House Troubles (Ongoing Story)

Ragious arrived on Nar Shaddaa and began to check the usual places. He knew that Jocelyn and Khor had purchased property there, not far from where Aittera's had been. Checking there first, he found no trace of anything related to those he sought. Reaching out with the force, he searched next for Shara, Kiabe's personal attendant. Having claimed her for a night, as payment when Kiabe had angered him in the past, he merely recalled the memory of how she felt in the force, and sought that out.

His search led him to a brothel in the Red Light District - one of the seedier places run by a vicious-looking zabrak named Bajunta. Half of the girls in the barely hospitable parlor where customers pick out their 'company' for the evening were wearing slave collars, and most looked like they were strung out on spice. Bajunta seemed to do plenty of business, however, and he had a considerable amount of guards stationed around the establishment.

Ragious had dressed for Nar Shaddaa, wearing simple black clothing. But with the ornate lightsaber on his belt, and the way he moved as he entered, like the world should move around him, it would be impossible for him to hide the fact that he was a Sith. He commanded the force, and that command was what was guiding him, his eyes scanning each face, as he narrowed in on his target.

Shara was in a corner of the parlor, pressing herself into a space between the wall and a couch, trying to avoid being picked. There was a slave collar around her neck, and she was topless like most of the other girls, wearing a simple pair of panties that did nothing to cover what was beneath them. She was thinner than he remembered her, and there were dark bags under her eyes from a lack of proper sleep.

She was trying so hard not to be seen that most of the girls around her had noticed the tall, handsome Sith before she did. Customers this clean and good-looking were rare, and that made him something of a target for the hookers. He looked well-off enough that he'd likely tip well too which meant more spice for them.

A too-skinny lethan twi'lek with a deep scar running the length of one lek approached him first, offering him a good time. Others began to join her, all flirting, making promises of a good time or a night that he wouldn't forget. The sheer amount of attention overrode Shara's self-preserving efforts to remain unseen, and she felt the tug of his eyes when he looked her way.

Fear sliced through her, and she looked around wildly for an escape route.

Ragious had no time for the whores that surrounded him. He was after answers, and while he had no doubts that these girls would take to his victimization in any way he liked, his eyes were only for Shara.

He pushed the others away with a display of the force, and reached out with a hand to keep the girl in place. "My name is Darth Ragious, of House Arren and House Eirndeth. This slave is the property of my house. The owner of this establishment has exactly five minutes to remove this slave's collar, or he will be forfeiting every slave in this building as payment for interfering with my property."

Bajunta stepped into the parlor a moment later, flanked by two huge Gamorean guards with blaster rifles drawn and aimed at the source of the disturbance. Bajunta himself was on the down side of middle age, and years of living amid the vices of the Smuggler's Moon showed in the hollows around his clever gray eyes and the girth of his belt.

One look at Ragious and the lightsaber hilt on his belt was enough to bring him to the conclusion that the last thing he wanted to do was anger the Sith. "Uh...welcome, my lord. Is there some problem here? I have better girls, cleaner!"

"Three minutes. I do not want any other girls. I want MY property. Do I need to execute a few of your guards to make my statement, or are you going to remove that collar?"

"Your property? Why...I'm sorry. There must be some mistake. This girl has been my property for the past two years!" he declared loudly, looking around at the other patrons and whores nervously.

Shara, in the meantime, was staring at Ragious like a rat caught in a maze. She knew running was no use, because even if Ragious did not catch her up by her throat with the Force, the slave collar around her neck would be activated if she crossed the brothel's threshold. It was clear she was terrified, but it was also just as clear she'd been traumatized.

At the lie Ragious' hands immediately shot up, both of the Gamorreans flanking the Zabrak dropped their weapons as their hands moved to their throats, their mouths, unable to form basic were making horrible squealing noises as Ragious choked them to death. "One minute. Lie to me again, and I will kill every male in this room."

The zabrak jumped as his two most formidable guards were dropped at his sides, and he raised his hands. "Right away, my lord! Take her! Take them all!"

He took a device from his pocket and threw it to Ragious, using the moment it took Ragious's attention to catch it to flee back out of the parlor.

