Things In The Night

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

For a moment he considered her request, slowly letting his gaze fall over her slender legs before returning back to her face. He smiled in reply, and then simply continued to speak.

"I could kill you." Vrak stated. "You may still have the force as an ally but I hardly think you'd be able to stop me while being tied to a chair."

"However, that would leave me with nothing but a dead body." He had gotten the better of her once, mostly through deceit, he doubted it would happen again. Still, even if she could touch the force she was still tied down, restrained by her throat. There was not much that she could do to harm him at this point. At least not before he managed to drive a knife into her chest and end her. He was fast enough to accomplish that at the very least. He was not a complete fool at the very least, he knew his own capabilities. "I also have no interest in torturing you just to hear you lie to me. While some may stoop to such barbarity, I have a distaste for it."

Vrak made a face that showed his displeasure of the tactic. Why kill her? Why torture her? It would gain him nothing.

"Spoken plainly, I do not believe either to be the most beneficial solution." There was always a chance to do something else.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

The female drew in another long breath, exhale into a deep sigh as her lekku caressed her shoulders.

"So you're not going to kill me. And you're not going to torture me." One eye slowly blinked before the other. "You're clearly not setting me free either."

Hey eyes fell towards her legs. "As I'm still in this predicament." So what more did he want? Did he want for her to somehow know who it was she worked directly for through some kind of telepathic link? She was proficient in the tactic of scanning surface thoughts, and mental interrogation, but that didn't translate into identifying people she had never met over great distances.

"So, that leads us back to my original question. What now?"

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

He smiled, once again watching her Lekku.

The head tails did truly fascinate him. He knew that Twi'leks could communicate through them, carry on entire conversations. It was a unique aspect of the species that the Pureblood had always found to be incredibly distinctive. Briefly he wondered if one could learn to interpret the movements, though the thought quickly went away as she once again prompted him for an answer. Vrak looked up at her and smiled, his eyes briefly sailing towards a nearby door. "I had one of my servants prepare something."

The Sith began.

"It's a small device." He braced himself, expecting he retaliation. "I'm going to put it beneath your skin, at the base of your spine."

The words were not threatening in tone, but the nature of them was of course rather distasteful to anyone who heard them. "The device will explode, killing you instantly, if I press a certain button."

Vrak fully expected her to fight him once again, fully expect her to scream, gnash her teeth, do whatever she could to prevent what was about to happen. Yet the Pureblood still decided to keep speaking, as if that would somehow convince her to simply go along with the entire scheme.

"Once the device is implanted you and I will go on a small trip." He stated plainly. "We will find your employer, and then I will remove the device."

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

Enslavement without a collar on the basis of condition and vague promise of release. How quaint.

Perhaps to his surprise she said nothing, simply exhaled through her nose at the conclusion of his words. He would find that she did not resist, perhaps simply because she knew that if she so desired, she could kill him long before he ever got to that button. And even if he did reach it, he might value his own life more than the desire to see her dead. The woman could work with this. If anything it were better than being tied to a chair and forced to endure any more dull stories about his people's ancient past.

Sera still had no idea how he intended her to find her own employer. A man she had never met, despite attempts to do so. Every trail she followed wound up dead. Every lead cut short. Every contact missing. It was as if he knew himself what every move she made was and she had no idea how it were possible. That thought still bugged her from time to time. That he was somehow watching her.

After a few moments of lingering silence she finally spoke up. "You won't find him. I've tried. But very well. Do as you will."

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

"Excellent." Mild surprise colored across his face, but that didn't stop him. Before she had time to say anything else the door on the side of the room opened, sliding to reveal another Pureblood dressed in what appeared to be the garb of a doctor. The Woman stepped through the door carrying a small tray, wandering towards Seraphina until she stood behind her.

"This will not hurt." He motioned towards the doctor. "You will feel nothing but a small pinch."

This time when Sera awoke she would not find herself bound or tied.

The cord around her neck was gone, the restraints on her arms and legs were nowhere to be found. She would awake on the cold surface of a surgical table, a bright light glowing just above her. Small spots of blood stained white cloth beneath her, though as Vrak had promised she would feel no hint of pain. If she reached back and felt the very base of her neck her fingertips would run across an excellently stitched wound, something that would hardly leave a scar.

"They had to remove your top." Sera would hear Vrak's words ring out within the same empty warehouse, that odd echo inflecting his tone just a bit. "You will find it on the table nearby."

Along with her lightsaber.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

Lovely.

