The Zabrak had never been quite the same after his Master's unexpected departure from The Naboo Sith Order. His master, Snack, had left him, along with Malice, in charge of the order. Zeta and Malice became the next two in line to watch over the order and its members.

Being a co-leader had brought about a challenge totally unexpected for the Zabrak, a challenge, in the end, that the Zabrak felt that he could not fulfill.

Removing himself from position as well as leaving the order, the Zabrak set off on his own quest. In turn, leaving Malice and one other to lead over the Sith domain.

His own quest would not lead him astray from his loyalty to the Naboo Sith Order and to the Empire.

Time eventually would see to it that Malice also resign from his leader position. Time would also see to it that Malice became a traitor.

When Zeta had discovered that Malice had left the order only to join another, The Dark Circle. He'd become furious with Malice's treachery. Being the curious Sith that Zeta was, he paid a visit to this so-called order. There he had found not only Malice, but many other Sith that he had come across before within his time as a Sith. Easily enough at seeing this, it only infuriated the Zabrak more.

His visit to The Dark Circle had been brief yet very useful all at the same time.

No longer did the Zabrak waste himself away within the shadows. No more did he lack the initiative to be the darksider that he knew he could be. The Dark Circle had motivated him once again, had fueled his thirst for revenge.

Knowledge before glory and power, the Zabrak would see to it that The Dark Circle learned such things.

... There was much work that had yet to be done...

The Iridonian had not done much with his time after meeting up with Lupercus, content with exploring the order that he once belonged to.

The two hours that had been used in waiting seemed to quickly pass by, leaving Zeta to wonder how he had wasted that time so quickly.

Standing exactly where he told Lupercus he would be, the Zabrak waited at the entrance of the docking bay.

The two Sith had something they needed to take care of...

The strange summons that Lupercus had received earlier that day had been something to ponder. The amulet that Zeta had spoken of seemed to Lupercus only a pretense for his meeting with Lupercus, although the Hapan Sith would have hoped that such a pretense would have been unneccesary given their relationship.

They had fought at Naboo, and the tales of Lupercus' exploits in concert with Chikami had been the talk of the group on their return. At the time, they were all wounded, bloody and bleeding, Lupercus himself wheelchair bound from his encounter with Gash Jiren. Actually, Lupercus thought, only Zeta had left Naboo without any scars. He had marvelled at that, since Zeta also claimed to have brought one of the Jedis greatest masters to her knees, and broken her completely.

Now, as Lupercus stepped out of the Tequila Sunrise into the docking bay, he already say Zeta standing there, waiting for him.

"Are we all ready Lord Zeta?"

As if on perfect cue, the Zabrak turned to greet Lupercus, well, if you could call it a greeting.

"I don't know, you tell me. I'm not the one that needs to be ready, I'm just along for the ride... surely your feeble mind has not forgotten this."

Ah indeed the Zabrak did enjoy brining about displeasure to the Hapan Sith. In truth, the Zabrak merely did this to test the Sith's responsiveness and legerity for the darkside, Lupercus was far from being feeble.

"...Whenever you're ready, Lupercus."

Lupercus shrugged, strangely in no mood to contest or fight the words of the Iridonian. Turning, he simply walked back towards his ship.

"Coming Master Zeta?"

Not caring to check whether he was or not, Lupercus walked aboard the luxury craft with a bored purpose. He was trained to fight, not to mine. Irregardless, he would do as he had been told. Stepping into the cockpit, he primed the engines, his navcomputer chirping quietly.

"Current Destination: Korriban. Is this correct?"

Slamming his fist on the navcomps box, it silenced itself immediately. His research that night had identified Korriban as a likely location of Ilum Crystals and so Lupercus figured 'what the hey', and charted the route. The trip itself would be sort. Activating his external loudspeaker, he shouted.

"All aboard the Violence Express, first stop Korriban."

The Zabrak's impassive look turned to that of bemusement at the use of Lupercus' formal edict. The Iridonian believed that the Hapan had the right to call him by whatever name he chose.

Zeta was surprised that the Sith was still following through with Zeta's minding. After all, Zeta removing himself from position no longer gave him the right to oversee what the members of the order did.

Zeta was never one to let any Sith undermined him, except for perhaps Snack. The Zabrak had been fair with Lupercus, telling him he did not have to follow through with his request, but still the Hapan followed through anyway.

A wise choice on the Hapan's part.

Zeta's acts never came to pass without some sort of consequence to be had.

He could tell that Lupercus did not trust him, which surprisingly pleased the Zabrak. Zeta trusted no one; he expected the same for those of the Naboo Sith Order. Sith were never meant to be trusted; evil was never to be trusted. Yet it was anyone and everyone that the Zabrak did not trust.

Zeta followed after Lupercus, being sure to keep a fair distanced pace away from Lupercus.

Lupercus was in control now.

"Lead the way," he said simply, avoiding Lupercus question entirely.

