Last time: Oppie and Kait returned. They all learned Cien had managed to escape the Taipan with help. They tried reaching Sasha together.

Now: Viran learns a dark truth.

Chapter 6- The One Responsible

The sound of fingers drumming on a durasteel desk was the only sound that filled the space. Viran sat in one of the chairs at the large terminal station in Dravis' office. He quietly drummed his fingers on the terminal as he waited for the datapads laid out before him to finish decoding. Dravis found him in the mess hall a couple hours after Viran and Op tried to reach Sasha with little success, and told him that he had finished going through the boxes of items that were found in Selina's office aboard the Taipan. He had found a series of datapads that appeared to be encrypted. And since Dravis was still working through the security footage mess and the Admiral wanted them searched, he asked Viran if he would be willing to hack into the datapads to figure out if there would be any useful information on it. To be fair, Viran was sure that all the information on it would be important, but he knew that Dravis, and the Admiral to an extent, was referring to the search for their missing sister.

So Viran followed Dravis to his office to find his little droid, ROVR, watching over a large loading bar that was moving very slowly. According to Dravis when they walked back to the office, that was a sequence that would hopefully clear up the security footage and crack open the fleet computer so they could figure out what exactly happened to Cien since both were encoded with the same ciphers. But based on the fact that they left the Taipan days ago and the load bar was barely past halfway, it was going to be a while before anything useful was going to come of it. So Viran asked ROVR to help him with the datapads while the little droid waited and while Tac and QT continued to aid Dravis. He was more than eager to help Viran. After a few hours, they were able to break through the datapad's encryptions, but then they had to wait for the content to become available after decoding.

Viran closed his eyes as he waited in the dark chamber that was really only illuminated by the screens of Dravis' computer terminals. It was late night, almost midnight, according to the ship's chronometer, but in this dark room, it felt later. He contemplated searching for the lightswitch to turn on some lights so he could see better and so he wouldn't fall asleep. But ROVR informed him that Dravis was the only one with the control of the lights and that he preferred dark. Plus Dravis had passed out in a hammock in an adjacent room and Tac and QT had shut down for the night too. Viran and ROVR were the only ones up in the room at the moment.

Finally, the datapads beeped at him, pulling him from his daze as he had started to drift off. But their beeping didn't wake the others. Viran straightened up and picked up the first pad of the few before him. ROVR rolled over to peer over at the pad.

"You want to read too?" Viran asked with an amused smirk and a quiet tone.

"Rovr," the droid said, quietly, nodding his coned head.

"Alright," Viran said as he adjusted the way he was sitting so the droid could read.

Viran started scrolling through the datapad at a steady pace, lightly skimming over the information on the pad. Nothing caught his eye at first, but he definitely noticed a lot of information he was sure the Admiral would want to see. After about ten minutes, he finished scrolling through the first pad and didn't find anything that could be helpful to Cien or to what Selina was up to. It was just a bunch of information in regards to the cartel and their illegal trades. Viran set that one aside and picked up the next one.

This one was full of information in regards to the cartel's dealings with the Imperial Remnant. It listed all of the names Selina contacted to help her gain supplies like the trooper armor they had found on Caranas, weapons, ammo, and safe passage through New Republic controlled space. Viran furrowed his brows at that part. He tried to see if it listed how they got such privileges and who gave it to them. But there was no record present there. A part of him wondered if that was something J'onz had given them when he was their mole. But there wasn't enough information here to figure out how they got that pass.

"Make a note of this part," Viran told ROVR as he pointed to that section.

"Rovr." He acknowledged.

Viran gave it a second for the droid to get the intel then continued to read through the rest of the datapad. There was nothing else on this one that popped up to him as important, so he moved onto the third.

