain or simply endure it.

There was another way.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

There it was.

So he wanted to know why a life had to be taken? A Sith. Asking why life had to be taken. How comical.

Sera rolled her jaw, as if preparing some kind of statement for the captor. Another lazy blink. Her eyes considered him for a moment. "Orders." It was that simple really. "A life was due. A life was claimed. The debt is paid. That's all I know." Perhaps the answer wouldn't satisfy him. Then again, Sith were never satisfied with what they got, with what they were given, or what they earned. Greedy little schuttas the whole lot of them.

Again silence enveloped the room. It seemed the man had noticeably left off any kind of shock collar, suppression collar, or Force restraints. A foolish mistake on his part really. The woman needn't use of her hands to manipulate the objects not anchored to the floor. Her chest rose and fell as she drew in a few deep breaths. She would escape if needed. Her lightsabers however, she wanted back.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

So she had not done it on her own.

He wasn't quite sure if that made things simpler or more complicated. The Senator had been an important figure here on Coruscant. At one point, when The Republic had still existed, he'd held sway with nearly every core world in existence. After the One Sith had taken over that influence had stayed, and once the Alliance had swooped in it still remained. The man had been charismatic, intelligent, and above everything else; rich. He'd bribed many officials and seen his way into many pockets.

"Orders from who?" The Senator had hundreds of enemies, some Sith, some even Jedi.

There was an endless pit of people who could have ordered his killing.

Vrak needed to know which one it was. Whoever had wanted the good Senator dead likely wanted it done so they could take his place. That meant Vrak now needed that person instead of the Senator. The entire thing was a complex web of corruption, politics, and of course credits. Vrak needed the factories here in The works but he couldn't get at them without anyone to leverage. It was a problem that she had caused, something that still irked him.

Anger however would not benefit him here.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

"I don't ask questions." She said simply. "Comm said execute the target and included a brief outline with his public record." That was all the contact she ever received. There was no direct link between Sera and those she worked with. A handler was what she assumed coordinated her job with whomever ran the operation. "He's dead. My work done." Fine work, too. It would take Coresec weeks to rule the death as a homicide with no possible suspects. The assumption would be that it was gang related, or a hit. But with a lack of physical evidence there was little more that could be done.

It wasn't like this area of the planet was noted for its' shining law abiding citizens.

He shouldn't have been down there.

"Release me." The Twi'lek hardly cared who this acolyte was, even despite her curiosity as to why he would choose to come to Coruscant. She had other places to be. Namely not on Coruscant. This place reeked of the Alliance and this Sith scum that molested her sense of smell.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

"No." He said simply. Vrak had no idea whether or not she was lying, but it didn't particularly matter at this point. She had killed the Senator and apparently didn't know who had hired her to do so. That idea irked him slightly, if only because it seemed entirely unprofessional. He presumed she had some sort of handler, where she got the mission from in the first place.

For a moment he considered simply killing her. The death of their assassin might make whomever had sent her come out from hiding, either for vengeance or for the need of cleaning up the 'mess' that she had left behind upon her death. The idea was quickly dismissed however, mostly because she could still be of service to him. His eyes followed the subtle twitch and curl of her lekku, lips thinning for just a moment before he finally continued to speak.

"Who gave you the target?" He asked simply. "Your handler? Keeper?

The question was a simple one, but it also probed deeper into what she was.

Vrak wanted to know where she had come from. It would give him some idea of what exactly she was doing here, plus, it was fun to play these little mind games. "Master?"

He asked as though presuming all Twi'leks were slaves.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

Inquisitive. Like all fools.

"Messages transmitted through encrypted one way comm." She rarely spoke to the voice at the other end unless instructed to. Even when she had, all she could gather was that it was a male with a baritone vocal range. Hardly very telling. Thousands and thousands of stars and systems in the galaxy, a voice wouldn't be bringing her to the man's front doorstep, that was certain. If Vrak thought jabbing at her with a comment like master was going to incite some type of reaction out of her he would be mistaken. As if the woman had never been called such by hundreds of other acquaintances in her life, simply for being Twi'lek. Yes, she had a master once, years ago. That was then. This was now. She did as she pleased.

