A Promise Kept

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Mariya Pyne"]

Being severed from the force was always such an odd complication for someone like him.

Purebloods as a species were not like others. The force was a random occurrence for many within the galaxy, a one in a billion shot. For his kind however the opposite was true. Perhaps once in a generation a Pureblood would be born without the force, everyone else had at least enough strength to muster some modicum of talent. It was generally expected that a child learn to use the force in their early years, mastering complex powers by the time they reached their teens.

Vrak had been no different in that regard, though he'd never quite managed to even dabble in the ancient ways of Sith Sorcery. Perhaps if he had things now would have been different, he could have killed Jamie for a galaxy away without ever stepping foot upon Naboo. It was a thought that ran through his mind as his eyes slowly opened, his gaze slowly panning around the room as he assessed where he had been placed this time.

Unsurprisingly he didn't recognize it, though he wouldn't have put it past the fool girl to put him in the same prison.

His eyes slowly swept around the room until they finally landed on the figure sitting directly opposite him. Lips thinned for a moment as he tried to remember who she was, the sedatives still clinging in his system causing his memory to falter. After a few seconds he remembered who she was, though her name escaped him. Not that it was at all important. He frowned for a brief second, wondering if he had somehow succeeded in killing Jamie after all.

He doubted the Queen would allow this little visit if she was alive...or awake.

Amusement floated through him at that thought.

 

[Mariya Pyne]

Several minutes more passed, and finally Mariya set the datapad down on to the table, leaning her head back from the long yawn that followed, her eyes sealing closed for what felt like ages until finally she tilted back to a normal state. Up her hands came to rub the weariness from her eyes, which then fell to the sides of her neck, rubbing the stiffness from her sitting position away, while at the same time cracking her neck. It wasn't until after that did she cast her gaze over to the Sith Lord, to realize the red skinned alien was alive and awake.

For a moment she didn't move, she simply sat still, curious if he was actually awake. Then she leaned forward, setting her hands on her knees atop the table and peered towards Vrak.

"You awake in there?!" She called. "You've been out a day or so."

She reached into her pocket and took out a small bar of chocolate, unwrapping it and biting into it before she continued.

"You're pretty ugly, you know? Where are you from?" She wiped her face, "Wait...Do you even speak Basic?"

She wasn't sure...Not all aliens did.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Mariya Pyne"]

The girl spoke in the same pitch as a mynock, her voice as grating as Vrak could have possibly imagined. Briefly he wondered if his daughter would sound the same when she grew up, the idea horrifying him to a degree that he couldn't quite understand. His fingers tightened within the restraints, a light pull to test just how fixed he was within the stasis. He frowned, finding that he could barely make the cuff move. That would make escape difficult, but no more so than last time.

Briefly he glanced up, almost as if ignoring her, then slowly he turned his attention towards the girl. "Does your sister know you're here?"

Once he would have answered her questions with indignation, rage, but he had learned. The last time he had been held Vrak had stewed and washed himself with bitter hatred. It had been useful, but this time he would be smarter. Whatever Humiliation came, whatever they did, none of it mattered. He would escape, and he would exact his revenge.

He had learned to temper himself.

Lessons taught by the mother of his child and the fall of his Empire.

"She would disapprove." His eyes slowly wandered away from his own restraints and back towards Maryia, his gaze falling on her directly for the first time since she had addressed him. "Children should be supervised."

 

[Mariya Pyne]

Mariya looked puzzled by Vrak's question and subsequent statement. She pulled her legs from the desk and sat up, propping her chin into her hands, elbows supporting her weight on the tabletop. Her left foot bounced beneath the table in a rhythmic manner. Her tongue clicked against the roof of her mouth a few times, echoing a small pop sound before she finally decided to respond to the Sith Lord. Her tone didn't change when she spoke, still that same, peppy chirp she had.

"How would you know whether or not she's my sister? We look nothing alike."

Did Jamie tell him they were siblings? Or was he simply presuming so since they were together upon his arrival?

"But you're right. The Queen would disapprove. You're a Sith. Those creepy face tendrils, your dead, withered eyes, big forehead, and lava skin. It all matches the records."

Mariya clicked her tongue again, standing up and circling the desk to step ever closer to the stasis chamber where Vrak hovered. "But she's not here."

The brunette stepped slowly around the chamber, looking at Vrak up and down, the visible markings and scars on the man's body. But it wasn't until she returned to face him straight ahead that she directed his attention towards her hand. Within her pocket she pulled free the broken lightsaber. She held it up slightly, so that Vrak would see it more clearly.

"This yours?"