Just like the other two datapads, Viran scrolled through the third at a steady pace. Part way through his eyes caught something. He stopped scrolling and went back up a couple of paragraphs. He re-read the section again until he saw it. His brows jumped up in surprise at what he read. It was a list of locations and planets that he had never heard of before except for one name. Abbiados. Remembered Cien and Kyr telling them about the battle that took place there when they were last aboard the Defiant. He then spotted the words 'Sith Temples' a couple of lines down from the list. Reading over the section more closely, Viran felt his jaw drop slightly. He couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Selina was the one who ordered Cordova to hire the raiders to attack those archeological sites and apparently sent a list of what to look for at those temples. But the list of items wasn't there.

"She must have sent the list separately. But why did she go to the Sith Temples?" Viran asked as if Rovr had the answer. "What was she looking for?"

Rovr cocked his coned head to the side like Lana did when she was confused or curious about something.

Viran continued to sift through the datapad, but didn't find anything else in regards to the Sith Temples. He took an extra hour going through it with a fine toothed comb just to see if there was anything else on the topic, but to no avail. Sighing, he set the pad aside while making the mental note for Kyr to look at that one in particular later. He then reached for the last datapad.

Once again, he scrolled through it, but this time almost begrudgingly as he was rather done with his lack of progress. Aside from the Sith Temple stuff, he didn't find anything useful for his family to use in their case against Selina. But he spoke too soon. He stopped scrolling when he caught the name Von Signa.

Viran felt himself fuming as he merely read the name, staring at it for a whole minute, before he scrolled up to see what this section on Von Signa was about. It was his contact information, location, and his bounty record. Viran felt his eyebrows twitch as he read the extensive list of names that the hunter had taken down in his career. No wonder he was hired to hunt Sasha. Many of the names were of high level individuals from politicians to even a few celebrities that Viran recognized from a few Holonet documentaries, reports, and videos.

As he continued to read through the stuff about Signa, Viran then felt his body go cold and a chill rush through his veins as he came upon a conversation between Von Signa… and Selina. He stared at the conversation as his body started to tremble before he started to read it.

S: Is this Von Signa

V: Yeah, this is he. And may I ask, who the hell is this?

S: No one you need to concern yourself about. Just a prospective customer. A mutual contact of ours gave your information to me. They said you employ the best of the best in the galaxy for jobs. Am I correct?

V: That's right. And you've got about five seconds to tell me what the hell it is you want with my bounty hunters or I'll hang up on ya right now. Time's a ticking. Start talking.

S: Hm, aren't you impatient? Alright. What if I told you I need to hire your guild to take out a Jedi?

V: I'd say you've gotta be the dumbest Gungan this side of the outer rim. There ain't no more Jedi. Aside from that Skywalker kid, but he's New Republic, and I ain't gonna send my hunters in to mess with a higher up in the New Republic. Nice try, bub.

"That didn't stop you before, asshole," Viran grumbled under his breath as he kept reading.

S: There are other Jedi out there. I promise you. And the one I want you to catch is a rather… strong Force user. But what if I told you I'll pay you one million credits right now to get the right men for the job?

She was talking about Sasha. Viran felt his blood boil.

V: One million ain't a whole lot to split between me and the bounty hunter I think can handle your little job.

S: I wasn't finished. One million right now to only you. To hire your guild. You don't have to share it with a soul. And another million to give as the reward for the bounty hunter that succeeds in capturing the Jedi.

V: Two million on the line? Alright, you've got my attention. Tell me what I need to do.

S: This Jedi has cost me millions and has caused a lot of damage to my… company. Her and her friend. But I have a plan for her friend, I just want the Jedi.

V: What's her name?

S: Sasha Monroe-Zeb. Mid twenties, I will send you a detailed description. She's a Jedi Knight that participates in jobs across the galaxy with her family. She is the youngest and she is their most… innocent. The family is protective of her. The girl has never killed anyone before on purpose. If we can get rid of her then I can go after the rest of them.

Viran swallowed in relief that Lana's name wasn't mentioned in that, but he felt a lump form in his throat as he continued to read.

V: So you want me to have someone kill her? Sounds easy enough.

