AN: Oh. My. Goodness. I can't believe how long I made you guys wait for this; I'm so sorry! I spent most of this year suffering from severe partial writer's block. I could write fiction assigned to me to write, but all of my individual projects received almost no attention. I'd nearly completed this chapter in August, but then MOAR WRITER'Z BLAWK! Anyway, the part near the end irks me a bit, but I hope you guys like it. And I can almost certainly promise you'll never have to wait this long for a chapter again. Enjoy!

Chapter 9

SATELE AND VATRUS

Satele read her book for a half hour after meditating for five minutes, but quickly became bored. She knew it all, damn it; she'd memorized it when she was a Padawan. Reading the same precepts, codes of conduct, and historical events over and over again was indescribably dull. She had to admit, Vatrus had proof to back up his claims that the book was boring.

Instead of reading or meditating, she resolved to ponder the events that had taken place over the past day. It was quite the day, too. She'd been knocked out, wounded, captured, and taken to the capitol of the Empire, then thrown into her second ray prison of the day. Not only that, but she'd also reconnected with one of her favorite Jedi, after not seeing her for years.

She wondered how Jaesa had made the decision to go with Vatrus in the first place. Satele strongly believed there were other places she could've gone, other things she could've done, than go with the Wrath. But that was not her place. Jaesa had made her decision, and she seemed very happy here, even if she was living with a Sith. Who was Satele to judge, to say what should've been done differently? She hadn't even been there.

She turned her mind to Vatrus' crew. It was a pretty diverse bunch in terms of both personality and role in the crew. First there was Jaesa, an ex-Jedi of all things, then Broonmark, the galaxy's most hateful Talz. There were also three other crewmembers, two male, one female. The female was a blue-skinned Twi'lek who looked to be a bit older than Jaesa. She guessed that this was Vette, as the name really didn't seem to fit with either of the two men, both humans. As for those two men, they were very different from each other in many ways, from what Satele could tell. One of them had cornrows and an unkempt beard, with dark brown eyes and a gruff expression. He towered almost a half-foot above the other man – Quinn, Vatrus had called him -whose eyes were blue. Quinn was clean-shaven, with a thin face, black hair, and perfect posture. He was likely a high-ranking Imperial of some sort, as he seemed to show exasperation whenever he talked with Vette for too long, and it was obvious that he could barely tolerate being in the same room as the other, larger man.

Vette seemed to be very energetic, always laughing and smiling. If she was originally a slave, though, why wasn't she one now? Did Vatrus not believe in owning slaves? Either way, she appeared to be just as much a part of the group as Jaesa, Broonmark, or the two humans. Unlike most Sith, Vatrus also didn't seem to be racist, allowing both a Twi'lek and a Talz to have equal rights and voices. The most interesting thing of all was that they all seemed to coexist peacefully, more or less, on the ship, despite the vast differences between all of them. Perhaps it was because they were all united under the same flag… the flag being that cocky yet charismatic Sith Lord.

Finally, she turned her attention to the Emperor's Wrath himself. This man had to be the strangest and most non-stereotypical person to have ever existed. Every other Sith she had met was a horrible, corrupted creature which radiated darkness and killed as easily as blinking or breathing. Not Vatrus. He could have killed her, and it would have caused the same undoubtedly-occurring unrest as capture, but he didn't. Vatrus had said something about killing her ruining the chance for "boatloads of fun", but Satele suspected that I was just as Jaesa had said: Vatrus wouldn't even consider killing an enemy who couldn't fight back.

That was another thing. If that was his policy, then how did he get anything productive done? Even Jedi Masters were wary of him, but were common soldiers, civilians, and the like really so terrified of this one man that they would just drop their weapons and let him win? If that was so, then there were some serious morale issues within the entirety of the Republic. If Jedi and high-ranking soldiers were the only ones that actually fought back against Vatrus... how was the Republic still standing?

This thought stayed with Satele as she sat down and began to meditate again. It wasn't easy, but she forced herself. A Jedi had to be vigilant in her pursuits. How Satele wished that weren't true.

