I'm not much for 'trigger warnings' but I can understand how this chapter may desturb readers so just a forewarning - there is a rather brutal mention of rape. There are not details, however. I have no problem writing lemony stories but I do not go into detail of rape.

It had been some time since Quinn had the nightmare. It was from several years ago and from time to time, it tormented his night hours, causing him to wake in cold sweats and, in many cases, weeping from the emotion backlash. Why it happened this night, while he was cradling his beloved wife and lord, Malavai Quinn couldn't say. But even in the nether world, he was aware that it was a dream. Yet, it was not simply a dream. It was an utter nightmare.

Malavai Quinn was a very young Lieutenant in the Imperial Army. In fact, he had just graduated from the Imperial Academy and was stationed under Broysc and Admiral Harridax Kirill. Under some pretention or another, they had attacked a small, mid-rim world on the borders of Republic and Imperial space, giving an excuse that the weakling Republic couldn't argue with. It had been a slaughter. The enemy fleet and garrison had easily fallen and down on the ground had been a slaughter. They had not shelled the city, wanting the resources and product produced on the planet below. So, Admiral Kirill had ordered a ground assault and Quinn had led a platoon of Imperial soldiers with the mission of securing a large ore refinery facility but when the time came to take it, he was nine men short - a full squad. "Where is Sergeant Grimmer?" he had snapped to another squad leader. The grizzled vet had pointed back towards a row of houses. "He said he was heading to check out those houses, Lieutenant."

Quinn was incensed and said, "Hold here. You are in charge until I get back, Sergeant."

He had gone from house to house, kicking the doors in and ignoring the occupance until he found one with a dead man on the floor, a blaster burn in his forehead. From another room came laughter and lude noises. When Quinn arrived in the room, he was utterly shocked at what he saw. His men were hooting and cheering as one of them brutally raped a young woman on a bed. "What the hell is going on?" he snarled. The man in charge, Sergeant Grimmer, turned and grinned, showing Quinn his broken yellow teeth. "Ah. Would you like a turn with her too, Lieutenant - maybe blow off a little steam before we take that refinery?"

Quinn struck the man, breaking several more of his teeth. "Get your men to the staging area this bloody instant, Sergeant! We have a mission to do and do not have time for this nonsense. You - pull your pants up and put your armor back on or I swear, I will blast you myself!"

The man extricated himself from the girl and obeyed. "OUT!" roared Quinn. "Sergeant, report to Master Sergeant Cortz. Now go!"

They left, Sergeant Grimmer shooting him a nasty look and muttering darkly to himself as they all exited. After making sure that his soldiers were hustling to the staging point, Quinn went back in. Unable to help himself, he checked on the young woman. She was alive and still had a strong pulse as she lay there. According to Imperial military doctrine, such brutal tactics were used in order to help terrify and subdue a city and planet but if history was any judge, they often led to more trouble than they were worth. Resentful locals turned into resistance movements and those movements never died unless the planet was leveled. Those resistance groups often were footholds for Republic counter attacks. Quinn looked over the unconscious woman one more time. She had chocolate brown hair and he could slivers of hazel beneath her fluttering lids. Her clothes had been torn to shreds, leaving everything bare.

With a pang of sympathy and not a little loathing for his own men, Quinn draped a sheet over her - until he noticed her slightly swollen abdomen. Seeing it, Quinn had retched, emptying his breakfast onto the carpet. This beautiful, helpless young woman was pregnant!

Carefully, he wrapped her in the sheat and lifted her. Whether she was the mission or not, he would get her to a hospital. Instead of going out the front of the house, the way he had come in, he went out a back door into a neat little alley. From there, he headed to a main street but as soon as he broke cover, a blaster bolt smashed into the cobble stones at his feet. Looking up, he saw a quartet of highly soldiers with weapons drawn on him. At a second glance, he realized that they weren't local forces or Republic garrison. The markings were those of a mercenary group called the Peace Brigade. They were contracted to guard relief workers on devastated worlds or Imperial occupied worlds.

Under any other circumstances, Quinn would have looked on them with hatred but, just this once, the mercenaries who had always been the thorn in the side of nearly every occupying Imperial force were a reprieve for Quinn and this young woman. They had strict rules - one of which was mistreating the locals was strictly forbidden. Another was that, if a local was found injured, unless the mission was a high priority, they were required to bring her to a hospital. The Imperial forces were not interested in the hospital - at least not yet.

Seeing the woman in Quinn's arms, wrapped at she was in a linen sheet, the mercs held their fire but kept their weapons trained on him. None of them spoke as Quinn slowly and gently lowered the woman to the ground and then straightened just as slowly, his hands out to show that he was not hostile. He backed away until his was in the alley and then ran back to the staging point. When he had returned, Sergeant Grimmer was grinning knowingly at him. "She was a delicious little piece wasn't she, Lieutenant?"

