All That Remains

[A/N: So I tried writing on this site last year or so, and I was no bueno (or in less delicate terms, I sucked :P) So, if you read anything I previously posted (I'm sorry), and you can completely forget anything that was in there, because my ideas for my characters have grown a lot, and they continue to, but whatever, I'm gonna see how this goes. Enjoy (hopefully :P)]


Aboard the Defender, Chapter 2 interlude

"Adalii,"

Her name rung through her ears, seeming to hit her skin and burn it. Adalii pressed her lips together for a moment, almost willing for her former padawan to just disappear. Almost. She stared out the wide window at the helm, white, streaky stars falling behind them as the Defender made its way to Tython. A place she would have formerly called her home, but she wasn't so sure now.

"What?" A single word, but her voice seemed unfamiliar. Nearly making her flinch at how pouty she sounded, how broken. Who was she? What was she? Surely she wasn't Adalii anymore.

"Are you just going to stare out the window and not look at anyone the entire trip?" Kira asked, somewhat accusatory. Adalii closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Kira sighed. "Never mind. Doc asked me to see if I could get you down to the med bay while he's doing inventory, probably to do a scan or two, make sure you're okay and all that."

Adalii twisted the chair to face Kira, seeing for the first time how tired she looked. Her face was waxen, whiter than white, making the dark circles under her eyes seem heavier. "I assure you, I'm perfectly fine." She offered Kira a smile to ease the tension the lie had caused.

Kira gave Adalii a look that showed her that she was not buying it. "That might work for anyone else on the ship, but don't try to fool me. I know what it's like. Your skin feels like it's burning, and you can barely connect yourself to reality, right? I'm not going to pretend that I know everything you're going through, because I don't, but what I do know is that one can't simply be 'fine' after spending who-knows-how-long being controlled by the Emperor."

The words caused Adalii to smile. A real, genuine smile. Kira's bluntness could cause trouble sometimes, but at that moment, she needed bluntness. "Do have any idea how long it was?" That was all she needed to know at the moment, she could move onto the next issue afterward.

"Not exactly," Kira yawned "I don't remember the exact date of when we docked on the fortress, but as far as I can tell, it's been somewhere between three to four standard months."

She sighed. "This wasn't how it was supposed to go."

Kira offered a friendly smile. "Back when I was a padawan, I said something about destiny, I don't remember whose, but you told me 'you might be able to tell the extent of a jedi's destiny, but defining the particulars will only ever cause harm. It will only ever cause you to be disappointed or under prepared, depending'. I don't know how you expected this to turn out, but you're not dead, you can still do something. Whatever it may look like to you, I see it as the Emperor's loss."

"Since when were you wiser than me?" Adalii smiled, though it wasn't particularly genuine.

"I had the best masters," Kira stated like it was the only true fact in the entire galaxy. "Now go see Doc, just to ease everyone's mind."

Adalii nodded, even though seeing Doc was toward the bottom of her 'things I'd like to do right now' list.


Doc scowled, staring at the differences in the inventory before and after docking on the Emperor's Fortress. The med bay had been completely stocked, but not anymore, apparently.

"What's wrong?" He would know that voice anywhere, even with the engine roaring behind her, the sweetness of her soft voice wrapped around him. He looked up to see her standing in the doorway in her normal tunic, leggings, and boots that she wore on the ship. He couldn't help but notice how her belt accented her narrow waist. He remembered wrapping his arm around said narrow waist and pulling her to him for a kiss, the feel of her pale, delicate, velvety skin in contrast against his own. It all seemed so far away now, like a feverish dream that had been nothing but illusion.

He gave a bit of a bitter huff. "Damn Imperials took everything that wasn't nailed down, so on top of no water or rations, we've got nothing but an empty kolto tank, a few low-grade medpacs and one sub-par med scanner with next-to-nothing in terms of accuracy."

Adalii nodded in understanding and moved to sit on the corner of the medical bed, right next to where he was sitting at the desk. "If you make a list of everything you need, I'll send in a requisition request to the Fleet."

He looked into her eyes, happier than he probably should be to see the shimmering gold of her irises looking down at him. With the months on the Emperor's fortress, Doc had come to miss her. The copy they'd been only too happy to flaunt in from of him wasn't his Adalii. She isn't your Adalii She never has been and never will be. It's just a fling. He would scold himself with the same line whenever he had thoughts that showed him starting to feel for her more than the small allowance of caring that he had granted himself. Still, he was unable to stop himself from being glad that the jedi he had come to know and… care for was back, gold eyes and all.

He was leaning back against his cell, bored out of his mind. His fear had begun to waste away. Along with his muscles. He shifted a bit, trying to remember the specifics of muscle atrophy. If he remembered correctly, atrophy started being noticeable after two standard weeks. He didn't know exactly how long the crew had been stuck on the fortress, but the count had to be creeping up toward a standard month, if it hadn't already surpassed it.

He twisted his head to see how the others were doing. Kira appeared to be trying to sleep, though he had no idea how she could find a comfortable position, and Rusk was just sitting there like a mannequin. Doc sighed, and tried to focus on something else. As always, he began to think about Adalii, the Imperials could torture him all they wanted, but nothing would bother him as much as not knowing what they were doing to Adalii. He tried to remember what had happened to her after the fight. He could vaguely remember that she was the last to fall but she still fell, he'd blacked out after that.

The door at the far side of the room opened and closed, rather loudly, too, rousing Kira from her fragile sleep. All three had turned their heads to the direction of the door.

