Terrow and Tikala watched from afar, as the shuttle flew their siblings away. "Do you think they-" Tikala was about to ask, the worry audible in her voice, but her brother held up a hand.

"No... It's rare, if ever, a Sith lord is prosecuted for crimes that involves poor or… lesser creatures. If anything, the bounty hunters will likely be blamed. They could be in for a long prison sentence." Terrow reassured, but nevertheless he doubted Briza would be in a good mood once she returned home.

Tikala looked down on the havoc their battle had caused. "I dearly hope no one was hurt." She said, despite sensing an enormous amount of emptiness in the skyscraper, which usually was associated with several deaths in a small area. "Theirs is no death... only the force." She muttered in a low voice, mostly to comfort herself and calm her feelings.

Terrow didn't, nor could really believe as she did, that all the dead lived on in the force, but he understood her reason for seeing it this way. Also the republic also tend to value the lives of the common people more so, than the empire. So he knew, that for his dear sister... this was a tragedy.

As the flames were taken care off, so was the two other bounty hunters being flown away in a second shuttle. Terrow had decided it was safer to let the empire detain the hunters directly, in fear of drawing unwanted attention to their own operations, as most of the data that would be gathered from their eventual interrogations, would be sent to imperial intelligence, where he had access and could read the info.

"Let's go home. We gain nothing from lingering here." Terrow smiled while uttering the suggestion. Tikala nodded with a sad smile, but said nothing.


Mid flight, in the personel shuttle, Mathorn was using a kolto spray to heal the worst of his wounds, as the pain was beginning to affect him and burned flesh didn't smell very nice.

Briza just stood exuding irritation, as she looked out over the city and return to her own ring of thought. The idea of defending her actions in front of a judge such as Darth Imperious, could have terrible consequence.

Mathorn wanted to ask what they were in for, or if they would be executed by public hanging, but judging on the angry face his sisters showed, he dismissed those ideas in fear of being kicked out of the shuttle mid shuttle touched down on one of the landing platforms outside the office of law and order, shortly thereafter, the two of them, saw the cyborg zabrak being escorted inside the superstruktur with the two other bounty hunters in tow.


Inside the waiting room, Deedrah sent Briza a look of worry, but changed her expression back to one of importance when she spoke to her and Mathorn. "Lord Imperious will see you now."

Briza and Mathorn were escorted inside and each shown to a chair. Once everyone were seated, a large chair opposite them turned around so the dark lord of the sith, now looked directly at them. Both of them felt a dark aura that simple stated dissatisfaction in the languages of the dark side, emanate from across the table.

Imperious made a simple hand gesture, signaling the guards to leave, whereafter he turn his attention to the zabraks before him. "Tell me, why do my own people, start a veritable war in the streets of Kaas City with a band of bounty hunters... without informing me of your actions?" He asked in a collected and polite manner, but with a clear hint of underlying rage.

"They shot first!" Mathorn replied quickly, then regretted the action a millisecond after, as the dark aura radiated even stronger, threatening to overwhelming him, an intense feeling of dread hanging over him.

In nearly every other situation, Briza would have smacked Mathorn for his insolent comment, but for this. She wanted to apologize to the dark lord for her apprentices behavior, but speaking out of turn would be very ill advised.

Imperious eyes burrowed deep into the former jedi, like needles penetrating a soft pillow, but the voice that spoke remained calm and gentle. "That may well be. But, I asked, why I wasn't informed of your little operation."

Mathorn was speechless, he couldn't remember the exact reason, only so they could bring his sister Tikala into the game without drawing attention to themselves.

Briza knew she had to do something quickly before she lost a brother. "You speak when spoken to!" she whispered angrily in Mathorn's right ear.

"I... I don't know sir, I mean my lord." Mathorn stuttered in reply, while beads of sweat were starting to form on his brow, as his body, shaking with fear, reacted to the overwhelming pressure exuded.

Without any change in his expression, Imperious' gaze turned slowly to Briza. "And what about you Lord Briza, is there anything you want to explain?"

As the gaze came to her, Briza mentally prepared for the unavoidable, her mind was working overtime to think up a good explanation, but she could only make it sound as an error of judgement, to avoid revealing her jedi sister. "After our last meeting, I and my new agent, dog up some data on the ships that had been docked on board the dathomirian space station. We found one vessel that were heading to Dromund Kaas and decided to interrogate the crew ourselves, as we concluded that we would be strong enough to handle the matter alone, should it come to hostilities."