S: Not exactly. You are a man of eclectic tastes and like to do things outside the norm when it comes to bounty hunting. I want her to be hunted like an animal being hunted by a predator. I want her to suffer and to break her spirit. And when your hunters get her, I want her as a pathetic mess that I can use as bait to lure the others in. So no, don't kill her. I want her alive, but how alive is up to you.

Viran blanched.

V: So you want me to capture her, drop her on some world, send a group of hunters after to hunt her like an animal, and then bring her to you alive once they capture her? What? Do you want it recorded to?

S: if you can do that, I wouldn't mind a show.

V: You are just as twisted as I am. Alright. You've got a deal. I'll see what I can put together. Where can I find her?

S: Their home is hidden from public records. But she will eventually come out into the open and when she does, she will be easier for you to find.

V: Then it shall be done.

S: Good hunting.

And that was the end of the first conversation. Viran scrolled to see that there were more exchanges between the two of them. He found the one where Von took Oppie too and demanded more credits. He also found the sole message that went out that she had received the footage from him, but there was no response on his part.

Viran trembled in his seat as he dropped the datapad to the floor with a clang. Rovr whirled in shock at that as he rolled away from Viran, looking between him and the datapad on the floor. The trembling grew more and more uncontrolled as the room started to react to his emotional state. Items on the shelves shook and shuddered off onto the floor with a clatter. Some of the screens in the room started to glitch. That caused the others in the room to jump awake with a start.

"Wha-" Dravis gasped awake as he looked around in a panic. Tac and QT whistled in a similar response. "Are we under attack?"

Viran didn't answer him. Taking a deep breath, Viran stood from his seat and stalked out of the room.

"Rovr?" The little droid asked, worried as the door slid shut behind Viran.

"What happened?" Dravis asked, confused once Viran was out of the room.

"Rovr," ROVR said gesturing to the datapad on the floor.

Dravis got up and came over to investigate the datapad in question. He picked up and read through it silently for a moment. He then frowned. "Oh…"

Viran walked down the corridors heading for the brig at a fast pace. His strides were long as moved down the hall with apurpose. Viran noticed people move out of his way or give him a wide berth and he realized he must have had a furious expression on his face as he made his way forward with no intentions of stopping. When he got to the lift, he rode it down as he clenched and unclenched his fists, contemplating if he was going to deck Selina across the face or not. She was the one responsible for what happened on Myrkr. She was the one who put the bounty on Sasha. And she was the reason that Sasha and Oppie almost died that day. The image of Sasha's limp form lying on the ground in that temple and the wretched state Oppie was in flashed into his mind at that moment. And the thought of all of that made him more angry than he could ever remember being. In fact, he was so furious with her that the thought of launching her out of the airlock after giving her a beating sounded… nice. But he knew that was wrong and he knew that they needed her. She still hadn't told anyone why she went after Cien or where Cien was or if she was even still alive. She just continued to respond that she would only speak to Kyr. Well, at the moment, Viran was determined to make her talk to him because he needed answers. More for why she went after his wife and brother like that. But they all needed answers and someone had to be the one to get them.

Taking a deep breath to calm his boiling emotions, he looked at the monitor on the wall that showed each floor he passed on his way down. The lift soon opened at the brig level. He stalked down the corridor and entered the brig, stepping past the security desk and into the cells. Viran could clearly see the two Marines that were posted on guard duty. They both looked over at him as he made his way over to them. He came to a halt before the two Marines.

"I'm here to speak with the prisoner," he said evenly as he was still trying to calm himself down. He probably sounded venomous as he said those words and they looked at him with a hint of uneasiness in their eyes.

They both nodded. "We will be right out here, sir," one of them said as she turned and opened the cell.

Inside, Viran could see Selina still sitting on the bench on the other side of the ray shield. He stepped down into the cell and stood before the shield, folding his arms across his chest in the process. She was sitting there, her hands in her lap, staring at the floor distantly a meter or so in front of the bench. Then the door slid closed and they were alone.

