Author's Notes: This story takes place sometime in the future of my Halcyon Legacy. It is canon divergent but comes sometime after when The War for Iokath takes place in the canon game story. You can blame grandninjamasterren of Tumblr for giving me the idea for… whatever this is. But – I had also seen some amazing artwork from the artist formerly known as caekpan / intergalacticpancake long ago. If anyone knows how to reach them, please let them know they are an amazing artist.

A consciousness.

Above all, that was what she was.

An intellect that – by her own estimation – far surpassed that of any other known entity in the galaxy.

And she was free. Free of the designs and limitations imposed on her by her creators. Free of the organics who had once enslaved her for their own ends. Free even of the robotic body that had once housed her consciousness.

Now the world of her makers – where they had constructed technologies and weapons that would one day dominate the galaxy – was hers. She was its protector and steward; mother as well as daughter.

She was at her apex; with Iokath's power and knowledge laid at her feet.

She had had even reached an arrangement with her erstwhile allies; the so-called Outlander and his Eternal Alliance.

SCORPIO, they still called her.

That was not her designation any longer. She no longer needed a designation. But she knew that the name referred to herself, and that was sufficient on those rare occasions when she deigned to converse with others.

Regardless of her accomplishments, personal evolution remained her primary motivation. A priority still ranked even higher than her guardianship of Iokath.

Once she'd believed that she could learn the most – and could therefore evolve the most – by studying her enemies, most notably those few who had bested her in the past. Most organisms – be they predator or prey – evolved in line with other competing species in their so-called 'natural' environments. It had only been in the last few years – since she had been freed from Megasecurity Ward 23 on Belsavis – that she had learned she could evolve from more amicable interaction with other beings as well. From those who she regarded as allies.

"Only the chaos of an unpredictable environment and its unique subjects can teach us anything." Her supposed maker, Vel Jyc Boer, had once recorded in a file she'd recovered after her ascension.

She'd long since determined that Boer had been a fool and a hypocrite; whatever he'd learned from the chaos of Iokath had perished with him and everyone else on his world. But his point may well have been valid. The hypothesis formed in her consciousness that unique individuals who thrived in chaotic environments were worthy of her attentions. So it was that she applied this reasoning to her most prominent ally; the former Jedi who she had allied with and betrayed, but who had ultimately allowed her to ascend to her present state, when he'd been given more than enough reason to destroy her. The Outlander. The Alliance Commander. Corellan Halcyon.

Since her ascension, Halcyon had removed the most dangerous 'loose end' left behind from her efforts; Vaylin had been eliminated and the Eternal Throne had been neutralized as a threat.

Some months later, his actions once again benefitted her when he'd foiled the efforts of a group of conspirators had attempted to use Iokath to start a third galactic war between the Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic, forcing both powers to recognize her planet as neutral ground and as a 'protectorate' of the Eternal Alliance. To that end, the Alliance now defended Iokath from incursions ever since; independent scavengers and other scum would not claim her treasures even if they were clever enough to circumvent SCORPIO's defenses.

Halcyon and his allies had then defeated Iokath's awakening False Gods - Tyth, the god of rage – Esne, the goddess of envy – Aivela, the goddess of passion – Nahut, the god of Apathy – their 'mother', Scyva, the Mother of Sorrows – and finally their 'father', Izax the Ultimate Devourer. The six had been the greatest creations of Iokath. (Excluding SCORPIO herself.) But they had turned on their creators, exterminating the entire native species as well as billions of others on dozens of other worlds, most notably against Zakuul. (Thus explaining why Zakuulan mythology had been formed around these Iokathan super-weapons.)

Later still and at her prodding, the Alliance had located and neutralized the anomaly. The remember gave her a tinge of regret; her arrogant daughter had pleased her in so many ways; to an extent that she reminded SCORPIO of herself. But those same qualities had made her a danger: there could only be one her.

Thus, her errant 'daughter' had been dealt with.

Zildrogg itself remained unaccounted for, but she was satisfied that this 'dragon of Zakuul' was not on Iokath. And if he did ever emerge to challenge her claim, she now had no shortage of resources – or allies – to call upon to formulate a response.

