KAAS CITY MARKET: late evening

As they traveled back to Briza's compound, not entirely sober, they came across several markets that sold everything from fancy gadgets to exotic foods. Mathorn wanted to buy some orange spiky fruits to eat on the way, as he was getting rather hungry. "They look tasty, lets go get a few."

Terrow shook his head. "Those are expensive. I think it would be smarter to go back to the skyscraper instead. I can with high accuracy say that the food served there, is better than what we can buy here." he pointed out.

"You know best." Mathorn replied in defeat, but as they continued through the market he noticed the slave area and stopped.

Terrow had gotten used to the daily slave trade that thrived in the empire and hadn't thought to much about it. Had it not been for his own traumatic experience, he might even have thought it a necessary evil. But he had also studied enough of republic history, to know that Mathorn most likely held a very ill view of slave trade. "Come Mathorn, lets go a different route, this part of the market can be an ugly site at times." He tried to persuade his brother to follow, but Mathorn didn't listen.

Mathorn had spotted the same Human filth from the space port earlier. The large bearded slaver was using his slaves to pack down the grandstand. For reasons unknown, the slaver whipped a beautiful young blue female twi'lek across one of her head tails. For a moment Mathorn forgot everything else, as pure hatred began building up inside him, stemming from the knowledge of how sensitive their head tails could be. With long steps he walked towards the slaver with raw determination, not listing to Terrow who was warning him of how very wrong this could go.

When the slaver finally noticed the tall Zabrak in an imperial uniform, he was steering into two eyes burning with rage. Startled, he tried to speak. "Hey! I have payed for the use of this area today, I still have an hour to go."

"You! Don't hurt her!" Mathorn spat the demand. Now that he was closer, he could see the injures that had been inflicted on the two dozen of Twi'leks the slaver had in captivity. Everything from deep scars, to fresh bleeding wounds and some of the Twi'lek even looked to have been tortured at one point or another.

"They are my property, I use them the way I see fit." The slaver spat in return. He despised zabraks. That they allowed such a lesser specie into the imperial military was distasteful to him.

For Mathorn this was too much. There was only one thing on his mind, to remove this evil standing right in front of him. Before the thought of attack had entered his mind, the Human who had just stood in front of him was already being crushed by the pressure of Mathorn's sheer wrath.

The slaver stared wide eyed in horror, as not only was his windpipe being choked, but every muscle and even his bones were slowly being ripped apart.

The Twi'leks watched in horror as Mathorn intensified his force pressure on their owner and master, which changed color from the usual pink to a dark purple. They looked away when they heard bones crack in the now disfigured Human. The undoubtedly dead master, who was bleeding from every inch of his body, was torn apart from the inside out.

Terrow went from viewing his new found brother as a good and friendly being, to viewing this… murderous family member with fear. As the Human corpse fell lifeless to the ground, quickly making a pool of blood beneath, Terrow thought to himself "You are no jedi." What had just happened, goes against everything he had learned about the jedi ways and culture.

But after a minute, Terrow gathered the courage to ask the obvious question. "So... what are you going to do with your new slave-herd?"

"Ahm..." Mathorn mumbled coming out of the blood haze. He looked at the two dozen Twi'leks who stared back at him, horrified and in awe. After what seem to take forever, an idea struck him. "Let's take them with us back home." He spoke eagerly.

Terrow sighed and began explaining the problem at hand. "I'm not so sure, Briza would approve of your slave liberating conquest, especially since it would most likely come back to haunt her in the end."

"We can't just dump them somewhere. Let's take them back, there should be enough room for all of us!" Mathorn suggested determined.

"This won't end well." Terrow muttered in resignation, as he walked over to Twi'lek and spoke with a raised voice in huttese. "Slaves, we are your new masters. You are all being transferred, carry what belongings you may have, you are all to follow us in five minutes."

The twi'leks imitatively gathered what they could carry, as well as helped their injured friends get on their feet.

Mathorn was puzzled. He had heard huttese being spoken before, but it sounded fun when his little brother spoke it. "What did you say to them?" He wanted to know.

"I told them suit up and follow us." Terrow replied half lying. He knew Mathorn wouldn't like the way he had address the twi'leks, but they wouldn't understand a polite request.

Soon after, all twenty-six Twi'leks were ready to travel. Terrow proceeded to order them to follow.

With Mathorn in the lead, they began the march back towards the skyscraper. It didn't take long before he decided to sing a favorite song of his.

Although his brother was in a good mood, Terrow found all this too bizarre to feel anything but surreality. They had just broken at least two laws, and now the culprit was walking home singing in blissful happiness. Were they not under the command of the exact dark lord with jurisdiction of law and order on this planet, they would have been imprisoned or executed for killing a civilian and disturbing the peace, as well as the mess they made in the slave marked.