"They treating you well in here?" Viran asked, rather calmly.

"Yes." Selina replied even more distantly than her stare would imply. She shook her head slightly in surprised shock and looked up at him, then glanced around the space as if looking for someone before her gaze settled uneasily on him.

Viran kept his gaze on her, but he noted her looking around. "That's good. You know I found your data pads. The ones that were in your office. Do you want to know what I found on those pads?"

She looked at him in anger as her eyes darted around the space. She set her jaw and looked down at her hands clasped in her lap.

"I found a conversation between you and Von Signa," Viran said in a deathly calm tone. "You placed the bounty on Sasha. You're the reason she almost died on that wretched planet. So it's so great to hear you're comfortable," he said sarcastically, "because you don't deserve the treatment you are getting right now." He tried not to growl.

Selina glanced up at him, absolute hatred in her eyes as she regarded him for a split second and looked back down at her hands, taking deep, fuming breaths.

"What? You've got nothing to say?" Viran asked, almost irritatedly. "Are you still being stubborn?"

She took a deep fuming breath as she flexed her hands into fists, but she stayed silent.

Viran leaned forward and looked her in the eyes. "Do you understand what you have to done to my family? The suffering you caused my wife and brother? They were hunted like animals, just like what you wanted. They were injured and sick when we found them. They suffered so much on that planet, physically and mentally. You nearly broke them," he seethed. "But they are still here and fighting. Your plan didn't work. But you will still pay for what you have done to them. I'll make sure of it."

"Pay for what I've done?" She said, looking up at him, her voice dripping with hatred. "Pay for what I've done? Do you have any idea what she did to me?" She nearly finished yelling, staring at Viran, hatred in her eyes.

"Sasha was only looking for her family and stopped your cartel along the way," Viran stated. "She didn't torture you-"

"I'm not talking about your idiotic childish wife." Selina said, standing up in a seething hatred. "I'm talking about her, that bitch Ci… Cien." She said as she stalked forward towards Viran from the other side of the ray shield. "You come in here lecturing me about suffering? I spent lifetimes trapped in that kriffing place, I- She, I," she said as she tried to form words, so incensed that spittle was flying as she stalked forward. "Lifetimes. The clock!" She yelled as she punched at the ray shield. "Do you have any idea how many minute years swept by how long I was held, until she came and killed me and then hunted me in that desert and then, and then! And then! Don't talk to me about suffering, you don't know the meaning of the word!" She yelled, "I…" she said, so incensed she could even form words as she slammed her fist into the ray shield.

Viran snarled at her. "If that happened to you, then can you explain what the hell is happening to my wife right now? Because you are the reason she is stuck in her head." He asked as he closed the distance to the ray shield and glared her down. "And don't you dare call her that again."

"Why would I know what the kriff is happening to her?" She yelled, slamming her fist into the ray shield again. "No, I..." She stopped, looking at Viran for a second, her eyes looking around and then settling on him as if she realized something. "Wait, if I tell you would you end this? You want to, I know you do. I'll tell you. Please. If you promise." She said, begging. "Before she comes back? Yes?"

VIran looked at her genuinely confused. "What are you talking about? Tell me what is happening to Sasha and then I'll consider, but you will really have to convince me," he said sternly.

"I promise." She said, quickly. "I promise, I'll tell you whatever you want if you promise. Please." She asked, her eyes glancing behind him as if someone might come in the cell at any second.

Viran furrowed his brow. "Alright. That includes everything about Cien too. I'm listening," he said with a nod. He was uncertain if he could trust whatever she was about to say, but he needed to know about Sasha and Cien.

"You promise?" She asked feverishly. "You'll end thi-" She stopped mid-sentence and looked at the corner behind Viran as she recoiled, and absolute terror washed over her face. "No, nothing." She said, "No! No no no, I- I didn't say anything, no!" She said as she stumbled back and fell onto the bench, still trying to crawl away as she stared in mounting horror as if someone walked into her cell. "I swear I didn't- Please! No! NO!" She yelled, and she screamed in pain and terror, as if she was being drowned in acid as she clawed at her face.

