"The Emperor has sent me on a mission to Murkhana. There is a band of Jedi there trying to form a resistance movement." Obi-Wan explained once the bedroom door closed behind him. He strode towards Aila, who had her back to him, and placed his hands on her shoulders.
"And you are going to kill them. Their crime, being brave enough to stand up to Sidious." A shiver ran down Aila's spine at the thought that soon others would fall to Avarik's blind vengeance.
"I don't know why you stand up for them, my goddess. They tried to kill you." A hint of a plea was evident in Avarik's voice as he tried to get Aila to see things his way.
Aila turned towards Avarik, locking her eyes with her husband's. "That is Sidious talking."
"Yes, but that just verifies it." Avarik shrugged as he continued. "He's never lied to us, never tried to split us apart. From day one the Jedi tried to tear us from one another. Windu and Mundi were recorded with their intentions to kill you, and Anakin stole you from me and then sent a bounty hunter off of you. I saw his signature on the bounty hunters orders."
"Obi-Wan!" Aila shouted impatiently. "Will you please stop thinking like a Sith and start thinking like the Jedi I married! The Sith are the enemies of the Jedi. They are evil. Sidious can easily manipulate recordings and orders to frame them. He's using you!"
"Your judgment is clouded by those movies you watched once." Avarik stated raising his left hand to gently brush aside a stray strand of Aila's hair that had fallen in front of her face in her anger.
Aila jerked away from Avarik's touch. "Which is why I don't understand you. How can you follow Sidious when you saw those movies too? You know what he is! The man I married was going to stop him, not join him."
"You take those movies at face value, my goddess, but they do not show the treachery that the Jedi showed us. The movies paint the Jedi as heroes, but after what they put us through, we know better."
"You know I'm not saying what they did to us is right, but they are not murderers. They do not deserve to be killed. You have the wrong enemy!" Aila countered.
Avarik sighed and shook his head.
Tired of being patient with her husband, Aila felt her own temper start to rage as she released her pent up anger and resentment at her husband. She tried to stop him from killing innocent Jedi each time he found them and every time he ignored her. It broke Aila's heart each time a Jedi was killed. The Council had been unkind to her and Obi-Wan, but she could not fathom killing them and the rest of the Jedi over it. There was little she could to stop a determined Sith or Jedi, but she felt compelled to talk some reason into her husband. Unfortunately, the rational Jedi she married had been replaced with a Sith Lord. "Listen to yourself; you are not making any sense!"
"I know I am right my goddess, and some day you will know too." Avarik replied and then leaned in to capture Aila's lips in a kiss.
"No!" Aila stated, taking a step back from her husband. "You are trying to get me to okay your trip to Murkhana and I won't do it! It's wrong." She began backpedaling some more as Avarik continued to walk towards her.
"I am only looking to say farewell before I leave. That should be very telling, my goddess. The Jedi tried to deny us these moments, the Sith have not." Avarik reached for Aila's right hand, trying to pull her to him.
"No!" Aila jerked her hand away from Avarik's grasp. However as she did that the back of her legs hit the end of their bed and caught off balance by her sudden movement she fell backwards against it. Avarik followed her, pinning her to the bed underneath him, intent on receiving his kiss goodbye.
"I'll miss you, my goddess." Avarik whispered huskily as he nuzzled Aila's cheek as she had turned her head to the side to avoid his questing lips. Her hands were pressed against the hard planes of his chest trying to push him off of her.
"I said no!" Aila bit out vehemently. "I'm not going to kiss you when you are going off to do something I don't agree with."
"One of these days, you'll agree." Avarik answered back before swiftly turning Aila's chin towards him and sealing her reluctant lips with his. For her part, Aila pushed more insistently at his chest, trying to break the unwanted kiss. When she realized she could not wriggle from her husband's grasp a silent tear started to form in her eye for he had taken something she had not been willing to give.
When his lips finally parted from Aila's, Avarik smiled and slowly pulled her up into a sitting position, "Now, that wasn't too bad…." He was stopped from finishing his next sentence when he noticed a tear fall from Aila's eye and make a small trail down her cheek. "Aila, what's wrong." Avarik asked with concern.