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Vatrus walked through his compound towards the training room. It took him much longer than he'd expected. He sighed as he remembered that he lived in a gigantic underground estate which occupied nearly half the inside of one of Dromund Kaas' highest mountains. There were, admittedly, some irritating drawbacks to being exceedingly rich and powerful, with new donations coming in twice a week. 'Ah, first-world problems,' Vatrus thought with a grin as he continued walking.

When he reached the training room, he wasn't surprised to find both Broonmark and Jaesa there, sparring with vibroblades. The members of the crew often did this, among other things, to keep in peak combat condition; being a companion of the Emperor's Wrath meant fighting, and lots of it. Plus, sparring and a shower before dinner not only made one feel refreshed, but it also made them a hell of a lot hungrier than they were before, causing dinner to taste phenomenal, even with his 2V unit's subpar cooking.

Vatrus watched the two spar for a while, Broonmark going on the offensive with his gigantic vibrosword while Jaesa went on the defensive, jumping around a lot and parrying with a rare and surprisingly expensive double-bladed vibroblade. Vatrus could easily see that Broonmark would win this one, and suspected that Jaesa did, too. Broonmark was too good at mindless slaughter to be beaten by one who preferred to negotiate with or Force persuade before attacking. Jaesa also missed roughly seven takedown opportunities and a few strikes which could have easily ended the match. Broonmark's eyes widened the first three times as he made mistakes and expected to lose, but he seemed to realize that he couldn't be beaten, and just stopped caring. Eventually, Jaesa slipped up. Broonmark batted her vibroblade away, then quickly slashed at her side. He stopped just before he hit her, of course, but Vatrus knew if he had hit, Jaesa would have been cut in half. The two ceased combat and bowed.

Vatrus clapped, and his companions' heads shot towards him. Apparently, they'd been too focused on the match to notice his presence, so they were shocked to find him standing there.

"Very nice, Broonmark; you're getting much better. Jaesa, you missed about ten opportunities to take our Talz friend down with minimal effort and no chance of him blocking you. I must admit, I'm a bit disappointed. Either way, Jaesa, you may leave, if you wish. Broonmark, I'd like it if you sparred with me for a bit. We have things to discuss, plus you look hungry for more action as it is."

Broonmark bowed his head. "[It would honor Broonmark to spar with Sith. We accept.]"

Jaesa bowed as well. "As you wish, Master. I rather fancy a shower, anyway." She turned on her heel and left. After she did, Vatrus walked over to the corner and picked up a vibroblade. He tossed it between his hands, getting a feel for it. "Honestly, Broonmark, I don't see how you can wield one of these all day. They're so bulky and hard to carry! Why not get something a bit less unwieldy?"

"[We like the vibrosword. It has been our weapon for many, many years. Good for chopping heads off.]"

"I'll concede that much. Either way, shall we spar?" He walked forward, bowed to Broonmark, waited for him to bow back, and entered a defensive stance. Broonmark went immediately on the offensive, slashing left and right. Vatrus parried, ducked under one such slash, and made an upward strike at the massive Talz's face. Broonmark sidestepped and countered with an overhand blow, which Vatrus dodged. As they sparred, Vatrus chose to add some conversation. "So, Broonmark," he said as he sidestepped a slash, "what do you think of our little Jedi guest?"

"[Little Jedi Shan?]" Broonmark asked, parrying a thrust. "[Little Jedi is… tolerable. Still a Jedi, still weak and a pacifist. We accept her, but we will not befriend her. Still, we fight for Sith clan. Order us, and we will do it. Do not forget, Sith.]"

Vatrus smiled as he made a move for Broonmark's legs, only to have his opponent easily avoid it and come in for a decapitating swipe. "Don't worry, my big blue friend. I won't make you do anything you don't want to. From how you talk, it seems that includes engaging in conversation."

Broonmark gave a grunt as he was nearly swept off his feet by a careful low kick from Vatrus. "[Is Sith trying to distract Broonmark by talking about little Jedi?]"

Vatrus gave a mock gasp as he ducked under a sweep. "Broonmark! How could you say such a thing? I would never purposely distract you, just so I could win a simple sparring match!" His voice dripped with sarcasm. This time, though, it honestly wasn't for that reason. He really didn't know.

