Ailene rushed out to meet Revan who had straightened after knocking yet another foe unconscious.

At her approaching footsteps, Revan turned back, his expression bemused.

She belatedly remembered she was supposed to stay with their captive but she was too relieved to care.

"I'm so glad you're alright" she panted out. Watching the entire fight had exhausted her.

"I'm glad that I'm alright as well" he responded dryly. His face became humorous. "Forget something?"

"I-Well" she stammered. She couldn't possibly tell him that she was afraid to be alone after all the praise he had heaped on her before.

"Nevermind, I'm glad you're here"

Ailene beamed.

"I need you to help me search this bastard's body"

"Oh" Ailene's smile faded, wrong footed again. She glanced at the red prone figure lying unceremoniously on the floor like a drunken whore. She looked like she had been beaten viciously and raped a couple hundred times.

"Do-do you really need me to do that?" She asked nervously. Just looking at the body made her uncomfortable.

"It would be unconscionable for me to do it" Revan replied. "to touch a female like that"

Ailene couldn't tell if he was joking or not. She got the distinct feeling this was punishment for not staying back. Reluctantly she groped the fallen Twi'lek's inert form, searching her for any hidden weapons or valuable items.

When she got to the…womanly areas, she closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip before continuing.

Revan pointedly looked away from the whole ordeal while he shifted through the other corpse.

Together they found about a dozen hidden implements of pain, ranging from knives to screws and poison darts. Some objects looked so bizarre that Ailene didn't even want to think what they were for. Some credits and a dataslate were also found in her pockets. Ailene handed the dataslate to Revan who took the item and concealed it under his robes.

"Thank you" said Revan before kneeling next to the battered form. He grabbed the Twi'lek's head and suddenly rammed his gloved fingers into her mouth. Ailene started in surprise at the development as he twisted around looking for something.

The victim gave a soft moan of pain.

He wrenched his hand back out suddenly to reveal a tiny capsule. Revan tossed it away. "Most assassin's I've encountered like to keep one of those" he remarked. "In case they ever get into situations like these"

Ailene looked at the now completely unarmed female lying on the floor.

"What are we going to do now?" she asked.

"We" said Revan grimly "are going to get some real answers."


A hard slap to the face brought the Vreeshar back to world of pain. She coughed and sucked in rancid air through her mouth. She couldn't breath at all through the ruin that had been her nose. In her current state, she bore a striking resemblance to Excrutiatus. Above her loomed the wretched Jedi that had bested her in battler. She couldn't seen the face but Vreeshar was sure he was scowling at her.

"Is your Master the only one left?" He said without preamble.

"How can you be sure I'm not the Master?" she sneered. Despite her predicament, Vreeshar's haughty nature was not cowed. It was strange for her to be in the opposite position she had placed so many victims though.

"The equation is simple" said the figure grimly. "The longer this takes, the more pain you will feel. Also your markings indicate you are subservient to another of your kind"

He jabbed a gloved finger at her neck were a claw like symbol intertwined with a jagged chain like pattern.

Vreeshar briefly considered lying but so no point to it.

"My Lord is here" she hissed. "He will make you pay dearly for your trespasses."

The figure's gesture told her he had heard it all before.

"Where are the Jedi?"

She spat weakly in the direction of his face, more blood than saliva.

"What did I just tell you before?" asked her captor.

"You wouldn't dare Republic lapdog." Sneered Vreeshar. "Your kind cannot stomach for torture."

Her interrogator looked back the corpse lying across the hallway. "I left him to die quite painfully, didn't I?"

He glanced back down. "In fact, I could just kill you and find them on my own eventually." Despite the Jedi's noble reputation, Vreeshar found she believed his words.

"You can't get to them" she growled. "They're sealed in the back rooms… and all the doors through the tunnels are sealed by keycodes."

The figure knelt down and grabbed her torn vest. "Open them."

She laughed raggedly. "What do you hope to accomplish fool? My master will turn you into a screaming pile of flesh." She wondered briefly why Lord Mreth had not appeard yet to kill the Jedi.

"Fine." The figure raised his lightsaber to strike her head off.

"Wait, wait!" she struggled weakly. The lightsaber did not strike but remained in a ready position.

"I will open the doors to our inner sanctum." She gasped "If you promise to let me live."

"Not good enough." He raised his blade higher.

"W-What do you want then? You just said –"

He leaned in close, and Vreeshar felt a chill in her blood. She shivered.

"You will tell me everything you're blighted kind are doing. Why you're here, what you planned to do with the prisoners. Everything."

"And trust me," he gave her a predatory whisper. "I'll know if you're lying."

Vreeshare briefly considered his offer. When she found no alternative she spat.

"Fine."


Ailene watched as Revan propped the Sith to the side of the wall so she could speak better. The blood had stopped spurting from her face, but her words were slurred and weak.

"Speak quickly before I tire of this." she hissed.

"First the prisoners." He jerked his thumb back. "Slaves?"

"Most of them the Twi'lek admitted. Some were for more…visceral pleasures."