Imperious hold up a hand for her to stop. "This is a matter that concerns me, as well as Darth Mortis, the dark council and the empire as whole. So I ask you. On what authority, do you withhold such information from the empire?" Imperious asked, still in a polite tone, but at the same time firmly demanding a straight answer.

Briza took a quick moment to calm herself, before apologizing for her error. "I have none... I sincerely apologize my lord."

"NONE INDEED!" Imperious yelled furious and continued the scolding even louder, and with zero punctuation "YOUR OUTRAGEOUS ACTIONS HAVE LOWERED THE STANDING OF THE DOMAIN OF LAW AND ORDER WITHIN THE DARK COUNSEL!" He paused long enough to breath. "THIS HAS BECOME A PERSONAL EMBARRASSMENT FOR DARTH MORTIS IN THE EYES OF THE REMAINING ELEVEN COUNCIL MEMBERS!"

Briza fought hard to keep herself from breaking into tears, it felt like an endless barrage of psionic needles penetrating her mind. Whatever feeling of pride she had when she entered, it was thoroughly disintegrated.

Mathorn was terrified, every inch of his body froze. He had been scolded countless times in his life, especially by jedi master Jaric Kaedan, but this felt like mental torture. With every word ringing and echoing in his mind a thousand times, like the sound waves was bombing his psyche to damnation.

What was only a few seconds in reality, was for the two zabrak an eternity of dark side verbal torment. When Imperious finally relented his scolding, he went back to his usual polite and calm demeanor. "Lord Briza... For this one time, you shall receive no direct punishment. However, you and your subordinates are to remain at your headquarter until I say otherwise. Any deviation from that order in any way... your rank, power and wealth will be removed from you immediately, as if you had never earn them in the first place! Have I made myself clear."

"Very clear my lord. It shall not ever happen again." Briza obeyed with a stuttering voice and humbly bowed low.

Imperious made a small insincere smile as he continued. "Good, remain ready, I sense your assistance could be of use, in a not so distant future."

"As you decree my lord." Briza acknowledged.

"You are both dismissed." Imperious ordered with ice in his voice and turned his chair.

Briza bowed and turned around, with her apprentice trying to mimic the gesture in fear of having to be near that presence any longer.

The trip home was dead silent, only the hum of the speeders repulser lift could be heard, as both of them were both physically and now also extremely mentally exhausted, from the day's events.


Back at Briza's skyscraper. Tikala and Terrow was searching the central data cord for any new information regarding the captured bounty hunters. As they were browsing through pages of text, Tikala sensed her siblings returning and would momentarily be landing. "They have returned." She informed her little brother with a smile and wandered over to the balcony, to greet them as they entered through the main entrance. "Are you alright?!" She asked as they took the stairs.

"No." Briza replied coldly, without making eye contact with anyone.

While not exactly knowing what they had just been through, Tikala could easily feel the mental agonythey had injured.

Seeing Briza hastily avoiding everyone and walking up to her chamber, Terrow looked to Mathorn and carefully asked the simple question. "I dare not ask... but how did it go?"

"I think... I'm affright for life." Mathorn replied in all honesty with a shaky voice.

Terrow could only nod. He had heard stories of this particular Darth's scoldings. Powerful people had been observed feeling traumatized for months afterwards.

"And... by the way... We are grounded." Mathorn informed with a loud sigh.

Terrow nodded again. "We received the info to remain stationary and but ready to serve at a moment's notice."

"Yes... Know anything relaxing to do around here?" Mathorn muttered in question.

"We could see what's on the holovid? There is bound to be something worth watching." Terrow suggested in a friendly tone.

"That would be great." Mathorn replied with a weak sigh. In the back of his mind however, he could hear his old master saying. "A jedi crave not such pleasures, instead, meditate on yourself and the force." He shrugged off the wise words and followed Terrow to the living room.


A few hours past, and the owner had just taken an elevator to a level below her private chambers, as she was getting hungry. Normally Briza would order her droids to make something, but right now she didn't feel like waiting.

As she was walking through the hallways, she heard some of the Twi'lek discussing something loudly, in a language that was making her ears bleed. "Learn basic! Or... any other languages for that matter! I HATE HUUTTESS!" She shouted with force enhanced dread. The Twi'lek backed away from her in shock and horror, one of the younger ones even started weeping in response. She gave them a stern look, but continued on, leaving the hallway humming with fear.

"Please calm yourself!" Tikala suggested sharply, as Briza came up from the lower levels, sensing her sisters outraged.