Broonmark started doing something that Vatrus believed was the Talz version of a chuckle. "[If that is not why Sith brought up little Jedi, then what is the reason?]" This made Vatrus freeze for a second after figuring out what the Talz was implying, almost earning him a vertical cleave. "Are you… are you implying that… by the Emperor, no, Broonmark! She's a Jedi."

"[Then why would Sith talk to her so much, give her such a nice room when Sith could have given little Jedi the torture rack, and tell and show her many things that most don't know about?]" Vatrus began to think about it, seriously considering what the Talz had said, until he looked into Broonmark's eyes and saw the easily identifiable satisfaction within.

Vatrus smiled wickedly, realizing Broonmark's ploy. "Well, my dear, sweet Talz," he said, suddenly going on the offensive and delivering blows in quick succession, "why not? If I have my way– and I always have my way – she won't be leaving here for quite a long time. Besides, there's only so much of you five I can take. Either way, even if I did feel for her, I still wouldn't let you use that to make me mess up." His grin stretched further as he saw Broonmark's eyes widen ever so slightly, realizing that the Wrath had discovered the plot to make him slip up. He had to give his big blue companion some credit; most Talz couldn't strategize at all. Broonmark's slight surprise exposed his left side for just a second, and Vatrus took the opportunity to make a quick horizontal slash at it. Broonmark realized his mistake just in time, parrying. Unfortunately for the Talz, the block threw him off balance, and Vatrus was able to deliver a Force-enhanced kick to the large creature right in the stomach, hard. It sent Broonmark flying back and onto the ground. Vatrus walked up to him, planted his heavy boot on Broonmark's chest, and pointed the vibroblade at his throat. "Yield," he commanded.

"[We yield! We yield.]" Broonmark said, and once Vatrus lifted his foot, he slowly got up, clutching his stomach. "[Was good match, Sith. We give you the victory. We will go cleanse ourselves.]" As he strapped his vibrosword onto his back once more, he turned back to Vatrus. "[Sith, we have a question.]"

"Hmmm?"

"[How did Sith know that we were trying to toy with Sith's emotions?]"

Vatrus smirked. "It was the eyes, Broonmark. Your eyes gave away your true intentions. If you'd like, one day, when I'm not taking care of our little Jedi friend, I'll help you not show it so much." He left Broonmark then, and went towards the kitchen.

When he got there, he saw his 2V unit working hard at dinner. It wasn't even a particularly hard meal to make, by the looks of it – just a simple bantha steak with gancho sauce – and yet the droid looked like it was about to short-circuit if everything didn't go exactly as planned. "Toovee." Vatrus said. At the sound of the Sith Lord's voice, the droid jumped high into the air, letting out something akin to a robotic shriek. He turned around and bowed very low, lower than was strictly necessary.

"Oh, Master! What a pleasant surprise. Today, we are having grilled bantha steak wi-"

He was stopped by a lift of Vatrus' hand. "I know, Toovee. I know. I simply came to ask that you prepare a seventh plate tonight. We have an, er… special guest tonight. I assume that she'd like to eat, too, so take note of that." He turned and walked away to his personal dojo, where he had hundreds Baras figurines ready to be dismantled. As he walked, he noticed Quinn walking by. "Quinn," he said as they neared each other. "A moment, please."

The Imperial man stopped in his tracks. "Yes, my lord?"

"I was wondering if you could watch our Jedi friend until dinner is ready. I have training to do, so I can't really do it." Quinn stiffened as he heard the request, but he nodded curtly anyway. "I'll get to it immediately." He continued walking, this time in the direction of Satele's "quarters", if one could truly call them that, considering she was –well - imprisoned. Vatrus smiled and continued walking.

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Satele was roused from her meditation by the sound of footsteps outside her little room. She looked up to see the clean-shaven Imperial man from before. "Oh, and who might you be?" she asked. This earned her a quick, almost unnoticeable glare.