The Twi'lek sat up, allowing her legs to shift and slide off the edge of the table. A hand ran along the small of her back to feel where the wonderful little device was now seated. Her jaw jutted, then shifted and cracked. A huff of air was pushed from her lungs and she hopped off the table, quickly snatching up the shirt she had worn beneath her equipment. A bit of grogginess lingered from the sedative, however she was otherwise without pain, though it hardly mattered, all things considered.

That same hand raised to feel the bruises left on her throat from where Vrak had grabbed her. A slight grimace tugged at her before she let the fingers fall away.

She lingered for a moment before collecting her weapons and turning to the Sith. Her feet padded over towards the man, sitting as he were where she had last seen him before her rather involuntary operation. The chair she had been in before had the rope laying beside it. Seraphina pulled the clothing over her head and put her hands through the sleeves as she dropped down into the chair in front of him. Her modesty had long ago been severed.

"You think you could press that button faster than I could stab you through the heart?" It was a genuine question. All it would take is a single moment. She offered him a small smile.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

"I could." The button was located on a small remote, one that he had tucked away into the inside of his belt. She would need to ignite her lightsaber and lurch forward, he would just need to reach a few inches and press the button. "Though I fear I might not survive."

Her corpse would fall onto him after all.

For a brief moment Vrak considered her, his eyes falling on her lithe form. After a second more his eyes would meet hers again, and then he began to speak again. "How were you first contacted?"

Straight to business. There was time for conversation about murdering one another later. Vrak was entirely sure that she would attempt to kill him several times during this escapade, mostly because he would do the same thing as often as he could. Knowing that, he would have to keep the remote close, not to mention keep an eye on her at all times. It was a good thing that sleep almost never came anyway, the darkside would sustain him through this.

At least until he had her employer.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

She said nothing, just smirked. Her leg fell over the other hands extending back behind her to lean on. Greenish orbs lifted up to look at the ceiling as she recalled the event. For a long time she had known something was wrong with her. What it was she couldn't quite understand. It was one of those feelings that one tended to get deep within them, that something was off. But she couldn't understand what it was.

"An unmarked package was delivered to me. Within was a comm." The same one tucked away in her armor that Vrak perhaps missed when he removed her clothing earlier. "A message was left on it." This had been the answer to her question. Or at least, the road to it. "It was brief. Simply said if I did what was necessary for them, they would fix whatever is wrong with me." The fact that they knew that she felt incomplete, or off, or whatever it was she was feeling was the only thing she had needed to hear to accept whatever job it was.

"Then the jobs came. One by one. First a couple of gang members. Regular thugs. Then the leader of that gang. It followed up with a slew of the city quadrant." She rolled her head, cracking her neck. "That was just the beginning though. Then it became higher valued targets. Members of Coresec, judges, prosecutors, city officials, a few Jedi even. I lost track of the bodies."

She had killed quite a number of people thus far. "I suppose you'll be next now."

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

Vrak ignored her threat.

He considered for a moment. The people that she listed, all of them, were people who had influences within The Works of Coruscant and the criminal underworld in General. CoreSec, judges, even Jedi had meddled within The Underworld. The latter especially had been poking their noses into criminal activities as of late, something that Vrak was only aware of because the syndicate he himself had hired earlier this week had told him of such things.

They were all wear. "All on Coruscant?"

Was it localized to this world? He doubted it considering that she had been leaving the planet as he'd caught up with her, though that could simply mean that she'd been intending on laying low for a while. Still, he thought perhaps it was connected more to the Alliance than Coruscant in specific.

It was clear however that whomever was leading her by the nose was careful, not to mention interested in how the Underworld moved. The Senator's death itself was enough to say that, but add on top everything else the woman had just listed? It made Vrak more than confident in the statement. Perhaps a Sith looking to grow in power, something like the Helix Syndicate or whatever nonsense was brewing in the Outer Rim on Rishi.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

"All over the core." She corrected. "Before the One Sith collapsed." What a pitiful regime that had been. She shed no tears to see it fall by the wayside. She ran her hand back along one lek, gently petting herself. "Coruscant, Anaxes, Cambria, Rendili." She trailed off naming a few more planets. Coruscant had by far been the largest, but hardly the only targeted area. The majority were planets with political or military influence within the core.

It had been a lot easier to move around back then. Less scrutiny. Now that the alliance arrived? They wanted to clean up. That made her job more difficult.

"One target per week has generally been the steady flow." The governor was this week's lucky draw. "No two targets ever shared the same planet though."

Sera had once tried to trace the comm signal though. "Closest I've ever been to discovering anything of value was trying to crack the comm transmission. Worked for about fifteen seconds. Routed it off Tython to Cambria, then bounced back to Tython like some weird loop before being severed." The repercussions for that were immediate. "I got another call the next day warning if I tried it again they would put me in the ground." That deterred her further.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

"I see." So it was the core, and before the Alliance fell. He frowned for a moment, the galaxy had been a different place then. It had to be the Underworld, didn't it? It was really the only option that made sense.

