Chapter 7

In my desire to move on to the scene that occurs back on Dromund Kaas, I neglected to mention what happened to the child. Before I left, I discovered the kid's identification. His name was Sagus Mandrakos, and he wasn't an only child. Apparently he had an older brother training to become a Jedi. Hoping that he would not immediately seek revenge, I sent him a message via holo-transmitter explaining what happened and that his brother needed transport off planet (I can safely assure you it wasn't nearly as long as this one). It wasn't until I was finished that I returned to the imperial capital.

Just before we get to that, I should mention that the kid's brother, Vagnus, couldn't reach him in his state, so he had to call up a friend of his whom I've had previously run into as well. He was a twi'lek smuggler named Wolgo, and I recall trying to snatch a bounty off of him during my years with the Empire. Tracking him was pretty easy, but everytime I got close, he'd jump onto his ship and dash off. Now I fancy myself a damn good pilot of my ship, but Wolgo . . . Wolgo could be described as both an insane or genius pilot and they'd both be accurate. It wasn't until I had to chase him through an asteroid field that I realized that I'd never catch him. I had retired to a bar on the nearby station when he finally revealed himself.

The man casually walked over to me and put his fatty arm on my shoulder. He told me: "Kid, I don't think any other hunter has ever had the same persistance you have, or has gotten so close to catching me. But trust me on this kid: I'm just another target to you, so there's no shame in loosing to me. The only ones that really matter are those that involve your family. Trust me on that, kid."

He just nonchalantly sauntered off after that. You might then be wondering why I didn't grab him then. Well to tell the truth, it wasn't because I didn't want to, I was just too damn drunk to do it.

Anyway, back to Dromund Kaas.

I was furious. Furious at myself, and furious at Murgood. I was hoping to confront him directly about what happened, and possibly alleviate the pain that was growing in my chest. He was waiting for me when I returned, open arms and everything, the fight we'd had but a couple nights earlier seemingly never happened. He was already going to try to sway me. That blasted fool had no clue what I had in store for him.

I marched over to him with haste, the moment he saw the massive disdain in my face, he dropped his act, looking somewhat concerned for once. "What happened over there? Something go wrong?"

What kind of stupid question was that? I replied through gritted teeth. "I killed the targets. I shot them both just like you wanted them. Does that make you happy? Does making me murder a child's parents in front of him make me worthy of the Empire now?"

He responded with a quizzical look I was too far gone to tell the sincerity of these expressions that I'd never seen him use before. "What are you talking about? The boy should be in the Jedi Academy. He shouldn't have been there to see it."

"They had ANOTHER son, Raz! And he saw everything I did!"

"Oh." Murgood had raised his eyebrows at hearing this news. "Interesting."

Interesting? I had thought. Is that all you have to say?

He led me back to his speeder and he thought things over until we arrived at his estate. By that time, he'd formulated a 'proper' response to my reaction. "I see now that you truly are a child of the Empire. NOT because of what you did, but how you reacted towards it."

"Oh, really?" I wasn't buying a word he'd said.

"Truly. You care about those that are innocent, and you want to protect them. Despite the fact that the Republic and their beloved Jedi claim to stand just for that, they are weak. You see, the Republic has failed to fulfill such promises for millennia because it requires drastic decisions to be made; decisions that only the Empire is strong enough to make."

"So you know the kid was innocent. Well he's not anymore after, what he's just seen. That's what I did with the Empire backing me up. How's that make the galaxy better with us making decisions like that?"

"Rusl, you must understand that these decisions are difficult for many members and many officers of the Empire."

"I'm sure, but it's the Sith that rule the Empire, and they don't give a damn about the innocent. Some model of leaders they are!"

"Do not speak such about your superiors." Funny; he almost sounded concerned when he said that. "Though they have their personal agendas to follow, they have the vision to see past the little issues that we have difficulty over-"

"A moment ago you said that it was good that I was having difficulty with what had happened. Now you're saying that it's just a little issue to get over?"

"You are not allowing me to fini-"

"You switch from one strategy to another hoping I won't notice, and try to sound like you're reasonable when you ask for things that are horrendous!"

"The Empire must accomplish wh-"

"The Empire is just another power-hungry beast that preys on the weak!"

At that point, Murgood had lost his cool, and replied coldly. "Fool! Do you really think that those were the only parents you've ever killed for the good of our kind?!"

And at that point, I lost my cool. I've heard tales of some beasts that when in full rage, you can see fire in their eyes. I think that happened to me, because not only did I refuse to reply, I jumped at him with full force and began choking the life out of him. In my anger, all I could focus on was hurting him. I couldn't hear anything, nor see anything other than the man who had made me into a monster. He struggled to free himself, and tried to pull his blaster pistol out from his side, but he did not live long enough to use it.

I let his limp body fall to the ground, and as my rage began to slink away I felt . . . empty. I had thought by hurting the man that had made me do all these things that I would feel a release. I thought that I'd feel the pain go away. Instead, I felt worse. I felt like it solved nothing. Not only was the pain still there, but it was accompanied by a chilling revelation that I was only making matters worse.

It took me a moment to realize it, but out of the corner of my eye, I saw her. Am'ithiel ran towards her father, tears rolling down her eyes. She held the man in her arms, hoping that he would somehow come back to life, and that all of what had transpired would just roll away like every other arguement I'd ever had with him. Before long, my hearing returned to me, and I quietly listened to her cry. I'd never heard her cry like this before. I couldn't help it myself. I had to wipe the tears in my own eyes; I couldn't let her see me in my moment of weakness.

It didn't matter. When she was done sobbing, she turned to me in anger. She didn't attack directly, but the words she used pierced me. She spoke in such a hushed tone, I almost didn't hear her threat.

"I'll kill you. If I must wait years, or travel to distant stars, I will make you pay for this."

I believed every word she said. Of course, once Imperial Intelligence realized that one of their lieutenants was killed in his own home, fingers would quickly point to me. I had no choice at that point but to run. I would run from the Empire and never return.