"I shall enjoy punishing you for your failure, Lupercus..."

Ah... Violence... exactly what would occur if Lupercus failed him.

Lupercus smirked thinly at the the completely unvieled threat of the Zabrak, knowing full well that he was going to the right place. He had, in fact, made a similar trip himself, then under the tutelage of Ki Adi Mundi, when he constructed his own sabres. At that time Dakkon had also been with him, although his choice of crystal and subesquintly number of sabres evidence of the growing disparity between the pair. Then, they had still been brothers, then Lupercus had still maintained the facade of Jedihood, but now he could return to Korriban in his full glory.

The hatch slide down as the crafts repulsors kicked in, the ship rising to a few metres off the ground. Deactivating the intertial dampeners, Lupercus gunned the craft to full throttle, the lack of dampeners evident by Zeta flying through the cabin door and landing heavily in the main room.

Lupercus didn't say anything, it could have been a simple mistake, not that it was. Despite his respect for the man, Lupercus felt no obligation to treat him specially and he simply guided the craft towards the outer reaches of Xa'Fels atmosphere.

"The Jump is a short one." He called, despite the fact the cabin door had slammed shut.

Despite knowing he would have an intense and almost sexual gratification at seeing the Sith Lord pinned to the war by the power of a hyperjump, Lupercus reactivated the dampeners.

Not caring about Zetas current position in the ship he quickly set the navcomputer for the jump to Korriban.

"Here we go..." he spoke entirely to himself for a reason that was beyond him at this very moment. Thrusting the hyperdrive throttle forward the starstreaks exploded as the craft was propelled towards Korriban.

As if it were not bad enough that the Zabrak had been pulled off of his feet by the dampeners and made to fly across part of the ship and into the main room, he was quite unprepared for what happened next.

Not only did the Zabrak find himself being forcefully pinned to the wall, but the impact had been so great that one of his decrative horns found itself being slightly embedded into the wall that he was pressed against, with which the Zabrak protested with a loud snarl to.

Despite the Zabrak's brute strength, the horn would not budge from the wall no matter how hard he tried to remove it.

Lupercus!!!

The Zabrak was placed in a most unpleasant state, not to mention some discomfort.

Zeta had a mind to, if and when he was set free, go after Lupercus in the worst way possible that he could think of. However, the Zabrak was not one to draw to quick assumptions, at least ones that he could not prove.

Giving up on his tantrum, the Zabrak waited out the hyperjump.

The reversion was textbook, the starstreaks dissappearing just like any other Holofilm and the craft was suddenly thrust into a system most dark. Tapping some buttons idley, Lupercus set the craft onto autopilot, it maintaining its course and heading towards Korriban. In his pocket he had a number of items, but of most importance was his personal beacon detector.

Whereever Lupercus went, he usually left a small beacon at points of interest. For example he had left a beacon on Mon Calamari when he and Jai had visited. He still planned to return there to that small island, if not for a break, for something else. Opening the cabin door he spotted Zeta and immediately closed it again. The next thing Zeta could hear was the sounds of raucous laughter on the part of Lupercus.

As he emerged again, Lupercus had a slight stream of tears in his eyes. He was also struggling for breath, such was the force of his laughter.

"I'll be right back... Remember you can't help me, so i'll be back in, oh 3 or 4 days. Hope you're comfortable!"

He winked as he activated the boarding ramp, the 'back wall' Zeta was stuck to, which preceded to lower until it clunked down on the surface of Korriban. He stepped over the Sith Lord, before speaking.

"Do you want me the door open or closed?"

Oh how Zeta would have enjoyed pummeling Lupercus into oblivion, but he had not the time. Had Zeta been in Lupercus' shoes, he would have acted in the same humorous manner, leaving Lupercus to fend for himself.

"Don't concern your catastrophic mind, Lupercus. If I was able to give simple directions to your dense mind and have you understand those directions, I'm sure I can get myself to do anything."

The Zabrak of course was not able to look at the Hapan as he said all this, his head still stuck to the back wall.

"Go," he said simply.

Lupercus snickered openly before turning and disappearing out the hatch. Luckily for Zeta, Lupercus was kind enough to shut the boarding ramp behind him, saving the Zabrak aggravation from the weather, if not from the Hapan himself. Now in surprisingly good spirits, Lupercus could be heard whistling as he walked around the smooth bottomed hull of the LY-3000 to the starboard side. Still whistling, he opened a hidden panel to reveal a alpha numeric keypad which, once a number of buttons were pressed, caused a speeder bike to be lowered from the hull.

Climbing on, his right foot sliding seamlessly into place, his left foot still on the ground, Lupercus paused considering the best route to his goal.

(OOC: OK, so the post lacked imagination!

Heh, i'll edit it once i've talked to you on AIM Zeta. I'm not sure whether to do one post of the journey and 'adventure' etc with the post ending in my return to you or in a whole load of posts. I prefer the first.)