"I am Captain Malavai Quinn, Master Shan. I was instructed to watch over you by my master, the Emperor's Wrath, or Darth Vatrus, as he's more commonly known. He did not go into detail, but I assume that includes me standing here, watching you oh so very closely, until dinner arrives and… I don't know." His tone became more bitter and sarcastic. "Perhaps the Wrath himself will come to keep you entertained. For now, I shall simply wait. If you are truly so bored, I will allow you to engage in a brief conversation with me. Oh my, it appears that we already have, right here and now! Truly amazing, if I do say so myself. Now, please, be quiet." He turned around and looked away from her.

Satele, not one to be deterred so easily from a meditation break, pressed on. "Well, Captain Malavai Quinn, I don't exactly agree with you. In my book, a verbal exchange must last at least three minutes to be considered a brief conversation. Since you offered to engage in one, I suggest we begin. You go first."

Quinn turned back toward her, not even attempting to hide his scowl. "If I must. Alright, topic sentence: Why won't you leave me be? You were meditating. Why don't you continue doing that, rather than chit-chat mindlessly with some Imperial that you've never met?"

This brought a smile from the Jedi. "You've never meditated before, have you? Well, don't try it. It's primarily just sitting there pondering the various mysteries of the universe. Some Jedi spend entire days doing it, which I've never understood. I can understand why the Jedi meditate in the first place, but to do it for such a ridiculously long time seems a bit of an overreach."

Quinn's eyebrow shot up at this. "Oh? It is my personal belief that prolonged study and perseverance are the bread and butter of a successful career, no matter what profession one might pursue. It likely applies to the Jedi as well. Long sessions of introspection would likely unlock some sort of revelation about oneself, as I'm sure is popular in your Order. Likewise, if one spent a long enough time pondering what they know and comparing it with other data from elsewhere, they might discover, say, something interesting about the Force that nobody realized. Great strides in hundreds of different fields could be made, all via meditation."

Satele grinned. Quinn cocked his head. "What now, Master Shan?"

"Oh, I was just pondering what you said, which was actually quite good, mind you, when I realized that you started a very interesting conversation, even though you did not wish to."

This brought an obviously involuntary smile from the Imperial. "It would seem that I have. Now, on to why you, specifically, refuse meditation. Why is that? As the Grand Master of the Jedi Order, I feel you of all people should be the most willing to meditate."

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong. At some point…"

This lead to quite the conversation. It started out being about the pros and cons of meditation, but quickly changed to things such as Imperial and Republic politics, the differences in philosophy of Jedi and Sith, and the all-around unpleasant demeanor of almost every Alderaanian nobleman whichever existed. The topic Satele found most interesting was the one about philosophy. She had to admit, while she'd never even think about following it, the Sith Code made sense. The dark side was the way to incredible power with not too much effort, but it corrupted even quicker, and when one began using it, it was near impossible to stop. The only Sith on record who had ever been redeemed was Revan, her ancestor.

Before Satele knew it, an hour had passed, and Quinn stood there for a full five minutes, talking about what he felt about the whole alien oppression thing within the Empire, completely oblivious to the Sith Lord who stood directly behind him, crossing his arms and tapping his foot impatiently. He wore a rather grumpy look, and Satele actually had to fight the urge to laugh. Eventually, Vatrus got bored waiting and tapped Quinn on the shoulder. The Imperial man gave a rather girlish shriek, and spun around. When he saw who it was, he smiled sheepishly. "My lord, forgive me." This brought a hearty laugh from the Wrath.

"You know, Quinn, I usually only get those reactions from Vette. Never in all my years would I have suspected that a full-grown man's voice could reach that high a pitch. Now, honey, be a dear and check on dinner, would you?" He gave another chuckle as Quinn turned on his heel and swiftly strode down the hall.

After Vatrus calmed down, he turned to Satele. "Sorry about that, Shan… but I'm not really. He's a remarkable ally and a certifiable genius in more ways than one, but, well… you heard him not fifteen seconds ago, shrieking like some little girl who lost her doll. I hope he didn't bore you too much with talk of alien rights."

Satele gave him a quick, barely perceptible smile. "Oh, no, it was fine. You're right about the brilliant mind thing. It was a very interesting conversation. You're going to have to step up your game now, Vatrus. This could be tough."

