Once they were back at the Tower, Jaina poured herself a drink, and went to talk things over with Tahiri.
Her girlfriend was already naked, if you didn't count the bright red slave-collar and the fluffy white towel she'd thrown over one arm for the shower. Jaina, still in her formal uniform, felt overdressed—and the fact that in her heels, she was the same height as Tahiri naked, didn't seem right at all.
"You did well with Reige," she smiled, starting to strip off.
"Thanks," Tahiri answered, with a casual, easy shrug. She had the towel carefully turned so that the Imperial insignia that labelled the corner was on display.
Jaina removed her boots, and loosened her tunic so the matching badge embossed on her silver choker was on show. "Do you want to tell me about... anything he might have done to you, beyond the stuff I know already?"
"Not really," Tahiri answered, quiet and calm.
"And if I order you, Tahiri?" Jaina asked.
Something flickered in her eyes, like a spark in a circuit. "You know?"
Jaina nodded. "I know."
"Okay." She nodded in response, perhaps mostly to herself. "I, they," she said. "They tried to brainwash me. Put me in a machine. When that didn't work, they tried another machine, and then another one. Kriffed me up completely. They wanted an assassin sex-toy with the free will of a TIE Fighter, a droid brain with a lightsaber, unable to disobey their programming. What they got was a girl who could obey orders without thinking for a few hours at a time, and whose sexuality was hotwired to a perverted love of Imperial insignia. After a while, I just started fighting back, kriff the Jedi and the Alliance. So long as I wasn't doing anything that actively seemed like sabotage, I figured they'd put the reactions down to the Vong part of me kicking out the Imperial programming each time."
"You do a remarkably good job of being human," Jaina said.
"I try," Tahiri exhaled, and Jaina realised how much emotional strain the admission had caused her. So she just put down her drink, and held her friend.
"I'm just lucky the Empire means you now," Tahiri smiled. "I can still feel, still think, still love. I thought I'd have to fight down the obedience programming. Wasn't sure how I was going to have a sex life when I needed Imperial uniforms to get turned on. But now you're the Empire, so I can love the Empire, and that's good. Better, a lot better."
"Can you... completely reverse what they did?" she asked. "Vong stuff."
"I'd have to want to," Tahiri breathed. "Or, you know. Be ordered."
And she doesn't want that, Jaina realised. Whatever the reason, the tension and balance she'd acquired was something she was hesitant to let anyone play about with. Perhaps she was just happy being loyal to Jaina. Or to the Empire in general, considering how much she liked Sacker, too.
"You're doing great as you are," Jaina told her. Then she paused, eyes narrowing, as she remembered something she hadn't asked. Something her Director of Intelligence had been vague about, in places. "Who's they...?"
"Scientists," Tahiri shrugged. "I didn't know their names, or who they worked for. Reige and Jag, I guess. Some had Hapan accents, some were Alliance. But who knows if that's a real memory, or not. And they used droids a lot."
Jaina blinked, taken aback by the calmness of Tahiri's voice, but not, she realised belatedly, particularly surprised to learn the Alliance and the Hapans had been involved.
And then, for some reason, she was laughing, hugging Jaina back. "And in the end, I got you, and you got the Empire, and..."
"Not d'Ashewl?" Jaina asked. "Sacker? Tagge?"
"No." Tahiri's blonde head shook against her shoulder. "Moff d'Ashewl... found out, but he was powerless to act without Jag knowing. I'm sorry."
"Don't be," Jaina smiled. Were they both crying?
"He came to see me once. I think he was the only person I saw one-on-one that whole time who didn't... you know. Do more than just talk to me."
"I have a hard time believing he was powerless," Jaina said, with a thoughtful press of her lips. "Considering his reputation for... working with pretty girls, too."
"Maybe he was just put off that someone else had got to me first," Tahiri shrugged. "I think he likes his girls to be good Imperials, too. Not shackled outland scum kept in a cage." She exhaled, then gave an amused smile. "Anyway. Thank you. For setting me free, for letting me be human again. And making it okay for me to be the Empire's, too."
"You sure?"
Tahiri nodded. "So everything's good. And I have to obey you, and Sacker, and Tagge, who's weirdly nice for an Imperial, and Drasi, who's actually not bad for a complete scumbag of an Imperial."
"Glad to see you're still the strongest, sexiest, girl I know," Jaina smiled at her.