10 ASC
Xel'zex sneered and deactivated his lightsaber, then turned to leave. As the red glow faded from the cave walls, he lamented the waste of time. He'd expected more from this group of so-called "survivors".
He stopped when he realized something. Turning again, he saw his little slave staring down at the still-steaming bodies of the Sons of Palawa.
Ah, yes, he thought. Surely she is just as disappointed. Perhaps she –
"You didn't have to do that," Vette said quietly.
Xel'zex's golden eyes widened. Shock turned swiftly to rage. His frustration at the planet's maddening heat and unchallenging foes boiled over, and he stepped towards Vette, delivering a backhand that sent the little Twi'lek sprawling to the ground atop his newly slain enemies.
"You will not question when I choose to destroy my enemies!" The Sith's roar echoed throughout the cave, proving beyond a doubt he had left not a soul alive.
Vette slowly picked herself up off of the corpses, and Xel'zex was sure he heard a sniffle as he glared down at the girl. He growled as the pain in his chest, one he'd begun to feel at unpredictable moments, stabbed at him yet again. He wanted badly to continue lashing out at something, at ANYTHING. But everyone in the cave was already dead, and he would need Vette again soon, as he always did.
Not that he really needed anyone. She simply amused him, when she wasn't being so infuriatingly –
Xel'zex actually gasped at the twinge that struck him in that moment. The pain seemed to intensify with every mission.
Grimacing, he started for the cave entrance, leaving his slave to keep up as she would.
They walked in silence until the entrance to the cave, when Xel'zex muttered, still loud enough to be heard across a room, "their feud had to be ended now. Every minute in the territory of an enemy is more dangerous than an hour in open combat."
Not that he was explaining himself to the alien. He simply liked to marvel at his own strategic brilliance once in a while.
Later, Xel'zex chose to negotiate with the Jawas over the verbobrain he needed rather than kill them all. Killing them wouldn't have been an interesting challenge, anway.