"Oh, I'm sure I'll manage. Tell me, while we wait for news on our meal… why a saberstaff?"

Of all the questions he could have asked, Satele hadn't expected that one. Before she caught herself, she parroted, "Why a saberstaff?"

"Yes! Why a saberstaff? Why not two single blades, or just one? I realize that you're going to say personal preference, and I don't accept that. Why do you prefer it? Why that and not something else?"

A deeply thoughtful look came over the Jedi's face. It was actually a pretty good question. Why a double-blade and not something else? "Well, Vatrus, the first thing that comes to mind is the fact that most people – notice I said 'most', you lucky bastard – are too focused on one end of the blade to keep track of the other, and pretty soon, you have that person in two parts at your feet. Another thing is heft. I find one single-blade too light, and two of them too heavy. The balance of a saberstaff, in my opinion, is just right."

Vatrus smiled. "I'll admit that that was a good answer. That wasn't very interesting, though."

"Well, I'm sorry if I'm not feeling particularly talkative. It's definitely not because you locked me in a room with nothing to do but meditate or anything."

"Uh-huh. I'm not so sure that's the entire thing. You talked to Quinn just fine! He almost never talks, and I know he can be horribly boring when he does. What is it, Shan? Am I too cold? Too heartless? Too undeniably attractive? Come on, woman, give me something. Is there anything at all?"

Vatrus smirked as Satele's eyebrows shot up. "Undeniably…attractive?"

"Yes, Shan, undeniably attractive. Don't pretend you don't love it. Or are the rumors true? Are Jedi so ridiculously detached from emotion that they can't feel physical attraction? I mean, come on."

Satele was taken aback by the sudden attack. "Well, of course we feel emotion. We laugh and cry and act like normal people, but-"

She was interrupted as Vatrus began to laugh. "'Act like normal people'? You Jedi fools actually think that acting like you have a stick shoved up your arse day and night is how normal people behave? When was the last time you had a truly emotional moment? I ask because, last I checked, normal people have emotional moments. What do Jedi have? A smile now and then?"

Satele frowned. "Don't be a child. As I was saying, we act like normal people, but we don't let our emotions get the better of us. This is why the Jedi have prevailed again and again in the past." This brought yet another arrogant grin from Vatrus, as if he knew something she didn't. "Oh, so that's why you've won, hmm? Is that what you think? You believe your precious Jedi have won all these times because of our emotions? It's partially true, I'll give you that, but that's not the main reason. No, the main reason is because of power plays and other political nonsense."

"Power plays?"

"Yes, Shan, power plays! Most Sith are -obsessed- with gaining more power. It doesn't matter if you have three thousand minions, a gigantic estate, and the ability to obliterate a small city with a bit of lightning; there's always something that someone else has that you don't have that you want. And so power plays ensue. They can range from subtle manipulations in court to full-blown attacks. I've been the victim of a few power plays, myself, actually. As you can see, it didn't work. But anyway, that is why you always win."

He opened his mouth to continue, but the sound of metallic droid feet approaching cut him short. "I beg your pardon for the interruption, Master, but dinner is ready."

"Thank you, Twovee. We'll be there shortly." He smirked at Shan's shocked expression when he powered down the particle shield, extended his arm in a gentlemanly fashion and asked, "Satele, if you would accompany me?"

Satele blinked a few times in shock, then stood up and hesitantly took his arm. "Of course, Vatrus. It's not like I have much of a choice, anyway, do I?"

Vatrus' grin grew wider. "No… no, you really don't." With that, the two proceeded down the long hallway toward the dining room. "Oh, and Shan?" Vatrus said nonchalantly.

"Yes?"

"Don't even think of trying to escape. Because if you do, I won't have to lift a finger – my crew will be more than happy to beat you down for me."

"Lovely."

AN: Thanks once again to Laryn Chillbreeze for her betaing of this chapter. It wouldn't flow nearly as prettily without her.

Oh, also, how would you guys feel about a small interlude chapter, perhaps involving the Inquisitor and maybe the Consular, just cuz? I think that'd be spectacular, personally.