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Mariya Pyne"]

Vrak knew of course because he had placed Jamie under surveillance, or rather, he had paid a syndicate to do so for him. The act had been passive really, a way to glean the slightest bit of information from the actions of the Queen of Naboo. It had worked out in the end, though the information was hardly perfect. Most of what he'd ended up with he'd required to do some guess work with, including Maryia's identity. Though, rather delightfully, the young girl had just confirmed it for him.

Idiot.

His eyes wandered towards the broken lightsaber, his lips twitching slightly. Unlike with most Jedi, and even some Sith, Vrak did not hold his lightsaber in particularly high regard. The weapon was a standard one, and he'd lost plenty of them in the past. Annoyance flashed inside him despite this, mostly because the weapon had failed him in the moment he'd needed it most. Had Jamie cut just a centimeter higher half of it would have worked still, something he could see now as Maryia held it up. "It is."

The Pureblood finally answered.

"Your sister destroyed it." He looked from the weapon to Maryia. "I doubt it will ever work again."

Vrak carefully lead the conversation. He didn't know much about Jamie's sister, in fact he knew next to nothing. This conversation would enlighten hopefully enlighten him. She was less cautious than her sister, that much was already apparent.

 

[Mariya Pyne]

Mariya shrugged, seemingly without care, then smiled up at Vrak. "That's okay. I like souvenirs." The brunette simply tucked the saber back into her pocket, tapping it with her hand to make sure it was all the way in. The girl tapped her foot on the ground, thinking about the extent of Jamie's injuries, versus what seemed like far fewer on the Sith, yet she had managed to destroy his lightsaber, and the Titavian had pinned him beneath its large clawed feet until help arrived.

"Were you hired to kill the Queen? Why else would one of you come here? Aren't your kind on the brink of extinction?"

Most folks actually thought them entirely gone. There were reported sightings here and there, but hardly anything concrete. None had been recorded on or around Naboo, at least not in Mariya's lifetime. Jamie had never told her of any dealings with Sith before, so why had he come here if not to assassinate the queen on behalf of some cruel master? "Did your master order you to?" Sith had masters or something, didn't they? Some kind of rule system? She didn't know much about Sith or Jedi, just what she'd heard.

Mariya backed up a few steps, using her hands to lift her up onto the table, swaying her legs forward and back as she talked with the man.

"Why would anyone want Jamie dead?"

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Mariya Pyne"]

"We are." There was no denying that fact, especially now.

Purebloods had been surviving in secret on Athiss for centuries, but the cat was out of the bag now. The newly formed Empire had taken dominion of Korriban, Dromund Kaas, and his people had decimated among the worlds but there was no doubt in Vrak's mind it wouldn't last. Eventually the Jedi would rise up against the steadily growing Sith, and when that happened his people would once more become the central target of their crusade. It was inevitable, just as it had been thousands of years ago.

It was a fact he would have denied just a short few months ago, funny how things changed so quickly.

"I have no Master." He commented simply, slightly irked at even the very suggestion of such a thing. Within his thoughts he reminded himself to remain calm. The girl was indignant, naive and foolish beyond the pale. Falling into a rage now would just sabotage things. "Did your sister not tell you who I am?"

He mused out loud. "I would think she'd trust her own sibling."

The words were said quietly, almost as if he were musing to himself rather than actually talking to her.

 

[Mariya Pyne]

"No master? Must be a real downer to be trapped in that cage then."

She stated her thought rather rhetorically. It wasn't something she was asking Vrak, as it was both obvious and meant more as a slight dig against him for having come all this way just to wind up in some cell in the middle of nowhere, talking to a teenage Nabooian about how he had just lost whatever goal he had set foot on the planet hoping to achieve.The girl looked down at her boots as she swayed her legs, looking back on whether or not Jamie had ever made mention of somebody like Vrak. As she did, her eyes shifted to an unnatural, computerized manifestation. For over a minute she was completely silent until finally her chocolatey brown orbs returned to normal and she again looked at Vrak.

"Nope. No record of you."

Mariya rolled her shoulders. "Of course she trusts me, don't be an idiot. But the Queen has obligations too."

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Mariya Pyne"]

He shrugged, as much as he could shrug within the restraints. "It seems odd."

The girl was annoying, but logical. He could see the resemblance between the two sisters, but also the subtle differences. Briefly he thought back to his own siblings. The relationship had obviously been different. In Maryia and Jamie he could see trust, love, all the usual hallmarks of family. For him things had been different. His brothers and sisters had been little more than competition, more kin that simply stood in the way of the inheritance that was so rightfully his.

"Your sister not telling you of a clear danger?" He clicked his tongue, watching her carefully. "One that she was expecting?"

Again that same musing tone. "Perhaps then, she was afraid you couldn't handle it."

In truth, Vrak guessed that Jamie had simply thought he wouldn't return to Naboo. It had been admittedly foolish to come here, but then again he was brash when buried in his own anger. He was sure that once he escaped Seraphina would admonish him, though he was already considering not even telling her. "That or she really doesn't trust you to keep a secret."

