Vader expectedly wanted to see her upon her arrival home. She was unsure if he had been paying attention to the force during her short combat with Emeric and Lianna, but if he had, it might have seemed that Lianna's life force disappeared aboard her ship, which might have raised questions. The line of supplicants toward the throne room had disappeared, and news was sprerading across the holonet that Vader had declared the Hutts no longer apart of his galactic empire. It meant that without some hefty trade agreements, Hutt space would be cut off and embargoed. Everything from their normal illegal contraband to their very provisions for livelihood would be ten times as expensive now, and the Hutt's opulent lifestyle would be threatened. War had been declared. A laughable matter in the eyes of the Empire. As rich as the Hutt's were, they had few loyal subjects and almost no standing army. Normally the Hutt's would hire mercenaries, but in the case of the empire, they all would be hired beforehand to kill the slugs while under their service. It was an impossible situation for them. It would be interesting to see how it played out.

Null entered the throne room, actively clouding her mind of any thoughts of the girl in her ship's brig. She kneeled and Vader Spoke. "Tell me of the girl."

"She was with another, as you predicted my lord. A twi'lek had been keeping her council and her identity for most of her life. They were, according to him, trying to reignite the jedi order. A foolish notion, as when he attacked me with his lightsaber he was so ungainly with it that he ended up killing himself. The other fell apart over his loss. She attacked with the dark side and tried to corner me aboard my ship. I vented the cabin into space and let her boil away." Null glanced up at him, for some reason hoping to see some indication that he believed her lie. "They had been attempting to get ahold of two kyber crystals. One was in his lightsaber, the other, the girl had, presumably to create her own. It has ended up in my own blade... the crystal called to me. The dark side made it clear the crystal was mine."

Vader nodded once. "And the other? Where is it? Destroyed with his lightsaber?"

"No... I have it here. I originally had entertained the idea of a second blade, but it does not appear to be mine." Null removed the crystal from her robes, holding it out to him. Vader drew the crystal to him with the force. As soon as it was in his fingers the room was filled with a glowing red light, the air warmed, and when the flash left, Null's eyes had to adjust to her surroundings before she could make out Vader holding up the crystal to look at it. The crystal was the same color as hers, but clearly glowing actively. Null wondered if that had any bearing on the power of the user.

"Interesting..." Vader pondered... "Most interesting... You have done well my apprentice. I am sending five cruisers out to Mandalore. I want you to take command of them and use Mandalore's moon Concordia as a base to wipe out the Hutt systems. Those systems are worth a great deal to the Empire, so I won't be using the death star. The locals on Concordia are already aware of the arrangements. It will be a time, years perhaps, before I see you again. Return to me when every single Hutt is dead and those systems are in my hands." Null nodded, and Vader gestured away. "Now go my apprentice. Time to prove you are worth more than a assassin for tired old fanatics."

Null bowed and left, her mind racing a million miles and hour. Concordia? It wouldn't be hard to train Lianna out in the open there. Just set her up as a local bounty hunter and give her some choice armor. This was perfect. All they had to do was smuggle her to Concordia without being noticed. That is, assuming the girl would join her...