Chapter 12
Lord Malchior
Malchior's hoarse voice was partially machine like, echoing through the comms and causing Garfield to shudder as the Sith's gravelly voice set his nerves on edge. The moment his name was spoken Rachel nearly flipped out of her chair and she stared fearfully at the screen, a part of her unsure how to react and another part boiling with rage.
"Yes, I'm transmitting the security code." Garfield spoke carefully, keeping up a façade as he tapped away at the controls. He pressed a few buttons and turned to Rachel, concerned as she reacted violently to the Sith's name. "Don't worry, the screen was only on me, and he can't hear us now… Are you alright?"
"No…" Rachel whispered after a few moments, her arms circling herself as conflicting emotions bombarded her. She wanted to be angry at seeing her former master again, though she was more afraid of being found alive than angry. "He's… he is my former master… we have… history."
"Alright, we'll be out of here as soon as we can." Garfield smiled reassuringly, he didn't like seeing the valiant and confident Rachel in this state. If he didn't need to keep up his cover, he would have turn tail and ran from here, but he needed this deal to go well in order to keep his reputation. "I'll meet with him alone. Richard, get the Red X suit on and wait by the cargo bay ramp, if things go sideways then clear the hanger bay and depart with the ship."
"What about you?" Richard asked as he got to his feet, he wasn't happy about being removed from the meeting party, however he at least got to don the suit and prepare for battle. He wouldn't admit that he liked the suit, but it was a high-tech combat suit that would make most Republic Captains envy if they saw it. "This ship is Bio locked to you."
"Do you really think I'd meet with a Sith Lord without an escape plan?" Garfield mockingly laughed, he chuckled as he pressed a few buttons on the control panel. "We'll dock in the hanger bay, less people see my ship the better."
Malchior grunted and ended the call. Garfield jumped out of his seat and donned his gear after setting the autopilot to dock them, allowing Rachel to leave to her room. He assured the others that the ship was set to flee the moment the meeting goes sideways, they needn't fear the ship being without a pilot.
As he was making his way to the cargo bay, he paused and took a detour to the engine room to put a few precautions in place. He arrived in the cargo bay several minutes later and set about organising the crates onto a hover platform he pulled out from a secret compartment from the engine room, loading up the crates and pushing the platform over to the cargo bay door as the ship set down in the Empire ship's hanger bay.
Richard joined him moments later donning the full gear, he had his hands resting on the blasters at his hip. He took a defensive stance beside the cargo bay ramp, waiting for it to open. Garfield was dressed in his full attire with his vibrosword resting on his back, he filled his pockets with plasma grenades and hid two blasters underneath his long leather coat in his waist band behind his side holsters.
Garfield wasn't taking any chances, especially dealing with a Sith Lord and someone doing business with Lex Luther of all people. There was a high chance this was a trap, that Lex planned with the Sith to take him out, and he had to be prepared for anything.
The ramp lowered to reveal several teams of Empire soldiers and workers who slowly approached and took the hover platform from Garfield. Tension permeated the air as the Empire workers quickly disappeared with the cargo, leaving Garfield to follow the soldiers to the meet with Malchior on confirming the delivery.
Garfield trekked through the uniformed stark grey corridors towards the command deck of the cruiser, it was an annoying habit of the Sith and he wasn't sure if they did it as a power trip or them being lazy. After several minutes of going through areas filled with soldiers, he finally arrived at the command deck. The large room had a single walkway with several stations built lower down, there were a few stations on the walls on either side, though after halfway into the room it cut off and changed into a floor to roof windows gazing out into space all the way around the rounded room.
At the far end staring out of the windows into the lifeless emptiness stood the metal covered Sith, he was flanked by two more Sith in similar garb that stood staring at Garfield as he entered, and three figures to the right of them that instantly drew Garfield's attention. On his knees, dressed in a lavish three-piece suit, was none other than Lex Luthor with two armoured Empire prison guards holding red vibroswords to his neck.