There were plenty of Sith that had opposed the One Sith, himself included, so he didn't rule that option out. Yet the quality of the targets, judges, thugs, now Senators meant something a little bit more. Vrak leaned back in his chair, slowly tracing a finger over his cheek as he considered their first step. Tracing the comm wouldn't be too difficult, not with the resources he had, though of course if it got stopped once again then Seraphina would have to contend with her life.

He smiled to himself. Not the worst option.

Vrak didn't care much at all if she lived or died after all, and if they came after her then he could take whomever was sent. The problem was that might just put him back to where he had started out in the first place, with nowhere to go but the leads provided to him by his captured foe, and since he'd already captured her it was much simpler just to continue this discussion than grab whomever came to kill the killer.

"We'll leave the trace to our final option." If what she said was true then she'd get another call next week. That would leave them some time to investigate.

"For now." He began. "Have you ever traced a connection between your targets?"

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

For the first time Vrak would see her expression turn notably uncomfortable the moment he mentioned tracing the signal as their final option. That coupled with the bit of fidgeting her foot began to do as it bounced her legs up and down.

"Every single possible connection one might have with another? No. I have better things to do with my time."

It was blunt, and true.

"I checked the obvious things. Relatives, distant relatives. Business partners. Rivals. Aside from the street gangs they all seem pretty disconnected. Gangs are always killing one another so that seemed coincidental."

For what she had done there hadn't seemed to be any connections. Granted she was no slicer, no intelligence officer, and no master informant. She had contacts, but not an infinite pool of them. "Every lead I've tried to work has gone cold. Every person I tried speaking with ended up dead. Whatever I do, they're three steps ahead." For all she knew they already knew she was captured.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

He noticed the slight tap of her foot, the turn of her head, and more importantly the slight twitch of her Lekku. The notion of tracing the signal made her uncomfortable, interesting. He frowned for just a split second and then shifted his attention towards the nearby door. It was the same one that servant had earlier used. He pressed his lips together and let out a loud whistle. The noise echoed through the empty room, a second later the door fell upon and the same Sith Pureblood servant from earlier stepped inside.

"Our guest requires a datapad." He glanced towards Sera. "We will need the names of as many of them as you remember."

Slowly Vrak stood from his chair.

"There is already a connection between your targets. I'm sure you've at least noticed it." She would have been a blind fool if she hadn't. Everything she had listed, their titles, was enough for Vrak to state almost definitively that whomever was orchestrating this was seeking to expand their way into the Underworld. The Core was a lucrative place, and if it began before the One Sith Even fell? That would mean they've been at this for some time.

"They are targeting the Underworld, my dear." He wandered towards the door and motion for Sera to follow. "Whether for their own purpose or the good of the people will remain to be seen."

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

Well. Names she could do. She had a perfect memory. Or rather, had a perfect memory. Some of those earlier ones had been reworked without her knowledge. That being said, she remembered all of the targets she had killed. Sera didn't quite see what kind of lead the underworld was, given that it never stretched beyond that, nor had anything come from it. Each time one gang member was killed another would just replace them. For every senator, governor, or official, another one took its' place with similar goals. Nothing changed. It seemed like a never ending chase.

Sera sat up and dropped both feet to the floor, walking along beside Vrak still with a slight desire to hear him scream in pain as she severed his torso in two. The pleasure she would get from that would perhaps be worth the risk of certain death. "Why are you so concerned with this?" She had yet to actually ask him what his own motives were. Before she hadn't cared. But now she had little choice but to be curious. "Are you trying to claim the slums as your own little kingdom of deplorable waste as well?" That seemed like a rather low goal for a Sith Pureblood.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

He chuckled. "No."

Vrak said with a smile, though did not share anymore. Instead he lead Sera into the next room. There she would find a bit more life than she had previously seen. There were several more servants than just the one other Pureblood. Most of them appeared to be human, though there was at least one Chiss and even a Togruta. Some were working on computer terminals, others seemed to be carting about parts for what appeared to be ships, and still others were simply standing guard.

All told there were nearly fifteen people in the room, excluding Vrak and Sera.

The Servant that Vrak had sent away just moment ago handed the Twi'lek a datapad, a small thing that would suit just fine for entering the names of those that she had killed over the last few months...or perhaps years of her life.

"My servants will find out if there is any correlation between those you have killed." He told her as he wandered over towards a holo-table in the center of the room. "From there we can move forward."