As the group traveled through the city, people just looked on in awe, not so much at the group of slaves, as at the terribly singing zabrak in front, who apparently felt the need to show his joyfulness to everyone.

After a short while, they reached the Briza's compounded. Mathorn was still partly intoxicated as he entered the building, so when he saw no one but droids, he shouted. "BRIZA, WE ARE HO-OME."

"Welcome home my lord." The servant droid politely replied, as its photoreceptors scanned the remainder of the group. "If I may ask... why-"

"You may not ask." Mathorn cut it off, as Terrow and the rest of his slave group entered.

Briza came to the balcony that overlooked the entrance hall and was about to demand an explanation as to why he had just shouted her name like a little boy, but the sight of the small horde of Twi'leks in her hallway, made her eyes widen.

"I tried to stop him, but... He wouldn't listen." Terrow apologize in advance.

To say Briza was perplex, would be right on the mark. First she thought they had been out buying slaves, but judging from Terrow's expression and the fact that they most likely did not have even remotely enough credits for so many slaves, it took her only a split second to realize what the most likely scenario was. "No... no, no, no-no, no." she uttered in frustration.

"Well... you could always sell the droids." Mathorn suggested with an very unsure smile on his lips. "Please let them stay." He pleaded.

Tikala came to see what had disturbed the peace, she too was puzzled when she noticed the Twi'leks with slave collars around their necks.

"Shut up, just, shut up!" Briza yelled angrily, where after she looked to her other brother. "Terrow, you will be the slave master, accommodate them in the slave quarter."

"Yes my lord." Terrow bowed and began to guide them to where he thought they could stay for the time being.

"If I may, will you allow me to help with the Twi'leks?" Tikala asked for the sake of the slaves in question, as she were only able to see a single one of them that seemed unharmed.

"Do as you wish." Briza allowed without much thought and turned her attention back to Mathorn with a cold gaze. "You and I, are going find out how bad this mess of yours is, now!" she demanded firmly of him.

"Yes my... lord." Mathorn shuttered as the adrenaline fought the alcohol in his system. He was beginning to sense that his actions could be much more costly then he had first realized and barely noticed Tikala hurryingly past him to help the slave group.

It didn't take long before the news of Mathorns slave-jacking could be read on the imperial central datacore, accompanied by a recorded holovid scene, where he and Terrow came marching through the streets, with Mathorn singing to his heart's content. "So... how much trouble am I in?" Mathorn asked nervously.

"Well we will see, now won't we..." Briza replied coldly with discontent in her voice.

And as Briza and Mathorn searched the central datacore news of more info on her apprentice slave adoption, she received a message from Deedrah. "I need to talk with you, I'll be there shortly. It's very important!"

Mathorns eyes widened. "Deedrah? The hot sith you talked to when we visited the sith overlord?" He hoped dearly.

Briza looked over at her tan colored brother with a look of disdain. "Yes. My friend is coming here. Now we will see how much damage, you have done!"

"I get it, slave liberation is bad on planet evil." Mathorn muttered in irritation and added with a sigh of resignations "I'll tell Tikala to lay extra low for the time being."

Briza nodded approvingly, with a small smile appeared on her lips as she thought. "Maybe there is hope for him after all."

Not long after the female pureblood entered the building. "Greetings mistress Nei'elsefan." One of the protocol droids greeted her in the typically well modulated voice. "Can I take you cloak, mistress?"

"You may." Deedrah replied with an aristocratic demeanor and handed the droid her dark velvet cloak.

"Welcome my old friend." Briza said in a inviting tone, as she descended the stairs.

"Likewise lord Briza. And allow me to personally congratulate you, on acquiring your former masters powerbase. Quite the reward." Deedrah replied with a smile and made a small curtsy.

"Thank you lord Deedrah." Briza said with humility in her voice. "Come, I've have prepared a conference room." Gesturing for her guest to follow.

Deedrah politely followed, her host to a room on the second floor.

In a large dimly lit office they sat down opposite each other, with only a thine table between them. Deedrah unraveled her datapad and began to speak on the subject at hand.

"Lord Briza, as you are most likely aware, your apprentice have slain a slave merchant. As it stands now, the Office of Law and Order will not be taking any actions against you, nor will any compensation be charged, as long as the incident isn't repeated." Deedrah informed in a formal but relaxed tone.

"I appreciate that." Briza muttered thankfully, as she wondered what to do with her new slaves? But that was a problem for later.