"Lexy! This is an appropriate look for you." Garfield chucklingly called out to the imprisoned entrepreneur, Lex could only glare at him as he glanced towards Malchior with seething hatred and annoyance.
"Captain Garfield Logan, I heard tales of your exploits from across the galaxy… you are known as the Silver Wolf for not only your silver ship, but your lone wolf attitude… and here I find out you took on a crewmate?" Malchior's hoarse mechanical voice dripped with condescension, if his face wasn't completely covered then Garfield was sure he would be smirking from ear to ear. "I hear your ship is worth a fortune, and not just for the upgrades and technology… you're infamous among many who wish to see you dead… and I must admit your ship is impressive… you made the journey in just under a month…"
"Does this conversation have a point?" Garfield bluntly glared at Malchior's back, the Sith Lord hadn't moved as he spoke, irking Garfield to no end. He wanted to get out of here from Rachel's sake, despite desperately wanting to take a million photos of Lex being held captive.
"For a smuggler, you aren't very bright." Malchior snapped venomously, turning slowly and glaring at him, or probably smirking at him, it was hard to tell with the mask. "Your ship is now impounded under Empire law, as for you… my acolytes haven't had a good match in a…"
"Lexy, mind explaining what Lord Douche is on about?" Garfield interrupted Malchior without care, looking to the imprisoned businessman with a mixture of confusion and mirth. Malchior's acolytes' faces exploded with rage, and they hunched down, ready to attack him for his transgression.
"I had a deal with the Empire until Lord Douche here hijacked it, stole my credits, and once I managed to negotiate for my release with ten crates of kyber crystals, he promises not to kill me slowly if you arrive on time." Lex roared, ignoring the fact the two vibroswords were inches from his neck. Malchior passed what Garfield guessed was a prideful smirk to Lex before motioning towards his acolytes to attack. "Whatever plan you have to escape, now would be a good time!"
"Oh, come on Lex! Aren't you the one who said that a good businessman never bails when they have the advantage?" Garfield chuckled happily, dodging the sloppy attacks from the acolytes. They had coordination as they attacked in unison, but their techniques were horrible, and Garfield easily evaded them with little effort. "Now, lets talk compensation."
"You!" Lex roared as the soldiers kicked him for speaking, Garfield caught the hand of one of the acolytes and twisted it, holding tightly and dancing around the other acolyte by keeping the one he held in their way. "Fine! I'll pay you double than what I promised!"
"Really Lexy… I'm a man of my word and I would never go back on it so the fee is the same... I'm more thinking along the lines of a personal favour from you, one that I can use whenever I want… and its unconditional." Garfield smirked as Lex winced harshly, he looked at Malchior who was curiously watching Garfield hold off his acolytes. Lex angrily glared at Garfield before hanging his head in defeat and nodding his agreeance.
"It's amusing that you think you can escape from this ship, with Lex Luther, alive." Malchior chuckled happily, smirking broadly at Garfield, or was he smiling, he really needed to stop trying to equate human actions to this Sith. Garfield and Lex both looked at him for a second before bursting out laughing, their actions immediately killing Malchior's mood as his fists clenched angrily. "How dare you laugh at me! I'm a Sith Lord!"
"Yeah! One that has never dealt with a smuggler before!" Garfield laughed merrily, ducking under a high arcing attack before slamming his fist into the acolyte's face and throwing the other one away. He pulled out a detonator from his inner pocket and held it out, a smirk permanently etching onto his face. "You know, I had this friend, a mad man with some of the craziest ideas I've ever seen, but this one had to be one that I never thought I'd be using… A high-grade plasma bomb installed into a hover platform… one that's now transporting ten crates of kyber crystals through an Empire cruiser…"
The moment Garfield uttered those words, the soldiers by the door blocking his exit immediately paled before looking at one another as Garfield grinned maddingly. Lex instantly snapped his head to him and was about to utter something when Garfield pressed the button, the ship shook violently as an explosion rocked from the central area near the generator.