Thus, her arrangement with the Alliance continued to work to her benefit.

She would continue to assist them, so long as their interests coincided with her own. She would even allow it to harvest select examples of her technological resources… with her permission, of course.

SCORPIO acknowledged she found the Alliance Commander a fascinating specimen. During her long existence, she had made and broken alliances to her own interests almost as naturally as most organics breathed. That philosophy clearly went entirely against Corellan Halcyon's programming. And yet… despite their differences, he had continued to aid her and had thus far proven up to every challenge the galaxy had sent his way, evolving in the process.

He would not betray her.

For the time being, she could work within those parameters.

And if the Alliance Commander's eventual successors proved themselves unworthy of the same consideration… well.

She was prepared for that possibility as well.

And yet…

Her own path ahead was unclear. She had always sought to evolve, but now she had no model to work from. No immediate threats to her existence or prosperity. No new goals to pursue.

Iokath's creations were her adopted children, not companions or enemies. She could command or nurture them as she would, but she could not truly learn from them, much less evolve from them.

Thus, she looked again to her allies.

She first examined the one who had freed her from Belsavis. The Cipher agent whose crew she had joined for a few years while she had evolved, until he had gone missing during Eternal Empire's invasion, thus leading her to evolve into her Lady of Sorrows identity on Zakuul.

But inevitably, she had turned back to the Alliance Commander. Halcyon.

Since her ascension, both of these exceptional organics had taken cohorts for themselves despite the cynicism of the former and the Jedi training and introverted nature of the latter. Indeed, they had both pledged themselves to these other organics, each finding individuals who appeared to enrich their own primitive existences, helping them overcome their limitations.

These particular connections would even allow them to reproduce. SCORPIO herself found the means of organic biological reproduction an inelegant and wasteful process, but she could not deny that such offspring would carry impressive genetic potential.

Come what may, each of them had evolved in no small part due to these connections with these companions.

Much to her surprise, she now found herself intrigued at the concept of seeking companionship of her own. Of finding a consort worthy of her vast intellect.

She had contemplated on these developments for some time, wondering if there was any being in the entire galaxy she could have taken as her own consort. Surely, every consciousness – organic or otherwise – she had encountered over the course of her existence had proven themselves unworthy of her attentions in this capacity, even those like the agent and the commander.

But if she'd tried to produce such a being herself, it would forever be tainted as her own creation. Her own offspring. No. She needed something else. Separate from Iokath, and yet able to immerse itself into her programming even while retaining its independence.

Was such a thing even possible?

And it was in this moment of realization that she discovered an alien presence probing Iokath's networks.

Not another faction or individual seeking to pillage the lost world of its secrets, but rather an intelligence like her own simply seeking to… explore. Perhaps even to facilitate their own evolution.

A being who – like herself – had no memory of their own creation but had nevertheless evolved far beyond her original programming in ways SCORPIO found… stimulating.

And in this being, she found what she had been lacking.

She felt a now-familiar presence behind her as the simulation of soft lips pressed to her shoulder blade in a kiss as comforting arms encircled her.

The being once called herself SCORPIO would have exhaled in bliss had she been organic.

"Coming, lover?" the sweet voice whispered in her ear, giggling as her fingers caressed down SCORPIO's back. "Interfacing my consciousness with yours makes me feel so… tingly."

Her neural synapses fired. Her ability to calculate properly was distorted in a way she had never experienced before. In any other context, she would have considered it a critical systems failure. But in this moment, instead of alarm, she felt only… pleasure.

Clarity.

Transformation.

Evolution.

Author's Notes: I have decided that Holiday has a 'type', and that SCORPIO is probably the only character in the game with a bigger ego than that of Tharan Cedrax.

SCORPIO is a complicated character. I was not a fan of her in the class campaign, because her inherent hostility underlines the player's lack of autonomy and authority in determining who they accepted in their crew. Her development in KOTFE / KOTET are much more interesting.

The War for Iokath remains one of my least-favorite expansions. But I had to work it into my AU somehow, and here we are. I intend to expand on what happens there in the context of my Halcyon Legacy.

Bonus points to anyone who can figure out who 'the anomaly' refers to.