His eyes lowered for a moment, settling on Maryia.

 

[Mariya Pyne]

The girl crinkled her nose and hopped off the table, her arms folded beneath one another as she stepped a few feet closer once more to Vrak, looking up at the Sith.

"You don't seem a clear danger right now, trapped in there like you are." She pointed up at him. "Maybe she just forgot about you."

Mariya really wasn't sure just who he was, or why he was on Naboo, or how Jamie knew of him prior to the evening before. "You did almost get squished by the Titavian." A tiny bit of amusement found its way into her words as she spoke them. "Besides, why would I need to handle you? I'm not a Jedi or anything." She tapped her side where her blaster rested against her hip. "Instead of taking you prisoner I would just shoot you through the heart and bury you in the ground."

The two half-siblings certainly didn't follow the same moral code as the other. Mariya placed survival above fairness. If Vrak was a threat, she would just outright kill him, rather than waste time imprisoning him.

"Maybe that's why she didn't tell me."

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Mariya Pyne"]

"Maybe." A smile touched his lips.

What a refreshing bit of news.

Killing him would have been the intelligent thing to do. He would have respected Jamie far more for it. The Queen didn't call herself a Jedi, but the principals were the same. Foolish hypocrites who preached about security and peace when they had neither the method nor the drive to bring either. It was something that had always bugged him, and even when he'd fought the Grandmaster of the Silver Jedi on Dromund Kaas, he couldn't stand the rhetoric.

"Or." He began. "She didn't want you to ever meet me."

For one reason or another.

Vrak knew that was likely the truth of it. No matter what sort of encounter he and Jamie's sister had, it likely wasn't one that the Queen ever wanted to actually occur. Either he would kill the girl, she would kill him, or they would speak. None were options he imagined Jamie would like.

 

[Mariya Pyne]

"Well that's obvious." She stated rather matter-of-fact. "I have a perfect memory." Her finger traced behind her right ear towards the small metallic device that looked almost like an earring if it was situated on the side of the head, rather than the cartilage of the ear itself.

"Would be hard to forget you, unless I chose to."

Still, he hadn't answered her questions.

Mariya brushed aside her hair, pushing it back behind her ear. "You still haven't told me why you were here to kill her, and me. If you don't have a master than you must have a reason."

So far it seemed as though Jamie and he had some kind of convoluted history going on, but was she just collateral? Was he actually looking to kill or abduct her? She was curious to know these answers.

"Why come all this way for us? How did you even know that we're sisters? You haven't answered anything."

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Mariya Pyne"]

The Pureblood smiled, watching the slight frustration that rippled across the girl's features. With the force he would have been able to enter her mind, sow little seeds, plant suggestions. It was easy to do, simpler when the subject had no control over the force. Here though he had but his words.

Planting the seeds was more difficult. "Ask your sister."

It wasn't any more an answer than Maryia had so far received, but there was a point to this. Sowing dissent, planting small inklings of doubt. It was all part of what he had to do. The young girl presented an opportunity, and right now the Pureblood was very short on those. There was no Empire to miss him this time, Neesa would not come looking and Irid had disappeared herself in the ethos of the Galaxy. Seraphina would not care to search, and his guard would be glad of his disappearance.

He was on his own this time. He had to take advantage of what he could.

"Unless you think she won't tell you." He shrugged again. "Or maybe she'll lie to you."

Vrak mused for a second. "She clearly has already."

 

[Mariya Pyne]

Mariya growled. Her patience was for circular talk was minimal at best. She hated listening to nobles talk. She hated having to listen to them talk. This was, word for word the exact same manner of talk they used. They spoke a lot, made no sense, and offered no solutions, answers, or input other than vague references and hidden agendas or meanings. It was why Mariya slept in most of her ethics and debate classes. It was why she had joined the Security Force as a pilot. No fancy chit-chat, just orders and actions.

Vrak was annoying. And ugly.

"She's recovering. And not telling someone is not the same as lying. I never asked who you were."

She ruffled her hair some. "But you've got plenty of time to tell me. Where exactly do you think are you going?"

Another rhetorical question. By the looks of things he wasn't going anywhere. And if he somehow tried? Well, there was enough plasma in that blaster of hers to act on her comment about burying him in the ground. Why did Sith speak like rotten versions of nobility? As if the drones she met on a daily basis weren't awful enough, here she was trying to figure out this strange alien, only to find out he was just as annoying as they were. How disappointing!

"What's your story?"

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Mariya Pyne"]

"Oh of course it's not." Vrak commented dryly, clearly not holding the same opinion as Maryia on the subject.