Power immediately kicked out and the room was bathed in darkness, a split second later, two bolts from blasters injured the guards holding Lex down. Malchior drew his red lightsaber, one that didn't seem to fit his hand properly, though that didn't bother Garfield as he leapt forward with his vibrosword drawn, slamming it into Malchior's sword.
The two exchanged blows for a moment as Lex took the guards' blasters and took out the soldiers trying to debate who to shoot first. Garfield ducked under Malchior's high arcing attack, one that he literally dodged from one of his acolytes not moments before, and slammed his free hand into his metal face, knocking him back slight.
With Malchior dazed, Garfield slammed his vibrosword into the side of Malchior's lightsaber, knocking his arms out wide, leaving him open to an attack to the chest. Twisting his vibrosword high, he aimed to strike down Malchior who was still recovering. He wanted to end this fiend's life for whatever he did to Rachel that made her meek at just his name, but he knew that it wasn't his place to take revenge for her, and aimed his attack away from his critical areas.
A howling hoarse scream erupted from Malchior as Garfield's vibrosword cut his hand clean off, his lightsaber dropping to the floor. Garfield didn't wait to gloat over his victory and snatched Malchior's lightsaber, he bolted for the door as Lex cleared it of the last of the guards. The two ran down the corridor as the ship was tearing itself apart from the explosion, they passed by a view port that had Lex grinding to a halt.
"Your ship left without us!" Lex cried indignantly, forcing Garfield to turn around and violently grab his arm, wrenching him into running again. He led them down an alternate path away from the hanger bay, one that led to the escape pods.
They ran into a room filled with panicking Empire soldiers and crew frantically trying to get to the pods, but Garfield ignored them as he ran past them. He had to turn around once again as Lex tried to go for one of the pods, Garfield led them through the escape pod rooms through to a major airlock.
"What the hell are you thinking!" Lex roared in confusion and outrage, though before he could continue his rant, Garfield slammed an air rebreather into his mouth. He pressed several buttons on the airlock, opening the door and walking inside to access the control panel inside. Just as Lex managed to get over the shock of being treated like he had, the airlock door burst open, thrusting them into space.
What would've been their final moments of being sucked into space was immediately cut short when they hit solid ground not a second later from entering space as the Titan had been waiting for them with the cargo bay door open. Red X stood at the side with his boots magnetised to the ground and immediately set about closing the cargo bay door before calling over the internal comm after the air flooded back into the room.
"Got him, get us out of here!" Richard spoke quickly, moving over to Garfield the moment he was done and helping him to his feet. "What happened!"
"Crazy Sith Lord underestimated a smuggler's obsession with leaving themselves an emergency escape route." Garfield chuckled as he dusted himself off, he turned around and found Lex getting to his feet and glaring at Red X slightly. "Our deal still holds?"
"Sigh… yes…" Lex reluctantly grumbled, he took out a device from his inner jacket pocket and pressed a few buttons on it, stowing the device away once Garfield confirmed the transaction of credits. He pulled out another device from his pocket and programmed in coordinates, handing it to Garfield once he was done. "Take me to these coordinates."
Garfield took the pad as he walked over to the stairs to the upper floor, they weren't more than a week away from them and in a lone section of space. It had to be a base Lex set up to trade with the Empire without having to constantly ship things to and from his home star base over Nar Shaddaa.
"Alright, the rooms upstairs are free so take whichever one you want, the rec room is on this floor and down the door on the left." Garfield absentmindedly spoke as he took the stairs, pausing at the top to glare down at Lex for a moment before addressing Richard. "If he enters any other room other than his own and the rec room… toss him out an airlock."
Garfield left happily, failing badly at hiding the smirk from his face at being able to say such a thing to Lex Luthor of all people and there would be no repercussions from it. He nearly jogged down the ramp to the bridge, slightly giddy to give Rachel a present he acquired from his meeting.
