I won't be able to update for a few days after this. Sorry guys!

Chapter Seven: Thoughts

In all the occasions he'd given thought to Aurelia, in all the times he had recalled his vision he never imagined her to be like… this. Garrulous, arrogant, impudent. She spoke candidly and brutally, and she had no interest in being a hero. She revered Revan and Meetra Surik and hated Sith and the Empire with such a passion that she struck down any that got in her way.

And she has engaged in a relationship with that doctor.

Scourge had felt that darkness in her even on Quesh, and it had surprised him then. Now, having spent several days with her he could admit that she only confounded him further. And he wasn't certain yet if that was good or bad. Scourge sighed as he stood in the armory, lightsaber in hand. He did not need to work to hone his skills anymore; he'd had more than three centuries to do so. But, for some unknown reason and for once in ages, he wanted to purge these thoughts of Aurelia from his mind - even only for a moment. She was all he could think about since Quesh (even more so since he had joined her crew) and he needed a moment of peace.

He sparred with a couple of holographic droids Aurelia had set up, taking them down easily. And he did this again and again until his chest heaved and exhaustion riddled his bones and his mind was cleared. Finally. Scourge leaned against the wall and closed his eyes as he caught his breath. They were close to the space station - he could feel it. And… he could feel something else…

"You okay?"

He opened his eyes to find Aurelia standing in the open doorway of the armory, dressed in a new set of armor - one he had not seen before. And though he could not necessarily see colors he could differentiate between shades - and each piece of her new armor was dark, like the last set. This had surprised him a bit upon their first meeting - she always seemed to dress like a Sith. "I'm all right," he said after a moment, realizing she was waiting for answer. "I was simply sparring with those holograms."

Aurelia regarded him for a moment with her deep eyes and then she said, "Got anything to show me?"

"You want to learn from me?" Ignoring the fact that you already have.

"I need all the help I can get taking down the Emperor," she said. "Obviously just using my Jedi training didn't do much - maybe giving him a taste of his own medicine will."

"So, you intend to fight fire with fire?"

"I was hoping lightning with lightning."

"I cannot teach you that." Scourge eyed her for a moment. "I must admit, I'm slightly disappointed you don't remember."

"Don't remember what?"

"While you were under the Emperor's influence, I trained you."

Aurelia smiled, amused. "You, the Emperor's Wrath, taught me Sith lightsaber combat?"

He nodded. "I had to ensure you would have the skills to defeat him."

"Hmm. Well, how come I don't remember it?"

"How am I supposed to know?"

Her grin widened and she mimicked his pose, folding her arms. "You're sassy today."

Scourge sighed. "Well I suppose I can teach you some techniques again if you don't remember them."

"Are we talking ancient ones or ones I might've already learned at the Academy when I was eight?"

He smirked. "Neither. Ones only I employ."

Aurelia smiled. "Bring it on."

They sparred for close to an hour, and he taught her anything he could think of. She picked it up quickly, presumably from muscle memory, as he'd guessed. They worked hard and even without the influence of the dark side she proved to be quite the opponent, knocking him to his back in one smooth move, a definitive end to their sparring session. The breath left his body with a whoomph and he looked up as she pinned him down, her chest heaving from breathing heavily, her face bright from exertion.

"Hi," she murmured. "Pinned you, my lord," and the words dripped with smiled sarcasm.

He made no move to get up, off put by seeing her atop him but not being able to feel her weight - and, of course, by the fact that she had been able to do this to him. "Indeed you have. Now are you going to let me up?"

"Mm, I don't know. You could probably stand to be knocked down a peg or too."

"Is that right?"

She nodded, eyes shining. "And, obviously, you're not as skilled as you think you are if I, the courageous Hero of Tython yet a lowly Jedi, was able to beat you, the fearsome Emperor's Wrath. Though, if I remember correctly, it's happened twice now."

"Is that so?" He put his hands on her forearms, heard her breath hitch in her throat. "Maybe it's time for a victory of my own, then." In one fluid motion he flipped her onto her back, effectively pinning her to the floor. She looked up at him with soft, shining eyes, a smirk on her face.

