Star Wars: The Old Republic
Marr
~Chapter Thirty-Four~
The expected is our constant, but it is the unexpected that gives it value.
Ravage strode down the hall in pursuit. Whether it was my growing agitation or the familiarity of his footfalls that drove her to glance over her shoulder, I'll never know. Her breath caught at the sight of him and she looked away quickly, the pensive look in her eyes suggesting that she hoped he hadn't noticed her; but it was too late. He had noticed—long before she'd noticed him.
"Wings of the thranta," she huffed, "not this, not now." She quickened her pace almost to the point of breaking step away from me. Her cheeks flushed and she raised her right hand to visor her face from the leering patrons lining the hall.
"Liaseph! Stop! I demand to know where you're going," Ravage barked.
My body tensed. "I'll deal with him, once and for all."
Liaseph's grip on my forearm tightened. "No. Please don't. Those things…you barely came back to me before. I can't lose you to them. Let's just go. Please?" She tugged hard on my elbow and I gave in to her wishes.
We continued toward the front entrance as if Ravage didn't exist to us. The host bowed as we passed.
"My Lord Ravage, is there a problem?" The host fawned and followed at his elbow. Ravage ignored the foppish young man, his attention fixed on Liaseph alone.
"Liaspeh! You can't leave! I won't allow it!" Ravage bellowed, loud enough to attract the attention of anyone within earshot. "To me…this instant!"
She curled into my side and buried her face against me. "Why can't anything ever be easy," she mewled. I held her to my side and coiled my arm about her protectively but Ravage's outbursts had become impossible to ignore.
The double doors stood braced open to the street. The gauzy curtains in the foyer fluttered with the breeze wafting in, while the sounds of revelry on the crowded street competed with the diminishing noise inside. It seemed no casino, spice or spirit held the same intrigue as the scene unfolding inside the club. The hall swelled with the curious and they crept ever closer like a lava flow.
Despite the light rain and pale jags of lightning overhead, the streets remained congested as the celebrations continued. The limousine I'd arrived in remained by the curb and upon seeing our approach, the chauffeur droid threw back the rear doors and stood at attention.
"Liaseph!" Ravage bellowed. "You can't leave! You're mine."
"Go to the car—now," I murmured.
Liaseph nodded and didn't argue. She drew up the hood of the borrowed cloak and sprinted toward the safety of the waiting limousine. She slid into the rear seat and the droid shut the door behind her.
Not a moment passed before Liaseph rolled the window down to peer out over the tinted transparasteel.
Ravage drew his lightsaber but didn't ignite it. "She's mine, Marr. My claim supersedes yours. Return her at once."
I whirled on him. "No, Ravage. She was never yours—and as of today she is a free citizen of the Empire." My saber hand flexed involuntarily, the hilt responding to my unspoken summons.
Ravage snorted. "I paid for her. I know her. You spent all of a month with her—I've been with her for over a year."
"Against her will."
"She was leased to me exclusively!"
"Speak to Vowrawn if you feel cheated."
"He had no right to sell her to you. I have a binding contract!"
"I didn't buy her, I freed her. She chose to be with me—then and now." My lightsaber growled to life and I brandished it, leveling the tip toward his chest in warning. "If you even think of encroaching on her, you willdie."
Ravage ignited his blade. "You dare threaten me?" He seized the offensive and jabbed low at my knees.
I deflected his blade and matched him move for move. As the exchanges blazed between us, I receded toward the doors until I stood upon the threshold. "You're making a fool of yourself, Ravage."
The host held his hands up in surrender and winced. "Gentlemen—my lords, please…if you must persist, take your disagreement outside."
The host's pleas were lost under the savage growls of our sputtering lightsabers, and as we moved beyond the confines of the club to the rain-slicked esplanade, so did the lingering spectators.
Our colliding blades hissed as we traded blows, each maneuver, a blur of motion. The relentless back and forth continued between us and the throng swelled outward to avoid our gnashing blades as they swung with a preternatural speed.
Ravage was a skilled duellist, more so than either Vowrawn or Taxon—or for that matter, any other who'd challenged me over the years. His prowess with the blade rivaled my own—a fact he'd kept well hidden over the years.
I swiped at his legs and he leapt high to avoid the strike. The darkness raged within me, a growing tempest begging to be unleashed. I drew strength and speed from it as I claimed the offensive over Ravage to drive him back toward the club's entrance.
"She'll never be yours. Never!" Ravage hissed. "I'll see to that."
Tempting as it was to trade barbs, I chose to let them fall unanswered and focused on driving him against the wall.
He guessed my goal all too easily and rolled to place himself behind me. I spun around and our blades locked again. Light ground against light, the blades skimming each other like lovers. I drove back his advances until he stood with his back to the door.