Entering the bridge, he found her in his favourite seat piloting the ship away from the wreckage of the Empire cruiser. Garfield hopped into the co-pilot seat and entered in the coordinates, leaving Rachel to activate the ships hyperdrive and get them on their way. Once he was certain there was no further input required from either pilot, he pulled out Malchior's lightsaber he snatched on his way out.
"Got something for you." Garfield held it out to her, he didn't exactly know why he was doing this nor if she would appreciate the gesture, but part of him wanted to show her that she had nothing to fear from that fiend. The moment Rachel's eyes landed on the lightsaber she recoiled as if she had been struck by lightning, gazing wide eyed at the object in Garfield's hands.
"Where did you get that?" Rachel asked quietly nearly a minute later after she had to take a few deep breaths to calm herself. Her reaction scared Garfield, he worried that he had made a mistake in bringing this to her.
"It's Lord Douche's lightsaber… I took it after I cut off his hand… I'm sorry if this brought back any bad memories…" Garfield sorrowfully apologised, he didn't mean to cause her anguish by forcing her to relive her personal hell. He had thought he could help her overcome whatever it was she had with Malchior, and he failed spectacularly.
Rachel gingerly took the sleek black lightsaber from his hand, it was similar to her new one that she made, but this one had red cravings and lines down the side. It looked menacing and evil. Just from looking at it, Garfield could feel the souls of those it had slain.
"It's Darth Trigon's first lightsaber… he gave it to me when I became a fully fledged acolyte…" Rachel tried to speak through the lump in her throat, Garfield wanted to reach out and hug her though he stayed his hand. "It was mine… the one I left behind to confirm my death… that… that fiend Malchior was using this as his own?"
"Yeah… not well, his technique was sloppy… I think it has something to do with whatever happened to his face." Garfield could tell the Sith wasn't at full capacity, that his strength was significantly reduced by whatever put him in that mask. Rachel sighed softly as she curled her fingers around the lightsaber for a second before handing it back to Garfield.
"Dispose of this… please… I don't want to see it again… it belongs to the Darkling Star… and that isn't me… not anymore!" Rachel's voice picked up as she spoke, ending with a triumphant cry of independence from her past. A weight lifted from her shoulders as Garfield put the lightsaber away into his pocket, nodding in agreement to destroy the device. "You really took his hand?"
"Yep, I had him dead to rights and could've killed him, but it wasn't my place to remove that fiend from this world." Garfield nodded, Rachel sat in the chair silently, processing the information for a moment before a slight smile appeared on her face.
"I was the one who put him in that mask." Rachel's words had Garfield spluttering, he looked incredulously at her for a second before bursting into a fit of laughter. Shaking his head, he wiped tears from his eyes as he enjoyed the thought that the ever valiant and undefeatable Rachel had never lost to that fiend.
"He really is not worth killing, isn't he?" Garfield rhetorically asked as he tried in vain to contain his chuckles, Rachel giggled slightly as her small smile brightened slightly. Garfield found himself slightly mesmerised by this sight, it had his heart skipping several beats and a dark red tint gracing his cheeks. He quickly shook his head and coughed.
"You are going to have to take my room for the next week." Garfield tried to change the subject, though the moment he uttered those words his blush grew drastically as Rachel looked at him strangely. "Err… I mean… that is… well… thing is… umm… Lex is onboard… I know he'll have a hatred of Sith for a while, but I don't want to take the chance that he recognises you… I'll take one of the quarters in the back, there's enough room and I have to make sure Lex doesn't go anywhere he shouldn't."
"Oh, okay." Rachel replied innocently, returning to working on the pilot control panel as Garfield stumbled out of the bridge. Waiting for the bridge door to close, he slammed his palm into his face and muttered the word 'idiot' repeatedly.
Shaking his head once more, he set about moving a week's worth of his clothing to one of the rooms in the back while cleaning it up for Rachel, he whispered silently to Kori for her to move a few of Rachel's items to his room. He had to spend several minutes explaining to Kori why Rachel was staying in his room when she passed him a strange stare that looked highly suggestive towards the wrong reasons.