Aila did not answer, but closed her eyes so she could prevent herself from looking at him.
"Aila?" Avarik tried to brush the tear from her face, but with the feel of her husband's calloused thumb against her face, Aila jerked away from his touch. "Aila, talk to me."
Again, Aila was silent, but in her silence she concentrated heavily on their Force bond and used all of her strength to close her end of it. In the end closing the Force bond would hurt her as well, but this was the only way she knew to show her husband how hurt she was by him. Even though he had hurt her, Aila still loved her husband and aside from hitting him, which she did not believe in, this seemed to be the least violent way of driving her point home. She could not let Avarik push her around, and her power over their Force bond gave her a small edge against the physical and Force enhanced abilities of her husband.
Feeling her connection to his wife diminishing, Avarik's eyes widened in fear. "Aila! No! Wait!" He closed his own eyes as he called upon his own powers to keep the bond opened.
"I will keep at this all day if I have to." Aila stated coldly, her eyes remaining closed as she focused on her task.
"You will wear yourself out, and that is not good for you or the baby." Avarik pleaded.
"I won't tire if you leave it alone. The choice is yours. Force me to submit to you or let me do as I please." Aila punctuated this sentence by letting her resentment at their stolen kiss flow to Obi-Wan through the still opened portion of the bond.
"Aila, talk to me!" Avarik shouted with impatience. He reeled back as if slapped when she sent him more of her emotions. She sent him anger, loathing, hurt, and betrayal and those last two emotions were connected to her love for him. With utter incredulity he asked, "You are angry because of a kiss?" He was still pressing on the Force bond in an attempt to keep it open.
"I am angry because Lord Avarik stole a kiss that was not his. My husband, Obi-Wan Kenobi would not do that." Aila answered, still concentrating on her Force bond. Struggling against Avarik actions to their bond was causing a light sheen of sweat to form on her forehead.
Avarik's eyes flashed yellow for a moment. Once again she was splitting him into two people, trying to claim his Jedi self was stronger than the Sith. "How many times do I have to tell you that name no longer has any meaning for me?"
"And how many times do I have to tell you that Avarik has no meaning for me?" Aila spat back.
Avarik growled in frustration at Aila's words and pushed harder on their Force bond. He did not relent until he heard Aila give a small whimper of pain. Avarik's eyes opened at once to see Aila's face forming a grimace as she fought against him. At her sides her fists were clenched so tightly in her struggle that they had turned white. Although it angered him to have to give in to Aila's wishes he could not have her harm herself or their child so he finally ended his struggle, allowing Aila to sever their bond.
Avarik groaned in a combination of agony, despair, and anger as he felt his connection to Aila disappear. Aila swayed slightly from her seated position on the bed and Avarik tried to steady her so she would not fall, but stubbornly Aila shrugged off his attempt to help. "You need to rest."
"I will do as I please." Aila stated coldly, finally opening her eyes to glare up at Avarik.
"As long as it involves resting." Avarik warned, worried about what would happen to her and the baby if she did not rest.
"Are you going to force me?" Aila asked, her eyes flashing dangerously as she carefully enunciated each word. Reminding Avarik that he was not to repeat his transgressions from the past.
Avarik stared at Aila for a moment, tempted to go through with her suggestion, but he restrained himself despite the anger he was feeling. His eyes flashed yellow with suppressed rage. He had to leave before he did something he would later regret. "I have to leave. We will talk about this when I return."
Avarik had turned away from her, but stopped dead in his tracks when he heard Aila whisper, "What makes you think I'll still be here?"
A wave of panic washed over Avarik followed by the growing tension of his own fury. He turned back towards Aila intent on making her stay.
Aila realized too late the ramifications of her temper induced statement and the malevolence in her husband's eyes caused a tremor of fear to run through her. Reflexively, she placed a protective hand over her abdomen to protect their unborn child.
Somehow seeing Aila's reflexive movement was able to penetrate into Avarik's psyche and gave him pause. Additionally there was a strange ripple in the Force that calmed him further as it seemed to indicate Aila would stay. With his anger dissipating from what the Force showed him, Avarik murmured. "We'll see about that," before promptly turning around and leaving before something else changed his mind.