Revenge (prelude)

[Jorshal Vuntana]

Jorshal stared at the cleared desktop that used to be his masters. He had every important file saved on a hard disk and nearly every unimportant item placed in a box and given to Nadja, his lover. She stood in the room with him, not saying a word but Jorshal knew she was watching his thoughts. She was a powerful telepath, a Dark Jedi and not a Sith. Jorshal normally wouldn't trust her, but Southstar did and that was good enough for him.

"Do you miss him?" She asked but knew what he'd say.

"I do." He responded monotonously. "But..."

"You're excited to be given an oppertunity." She said. There was no use trying to hide it from her. Nadja excelled at telepathy and he was horrible. "An oppertunity to prove yourself in the wake of his death." She placed her hand on his shoulder. "Prove yourself in revenge."

"I will have it." He said and looked at her. "Mark my words. I will have revenge." Jorshal walked to the desk, Nadja's hand slipping off his shoulder. He slid the cylindrical disk into the console. "I barely know the Jedi Enith, but Rayna..."

"Forget her. She used you and killed Southstar. She must-"

"Suffer. I know." Jorshal's eyes glazed over as he daydreamt of what he was going to do to her. His eyes narrowed on the screen again. The video was choppy but he could clearly make out the man with the single blaster firing at his master's head.

Nadja watched the video herself. She had edited it so that her shots were invisible. She couldn't help but notice Southstar's body being pushed along, the impact of the shots couldn't be erased. It seemed apparent to her, but she was confident that Jorshal was foolish enough to miss it. "Watching this again and again isn't going to help. You know it's Xau there. I saw it and now you've seen it for the fifteenth time."

"I know but I can't believe he would betray the Sith. He was practically one of us. He was my friend." Jorshal thought about the shared times the young men shared on both Korriban and Corellia, even Coruscant. All their mild adventures flooded his mind.

"It's like he betrayed you." Nadja said and flipped off the screen. "He did. He betrayed your friendship and your trust."

"I'm going to kill him with my hands." Jorshal said as he plotted the murder of Xau Ghin in his mind. It was a habit of his to work out every detail of a murder in his mind and make sure it happened exactly as he dreamt. Southstar never approved of it, he called it counting his birds before they hatched.

"He's not here." She whispered. "Indulge yourself." she added telepathically. She was standing right in front of Jorshal now, her hand had returned to his shoulder. "And then the Jedi Enith..." She whispered again.

"In front of Rayna." Jorshal added quietly.

"They love each other. The two Jedi." Nadja lied. "It will kill her inside to see her lover killed so painfully."

In Jorshal's mind he knew love was forbidden between Jedi, but Nadja was there. He trusted her like Southstar did. He thought about Rayna's death. The last of his masters killers torn apart piece by piece. "I will kill two Jedi..." He knew that was grounds for promotion.

Nadja neared closer to him. "You'll take every title and priviledge your master had, once you are knighted." She reminded him. "You can start where he left off and who knows what you will achieve. All the power and glory..." To Nadja, Jorshal was so simple to understand. He wanted fame and glory and would stop at nothing to achieve it. This was Jorshal's big oppertunity and he knew it.

"I will finally be great." He said and locked eyes with her. He breathed in her perfume and became dizzy with a facination for himself and his glory. "And you be there to help me."

"I always will." She whispered and leaned towards his face.

Jorshal kissed her passionatly and held her shoulders. He had everything his master did and was only beginning. It was finally his time to take control of fate and take everything he wanted.

[Jorshal Vuntana]

Jorshal sat in the chair that had been his masters and stared at the datapads before him. On paper was a list of three people, two of them Jedi, one a traitor. Then there were a few dozen guards of which Jorshal wanted to make miserable.

He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, he couldn't think straight. It had only been days since his master had died and now his lover had become Jorshal's. It felt wrong but she had been so supportive of him. Apparently she didn't have a problem with any of it, neither should he.