Ailene almost spat at her in disgust. "Are all your kind so degenerate?"

The Twi'lek glared up at her. Ailene huddled protectively behind Revan.

"Be glad your little lapdog is here" she snareld. "I would-"

Revan grabbed her by the throat, making her gag.

"Focus. Where did you come from?"

He released his grip. The female choked briefly.

"Not from any part of space you know fool."

"You are not part of the Sith in the Galactic Core? What about Korriban?"

The prisoner laughed contemptuously. "Pretenders, what use do we have for them? No, we come from beyond the veil."

"The Unknown Regions." Revan stated flatly.

Something his voice made Ailene cringe.

"Just so." She looked up defiantly. "None of your kind could survive a galactic cycle there."

Revan stared at her for along moment until she looked away uncomfortably.

"Now the important question. Why are you here and why did you take the Jedi hostage?"

"Why do you think you moron?" she snapped "We obviously want to expand our domain. The vanguard of a larger force."

Revan sighed in annoyance. "That's a half truth if I ever heard one. You wouldn't show your hand to the Jedi unless you wanted to risk them sensing your presence."

He leaned forward again.

"The truth now – or I make sure no surgery will save that previously perfect symmetrical face." He gestured to some of her own implements of torture a short distance away.

The female swallowed deciding not to press her luck. "We needed the Jedi…to unlock our potential."

Revan waited for her to continue.

"Force sensitive beings are a breed apart. It is believed that through genetic manipulation, and psycho indoctrination we could enhance the potential of the Sith."

She licked her lips. "But we needed…fodder to experiment on. Not common rabble but force sensitive beings." She gave a mirthless laugh.

Some of my…brethren volunteered and underwent transformation with vastly unpredictable results. We would run out of too many able bodies before anything useful could be produced."

She shrugged indifferently.

"Using the Jedi as fodder seemed like the best course of action."

Ailene could tell Revan was unconvinced. "I find it hard to believe your kind only thought of experimenting now. Scientists have always tried to further the genome of different species."

He looked down again. "Which means, that somebody made a discovery to warrant such drastic measures."

Revan stared at her again, his dark eyes piercing her defiant stare from behind his hood.

"Who is this person?"

The Twi'lek glared but didn't answer.

Revan gripped the stump of her hand, applying only a slight pressure to her wound. It was enough for Vreeshar to scream, blood flowing freely again on the floor. Ailene cringed at the horrid development.

"I won't ask again." Revan said evenly.

"I-I don't know the bastard's name." she hissed through gritted teeth. He..came to the Masters of my cult. Only *cough* only talked to them. Offered…his services." It was clear to both Revan and Ailene that she wouldn't stay lucid much longer in her current condition.

Revan continued to kneel for a few seconds at this latest development. He looked up at Ailene in concern.

"If what this wretch says is true, then I must find the other Jedi immediately before they can be ferried away." He said gravely.

Ailene nodded before she noticed his use of the pronoun. "I'm coming with you sir." She said emphatically.

"I'm grateful Ailene, I really am," he placed both hands on her shoulders. "But this isn't about bravery." Revan turned his glare back to the Twi'lek.

"I need to get her to open the back doors and kill her Master. This doesn't leave any room for mistakes. The Sith Lord could take you hostage or kill you just to spite me." He gave her a sad smile.

"And I would hate to lose you now, after all we've done together."

Ailene shook her head. "I'll keep myself hidden sir, way in the back and I promise I won't do anything stupid." A sudden thought came to her.

"And besides, if you die, it's pretty much the end me as well right?"

Revan nodded reluctantly conceding the point. "Very well, you do me much honor." He gave her a deep tilt of his head in respect.

A few quick strides took him back to the prisoner. He yanked her back to her feet.

"Let's go. Move quickly, do what I say and you won't die by my hand."

Vreeshar cursed again in that ugly tongue of hers but followed obediently enough.

She half walked, half limped as the Jedi hauled her across the room towards the dark hole at the end of the wall.


Vreeshar's thoughts were a curious mixture of hate, fear and anticipation.

She still burned with rage at the ignoble defeat at the hands of this bastard. The fact that he had destroyed her immaculate features only added fuel to that inferno. She thought of a hundred different ways she would have liked to kill the Jedi that was dragging her through the tunnels like a slave but was powerless to resist.

The dominant emotion though was fear.

She had failed in the most catastrophic way possible. Not only had she not managed to stop the Jedi from invading their domain, she had let him slaughter all their resources and destroyed months of careful planning. Even if the Jedi was killed, she could see no way her life would not be forfeit. Lord Mreth would apply every skill in his arsenal to ensure her death would be prolonged and exquisitely painful as anyone could ever imagine. She could only hope feebly that he found her worthy enough of a quick death.

Her only solace in all this was in knowing that Lord Mreth would make short work of this upstart Jedi. He was powerful she admitted, but a true Master of the Sith was beyond the feeble abilities anyone in the Jedi Order could hope to match. Her eyes burned in anticipation of the coming bloodbath.