"You made your point," she said. "You can get up now."

"Perhaps I don't want to." He smirked too. "Perhaps you can stand to be knocked down a peg or two."

"Ha ha. Get up." Aurelia pushed him off her and he rose, helping her up with an outstretched hand. He watched as she smoothed down her armor and picked up her lightsaber again. "Is that all you got?" she asked, as if trying to goad him, and he could feel the lingering thrill of both combat and… something else in her veins. Attraction? Desire?

Hmm.

"Yes," he responded to her question, returning his own lightsaber to his hip, deciding to not bring up those out of place feelings - yet. "I do not know how more to prepare you to face him," he said. "All the rest of my methods you would have learned at the Academy."

"Then maybe I should teach you some things." She clipped her lightsaber back at her hip, smirking.

"I suppose it's not a terrible idea," he conceded. "All I know of Jedi ways is from Revan." He did not imagine the new smile on her face. "Surely they have changed in three hundred years."

"How does one become the Emperor's Wrath?" she blurted suddenly, and a slight blush crossed her pale cheeks. "Sorry, er, I've been wanting to ask you for a few days now."

"There has only ever been one."

"That didn't answer my question."

"You did not answer mine."

"You didn't ask one!"

He lifted an eyebrow.

"Ugh, fine. Yes, Jedi training has changed since Revan, gramps. Will you answer my question now?"

He folded his arms across his chest. So demanding and quick to irritation - very un-Jedi-like. He wanted to smile. "Perhaps another time - when you haven't insulted my age."

She made a face, but nodded. "Fine. I'm holding you to that."

"As you wish." Scourge looked down at her again (she was so small compared to him) and he wasn't sure what made him want to tell her everything. So he continued speaking. "My training as a Sith was not far different from Korriban today."

"Yeah? So what made you so special, then? Why'd his holy Sith-y-ness choose you to be his personal executioner?"

"My visions set me apart from the rest, made them bring me before the Emperor."

"So you've always had them?"

He hesitated. He'd been putting off the truth for as long as he could, knowing how much she revered Revan and Meetra Surik, and he tried to creep around it in this response. "I had my first vision the night before Revan, the Exile, and I would face off against the Emperor."

"Hmm. Do you still have them?"

"Not really, no."

Aurelia nodded and then looked down, a sudden sadness surrounding her in the Force. "I've never really had a vision before, but sometimes my old Master, er, visits me as a spirit."

"I remember when Darth Angral killed him," he said, and she winced, and the change in the air was palpable. Gone was any underlying desire or excitement from combat; she was full of sadness and bittersweet recollection. "Though at the time, I had no idea his apprentice was you."

She nodded again and caught his eyes. "I wonder…" She gave a short, wry laugh then, and a shake of her head. "I wonder what he would think of me now. Allied with a Sith, to take down the Emperor."

Scourge knew she was fishing for a compliment - he would be proud of you, most likely - but he wasn't one to often give them. He had to say something, however, so he murmured, "I don't know."

She sighed slightly. "Tell me more about Revan and the Exile," she said, and her voice was soft, full of childlike wonderment. Her face had softened too, but there was still that sadness. "Most of what I know I found in the Jedi archives but they're so frustratingly sparse, especially on Master Surik. And I can't find hardly anything on Darth Revan…"

"It should not have surprised anyone that Revan turned Sith," Scourge said. "He knew you cannot fight the dark side without understanding it."

"Well I'm not going to fall."

He eyed her. "Are you claiming to be better than Revan?"

"Damn right I'm better than Revan."

Scourge let a small smile through - her pride never ceased to entertain him. "We shall see."

"Yeah, okay. And what about the Exile - Master Surik? What was she like?"

"She was… harder to read. Even with all she had done, she never trusted herself. With Revan, she was his student again."