He pushed everything to the back of his mind and focus on one of the datapads. More confusion and angry thoughts entered his mind as he stared at the name Xau Ghin. He was the traitor in this case, but it seemed so unlike him. Jorshal had known the man for some time, he even considered him a friend. Xau would be the first to go, he'd be the easiest to get. Jorshal knew that Xau was foolish enough to assume he might escape his fate. On the other hand, he knew that Rayna was expecting Jorshal to attempt his revenge. She would be the most difficult to handle. He had a slight advantage over her in that they had trained, amongst other things, together and he knew her well. On the opposite side of the coin, she knew him just as well. Perhaps better than he knew her. Rayna had spent some time as a Jedi infiltrator within the Sith complex on Korriban and the whole time she had maintained a facade. Perhaps Jorshal didn't know her personality as well as believed, but he knew her skills all to well. It wasn't the physical combat he feared, he could finish her easily in a lightsaber duel. It was the other Force tricks he was worried about.

Jorshal knew he had a lot to learn when it came to combat but he was already at high level knight standing; He could compete with the best the Sith Order had to offer. Should his opponent choose to toss a telekinesis blast at him or even a psychological attack, Jorshal was at a sharp disadvantage. Southstar had taught him quite a bit in the ways of telekinesis, Jorshal could wrap his mind around it, but he was never comfortable with it. He could barely fight and use telekinesis at the same time. Psychological attacks were a joke.

None of that mattered.

The one thing that made Jorshal as full of a Sith as the rest of them was his undying anger. He closed his eyes and regulated his heavy breathing, dwelling in his anger and hatred. Revenge was not the sort of thing one embarked on spontanously or took lightly, that was a general rule. Jorshal's own rule was that revenge was to be pure. The seeker to be filled with pure hatred for his enemy. His revenge exacted with pure passion. He had only seeked revenge once before in his life, he had found it to be very fufilling. The jungle of conflicting thoughts, doubts and confusion that ruled his mind were soon to be settled. He took in a strong breath of air. Exhaled. He would attain his revenge or suffer the fate of master.

[Jorshal Vuntana]

Days had past and Jorshal had stumbled around looking for a start. His progress was slowed by a myriad of duties that he had to pick up caused by the departure of his master. Nothing too difficult, or significant. Just errands to suck up his time and distract him. Nadja was helping him as well from within her ship, parking inside the bay beneath the complex.

Walking through to tunnel leading to it he couldn't understand why she wouldn't simply stay with him. Only a few days ago they had been perfectly open and comfortable with each other.

Erase the thought or she'll know. He reminded himself and drafted his attention to the ship before him. The ramp lowered and clanged gently with the durasteel floor.

"It's nothing personal, Jor, work just requires my full attention." She said from the doorway.

"If I have something I want you to hear, I'll say it." He snapped back.

"Bad day?" She smiled.

"Sorry, I'm-"

"Just frustrated." She finished for him and sat down in front of the holo projectors. "See something you like?"

His scowl faded as he focused on the display. "Finally." He breathed. He bit his lip and hid his excitement. "Tonight. We'll get him before dawn."

"You're rushing into this. Just calm down, you need to play this like a game of strategy." Nadja lectured him. "He knows you want his hide, he scared. Let him and soon he'll slip up once his safety seems sure. Then you get him, at his weakness." She met his eye, he wasn't convinced.

"You underestimate my power." He stated through gritted teeth.

"I know your power." She assured. "But a blitzkrieg assult is not always the solution. Xau will be easy, but the Jedi know your tactics. You're going to give yourself away."

"Who cares!" He screamed and threw his hand through the air. "I can power through them like every other Jedi I've met."

"You've fought two and only defeated one, an apprentice. Even then he still lived. You need-"

"Do NOT lecture me on my failures!"

She exhaled quietly and sent a telepathic aura of soothingness about. "Relax. You know you're pushing this too far. Southstar would agree."

"Don't-"

"We'll move tommorrow, after we formulate a plan. No lightning stikes in chaos."