Ragious stepped over to Shara, using the device to deactivate her collar. "Stay here. You are coming home with me, but first I must attend to the rest of my new slaves."

Taking out his holo, he contacted the Avenger and ordered several shuttles be brought down, ordering them to land directly in the street and to load all of the slaves in the brothel onto them, giving orders that when every female was taken, every remaining male was to be executed. He gave additional orders that a contest was to be held among his soldiers, that the one that hunted down and delivered Bajunta's head to him was to be rewarded greatly.

Shara dropped to her knees at Ragious' feet once he removed her collar, and she waited obediently while he made this call. There was no use running now, so she awaited her execution, crying in fear and even relief now that the ordeal was over.

With his orders given, he returned to Shara and leaned down, taking her hand in his raised her up to standing. "I do not know what was done to you here, but that man that put that collar on you will be dead before the end of the day. You will be returning to House Eirndeth and from now on you serve me. If my wife can not keep her beautiful servants properly protected, then she should not have them."

He offered the girl a smile as he looked outside to see his shuttles landing. Ordering one of his commanders to remove his jacket as he walked in and saluted him, he put it around Shara's shoulders, it offering her cover as he walked her out to the shuttle.

Shara smiled back weakly, nodding when told that she will serve him. She tugged the jacket closed around her, shielding her exposed breasts from view. Grateful that it hung down to her thighs, she felt a little less vulnerable, and leaned against Ragious's side as he walked her to the shuttle, tears still streaming down her cheeks.

Once they were aboard the shuttle, Ragious gave orders for it to return him to the Avenger, and then to go back for the remaining slaves. Seating Shara in one of the shuttles more comfortable chairs, he took one across from her, "I need you to tell me what you know of where Kiabe is."

Shara's eyes widened in fear again, and when she spoke, her voice was strained, timid. "She didn't come back, my lord. I waited, I swear, but she didn't come back. I don't know where she went."

He held his hands up in a non threatening way, "It's alright Shara, you have no need to fear me." He dropped the hands and reached out for hers again, closing one around her much smaller hand, "My wife is ever beholden only to herself. It is not your fault that she abandoned you. Had I known sooner, I would have retrieved you myself long before now."

Her hands were trembling as his closed around them. "Sh-she didn't abandon me!" she insisted, defending her mistress. "She was angry with me, but she would never abandon me."

"Why was Kiabe angry with you, Shara?" He continued to talk to her calmly, even as she had her outburst, part of him appreciating her quick defense of his wife.

"I don't know. Sh-she never said those things to me before, so I knew I must have done something wrong." Shara began to sob, and she slipped from the seat to kneel at his feet, throwing her face in his lap.

Ragious moved his hand to her back, slowly stroking it across the jacket to comfort her, "It's okay, Shara. Please tell me, what things did she say?"

"She said I was filthy and that I was scum. She locked me in my room, and she said I could die for all she cared." She lifted her head to look up at him, shaking her head. "It wasn't her! Or...or I did something really bad. She never looked at me like that before! She loved me, and I loved her! She would never say those things!"

"My wife would never speak like that. Regardless of what you did, those are not words she would use. If she felt that way, she would have just executed you." Ragious speaks with certainty. "So either you are misremembering her words, or it wasn't her speaking them."

"I'm not misremembering! Everything she said was like a knife to my chest! I wanted to die!"

"Then it wasn't her speaking them. It is as simple as that."

Validated in her own beliefs, she laid her head in his lap again, sobbing relief as she hugged herself to his legs.

Ragious continued to console her, "Did you notice anyone strange around my wife just before this? Was my sister around?"

Shara lifted her head to shake it. "No, my lord. Four days after she locked me in my room, the door opened, and I thought it was my Mistress, but there was no one there. I don't know why I did it, but I fled. I was so scared, I just -knew- I had to run and never look back. I didn't know where to go, though, and a few days later, that...that Bajunta's man...he..."

Ragious spent the rest of the short journey to the Avenger comforting the girl and walked her to the medbay personally once he assured her that he would find Kiabe.