"We have done a background check on Mathorn Xastra. He has been registered as a combatant in battles all over the midrim. One such battle of note was the siege on Alderaan's capital Aldrea, which he was instrumental in breaking. We are likewise aware of the dozens of sith lords killed by his hand. He is extremely reckless, as you are no doubt aware of already. He has gone against the jedi councils wishes on multiple occasions. He is not a rogue jedi, but a renegade jedi, the data we have collected on him confirmed this." Deedrah said disclosing all her findings. She made long pause before continuing. "I wondered why the jedi decided to train him. After digging in his background, it turns out that he has a sister. She was very difficult to get any real data on, like a closely guarded secret, but what I could piece together is this. She is a jedi shadow, one of the fastest and stealthiest force users recorded in republic history."

Briza's first instinct was to look surprised and serious, but afraid her friend would see through her ruse, she decided it better to reveal a few tiny pieces of information on her half sister. "Her name is Tikala Xastra. Mathorn already told me what little he knows of her. She is a skilled infiltrator and constantly assigned to covert missions on the jedi council's behalf. I am already taking precautions, should we encounter this sister of his." Briza lied with some truth speckled in between, believing a distorted version of the truth would be an easier sell, than a pretended denial of any knowledge on the subject. "Or I could just be her half sister and make a beneficial deal for the both of us." She though, smiling in her mind at the reality of things.

"Good, I really hope you can handle this sister of his, should you ever meet." Deedrah smiled, accepting the info as the truth... but something in Briza's tone was nagging at her consciousness.

"I Would like it, if you could stay and dine with us?" Briza offered her hospitality, taking a calculated risk.

Deedrah did have some unfinished work at her office desk, but when would she get an excuse to visit again? "I gladly accept. To be honest, I did take advantage of the opportunity to visit you in your new home."

"Very well, I will tell my servants to set the table for three." Briza smiled widely, as she rose and exited the conference room.

While Deedrah began to read up on a crime scene that had just happened the same evening.

A few stories down Mathorn noticed his older half sister approaching. "So... am I to be crucified tomorrow?" He joked and smiled with uncertainty written all over his face.

Briza shook her head. "No, you are not to be executed. But you will have to stay here, unless I tell you otherwise." She declared firmly.

"Great, first day on Drumond kaas... and already grounded." Mathorn cursed his luck, clearly grumpy.

"Our guest Deedrah will be dining with us today." Briza told him off handed, and as soon as she had finished the sentence, she noticed a change in Mathorn's mood, and quickly added in a firm voice. "I want you to be on your BEST behavior. You need to show that you have understood your error!"

"Yes ma-am." Mathorn replied, without being completely able to conceal how excited he was about dining with the only sith beauty he had ever seen and asked as an afterthought. "Are the others also joining us?"

"No. This is a dinner for high ranking sith only." Briza stated and began elaborating. "Everything in the empire is determined by rank in our society. If you hadn't been my apprentice and instead just a normal citizen, you would have been publicly executed for your crimes."

"Okay... at least I now know I am high ranking." Mathorn muttered with a half baked smile, publicly executed wasn't his idea of a job well done.

"See to it, that you stay that way." Briza warned in a threatening tone.

"Yes my lady, I understand." Mathorn muttered a bit annoyed. He knew why she was warning him so sharply, but it just felt like an insult.

"Now come, we have a guest waiting for us." Briza commanded in a softer tone.

In the dining hall, service droids were setting the black transparisteel table, which looked like it was mimicking the rest of the skyscraper.

Calming music were playing to smoothen the atmosphere and glinting red flowers were placed decoratively, evenly spaced, on the table.

The dinner was mostly made out of huge hollow yellow fruits, with meat from the native wildlife stuffed inside. Mathorn remembered having seen those fruits in the marketplace earlier, and that Terrow talked him out of getting one.

"Please. Take a seat." Briza invitingly gestured with a wave of her hand.

Mindful of what his older sister had said, Mathorn tried not to stare at Deedrah, and only occasionally glanced her way.

"So, have you thought about selling your new slaves?" Deedrah suggested as they ate. She knew plenty of places were the zabraks might get a good price for the bunch.

"You could also sell the droids..." Mathorn suggested bluntly, the look on the female's faces indicated he was out voted though. "Just a suggestion." He excused himself.

"I've ordered my new agent to find out if they are worth something to me." Briza replied, thinking to herself. "...as well as the 'infamous' jedi shadow."

Again Deedrah had an instinctive feeling that something was not completely as it seemed.

"If I may ask, how did you come to work for Darth Imperious?" Briza asked, she had wanted to know ever since she had been called by her friend yesterday.

"Well I was simply chosen to serve Darth Mortis, and later reassigned to work as an adviser to Darth Imperious." Deedrah explained chipperly. "I'm glad you also became a servant to Darth Mortis, so I'll have more excuses to visit you." She smiled mischievously.

"Except for Darth Vowrawn, I don't think I could have gotten a more pleasant high lord to serve, than Darth Imperious." Briza wholeheartedly agreed.

Mathorn was mute the entire time, as he pondered what Jonathan would say, if he knew what things he had done this day.