The darkness writhed inside me, whispering its warnings—warnings I chose to ignore in favor of rolling my wrist with enough precision and speed to disarm Ravage.
His lightsaber flew from his grip and tumbled end over end, the blade fizzling as it clattered across the esplanade.
I sensed him reaching for the blade with the Force but the darkness captured it first. I snatched the hilt from the inky fog and ignited it across my own blade, Ravage scissored between them.
"This ends now," I snarled.
Ravage growled, his teeth gritted with effort. I sensed his tug on my mind, as he attempted to steal my control over the darkness.
I threw my wrists apart to bisect his torso but instead felt a savage stinging burn smashing through my chest, not once, but twice.
At that precise moment, Ravage dropped to his knee to avoid the death blow, and in so doing, also avoided being struck by the round exiting the front plate of my armor to lodge in the wall beside him.
I staggered. Blood stained my armor and flowed down my back to my hips and over my abdomen, saturating the cortosis weave underlay.
The round trapped inside my body ground through muscle and tendon, forcing its way through my organs. These were no ordinary plasma bolts—they were far worse.
A shrill scream registered in the back of my mind—Liaseph.
Ravage's eyes grew round and he scrambled to his feet, his gaze panning over the fleeing crowd.
My hands grew numb and my heart raced. I dropped his lightsaber and backed away. I clutched my chest and coughed. Blood bubbled up into my mouth and dribbled to my chin underneath my mask. A sharp pain sucked away all the air in my lungs.
Ravage took cover behind the doorway with a peculiar uncertainty I'd never seen in him before.
Vowrawn appeared behind him and after a brief exchange, Vowrawn's personal security detail stormed through to clear a path. I shuffled behind them toward the limousine. Darkness clouded my sight and unless I relied on the Force I knew I would die. I pushed onward across the esplanade, my limbs growing sluggish and weak. A cold sweat beaded over my face and spots riddled my vision.
To my horror, Liaseph had left the safety of the limousine and fought her way through the crowd to reach me. I lost sight of her amid the dark armored troopers.
Fear rolled through the crowd, screams, and panic driving them to stampede in any free direction. I fed off their terror, using the strength to force my failing lungs and heart to function.
The security force battered those in their way, and with Liaseph in sight, I collapsed to my knees.
Two of Vowrawn's guards accompanied Ravage as he swept toward those that weren't quick enough to escape the mayhem.
Liaseph appeared at my side and kept me from falling. "You're—you're bleeding!" She glanced down at her stained hands. "Someone…please help us!"
Ravage stopped but didn't turn around. After a moment's hesitation, he vanished into the crowd.
"Someone help!" She cried out again, her voice lost in the scuffle. She tugged at my elbow. "Can you stand? I can't lift you…"
I shook my head and gagged on my own blood. The words to reassure her wouldn't come, only more blood. I took her hand and pressed it to my chest plate. Liaseph winced.
"You can't die. You can't leave me!"
The sensation of thousands of needles sticking me all at once ran from my face to my legs. I sensed Vowrawn's presence behind me and tried in vain to stand.
Liaseph looked up. "Lord Vowrawn…what's the meaning of this?"
"The meaning, my dear, we will discuss elsewhere. For now, it is imperative that you return to the car for you own safety. Instruct the droid to take you to Lord Marr's stronghold and have it com his medics to prepare to receive him. Surgery will be needed. Hurry now."
"I can't just leave him!"
"Not to worry, my men and I will see to him. We will be right behind you."
My heart shuddered, each series of beats more erratic than the last. The troopers had deteriorated into black formless mobs as they lifted me onto a stretcher, Vowrawn's face the last I saw before darkness took over.
Without warning, I found myself on the Forcetide beach once more, but this time, I stood a mere arm's length from the void.
The past clung to me and I passed my hands over my chest where the exit wound had been. The armor no longer curled and no blood dribbled over the spiked metal. I stood as I had stood before and gazed into the void.
Inky black, it shimmered like water. I sensed a presence on the other side, but could not see who it was. There was a quiet strength there, fuelled by the same determination I knew—neither of us wished to surrender to the void, and I understood now, it was not the void that spoke to me, but another seeking to avoid its judgment. An ally, perhaps—or perhaps a deception. The darkness clouded everything.
"I told you…I will never surrender." I tasted no blood when I spoke. My voice boomed across the void.
"And I told you, I will not fight you," the even emotionless voice asserted.
I was able to determine the voice was female—calm, patient, yet it carried with it the barb of authority. I reached out to the void but pulled back before my hand could breach the slick surface.
"There is more to see; more to learn. Go now and discover the truths that elude will meet when the time is right," the voice said.
A blinding light overcame the Forcetide beach and the past pulled me back to my fleshy cage.
