[center]~|Day 1, 20:33-21:00 GST|~
~|Aboard the Kaggath, Torture room|~[/center]

Ven'ren was a little surprised at being met politely. As he was that no one had yet to attempt to strangle him. Perhaps they had a better plan. Perhaps they just were not that angry? He did not mention it until they had walked out of the main room and he made sure the prisoners hands were tied behind his back, where he seemed to want to have them anyway. It was only a very basic safety, Jedi could think of doing all kinds of things without hands, but it would at least buy Ven some time if the prisoner decided to fight. Not that he had given Ven that impression.

He turned to the Jedi first when they had walked for a moment.
“You are very kind to come.” He said with his strange hoarse voice. “Say, don't you hate us?”

Alat’s sightless eyes fell on Ven’ren. “Hatred is useless. The Rancor does not hate it’s meal. It simply consumes it and moves on” Alat kept pace with Ven’ren calmly. “Besides, isn’t hatred what the Sith do? I’ve never found a use for the emotion personally. Not that I have too much of a feeling towards the Jedi’s ramblings about serenity and controlling your emotions. I find it's far simpler to just not have any.” 

Ven'ren snorted.

“That's arrogance if I've ever heard it! But well then, you do that. I remember that a Jedi’s emotions should be controlled, not deadened. Uncontrolled makes one a Sith and deadened makes one a sociopath. Neither are very good Jedi. But what do I know?” He chuckled. “What about compassion? For your captured friends? None of that? You compare yourself to an eating Rancor, so no hatred, but what about the thrill of the hunt? Do you take joy in killing your prey as they would?” 

Alat looked at him. “Joy? No. Pleasure.” The jedi continued to walk pondering the statement. “Yes but it’s more a fulfillment of purpose more than anything else. Sort of like when a starship mechanic does a good job at fixing a hyperdrive. Its all about the context.” 

Alat chuckled “Yes, I guess it does make one sociopathic. Although it does certainly lend itself to a form of lethal efficiency for my purpose. As far as my friends are concerned I guess I feel compassion for them. Losing Xid or the others would certainly make life less interesting but it would also be a pain to find others to replace them further along the line.” 

Alat looked at Ven’ren again. “And what greater purpose drives you? Or are you just in it for inflicting pain like that piece of Trandoshan garbage that passes itself off as a sentient.” Alat shook his head “Distasteful, a rabid predator in my opinion. Its sort of like letting an untrained animal run loose in your home. Unless of course it’s simply Nyiss having some fun.”

“Ha! So no longer a feeding Rancor. Here I was getting worried you were going to fall off your moral highground.”

Ven led the jedi to one of the interrogation rooms, but stopped just outside, wanting to keep the conversation on this more pleasant level for a while longer. He did not spend a long time pondering the question, and lowered his voice once talking about himself. It was a habit, for places where he knew he was recorded.

“I survive.” He said simply. “I have survived for a while now.” But then he did stop to think of the question, of revenge. Things had been quiet now since they had left the planet, but he could feel hatred crawling up in him again now. The stench of sith surrounding him. The oppressing presence of the jedi. The one jedi with him was so calm he could not yet muster more than mild dislike for him, but that only meant the distaste grew more slowly.

“At least you are honest.” He hissed. “At least you tell me you would take pleasure in hunting me down and killing me. So we know where we have eachother. And no, I do not take pleasure in pointless suffering. Still, with what I believe to be my master's definition of 'introduction', I don't think I can get out of this without hurting you a little.” He grinned behind his mask. “So sorry,” He said, opening the door now and leading the jedi inside.

Alat’s cold glare through the mask was undeniable even behind the opaque composite that made up the goggles. “I never said I would take pleasure in hunting YOU down and killing you. I said I take pleasure in my purpose much the way I assume a light saber would take pleasure in slicing things to pieces if it had such a sentience.” Alat shook his head “Leaping to conclusions will land you no where good.” He remained standing at the doorway looking into the room. More firm securement would render his plan ineffective. It had to be soon. The question was did he need the Darth alone. Or was this one ambitious enough. “I feel that hate. This isn’t just survival for you. What are you hanging onto by your fingernails?” Alat tilted his head. No use not taking chances. He stepped into the room.