Another soft blush painted her cheeks and she looked down, and he could feel she was a little embarrassed. "It's - it's stupid, but I always thought I was a lot like her. I don't know, maybe it was because I looked up to her but I always thought she and I had a lot in common - even though I never got to meet her."

"I would agree," Scourge said softly. "Neither of you let yourself be ruled by your Council; you are both defiant and independent, and you were both born to be leaders."

"Stop," she murmured with a grin, meeting his eyes. "I'm getting emotional."

Scourge half-smiled, half-scowled, hating what he had to say next. But it was time she knew the truth - he couldn't hide it for much longer. But he wasn't sure if that was because she would find out sooner or later or because he didn't want to keep anything from her. "I liked them, Meetra and Revan. And I would have served them but my vision told me they would fail. I cut down the Exile and brought Revan to the Emperor as a gift."

She frowned deeply, taking a step back. Though whether that was subconsciously or on purpose, Scourge wasn't sure. "Wait, you killed Meetra Surik?"

"Yes," he whispered.

"Is… is that what you're planning to do to me?"

"If you are not the one who will stop the Emperor's madness, then I will await the one who will."

"That… that didn't answer my question. But," she sighed, "what else is new? So what happened after that?"

"I served the Emperor. It was the only way to live long enough to find the Jedi who would kill him - to find you - and I convinced him to trust me. He took my offering and gave me a place at his side. He gave me immortality. It was a gift." He sighed. "Though not without its price."

"Is that why you can't smile?"

He frowned, helping her prove her point. "I can smile, Jedi."

"Oh, you just choose not to."

The scowl he wore now did not help his case. "Enough."

"Oops, did I hit a nerve there?"

"Was there anything more you wished to discuss?" he asked a little harsher than he had intended, though the fact that she was joking with him made him hopeful that she didn't harbor any resentment after learning his truth.

Aurelia still wore a teasing smile and she just looked at him for a moment, her eyes focused on him, and he wished he could see them, really see them. Green had always been his favorite color (from back when he could still see it). There'd never been any green on Korriban and he had always preferred the forests on Dromund Kaas to the city; so much vibrance and color. He watched as her smile slowly faded into something softer, more pensive, and that attraction was back. It hummed in her veins, loud and hot, and he wondered why it was directed at him. No one - not a single woman, man, human, Sith, or alien - had been attracted to him in at least two hundred years. Honestly, it left him dumbfounded. Why? he wondered. It wasn't as if he was a normal man anyway - he was Sith, and the Emperor's Wrath (and just a few short weeks ago Scourge had written off her flirting with him under the Emperor's control as just that).

"What are you thinking about?" she murmured.

He opened his mouth to respond but the voice that he heard was not his own.

"Oh good, you two haven't killed each other yet."

Scourge frowned, looking behind Aurelia to find the other Jedi standing in the doorway. Perhaps he ought to start closing this door.

"Um, we're just a few minutes away from the station," Kira said softly, avoiding Scourge's eyes and finding those of her old master's. "There's some Imp security officer on the holo."

Aurelia sighed and looked up at Scourge. "Ready to work our magic?"

He followed her out to the holocommunicator, promising himself to broach the topic of her desire at a later date, and fought back both a smile and a sigh at the lie she told the security officer - "Someone ordered sixteen tons of refresher-flushing modules; I'm here to deliver" - and transmitted the clearance codes. The officer fumbled around for words for a moment, finally settling on, "We're so pleased you're here, Grand Moff. You'll find our security airtight."

"That is unlikely," Scourge muttered under his breath.

"I've, ah, cleared a docking bay for you," the officer said. "Please proceed with your landing, sir." And then his figure was gone.

"For the moment, they believe I am Grand Moff Resh," Scourge said, turning towards Aurelia. "But this ruse will not hold. Prepare to kill everyone."

"You know, Scourge, um, killing everyone might make it difficult to find out what the hell is going on."

He sighed. Damn her Jedi platitudes. "Then cripple those you think possess information. Kill the rest."

As they made their way to the airlock he heard Aurelia murmur, "Now what am I gonna do with all those refresher-flushing modules?"