For a few seconds he had thought that Maryia was actually more intelligent than she appeared, but it seemed the girl still wasn't quite up to par. It was disappointing really, but perhaps it would make her easier to actually manipulate. The frustration that showed within her already was progress.

He'd never managed to do the same with Jamie.

The Queen and he had verbally sparred dozens of times during his imprisonment, and during most of those meetings Jamie had never even flinched. That fact alone had bought her a minuscule amount of respect from Vrak, though her sister didn't share the same quality. The Pureblood had barely spoken and already Maryia was beginning to strain. He expected it wasn't the words themselves, but rather the manner in which that he actually spoke to her.

Interesting, and telling. "If your sister didn't see fit to tell you, what makes you think I will?"

He sounded amused.

"Your sister didn't tell you the truth even when your life was in danger." That was the simple truth, at least a version of it. "What motivation could I possibly have?"

 

[Mariya Pyne]

"Maybe I will ask her when she wakes up. You'll be here for..." She tapped her finger against her chin, head tilted to the side..."Well, longer than I could think to imagine."

Taking the broken lightsaber out of her pocket once more she tossed it up and into the air a handful of times, playing with the device. "I'll hang onto this. You wont be needing it anyway. It will look nice on my wall."

She smiled at Vrak "It'll certainly be a conversation starter. What's your name at least? I'll display it for you. Lightsaber of the defeated Sith."

The words were taunting, but genuine. She really did plan to hang it up as a souvenir. It was a neat little gadget, even if it were beyond repair. She didn't need the thing working, it was just decoration. Mariya pondered for a moment, wondering about what motivation he needed to tell her the information she wanted, before asking her elder sister. "Motivation? I don't know, I'm sure I could ask one of the Jedi to come bother you while I'm gone. They probably have lots they could talk to you about. Wouldn't you like that?"

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Mariya Pyne"]

Jedi?

His lips thinned for just the briefest second as he considered her words. He hadn't heard of any Jedi here on Naboo. The reports he'd received from the Syndicate were scarce, mostly tracking Jamie herself and her close family. There had been mention of some additional defenses and organization but Jedi? No. Jamie herself had claimed she wasn't a Jedi, and although she knew of her Master Vrak hadn't thought the girl would surround herself with members of the Order.

Any Order really. "Oh I'm sure they do."

Curiosity now welled within him. The more people that came to see him the more opportunity lay in front of him. It didn't matter what sort of Jedi they were, their origins, if there was one thing he knew about Jedi it was their innate nature to fall. It had happened countless times, and Vrak knew he could make it happen again.

But before that...

"I'll answer some of your questions." He offered with a smile. "If you answer some of mine."

A simple deal really.

 

[Mariya Pyne]

Attention shifted from the broken lightsaber to Vrak. "Oh yeah?" She tucked the blade behind her back, holding it with both hands.

"You have to answer mine first. I asked first." She smiled coyly. "Yours second."

The brunette sauntered over to the table once more, hopping up onto the top, retracting her legs into a folded position and set aside the broken lightsaber. She could spare another few minutes before going back to the hospital to check on her elder sibling. She could always return later that day if she felt curious, though thus far the Sith had proven to be pretty dull and uninteresting to her. His words were empty and meaningless. He was difficult and annoying, and worst of all, nothing to look at.

Why were most aliens so ugly?

"So then, my questions from earlier?"

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Mariya Pyne"]

He stayed quiet for a moment, wondering briefly how easily he could have killed this girl if the force was still with him. Snapping her neck would have been easy, tearing out her spine even more so. The feeling would have been sweet, and seeing Jamie's reaction to the corpse even more so. "I'll answer one."

The Pureblood stated simply.

Nobody would be fool enough to go on a tangent about their life story without having the assurance of being repaid, especially not someone like Vrak. He needed to extract as much information as carefully as he could from the girl while at the same time still planting those seeds of doubt. It was a tall order, especially given her tendency towards indignation, but not entirely impossible. A breath slowly filled his lungs, and then he continued to speak.

"Then you answer one of mine." The Pureblood let his eyes roam around the room, almost as if he seemed uninterested in actually talking to her. "Pick one."

He prompted. "I'll answer."

 

[Mariya Pyne]

The girl scrunched her face up, unhappy with the terms of this deal.

"Why were you trying to kill my sister and I?"

If he knew Jamie, then she could just ask her sister for his name, and what else she knew. At this point there was hardly any reason to hide anything from Mariya, given the circumstances of what happened. What Mariya didn't know was whether or not Jamie knew why he was there. That was what she wanted answered most of all. Furthermore she knew what he was, and there was still enough information on his people on the HoloNet that she could research any other general facts about the Sith that she had questions about.

"Do you just kill for the sake of it?"

Some creatures were simply predators. Just because he was sentient didn't mean he wasn't capable of simply being an animal. All signs pointed to that at the moment.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]