"May I?" Deedrah playfully asked, grinning in anticipation.

It took a moment to register what the sith ment, but Briza grinned too as she replied in a casual tone. "Sure, they are all yours."

Deedrah took one of blood red flowers and ate it raw.

"Brings back memories, doesn't it?" Briza chuckled a little, as she thought back on one of the more jolly times on Korriban. She and Deedrah had stolen a crate of flowers, only then realizing that they had way too many flowers to decorate with, and they knew, they would wither before they could be of use, so for some reason they had decided to taste them. Some of them had been tasty enough that they had used them as snacks the following days, especially Deedrah found the texture delightful, not so much the taste.

Deedrah nodded smiling while chewing on the petals.

Mathorn raised an eyebrow. "Do you usually eat the decorations here in the empire?"

"No, they aren't normally meant for eating. I just like chewing on them, such fine texture." Deedrah smiled fondly.

Mathorn was about to comment on the sexiness of her attitude, but again remembered to shut up for now. He was starting to feel tiredness creep up on him and began to have a hard time thinking completely straight.

Now that the apprentice of her friend seemed mellow, Deedrah decided she would probe him a little. "I've heard you have a sister in the jedi order."

Mathorn was a bit taken aback. "Play it cool! Play it cool!" He quickly thought to himself. "Hm... yeah, I have a sister back in the republic, unfortunately she couldn't be here today... you know, red isn't her color." He tried to joke his way out of this very unconformable conversation.

"That is unfortunately. I believe she could be an excellent asset to your cause." Deedrah continued for own amusement. "Wouldn't you believe so?"

In the past, Briza had always found it funny when Deedrah began unraveling something, in this case she began to fear that her pureblood friend was trying to persuade Mathorn to reveal something on Tikala and decided to redirect the focus. "Now that you mention family, I have a confession to make-"

Deedrah turned back to look at Briza, with a very puzzled expression on her face.

Briza took a deep breath. "Remember my brother, the one who died. Well he was actually never killed. I smuggled him away, and I just had him transfered to my personal staff."

"Is that true?!" Deedrah responded in sudden surprise. "Can I see him?" She politely requested.

Briza waved at one of the droids, it bowed and walked away.

Mathorn wondered to himself, if that was smart. "Briza... I thought our family were supposed to be secret?!"

A moment past and Terrow entered the dining hall with a slight feeling of uncertainty. Seeing Deedrah again in real life was kinda overwhelming. "I get why Mathorn couldn't shut up about her." He thought while trying to remain calm and collected.

"Look how grown up you are." Deedrah uttered in surprise. Now that she thought about it, it made sense that Briza never had seemed angry or hateful over the loss of her brother.

Terrow smiled with a hint of uncertainty when he spoke. "It's an honor to speak with you again, miss Nei'elsefan. I hope you understand why I had to flee Korriban, I was never meant to be a sith acolyte."

Deedrah nodded in agreement. She turned to look over at Briza and spoke openly with glee. "Thank you for revealing this to me. I promise this secret will remain between us present in this room."

A collective sigh of relief could be heard from the Zabraks. Mathorn was just happy that only Tikala had to be kept secret.

But one thing that hit Deedrah, as she watched them all sigh in relief, was the fact that the renegade jedi had the exact same green eyes as Terrow... actually all three Zabrak had those same emerald green eyes.

The rest of the evening went with Briza and Terrow each telling their story. Briza telling of how she became the apprentice of Darth Veness, Terrow telling how he was smuggled to his mother's, where they had changed his identity, and how he later was enlisted as an imperial agent.

"I think it's time for me to retire." Deedrah announced after midnight. "It has been a pleasure visiting you."

Briza was about to respond in kind, but Mathorn was quick to put in a grinning remark."And you have been a pleasure to look at."

"Boys..." Deedrah thought to herself, but ignored the comment.

Briza too ignored the comment from the bold half brother, responding with a proper and polite reply. "I'm pleased to hear you enjoyed our company."

Deedrah noticed one of the droids coming over with her cloak. "I'll keep in touch." She exited the skyscraper, with her own speeder parked right outside for easy access. Soon after she flew out into the city night.

"Mathorn! Remember to behave!" Briza glared irritatedly at her impolite brother.

"What! I gave her a compliment, what's wrong with that?" Mathorn complained about the injustice he faced.

"I am going to bed. I will teach you proper manners tomorrow." Briza muttered with a tired expression.

"Nighty night sis." Mathorn replied in an off handed manner, realized he was getting overtired.

Briza didn't reply, not even when Terrow wished her a pleasant night. When she entered her private quarters, she removed her clothes and threw herself on the bed, exhaustion overwhelming her and making her powerless against the rush of memories flowing over her. "These last days have been too chaotic and unpredictable." She mumbled to herself before sleep won her over.