"I'm living side by side with slaves and jedi, in my own home. I should be executed for these crimes!" Briza replied sharply in turn. She continued, still in a slightly harsh tone, but without the intention of sounding angry. "Would you like to join me for a bit to eat?"

Tikala wasn't really all that hungry, but this was as good a time as any to get a feeling of her sisters mental state. "I would like that." She smiled and answered with a soft voice, following her sister to the kitchen.


In the living room, Mathorn and Terrow, had ordered sandwiches from the house droids and was now dining on them, as they watched the most humorous channel Terrow could get his hands on, which had been almost impossible, since the empire usually frowned upon satirical sketches. So Terrow had to make an uplink to Narshadar to get access to something more lighthearted and brainless to watch.

Terrow occasionally checked his datapad to see if new info on the bounty hunters had been revealed, while Mathorn was stuffing himself and at times laughing at a Hutt comedian. The Hutt was telling a story about how he in his drunkenness had collapsed in a container on Narshadar, and the next day had woken on Corellia, where the container had been smuggled off to, with him in it.

A little later Tikala joined them. "Hi, what are you watching?" She asked, as she looked at a Hutt dressed up as a yellow twi'lek.

"A comedy show called Bilcogo the Hutt." Mathorn told his little sister, and added. "That guy is serious high on spice! In a failed gamble, he had to eat a live mynock as punishment. He used the next week of his life barricaded in the refresher."

"Sounds... painful." Tikala replied a bit disturbed, as she sat down in between her brothers.

"Afterwards he said he had lost 200 kilogram of weight, as everything that entered his system wanted out again immediately. He described it as the most painful looseness of the bowels he had ever tried, especially since teeth and claws was still intact." Mathorn grinned at the imagery of this hardcore diarrhea.

Tikala never understood the fun in bowel jokes. The only word that came to her mind was... disgusting.

Briza joined a bit later with cup of caf in hand. Her eyes widened slightly as she watched a Hutt, of all creatures, trying to do push-ups. "Where did you get that channel?" She asked in surprise. She knew this wasn't approved by imperial law and order.

"Narshadar up link. I'm bypassing the security systems, by passing the signal through an old forgotten server in imperial intelligence. I hope you don't mind." Terrow explained in a slightly apologetic tone.

Briza gave it a second look, then sat down next to Terrow. "No it's fine, at least the show is translated to Basic, for all to understand." She replied in a tired voice.

For half an hour, the four of them watched the remaining of the comedy show, since the tension levels had returned to normal. Terrow asked the question that concerns their immediate future. "Since we are now bound to this building, what do we do?"

"What we are ordered to do, remain ready... We can't risk suffering another disfavor." Briza replied as an order. "Tomorrow we should all train together." She said, mostly looking at Tikala when she spoke.

Tikala nodded in agreement. "I concur. We should all learn to fight in perfect synchronization."

"Great! Now I can get beaten by both my sisters at the same time." Mathorn thought to himself, but out loud he said. "Cool, I look forward to learn some new tricks."

Terrow also nodded. "We should learn how best to aid each other in the heat of battle. Plus as this could also be a good way to maximize efficiency and reduce the risk of endangering citizens..."

Briza was pleased with their responses, even if they were for different reasons. "Very good everyone. Next time there will not be any hindrances in our execution."

A bit later, Tikala remembered something that had dawned on her and asked, now that she had the time to do so. "Since I was never told your last name. May I learn what it is?"

Terrow and Briza shared a quick look before answering. "It's Wirano." Briza told in a calm voice.

Tikala smiled as she replied. "Thank you. I just thought we should know this by now."

"In a sense, we should all just be the Xastra family, as it's the only last name we share from the same bloodline." Terrow commented as a matter of fact. "Which gets me thinking. I know jedi are not suppose to keep in contact with their families, but do anyone know where our father is?"

"No... last time I saw him, I was a kid, and that was right before he left without telling anyone where he was going. Mother still wonders where he is." Mathorn told them in a quiet and sad tone.

"I didn't even know I had a family, before Mathorn showed up and told me about them." Tikala added her story.

"I remember seeing my father once, when I was six. Mother and I had been going to Narshadar on a mission, disguised as a normal family. That's where I meet him. He looked like a smuggler to me, not as the militant jedi my mother had described him. I always wondered why he looked so human like, pale skin and thick brown hair, unlike mother who is dark red and baled." Briza told her tale.

"If we get the time someday, I would like to track him down." Terrow said in a hopeful tone.

"That would be fun." Mathorn concurred with a grin.

The family continued their conversation far into the night, before going to rest.