It was clear that Vrak had been planning something here on Coruscant, though there were no clues as to what.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

She flashed an incredibly brief smile towards the servant that provided the datapad. Her eyes fell away from the room to the device, immediately tapping away vigorously while following Vrak through her peripheral vision. Whatever he was doing on Coruscant was hardly a matter of importance to her. If he was planning on taking over the slums, the planet, whatever, it didn't concern her. All she wanted was to either kill him, or be rid of the device in her back. Either one was as preferable as the other. Either option she would take if the opportunity presented itself.

"Here." She said, slapping the datapad against the Sith's chest surprisingly fast. There he would find the names of 39 victims, each one with a hyphen depicting what exactly their title, occupation, or role happened to be at the time of their demise. "That's all of them."

Vrak might look surprised by the speed at which she had done the task, however when a brain worked as well as hers it required little thinking to recall things.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

He glanced down at the names for a few seconds, reading just to see if he recognized anyone else besides the Senator. He smiled slightly, a few of them popped out at him. One in particular. Barul the Hutt. The creature had been killed some weeks ago under mysterious circumstances. Ostensibly the slug had been a simple business man on Zeltros, but of course had actually been the head of a massive narcotics operations that smuggled Spice onto the planet.

How interesting the galaxy became when you pulled back the veil. "Here."

Vrak gave the datapad to the Chiss who quickly nodded and wandered over to the servants who remained at the terminals. They quickly began to plug the names into the terminal, beginning their search for whatever correlation that existed between the men and women that Sera had killed. The process, even with multiple minds, would still take quite some time, perhaps a few hours. Vrak knew this and thus he motioned for Sera to follow.

"Come." The Pureblood wandered away from the table and headed towards the back stairs of the warehouse.

If he felt at all threatened by the lust for his death that came from Sera he didn't show it, though his hand stayed notably close to his belt.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

Green eyes fell upon the Chiss as they retrieved the datapad from Vrak, and by extension, Sera.For a moment the two studied one another, before the other quickly returned to work. Likely out of fear of reprisal from Vrak. Quietly she fell back in stride with the Sith, padding along beside him, all the while determining when the moment to end his life would come. It would be quick, the window brief, but it would no doubt come sooner or later. That much she was certain. This wasn't some Sith Lord she was dealing with. It was an opportunistic welp, likely an apprentice of someones sent to do their dirty work. Or perhaps it was a loner with no training other than their own selfish rage.

Where exactly he was taking her and why was still a matter of concern, however she considered whether or not the device used as a remote could withstand the effects of electricity, if she doused him in enough of it.

Oh, the possibilities!

[member="Vrak Nashar"]

 

[Vrak Nashar]

[member="Seraphina Shel'tah"]

They wandered up the stairs of the warehouse, spiraling up to the second floor and beyond, likely towards the roof.

Vrak didn't say anything as they wandered past the second floor, though if Seraphina glanced inside she would see bunk beds, a small kitchen, and everything else the servants downstairs would require to live. The Pureblood ignored the floor however and instead continued upwards, eventually reaching a door. The hand furthest away from the small clip on his belt swiped forward, the door falling open as a soft nudge of the force pressed it back into the wall.

Beyond the door sat a rather ornate bedroom, something that had obviously been set for Vrak himself and none of the servants below. The Pureblood stepped inside, and waved Seraphina in, his eyes locking onto hers for just a moment. "You may rest here until my Servants find the necessary information."

He told her simple.

"I suggest you sleep." She had after all been running back to her own ship, presumably she'd been seeking to lay her head down for a while. "You're recovering from surgery after all."

A small smile touched his lips.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

The Twi'lek did in fact look through the room, taking in the sights that confirmed her suspicion that at the very least, the servants called this home, meaning they were likely not here by choice. Either abducted or purchased she assumed. It concerned her very little, but it did help to put into perspective the type of Sith he was, in addition to the other traits he had already displayed thus far. As the two stopped just in front of the arguably master bedroom, Seraphina decided now was likely an opportune time to take an initiative.

Vrak opened the door with his other hand and stepped inside to the room, gesturing for the assassin to follow in tow. Following as she was bid Sera stepped inside and glanced around. It looked as though it were suitable for an egomaniac. Therefore she believed without a doubt that this was Vrak's bedroom, or at least, temporary one. A home away from home sort of thing. "A good suggestion." She repeated. The woman appeared to take a single step forward, as if she were heading towards the bed, however instead, turned quickly on the ball of her foot, one hand directing a heavy and deathly tight choke through the flow of the Force around the Sith's airway, the other hand grabbing a tight hold of the wrist closest to the little boom button.

Fire danced in her eyes as she bared her teeth towards the man, moving to lift his body up several inches from the ground.

[member="Vrak Nashar"]