**Warning Section Contains Major Spoilers for SW Companion SL***
Chapter 8 - Remembering: The Lesson
The moment the doors slid shut, my senses sprang to alert. Malavai walked in front of me, and I knew. He began to speak and I suddenly felt cold inside.
"My lord, I regret that our paths must diverge," his said in his Imperial officer voice. "Out of respect, I wanted to be here to witness your fate."
Don't do this. "How dare you," I whispered. I hated that my voice wasn't stronger. Seventy-two hours since he'd admitted that he loved me. Had that feeling of perfection lasted only that short amount of a time? My days filled with the death of my enemies, my nights spent in his arms? Was that why I didn't sense his betrayal?
"This entire scenario is a rouse. You know who my true master is. And you know why you're here."
Not you. Please.My hands balled to fists at my sides. I didn't notice until the ache in my knuckles started. "Were your feelings a rouse too, Malavai?" The pain was greater than my rage when I asked it because I feared he'd say they were.
"I didn't want to have to choose between you. But he's… he's forced my hand." He dropped his gaze, looking at the floor.
Weakling, I thought venomously. The doors behind him opened, and I drew my lightsabers. He was talking, telling me how he'd studied me, how he'd programmed the two battle droids just for me, but I wasn't listening to him. My cybernetic eye scanned the one on the right, and identified the weak points in the design in the second it took me to spring.
The force of my landing knocked the battle droid back into the wall, briefly stunning it. I shot out my hand, jerking my gaze to its clone at my left. It is an indescribable sensation when the force moves through you. When I clenched my fist the droid shutdown. It would take it sixty seconds to reprogram its systems and come back online.
Behind me, Quinn had pulled his weapon; I heard the hiss of his pistol as it left its holster. The battle droid I'd stunned was back on its feet and had cocked its guns in preparation to fire. I channeled my rage and it quickened my movements, let it flare hotter and it nearly formed a protective barrier around me. I back-flipped, landed and sprang again, right towards Quinn, crossing my lightsabers over my back to block the rapid fire coming from the droid.
Quinn had never been the best of shots, especially not at moving targets. He squeezed the trigger and it grazed my side. I did not feel the physical pain in those moments though. My boot struck him in the side of the head, knocking him to the ground unconscious. I was moving the moment I landed, spinning around and releasing one of my lightsabers with the motion. The blade flew through the air and sliced off the droids right side weapon. I blocked the gunfire from its second gun, and leaped again, catching my lightsaber mid-air. When I landed I was on the battle droids head, my blades burning an X into its metal skull.
I snapped my gaze up, just to see the second droid come awake. My foot shot out, knocking into the weapon on the droids arm I was currently riding. The smack made the droids missile shoot out, a straight shot that exploded its clone.
I jumped off my dismantled droid and the sharp removal of my lightsabers ripped its head in two. The entire thing collapsed with a wine and showers of sparks.
I sheathed and holstered one of my blades. Ripped my hood back, and my helmet off dropping it to the ground. Whirling, I locked eyes on Quinn as he groaned, slowly coming too.
"Traitor," my murderous whisper.
"Yes," he whispered back, his brows knitted together. "I don't expect your mercy, but… I deeply regret-"
I didn't want to hear it. I couldn'thear it. I shot my arm out, the force shooting through my fingertips and crashing into Quinn, sending him flying backwards. He hit the far wall with a loud and painful grunt. As he dropped, I tracked him, halted his descent an inch from the ground simply so I could lift him and slam him into the metal myself.
The skin at his temple broke and his blood began to stain the ground. He didn't move and my rage suddenly stopped. Had I killed him? Panic flared. I should kill him. My anger surged again and screamed. I loved you. I… love you.
Closing my eyes I searched for control. These things do not come so easily when love is involved. I holstered my lightsaber before my passion overwhelmed me. When I heard him start to come too again, I couldn't tell how much time had passed.
"My Lord-"
"Do not speak," I hissed. "There are no words you can say. Quinn." He was no longer Malavai. He couldn't be. My eyes opened, glowing with my controlled rage. "You will live because I am stronger for your betrayal, because I now know better than to think that love might possibly be the strongest loyalty."
Every word I spoke looked as if it pained him. Good. I reveled in his emotional agony, imagined that every drop of blood that ran down his face were pieces of his heart destroyed.
The way he'd just destroyed mine.
"You will speak of your crime to no one. You will serve me now, with the same conviction you served my enemy. That is what you owe for your failure." I came closer, towering over him. His head remained bowed. It took a mere thought to force his chin up, to make him look into the hatred in my eyes.
"Every time you look at me, you will see that failure and everything you've lost because of it. And you will spend the rest of your days working towards the moment that I might allow you to see me as something else. Am I clear?"
His brows knitted together. His eyes were moist as if he might cry. I would choke him if he did. Choke him until he passed out because I couldn't stand another moment of his weakness.
Or his reminder of mine.
"Yes… my lord."
I released him from my grasp. Turned on my heel I marched off, calling out over my shoulder… "Remove your things from my chambers. You are no longer welcome there."