I felt—different. My heart beat was measured, placid—synthetic. It was too perfect, too impassive. My blood moved as it was meant to move, but the engine that pumped it was no longer my own.
A Sith's heart is the cage that binds his passion, and now that was lost to me.
I became aware of my breathing next. Air filled my lungs, left them, and returned, but the sensation had changed there too. They were closely matched twins, but one of them was an imposter. The Force lingered on the surface of the new lung rather than permeating it as it did the rest of my organs.
I sensed I was not alone and though I was not yet conscious, I listened to the voices above me.
"Lord Vowrawn…it's been almost a week. Why won't he wake? Shouldn't he have regained consciousness by now?" Liaseph whispered.
"I should think soon—but you must consider this—even one as strong as he, will need time to grow accustomed to the cybernetic heart and the lung replacement. Even though the lung is his own tissue cloned, I would think a period of adjustment will be needed."
"I'm afraid for him. He looks so pale…and these dark veins on his face…are they from the surgery?"
"No. That is an effect of the dark side. The more we rely on it—the more mastery we gain over it—the higher the price it exacts from our physical form. Many of us keep our true faces hidden…it changes us within and without."
"But I don't want him to change. I'm afraid I'll lose him. He's all I have."
"Now, now, don't look so disconcerted, my dear. He will recover, and why shouldn't he, when he has the most delightful motivation to do so right here by his side."
Liaseph didn't answer.
"Something else seems to be troubling you…perhaps I can ease your mind?"
"Has Imperial Intelligence discovered who's responsible? Do they have any suspects in custody?"
"I had rather hoped to spare you these details, but I do understand your curiosity. Darth Ravage arrested a man the day of the attempt."
"Why would he help us to capture the assassin?"
"We Sith have many enemies, the more powerful we are, the more enemies we have. It is up to the Dark Council to eradicate these threats. I know things didn't end well between you, but I assure you, he is doing only that which is expected of him, no more, no less."
"I see. So who is this man? Why would he do this?"
"Our captive is an SIS agent—by the name of Torin Zane. It would seem Supreme Chancellor Berooken dispatched a husband and wife team to eliminate the more dangerous members of our hierarchy—as to the why, well, no other Sith has done so much damage to the Republic as Marr."
"What about the woman, is she still at large?"
"To my understanding, she managed to flee before the parade—she is wanted for the Intelligence assassinations last year. We had mistakenly believed she was working alone."
"Before…I'm relieved to hear you say that, my lord," she said slyly. "Otherwise, it might have seemed that Ares was being used to bait her. What assassin can resist a parade? Is it not the perfect venue for an assassination?"
"And so it is. I do enjoy the way your mind works, my dear. Had you been born with the Force, I daresay you would have made a most fascinating and cunning Sith."
"Why is Zane still alive? I thought Sith tended to execute their prisoners quickly."
"True, we do at that, but this man is SIS and has a wealth of intelligence worth extracting, I've no doubt Ravage will delight in plucking every strand of information from his mind. If it's any consolation, I'm sure it will be quite a slow and painful process."
"I'm sure," Liaseph hissed.
"For what it's worth," Vowrawn hesitated, "I believe he cared about you—in his own way."
"There was a time, I might've almost believed that, my lord."
"Well…no need to dwell on the past. The end of a game is rarely as exciting as the prospect of a new one, don't you agree?"
"As you say, my lord."
"Marr is a fortunate man…I envy him."
"I don't know what I would have done without your help—thank you—for all you've done for him—for us."
"I'm only repaying a debt owed. You are an extraordinary woman, Liaseph—you risked yourself to protect me. Were I in your place, I'm not certain I would have been so gracious, so it is I who should be thanking you."
"You're too kind, my lord."
"I have but one regret, dear lady—and that—is that I did not keep you for myself."
"My lord…please…I—" she protested and a soft gasp escaped her.
A moment of tender silence passed between them and I cursed my inability to wake.
"And on that note," Vowrawn whispered, "I shall take my leave of you. He will wake, and when he does, I'd prefer to be well ensconced in a round of pazaak—elsewhere. I'll show myself out."
"May the force, serve you well, my lord."
"Until we meet again—Lady Liaseph."
The bed sank as she settled next to me and I felt the warmth of her hand over mine and her breath and hair tickled my neck. She sniffled and moisture beaded on my shoulder.
"Ares…please wake up…I love you."
The light grew more persistent under my lashes and I woke. "And I you…" I whispered.
"You're awake!" She propped herself on her elbow and caressed my cheek. "I was so scared. Are you all right? Are you in pain? Can I get you anything?"
I stroked her cheek with the backs of my fingers. "No—all that I need…I have here."
((to be continued…))