The movement was swift snapping the bonds with a flex and a blast of telekinetic energy. Alat lunged to secure Ven’ren’s dominant hand and his throat. Getting his weight under the human Alat lifted him from the ground, whispering as he dove in close: “Make it look convincing, make sure they loose the feed from the cameras and audio. If you don’t like my offer kill me. Otherwise hear me out.” With that Alat flung Ven’ren and sent his lightsaber skittering. 

“Oh truly?” Ven'ren said, a bit of surprise in his voice. “That is nice of you to say.” The Jedi's partial denial of wanting to kill him had made his anger subside a little, but not leaving any calm in its place. He did not have time to answer the next question. Time might not even have helped. The Jedi was right, of course. It was not only about survival. Many times, Ven'ren had not even cared all that much for his life. But what greater purpose did drive him, he wasn't sure. What are you holding on to by your fingernails, Ven'ren? What is still there, not already lost, that you can hold on to?

The confusion clouded his mind, and though he could hear the snap of the bonds, he did not react to it fast enough. A faint laughter escaped his throat as the Jedi lifted him up by it. And to think that, for a moment, he had thought that this one was not going to be interesting.
As he flew into the wall and got back on his feet, Ven'ren could hear himself laughing still, and he was pleased that in the end, he had use for the armour he'd been wearing during the entirety of the day. His immediate response was a force wave, strong enough to knock the Jedi back and, hopefully, though he didn't have time to check, damage the camera and audio equipment. He didn't want to destroy them, a broken camera was suspicious, not to mention alarming and he didn't want anyone to interrupt the interaction. A damaged camera could show bits and pieces of a scene. Hopefully, not enough to make out details but enough to make out the fight in general. And Ven didn't think anyone would bother showing up if he appeared to have the upper hand.

He reached out for his sabre which obediently returned to his hand and leapt towards the Jedi, not igniting the weapon but aiming to hit with the hilt.

“I am listening” he wheezed once he was close enough. Neither the hatred or the mix of powerful but hard to describe emotions that had just distracted him could be sensed off the sith now. Only excitement.

Alat curled into a ball with the force wave as he tumbled backwards smoothly. It still felt like getting hit by a very angry wall but it allowed him to uncurl and slide on his feet a bit before lunging to extend his hands in an open cross block catching bellow the saber at the wrist. With a turn of the hips he deflected the blow to the side and down using his crossed hands to guide the energy past him.

“This war is over. I’ve known that since the beginning of this mess.” Instead of pressing a flurry of strikes he instead lashed out with a kick and at the last second direct the force down it so it didn’t actually impact the joint of Ven’ren’s armor where it might have damaged something. Instead it connected with his hip and shoved him. “You need an ally that no one else knows about. I can’t go back to the council, what use is a killer without a sanctioned reason to kill?” Alat jumped and telegraphed a spike elbow directed at Ven’ren’s collarbone so that he had enough time to get out of the way. 

Regaining his balance with ease, Ven'ren blocked the incoming elbow away from himself and countered with another strike from his unignited but still sharp saber hilt, meant to drive the jedi back towards the torture table more than anything else. Since neither of them tried to hurt the other, the fight seemed more like a dance to Ven.

“So either you are trying to trick me, which would be very sensible, all things considered, or you have already given up, which would be rather disappointing.”
He found the rhythm of this fighting dance almost calming. Strike with apparent fury and power, but still predictable enough to be easily blocked. The simplicity of the jedi's offer was mildly disappointing, but perhaps that was by design. Say something a sith would understand.

“So say you surrender so soon.” Ven continued. “What do you want from this sith? In return for allegiance.”

Alat dropped like a rock onto his knees and driving the force from the drop into a back kick which he used to shove off Ven into a shoulder roll from his knees regaining his feet in time telegraph a flying knee towards the Sith’s head. 