"A voice gave me the target."

She could have went with handler, but Sith loved cryptic garbage.

"Release me." She repeated again plainly.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

"No." He repeated again.

A voice.

That wasn't much at all to go on, nothing at all in fact. Neither was the comm-link. Even if he somehow managed to discover the device, which she had probably destroyed at this point, there was no way he could track it. He frowned for a moment and slowly leaned back in the chair. Anger bubbled up inside of him. All of his plans, weeks worth of work, completely undone in a single stroke. Without the Senator he could not move forward, and without the name of who had him killed he could not make contact with a replacement.

He was finished here on Coruscant.

It was an unfortunate fact that he had to come to terms with, one that cause him significant anger. His fingers slowly curled into fists, his eyes closed as he took a deep breath. Perhaps he could still make something of this. Perhaps this woman could at least be of use to him. She was clearly a skilled fighter, and although he doubted she would talk there might be some use he could get out of her somehow. For a moment he frowned, perhaps the Hutt's would be willing to make a deal?

"Your species is an interesting one." Vrak changed subjects. "For thousands of years you've been slaves, to Hutts, to Humans, even to my people."

He mused out loud. "Yet you still find the willpower to resist, even be combative."

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

"It's the nature of life." Her eyes raised once more, observing his frustration and anger. Such limited control of his emotions. Like a raging wildfire that is destined to burn out long before its' due. "To resist." The slightest smile halfway graced her face as she continued. "Your people still find a way to resist extermination, do you not? Your people are far more fragile than mine."

Twi'leks still had a homeworld, even if some of their own were foolish enough to enslave their own people, selling them to pirates, raiders, slavers, and more. That was an abhorrent breach of morality. One of the few that truly bothered Sera. It was common place for other species to enslave, but to enslave your own was heresy. She had murdered a great number of her own people for that affront to their civilization.

Still, Vrak needed to be shown that she was not bound by the restraints he afforded her. The woman's head cocked to the side, eyes glancing to the right for a single half second before yanking the terminal Vrak had been looking at earlier from atop the desk and sending it straight for the back of his head. A reminder that he ought to be more careful with his things, and his sense of safety in her presence.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

Vrak jerked to the side. The terminal flew past him and barely glanced by Seraphina, slamming into a nearby wall and shattering into a thousand pieces. His fingers tightened again as he tried to control his anger, his lip twitching into half a sneer as sparks flew up behind him from the disconnected wires.

"There was once a Twi'lek." He tried to keep his voice calm as he returned to his original seating position. He was angry, that much was at the very least clear, but he was trying to make a point. His fingers slowly unfurled on his knees, eyes locking onto hers. "She lived five or six millenia ago."

During the time of Vitiate's Empire, long ago when his people had last been in power. "She controlled most of Korriban under her thrall."

Athiss held many records of that time. Vitiate's Empire had been the last time that Purebloods held any true Authority within the Empire. Vitiate himself had been a Pureblood...at least originally, and his people had held most of the Dark Council. It was a fond memory for most of the people of Athiss, thus records, holocrons, and all sorts of scrolls could be found from that time period.

"Darth Atroxa was her name." He continued to muse in that same neutral tone. "Began life as a slave, but eventually pushed herself up among the Sith until even the staunchest of my people began to respect her."

He clicked his tongue. "Do you know what happened to her?"

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

Seraphina knew nothing of this woman. Though if she had mingled herself with the Sith, surely she had suffered the same ill fate as any other would.

"Betrayal." It was a rather confident answer, even if it were not technically correct. She could mold that word to be correct. Either betrayed by the Sith's lack of power to prevent her demise, or their active involvement with it. Regardless, Sith and their co-conspirators rarely suffered deaths at the hand of old age and disease. It generally fell into a single category, with the only defining factors being the exact cause of the betrayal.