Garfield took a moment in his new room, leaning his head against the cold metal as he sighed. He promised that she would have a place to stay inside his ship no matter what and for as long as she wants, and now he was wondering if that might have been a mistake, especially with how his heart was betraying him at the moment.
Taking a breath, he accessed the computer in the room and set up a secure comm channel to the Doom Patrol. He waited patiently for it to connect, then two words appeared on the screen.
Protocol Nine
Garfield's stomach fell through the floor as he reread this line twenty times just to make sure his eyes were working. Protocol Nine is an emergency action for all Doom Patrol members to go to ground, that the station had been discovered and per protocol rules has left the area. It will now go into deep hiding for twelve months minimum, after that if whatever or whoever found them hadn't been discovered then they will continue to remain hidden.
He sat there stunned, unable to comprehend the reality that for the next year he was on his own. Though he had been largely by himself, they were his silent allies, helping him from the shadows and giving him a safety net that he could rely on.
Garfield had always been alone, but the Doom Patrol was like an estranged family, one he cared for though not openly. Now they were gone, and he had to follow Protocol Nine's rules on that he couldn't track them down, couldn't search for whoever had caused them to go into hiding, he had to go about his normal activities as if nothing happened, that the Doom Patrol hadn't disappeared.
Garfield curled up into the chair, he wasn't emotional, he lost a lot of it during his time with the Scarlet Reapers. Yet, as he sat there, he felt a tear slide down his cheek.
Author's Note: Apologies for the long delay, I have been extremely busy with a few other projects. One of which is called Bloody Nightmare, the zombie apocalypse fanfic I spoke of a while ago. There is a lot of work I have to do on it first before I contemplate uploading it, however I am thoroughly enjoying writing it.
Bloody Nightmare has a slight issue being that its heavily dark and contains major gore and death, I don't go into too much explicit detail often, but there are parts that are akin to Raven's nightmare near the start of the story. The story takes place in modern day AU with Garfield as the MC, he is an orphan that grew up in an orphanage until a set of circumstances lead to him being adopted by the Daytons (Doom Patrol Steve/Mento and Rita/Elasti-Girl).
The outbreak occurs while he is home alone and he has to deal with death of friends and the potential loss of everything he knows. The story is a slow burn so if you like quick action and a big adventure then this isn't the story.
There will be high octane moments occasionally, but it will largely focus on survival and the mentality of living in a world gone to hell.
Comments:
Guest – Thanks for the comment. I'm glad you are enjoying the story, and yeah it was a spur of the moment to include him into the story like that but I apologise that Raven didn't get to beat him up again, however I can say that this isn't the last we'll see of Malchior. I have a few plans for him…
I also want to apologise for the long time between uploads, I had lost tract of time working on my other projects before I finally managed to come back to this one.
Wolgon999 – Thanks for the comment. I try my best to answer all comments, if you take the time to write me a review, then its only fair that I reply as best as I can. (I also like doing it as it allows me to engage if my readers are liking my work and if there is anything I need to change)
Yeah, Malchior was a spur of the moment, but he felt perfect for the scene. Though Raven didn't get much of presence in this chapter, this isn't the end of Malchior, but just the beginning of problems for the team.
I do try my best to upload with decent times, but I got invested into a project which I stated above and lost track of time. I hope you enjoy The Summoner and the Enchantress.
Eris – Thanks for the comment. Sorry, but they won't get their powers. I had thought about it as it would be an interesting twist to the story, but I liked the idea of making Garfield force capable along with Raven and Starfire while leaving Cyborg and Robin without as it follows the power situation of the titans.
Dark gar is becoming a theme for me, I know I shouldn't but I really like dark gar, especially when Raven comes to his aid and brings him out of that darkness. I think why I like it is because it has to do with how Raven has always seen herself being the dark one but to Garfield she is the light, he sees her as his guiding light out of his dark past.