Again, Quinn punched the man. He couldn't articulate why he was so angry or else he would lose his men's respect. However, they had technically been derelict in their duty by going on their little side jaunt and he was going to make each and every one of them pay for it. "Shut up! We have a mission, Sergeant. Master Sergeant, have we received orders yet?"

The grizzled soldier nodded and Quinn said, "Right you disgusting bunch of Kaas scum. Let's go!"

It was over in a couple hours. The refinery was taken with ease and its contents were being hauled to the fleet above. When the objective wa complete, Quinn brought his platoon together. "Master Sergeant Cortz, I want Sergeant Grimmer and his men stripped of weapons and gear and put into stun binders. If they resist, just shoot them. The charges will be dereliction of duty and abandoning their post during an operation."

Quinn was immensely gratified when the orders went through but sobered when he was brought before Moff Broysc and Admiral Kirill, the latter of which questioned him about why a full quarter of his command had been brought up on charges. Quinn had diplomatically explained that nine of his forty soldiers had abruptly disappeared and, when he had found them, they were raping some local girl in the middle of an operation. Both of his superiors had thought that he had over reacted but other than that, they did not bother him.

Quinn had immediately returned to his men and assembled them in the training room. When they were there, he called out with all the authority he could, "If I ever catch any of my men repeating the actions of Sergeant Grimmer and his squad, you will share their fate. Am I clear? The Empire can not afford for its soldiers to get distracted by some flapping skirt in the middle of a mission."

"Yes, Sir;" they had dutifully replied. Satisfied, Quinn allowed himself a proud smile. Other Grimmer and his men, the mission had been an immense success. "You did very well today, men. Thanks to us, we have many tons of ore, refined and un-refined, claimed for the Emperor. I have put each of you in for a commendation for your promptness, your attention to detail and your skill."

The men stood taller, beaming at his praise. On the outside, Quinn exuded quiet confidence and pride but on the inside, he couldn't get the picture of the poor girl, stripped, bloody, unconscious and pregnant. If all nine of his men had taken a turn on her- Quinn shuddered at the thought. There had been bruising on her stomach as well. Unable to maintain his expression anymore, Quinn called to his men, "Dismissed. Enjoy your evening, gentlemen;" before turning and marching quickly back to his quarters.

Quinn came awake again covered in a cold sheen of sweat and gasping, struggling to keep the tears back. "Hubby?" murmured his beloved wife. "What's wrong?"

"It's nothing Gira. Go back to sleep;" because that lame load of shavit always worked. Gira roused herself to full wakefulness and looked into Quinn's icy blue. "Hubby," she said gently, brushing one scarlet hand along his stubbly cheek, "I don't even need to invade your mind to be able to tell that something is wrong. What is it?"

Quinn knew that there was know getting out of it. He smiled and kissed her tenderly before pulling her tightly against him and sighing. "It happened a long time ago, my love;" and he told her everything about what had happened. Gira, Dark Lord of the Sith and Wrath of the Empire as she was, had no stomach for such things herself. She hated rape even when it was the citizens of the Republic. It bothered her on the most basic level and only caused trouble for occupying Imperial forces, making the peoples of the subjugated world resentful and more willing to resist occupation. Hearing the whole story, Gira snuggled into her husband's muscled chest. "Does it bother you that it bothers you, Malavai?" she asked quietly. Quinn sighed, "Shouldn't it? Why should I care about some nobody girl from some nowhere planet like Armedon?"

Gira looked back into his eyes. "What if it had been me?"

Quinn snorted and said, "I pity the poor, fool bastard who tried that with you, Gira. If you didn't kill him, I certainly would."

She smiled and kissed his chest. "Exactly; the Republic may be our enemy but even they deserve some level of decent treatment. If we continue to conquer worlds the way the Broysc and Kirill seem to enjoy, we will never bring peace to the galaxy."

Quinn chuckled, "With all do respect, my love, the Dark Council has no real interest in peace."

Gira looked at him earnestly. "Your right, they don't. But I do. Some day, when this galaxy is under the Empire's banner, there will be peace and you and I will be left to live our lives as we wish - to settle down on one of our estates on Dromund Kaas or anywhere we desire and maybe even to raise children."

Tears came to Quinn's eyes and he blinked rapidly to clear them. It was a beautiful idea. "Will the other Dark Lords go along with that, my darling?"

She shrugged dismissively, "I don't give a bloody damn whether they do or not. If they want conflict, they can all go kill each other. So long as we are left alone, I don't care."

Quinn chuckled. That was his wife - supremely confident in her reasoning and in the future she saw for herself and her family. Suddenly, an all too familiar gleam sparkled in his wife's brilliant yellow eyes. "Speaking of children, I think we need to get on with practicing creating a few. The dark side may not be able to create life but I am confident that you and I can."

Quinn grinned and ran and hand slowly down her smooth, bare back. "As my lord commands me;"

I hope you enjoyed this one shot. I simply wanted to add another story that ties some of my stories together. Please read, review and if you would like, request more ones shots like this.