Wait...there's one more, you say?

(( The following is converted from RP that took place on 5/1. My eternal gratitude to the player of Darth Ragious for helping me torment one of my most favorite characters in TOR. ))

Darth Ragious waited until it was early morning on Nar Shaddaa before settling into his secured private office aboard the shipyard where his new flagship and it's sister were currently being built.  He'd left orders with his adjutant that if he was disturbed by anything other than an all out assault on the shipyard that she would pay a heavy price.  

Entering a deep state of meditation, he began to project himself across the vastness of space, zeroing in on Aittera, still able to "feel" her through the Force. Even though the Twi'lek witch's meddling prevented him from hopping directly into her mind, he was able to make an image of himself appear in her room, clad in the simple black robes he had taken to wearing lately.  He knew she would be sleeping, so he settled in to watch her until she woke.

When she stirred on the sleeping pallet that was substituting for a bed until she furnished the little one bedroom apartment, it was with a weary groan as consciousness brought the reminder that functional alcoholism only went so far, and she had been drinking too much lately. The headache wasn't as bad as it could be, though, and she pulled herself up into a sitting position to look around the empty room, carefully stretching. 

When she saw the projection of the man who'd held her captive and continued to pursue her after her rescue, she drew the light blanket pooled in her lap up toward her stomach. She wasn't nude, of course, but the light shirt and panties she slept in suddenly felt woefully lacking, considering the unwelcome visitor's piercing gaze. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Waiting for you to awaken so that we could have a conversation.  I would have holo'd, but I had a feeling you would ignore the call."  

Ragious gave her a smile as the image of him leaned forward in the projection of a chair. "You've met my son, and he did something rather interesting, did he not?  He offered you a chance to end the hostilities between us, and to keep both you and your Cathar alive."

Aittera narrowed her gaze at the ghostly vision. "And?"

"I'm here to make you a far better and more direct offer than Khor ever could."

A bitter laugh erupted from the redhead, her response drenched in sarcasm. "Because I can trust you more than I can trust him."

"This isn't about trust.  This is about both of us getting something we desire."

"What makes you think you know what I desire?"

"I think you and I both know the other more than either of us wants to admit, Aittera."

Her fists clenched the material of the blanket with a rush of anger that was reflected in her gaze. If he started in on that crud he'd tried to put in her head a few months earlier, she might just put a blaster bolt into her temple. "Say what you came to say, then go."

"I have no desire to continue to fight with you.  I have no plans to escalate our conflict further.  Believe what you will, but I know when enough is enough.  You and I will fight this until we burn everything we hold dear if we continue down this path, and that is something I have no desire to force you to do.  The truth is, I wanted you, I desired you when I saw you, and I overreached. I had someone that was able to resist my power for the first time in I can't even remember, and that alone makes you someone I want to preserve."

"So, that's it? I'm supposed to believe that your son is a reasonable peaceful being and you have suddenly changed?" If this was supposed to be as convincing as Khor'deth's performance, it was falling much father short for the redhead.

"I have recently learned something that has caused me to rethink things, Aittera."

"What's that?"

"That someone I thought dead and lost to me was alive. It has made me look at my past mistakes with new eyes."

It was an answer she wasn't prepared for, and a recent conversation with Jean Schramme about second chances came to mind. "What the hell is in the water you Sith are drinking lately?"

"I want you to understand, I am a patriot, Aittera.  I won't stop fighting my Empire's war against the Republic, because I understand that it is a war for the very survival of my species. This offer I am about to make, I want to stay between us.  I would prefer you cloak it in something else when you tell your Cathar about my visit, but I understand if you have no desire to lie to him."

Aittera rubbed her eyes as a heavy sigh left her. Could this whole situation get anymore unreal? "Wouldn't be the first secret I'd be keeping from him these days, I guess." 

"I will limit my engagements to military targets only, unless a group of civilians decides to attack me in which I will take measured actions against only those responsible whenever possible.  I will take the dirty out of my fighting.  In exchange, I expect you to cease attacking my ships, and I have a job I want to hire you for."

Apparently, unreal was just beginning, and she furrowed her brow as she looked back to the image's face. "I don't work for Sith."

"But you do work against them, do you not?"

"Whenever I get the chance."

"Then consider this a chance.  I simply wish you to find out why Jheryth Chrystopher has renewed his interest in me and my pet.  I thought the matter settled years ago, but apparently I should have beheaded him then."

Aittera cursed. "Is there some reason the two of you are so intent on trying to drag me into things between you like this? Is this how things started with Renn'a?"

"I don't want to put you in the middle, I just want information.  And would you not fight if someone tried to take Selus from you?"  As if to drive home the point, he used the Cathar's name for the first time when referring to him. 

"Selus isn't a slave or a toy. Your comparison is an insult."

"Renn'a isn't either of those things.  That may be the twisted impression that he has decided to portray her as, but she knows exactly how much she means to me."

"Yeah, well...I'm sure you have a lovely relationship, but I won't put an innoc--" She bit the word off with a grimace, chiding herself for not being more careful. Under better circumstances, Aittera would never have let her tongue get so far ahead of her thoughts that she'd even let such volatile intel as Will'a's existence enter her mind. 

She'd been trained in ways to conceal her thoughts from Force users in her SIS days, and yet, she wasn't employing a single tactic she'd learned. Hell, part of her was ready to buy the utter crap he was peddling. Let them all go kill each other and leave her and her hangover alone. "No deal."

"You think Jheryth is innocent?  Really I thought you knew better."

"I think you'd both burn the universe down for your own interests and to hell with the rest of us who might get caught in the blaze."

"Aittera, what do you need me to do to show you that I can be trusted not to misuse what you tell me.  I only wish to know why after years of staying off my radar he tried to hire pirates of all people to take me on.  I could have easily swept them aside, one of them even owed me their life, why would he out of the blue do that?  If you want an example of people potentially caught in the blaze, it is he who is dragging others in."

"Then, why don't you ask your wife!" she growled back through gritted teeth. Screw it. If she'd already flubbed by nearly mentioning what she knew, she might as well make it count for something. Hopefully, Ragious and Kiabe would start fighting, and somehow, Jheryth could use the distraction to kill at least one of them. Hell, if all three of them killed each other, at least they would stop visiting her dreams and bedroom and brain and...damn, she needed a drink.

He seemed to find meaning in her words, whether that was her intent or not, and nodded. "I will, thank you Aittera."  

The apparition stood, and the chair it had been sitting in dissipated into nothingness. "Are the other terms of my offer agreeable?"

She glared at the apparition. "If you touch one civilian without provocation, I will make it my life's work not just to stop you, but to kill every damn person you ever even looked at longingly."

Ragious bowed to her and disappeared.

Aittera fell back onto her pillow to glare up at the ceiling, retreating into her natural state of dark sarcasm. "I think I liked it better when he was mucking around in my head."