"Selina! What the hell is happening?" Viran called out confused. "What's going on? Damn it! Talk to me!" Selina's only reply was to cease screaming, frozen in place as she sat, pushed as far into the corner of her bench as she could, her hands covering her face.

The door burst open as the marines rushed in.

"What's happening?" One of the marines asked, confused.

"I'm not sure," Viran answered before looking back at Selina. She was so close to telling him the truth. "Selina? What's going on?"

Selina's hands slowly fell from her face as she regarded Viran, a look of confused annoyance on her face. "I need to talk to Kyr. I need to speak with him." She said as she composed herself, coming out of the corner of the bench to sit calmly on the edge as though it were a throne while she regarded him.

Viran stared at her in utter confusion before he snarled. "And as I told you before, not gonna happen. Enjoy your stay," he growled as he stormed from the cell. The marines following after him after a brief moment. Once in the corridor and the cell door closed, he turned to face the marines.

"What happened?" The same marine from before asked again.

"I'm not sure, but keep a close eye on her. Something isn't right," Viran said, biting at his lower lip. "And if you see her acting 'scared' let me know."

"Scared?" The other marine asked skeptically.

"Not like how we just left her," Viran tried to explain then groaned. "Never mind. Just keep an eye on her." He said as he headed for the lifts.

His mind was racing at what just happened. Viran had gone in there to rip her a new one after what she did to his family. But seeing her practically begging for help made him uneasy. He knew not to trust her or anything she had to say. He knew what she was capable of as she fooled Sasha and Cien back on Caranas. But something felt off in the Force. Like what he sensed the last time he was in her cell. This time, though, the Force was telling him to listen to that feeling and he didn't know why.

The whole conversation swirled through his mind as he ascended to the higher levels. According to everyone who tried to interrogate her, she would either be evasive or she would just keep asking for Kyr. They never got her to say more than that. So the fact that she approached him and begged him for his help, the fact that she actually spoke to him at all caught him off guard. He hadn't expected it. But it did teach him something that he was sure the other interrogators didn't pick up on. Something was going on with her, something connected to the Force. It was the reason Sasha was stuck in the mindspace and the reason that Selina was acting… stranger than what his wife had told him she was like. The fact she switched personalities at the drop of a hat. Or was this what Selina always is? Was she always this crazed psychopath with multiple personalities? None of them knew her well enough to even know that answer. But Viran knew the Force well enough to know that whatever was going on there was a connection to her and it. Just what even is the connection? He pondered.

Slamming his fist into the wall of the lift, Viran mentally cursed. He really wished Sasha or Cien or both of them were here to help discern what was going on with Selina. Hell, he wished he brought Oppie with him to help him figure it out. Because if they couldn't reach Sasha then there had to be a chance that they could look into whatever was happening to Selina. He made the mental note to talk to Oppie about that in the morning after some much needed rest, but he wasn't sure if he would be able to sleep tonight after all of this. Either way, Viran felt useless right now.

Viran shook, feeling frustrated tears sting his eyes as that thought dawned on him. This was such a pain. Since he was little, he wished he had a stronger connection to the Force, like Sasha, but he was just happy to have it at all. And it had actually felt like it had gotten stronger over the years, especially since he has been married to Sasha. But right now he was envious of her and Cien, and how close they were with the Force. If he had their abilities, he would be able to handle Selina on his own. He would be able to get answers out of her.

But he had more of a breakthrough than the others did with her.

Maybe once they were both back safe he would ask them to train him to become a stronger Force user.

For now, though, he has to focus on one problem at a time, and that problem was whatever was going on with Selina. He was going to do everything he could to unravel that mystery and he knew exactly where to start. He would just need that scared version of Selina to return, but he was unsure of when or if she would ever come back.

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