Love. Foolishness. Bravado. Ego. Pride. Greed. One of a hundred reasons could have been the reason she was betrayed in some form or fashion.

It mattered little to her. The woman was of no concern.

The Twi'lek scanned the room for something else to assault him with, save for the metallic scraps collected on the floor.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

He smiled.

"No, actually." For once, death was not due to betrayal, at least the standard definition of the word. She could mold it however she liked, but to Vrak at least Atroxa did not suffer the same fate as so many other Sith had at the same time. "She was killed protecting Korriban against a foe that was at the time unknown."

Vrak shifted slightly in the chair, carefully watching Seraphina's eyes. The force was powerful, but it could not be directed without intent. He could see her eyes darting around the room, searching for something to harm him with. It caused his muscles to tense, ready to move once more, but for now he stayed in place, quietly continued with his story. "The Eternal Empire it was called."

Of course, it turned out to not be so Eternal in the end.

"Her loss was mourned." A strange thing to say about Sith. "The Academy that she had cared for was destroyed, burned, her students killed, all by a foe that was completely unknown to her."

He mused for a second. "It wasn't the Jedi that Killed her, It wasn't the Sith. It was the unknown."

Perhaps it was becoming a bit more clear what he was actually talking about, though he was still being rather cryptic.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

"What an intimate story."

So the Twi'lek Sith died defending the people that had enslaved her after she had become free. How romantic.

Sera's eyes fell back to Vrak, who apparently was captivated by this story himself. Why exactly he was choosing to tell her this was somewhat confusing, however. This was not part of his plan to find out why she had killed the governor. So what purpose it really served was still a bit of a mystery to the woman. A rather small number of loose objects remained in the room suitable enough for the Twi'lek to use, at least effectively against Vrak, so for the mean time she would simply sit.

"So what now, Pureblood?"

She would tell him to free her again, but that didn't seem to be in the cards. If he assaulted her, or made an attempt to otherwise further restrain her, she would seek a means to break free. They were now at an interesting moment in time. She would not become a slave, to him, or anyone else. Not now, not ever again. If that meant turning his yammering mouth into a silent dead body so be it.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

"The point of the story." Vrak said as he leaned forward ever so slightly. "Is the Unknown is often the most dangerous thing."

Vrak said simply with a smile.

"I knew of the Jedi. I knew of the Sith, I even knew of the Syndicate that was out to get the Senator, but what I didn't know about, I suppose what I couldn't have known about was; you." Vrak said simply as she leaned back once again. His eyes still followed her own, watching her carefully to make sure nothing else was tossed at him with the force. He didn't want her to get lucky and brain him with a piece of metal on the floor.

Though how she thought she would escape while still tied up was another thing entirely. He'd seen careful control of the force before, but not enough to untie knots that you couldn't see. He frowned for a moment but quickly decided to move on.

"I don't know who you are." He said simply. "I don't know your employers. This represents a problem to me."

His fingers curled ever so slightly. "I need that problem to be solved."

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

That was the point after all.

The woman bared her teeth, leaning forward as well as best she could from her rather difficult position seated as she were. Her tongue danced along her teeth slowly before retracting into her mouth. "An assassin is hardly worth the title if they're known about in advance." Surely he would understand that, perhaps even appreciate it. What good was someone at killing if everyone knew that a killer was on their way? Hardly worth the effort.

She winked at the Sith, clicking the side of her lips as she sat back. Sera would have crossed her leg a bit more comfortably if she had been able to.

"Release my legs." She requested, rather than demanded, though still it was hardly a question, more of a statement. There was incredible doubt that he would oblige. But he would at least get the hint that she did not wish to be confined. That she was still assertive. The pinkish woman leaned her head back so that her legs could extend a bit further. Being bent the way they were was hardly pleasant. "How do you propose a solution to your problem?"

[member="Vrak Nashar"]