It was that sleazy overseer.

Kira appeared unperturbed, but he knew she sensed something was up. "What now?" She asked, sounding completely bored. They might not have gotten along, but he did have to admire her ability to act.

The overseer gave a cruel smile, like he was a rancor watching helpless prey skitter around in their cages, looking for an escape that would never come. "I just thought I would introduce you to the newest, and perhaps most promising addition to the Emperor's arsenal."

Doc officially didn't like this. He looked at Kira and saw that she wasn't wearing her calm and collected mask anymore. "That was very thoughtful of you, but we couldn't really care less about the Emperor or his arsenal." He knew it sounded lame, but it was the best he could think of.

"Oh, but I think you do care," The overseer proceeded to give them a predatory smile, and never looking away from them, he called out "You may come in now, acolyte."

Doc's head jerked in the direction of the door, fearing what he knew he'd see. The door slid open, and she walked through, head tilted slightly to hide her face from view. Her hair was down, in wild untamed curls, and she was wearing black armor, if something that stopped four inches before your navel could even be called armor. As she got closer, she turned her head up, showing her face.

Her normally golden eyes were deep red. Sanguine, crimson, vermillion. Whatever color one wanted to call it, but nevertheless, this woman may have been Adalii at some point, but now she was just a nondescript Sith, with her lips painted to match her eyes.

"What did you do to her?" Kira asked, completely unbelieving of who, or what was before her eyes.

"Her true potential was unlocked, nothing more,"

Adalii cleared her throat, "Kira said you wanted to see me."

Doc came back to his senses. "Yeah, I just wanted to run a scan, and make sure you were okay, but all this scanner will do is state the obvious." He smiled at her, trying to coax one back.

She smiled back, but there was a somewhat guilty look in her eyes before giving a tired sigh and opening her mouth to speak. "This is somewhat off topic, and personal, so you don't have to answer by any means, but do you have any family, or anyone that's close enough to be considered family?"

He smiled at the thought of his family, and two Life Days ago, when he'd last seen them all "Yeah, actually, My parents live on Raltiir, my little brother is a biochemical engineer. He was on Quesh, last I heard, and my little sister is studying Neuro surgery at Coruscant Med."

"So you've got a whole family of overachievers then?" she gave him a coy smile, but it faded rather quickly. "I'm sorry for getting you into this mess."

He rolled his chair closer to the medical bed and brought his hand up to her face. He wanted to kiss her right then and there, but he restrained himself (something he wasn't normally good at) and used his words instead (another thing he wasn't all that fantastic at) "Gorgeous, the way I see it, there's nothing you've got to be sorry for. I chose this, and even in retrospect, I wouldn't choose anything different." He had to cut himself off before he added there's nowhere I'd rather be. It might have been true, but he kept that to himself.

Adalii relaxed slightly and looked down at him, with parted lips like there was something she wanted to say, but instead, she slid of the medical bed and leaned down to kiss him. His arm slipped around her waist and tugged her closer, effectively pulling her down into his lap. With more even ground, Doc deepened the kiss, opening his mouth to hers slightly, she followed suit, and he pulled her more firmly against him, drawing out a slight moan from the jedi in his arms.

"Master, there's—oh, oh my! Deepest apologies master. I will come back at a more appropriate-" C2's mechanical, and slightly alarmed, voice shattered the moment.

Adalii pulled away and stood up, breathing slightly harder than before, but she straightened out her tunic and turned to face the droid. "What is it?"

"There's a holocall coming through for you master, would you like me to inform the caller that-"

"I'll get it. Thank you C2," She said, sounding as jedi-ly as ever. When the droid retreated, she turned to Doc, and gave him a warm smile. "I suppose it's going to have to wait. We'll approach Tython's orbital station in a couple of hours, perhaps you should try and get as much sleep as possible before then. You look tired." And with that, she turned and went up the stairs and disappeared. Doc could very acutely feel the lack of jedi in his arms.

He closed his eyes and let his head fall back. He was tired, but whenever he tried to sleep, he was back on the Fortress, seeing something or another that he'd rather forget.

"Kiss me, acolyte," The overseer's pompous voice rung out in front of them. The new image of Adalii still hadn't completely sunk in.

Her eyes flicked upward to the overseer's "Yes, master." There was something disturbingly vacant about her voice, but still, she stood on her toes and tipped her head upward, and her lips touched his. The overseer ran his hands down her body, touching her breasts, stomach, back, venturing lower. Doc couldn't look, he turned away. They had to have found out that he and Adalii had a relationship, and no matter that it was mostly physical, it still hurt to see her so not herself, being flaunted in front of him, being forced to kiss other men, and that weasel of a man, no less.

He saw them pull away in his peripheral vision, and looked back over. Adalii's lower lip was coated in blood, and more was running down her chin, a result of their rough and rather feral kiss. The overseer pulled her close again, running his index finger over her lip and chin, gathering the blood, then let his finger linger mere centimeters from her mouth.

"Acolyte," He said it like he was offering, but it was a command. She leaned forward, tongue running down his finger, tasting her blood, then clasping her lips down and sucked on his finger to fully clean off the blood.

The overseer laughed. It was cruel, mirthless, and turned everyone's insides to ice, sans himself and Adalii. "Hmm, I think we'll have much fun together, Acolyte." And like that, he turned to leave, and Adalii followed. The door closed loudly behind them.

"That bastard," Kira fumed, and Doc found himself very much in agreement.