In mid leap Alat answered “A purpose. And if it’s a trick I’m a very dead Jedi. The reality here is that I’m an antique with this war over who am I supposed to hunt for the council? Even if we were to escape I’m not going back to the temple to train padawans in saber forms.” 

Vern'ren grinned. “Oh, if you want a purpose that is hunting and killing, then you have certainly come to the right place! You will get to hunt and kill all you wish with us,” He said, the nature of the duel giving him enough time to grab the leg coming towards him and use it to throw the jedi further in the direction he was already going while stepping slightly out of the way himself. It was, in most situations, a rather stupid thing to do and not something he would ever have done in a life or death situation. Perhaps he was starting to enjoy himself too much. He shouldn't get careless. No, you never know. Even with this jedi, who might still remain a jedi.

“And I would not mind having another friend.” he continued. “Even a friend who is actually an enemy. We all are now, after all. Aren't we?”

Alat have no sign of as he slid bracing out with his left hand to stop the slid. But if the Kel Dor could have grinned...He would have. 

“Well. I guess you’re going to have to win this fight. Oh. And if you wouldn’t mind informing the Darth, I’d prefer to remain experimented on accidently. I’d have informed her myself if you’d been less receptive.” Alat slid in low scissoring his legs in a sweep before twisting his whole body into a spin of legs as he used the momentum to bring himself back to his feet. 

“Let me know what you want me to do, just make it look good. And give me a way to communicate with you while you’re at it. No use otherwise. Oh...and don’t tell the others. No need for them to know just yet. I won’t give you away if they come to see me.” 

Alat set his feet and drew back his right hand into a traditional Kel Dor martial arts stance. 

[i]Here goes everything[/i]

“So only Darth, all secret for everyone else.” Ven knew he was likely speak to the Darth at some point either way, but still, there was a voice in his head telling him he should stay away from her. Maybe that was just the effect you had on people, when you had all that power.

No more carelessness this time. This would have to be convincing. And with that thought, Ven'ren engaged the Jedi again, wanting to exchange a few blows before finishing their meeting.

He was, at this time, not carrying his holocommunicator. He did have a much smaller device attached to his gauntlet, also holo but the images were small enough to be practically useless. What are you doing, you idiot? That is a perfectly decent communication device that you are [i]giving[/i] to your enemy. Who is lying about all of this. But it does not matter. Might make things more interesting.

“Stand still.” he whispered when situation allowed for it and went to grab the jedi by the neck and lift him up to the wall, similarly to the way the discussion started. “See the three buttons on this gauntlet? That's your communication. Tear it off.”

Alat grabbed the piece of gear as he scrabbled at the gauntlet. “Got it.” The whisper was a rasp as he struggled making it look as best he could. Regardless of what happened now Alat had one thing on his mind. [i]Survive[/i]. 

“You help me and I help you, let me know which of your rivals you need undermined and what information you need and I shall be your eyes and ears.”

Ven'ren grinned, though it still could not be seen.

“Now, if you don't mind getting a little bit hurt...” he said as he threw the Jedi into the torture table, having stood mostly forgotten in its own room, and followed immediately with his spiked sabre hilt. Not trying to hit anything vital, but to give the Jedi one real injury to show from the fight.

“Stay down.” He hissed and then straightened himself, looking down at the Jedi as if he considered continuing this with an actual torture session. He then shrugged and grabbed the Jedis arm to drag him out.

“I'm Ven'ren, by the way.” He says on the way out, in in a completely friendly tone.

Alat’s laughter was a cold vicious metallic thing that slithered from his mask like a living thing. “I’m Alat, the pleasure is mine.” 

Alat struggled up to his feet and pressed at the tear in his left shoulder from the lightsaber hilt. Nothing a little medical equipment couldn’t fix. Or some stitches. Alat continued to chuckle darkly at that thought. It had been a long time since he’d stitched anything.

As they approached the compound he sagged on Ven’ren a little “let me know when the Darth has been warned, then let me know what you need”

Ven’ren couldn’t help but laugh along. “Certainly” He said just before gently pushing the jedi through the door. “Certainly.”