The droid chose that moment to chime in, the combination of whistles and beeps making it clear that it considered Nestor one of the good ones. Worrying implications of the droid's choice of words aside, it was clear what needed to be done.
...
Together, the three of them headed towards the clump of anger and resentment that made up Nestor's web of allies. It took a few moments to separate the amalgamation into its component pieces, but it was a decent exercise nevertheless.
The discomfort came from Levin, that unusually sensitive one. Not in the usual sense, but in that he had a gift for picking through minds. Consciously and not. Still, that constant influx of irritating thoughts from those less skilled at keeping their minds closed made for a readily accessible source of irritation and anger, and thus power.
Bybon, the astoundingly large one, was also irritated. It was impossible to tell without prying deeper, but it made it easy to distinguish his presence of Levin.
The short Sith's presence was one of smug humor, which immediately set Lia on edge. She knew the apprentice had been responsible for putting Nestor in his current situation. Had her implications been true? Or had she simply been entertaining herself? Or, perhaps worst of all, did she believe she had actually done something good?
Lia decided she would wait and let time tell.
The final apprentice, Loa, had hidden herself so well that Lia could not even distinguish her in Force from the lead apprentice, at least not until she was right outside a small hunting lodge-styled building in the middle of the Thul Estate. A dangerous one. If it came down to it, she would have to die first.
And not just because of her name. Lia was a Jedi, and above such petty things.
Their little group did not bother knocking before barging in.
The Sith were not surprised. They had felt them coming, as was to be expected.
"So, the Jedi join us at last," Natia commented. Draped over a leather couch, she struck an odd contrast with her surroundings. While the quarters were richly appointed and decorated with so much polished wood and gold filigree to verge on the gaudy, she still wore that armored red bodysuit.
Truth be told, it made her look more like an exotic dancer than anything.
"The Jedi have good news at last," Lia shot back without hesitation.
"How good?" asked Bybon. He, too, looked more than a little bored. Unlike Natia, he appeared to have turned to raiding their host's wine cellar for diversion. Repeatedly. Note to self: don't try poison; he appeared to have acquired quite a tolerance. "Don't tell me you managed to find Lord Nefarid?"
"Please tell me you didn't find Lord Nefarid," Loa asked, a note of dread in her voice. Unlike her companions, she was busy carving a groove in the excessively deep carpet with her pacing.
"Is that fear I hear?" Natia asked, craning her neck to look at her friend with a smug look on her face.
"You really should not be that smug," she warned. "Not after you served Nestor on a silver platter to House Thul. For no real gain, at that. We've already let him down once. You think he'll be merciful twice?"
"I think he'll be merciful until someone takes that head off his shoulders," Bybon muttered.
"Oh no, I arranged for a man to be alone with a room full of young women," Natia deadpanned. "And I would not call a trio of modern cruisers as 'no real gain,' Loa."
"I take it you were not aware that Nestor showed uncharacteristic reluctance to fulfill his end of the bargain you forced on him?" Lia chose that moment to join in on that particular topic. Fun as it was to watch the Sith Apprentices to be at each others' throats, she could always make it worse for them.
"Nestor? Reluctant?" Natia asked, suddenly sitting up. For a brief moment, Lia got a flash of concern from the young Sith before it was smothered. "The man who charged into not one, but two ambushes? You're making that up."
She glared at Lia as if to punctuate her statement.
"Am I?" she met the glare with one of her own.
It was then that a steady stream of gibberish reached Lia's mind. A stream of gibberish that seemed to be tinged with triumph. At least, she thought it was triumph. The words might have been gibberish, but the sensation was unmistakable. And then the gibberish grew louder with every passing second.
Nestor was coming.
"Oh no." Levin appeared to have gotten the same message. He reached the flagon that Bybon had filled and began to help himself.
"I think Nestor just finished," Lia announced. Someone in the room failed to contain a snigger. The droid didn't even try, loudly hooting and whistling. "He should be here in a few minutes."
"I think he's quieter than before," Natia commented.
"You don't get to take credit for that!" Levin snapped.
"Too late."
"Should I start the briefing now?" the other Jedi asked. He looked more than a little uncomfortable after being faced with the almost hostile environment between the Sith Apprentices. Perhaps he wanted to stick to professional topics to keep them focused?
A waste of time, that. Best to keep them divided. It made Lia's job a lot easier.
She shook her head mutely,
After a bit more bickering, Nestor returned to the group, but he did not return alone. The galaxy's most tabloid-feeding Sith brought with him two things: first was a sense of personal victory that his mind shouted to the galaxy without so much as a care.
The second was a child.
Well, a teenager. Not quite an adult, thus a child. One who was short and dressed in the mildly ostentatious fashions emblazoned with Thul iconography of a noble of that same house. Dark hair, fair skin, and pale eyes combined in a way that made her seem meek and furtive. Or it would have, were it not for the liveliness hidden in those eyes. All in all, Lia wondered what possible use Nestor could have had for her.
"Nestor, I don't think you're beating the allegations," Natia said dryly. And illogically. There were no allegations about Nestor and children.
Despite this, the Sith Lord's head whipped around to focus on the apprentice. "Elaborate," he ordered.
In response, Natia simply gestured vaguely in Lia's direction. Rather rude, that. Sure, the child was short and bore a passing resemblance to her, but that hardly…
Oh, she got it now.
Oh, this was hilarious.
"I would have thought you'd go for an older woman," Lia said tartly, playing along.
"Or a smaller woman," Bybon added. Entirely unfairly, mind you. This new girl was only very slightly taller, and just a bit… taller.
"Minds out of the gutter, degenerates," Nestor announced, his voice as confident as ever. He wasn't going to react, was he? How disappointing. "This is Razma. My apprentice."
Excuse me, what?
"An apprentice?" she asked. "You?"
"Lady Thul asked me to produce some Sith for her," he said, entirely too proud of himself. "And I will be producing Sith for her. Starting with Razma. Say hello, Razma."
"Hello!" The girl was cheerful enough, Lia was forced to admit. Probably far more cheerful than a future Sith had any right to be. It would be a shame to see the galaxy crush her spirit. Then again, maybe she would be an exception. Nestor, despite everything, seemed to have managed so far.
"Razma, these fine people are, for legal purposes, my apprentices," Nestor indicated to the other occupants of the room with a grandiose sweep of the hand. Oh, he was in a fine mood. Here she thought the bugs had made that impossible. Or maybe he had just found a medicine cabinet full of painkillers to swallow like candy.
"You have other apprentices?" the girl asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, but no," he said. "Like I said, it's for legal purposes. It keeps people from asking too many questions."
"And that works?"
"Welcome to being a Sith," he said, his tone more than a little bitter before turning to the assembled group. "I felt everyone gathering in one place. Did something happen?"
"We have a lead on Lord Nefarid," Lia revealed. On cue, the usual gibberish from Nestor's mind quieted minutely. A good sign, that; His mind usually got louder when he was feeling worse.
"What kind of lead?" he asked.
"Someone tried to take control of the Death Mark satellite," the other Jedi revealed. "We know the origin of the signal. If we move quickly, we might be able to catch them."
"Excuse me, but, what is the Death Mark?" the new apprentice asked, confusion writ clear on her face. Right. New member of Nestor's little venture. There was only so much he could have told her.
"Republic superweapon in orbit," Nestor said by way of explanation. "We need to catch the rogue Sith Lord who wants to capture it for his master."
"Then why didn't you just bomb him the moment you got his location?"
Oh, she was a clever one.
Oh, blast, she was a clever one.
...
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