Sorry it's been so long! I've been busy with life and work and then KotET YESTERDAY. I loved it tbh. I thought it was a lot better than KotFE, for sure.

But anyway. Enjoy!

Chapter Nine: Voss, Part One

The moment she stepped off the ship she disliked Voss. It was sort of green, but a strange shade, like a brownish-green, and there were too many rocks and the sun was too bright… Aurelia had always been a city girl (one of the many cons about being born and raised in Kaas City) and had no real desire to be out in the open air, though Alderaan had been the exception. Sighing as she kicked a stray pebble across the dirt path she looked up at Scourge. He'd been uncharacteristically quiet since arriving, even as they'd battled through nexu, mawvorr, and Imps in a cave to try and find Lord Fulminiss - all to no avail of course (though they learned that the Sith-y piece of space garbage wanted to eradicate all life on Voss, almost begging the question of what is up with the rampant genocide in the Sith Order ?). Even now, as they approached a Voss outpost where they were to meet a new ally, Scourge remained quiet.

"Are you all right?" she asked him softly as they neared Tala-Reh's tent.

He gave a curt nod but said nothing.

She'd go further in depth later but they didn't have the time. Tala-Reh stood peacefully as Aurelia and Scourge walked in, and Aurelia regarded the slight Voss woman with cautious eyes. The Voss hadn't sounded too bad at first ("Just because they don't follow the Jedi Code doesn't make them bad people," she'd told Satele) but they were as much slaves to the Mystics as Sith were to the Emperor. It irritated her to no end, how they couldn't seem to think for themselves. "We're here," she said to the Tala-Reh. "You ready to go to the Shrine and take down Lord Fulminiss?"

"I cannot. The shrine is forbidden to me."

Of course it is.

"You must make the pilgrimage alone - the guardians will open the Shrine for you."

"What does Fulminiss even want there?" This all was much too vague for her tastes. "How will the Shrine of Healing help him destroy all life on Voss?"

"I do not know. Only those chosen may go to the Shrine."

Ugh, ugh, ugh.

"The Mystics have decreed it - I must wait here."

"You're sworn to protect Valen-Da, but all these laws and traditions stand in your way. Doesn't that make you angry?"

"We obey the Mystics."

Is she serious? "You can't let others just control your life like that," she maintained.

"The Mystics are never wrong."

Sure, and I'm a Kowakian monkey-lizard.

"We've seen what kind of man Lord Fulminiss is." Aurelia knew an argument was pointless and would get them nowhere but she couldn't stand blind worship in any way, shape, or form. "Surely you don't think Valen-Da is right to help him?"

"A Mystic is always right."

Oh gods.

She and Scourge continued the debate on the way to the Shrine - well actually, Aurelia just ranted while Scourge listened. She ranted about the ignorance of the Voss people and the way they just blindly revered their Mystics and yeah sure she listened to the Council but she had no issues talking back when she thought they were wrong - and she didn't always do what they ordered. And don't get her started on the Sith - talk about blind worship. Surprisingly, Scourge stayed silent during this part, waiting until they neared the Shrine to speak.

"I must confess, I partially agree with you," he said, folding his arms across his massive chest. "The Sith follow the Emperor too ignorantly."

"You never did."

"Only because I saw his true plans."

"You never told anyone?"

"What would I say? 'Oh Darth Marr, the Emperor is planning to murder us all with an ancient ritual but I have no proof except my word'. I highly doubt it would have gone over well."

"Well not if you say it like that," she grumbled.

They continued on into the Shrine, and it was unnaturally quiet. Their boots clicked and clomped on the stone floors and Aurelia felt like she shouldn't even speak. And she wasn't oblivious to the sudden calm that had come over her. Even if their Mystics were creepy and controlling, the Force really was strong with them. She and Scourge ran into a few deranged healers they had to defeat and then, of course (because why not) three golden Voss spirits appeared and told her to stop her slaughter.

She asked where Fulminiss had went.

"Gone," the single female spirit said, and Aurelia wanted to punch her.

"We taught Fulminiss the healing ritual," one of the men said. "He perverted it."

"Corrupted, it rips open the mind," the other said. "Violence and slaughter are unleashed."

"The dark side has the power to corrupt life itself," Scourge had told her earlier, and her stomach churned. "And Fulminiss is a master at manipulating evolution to create unimagined horrors."

This was not good.

"Valen-Da left a message," the first man said. "In the corner."

Scourge stood behind her as she rifled through the box, and she could feel his apprehension. It wasn't quite fear - it was more like distrust. She found the holo but the damn thing wouldn't activate. When she turned and asked the Voss spirits why they told her to take it to Tala-Reh.

"This is a waste of time," she spat. "Your planet is in grave danger - and no one around here can give me a straight answer!"

And, very Voss-like of her, the female spirit murmured, "Our task is done," and they disappeared.

Scourge didn't speak again until they were almost at the Dark Heart Approach. They had just taken down a gigantic vorantikus and he stepped away from it, clipping his lightsaber back on his belt. "Either you are an exemplary warrior of your Order, or perhaps the Jedi aren't as weak as I originally thought."

"I'm taking that as a compliment." He watched her de-ignite her sabers and return them to her hips, and then she smiled. "And I'm also never letting you live that down."

Scourge gave a tight-lipped smile, still slightly breathless from defeating the creature. If he was being honest with himself her snarky remarks were growing on him. "I am not too prideful to admit that I have actually… learned something from my time with you."

She leaned against a gnarled tree for a short breather, letting her hair fall from its bun. It tumbled down her shoulders and back, a myriad of dark shades, curling at the tips. "Is that right?"

He nodded. "For three hundred years I have spoken to no one but Sith. And Sith do not change." He heard the irritation in his own voice and Aurelia smirked, brushing her fingers through her hair as she listened to him. "They are the same on Korriban now as in my childhood. The same tricks, the same fights, the same mind tricks, the same groveling."

"Yeah, that's why I got out." She started working on braiding her hair, sighing when her fingers slipped and she grabbed the wrong pieces. "I couldn't stand it."

"I do not blame you. But the Jedi are… different."

"Was that almost a compliment?" She groaned softly as she messed up the braid once more and she shook her long locks out. And then her eyes turned up to his, and he already knew what she was going to ask. "You, um, you don't know how to braid hair, do you?"

He cleared his throat and when he spoke, his voice was guarded. Intentionally so. "Perhaps."

"You do, don't you?"

"If I say yes, will I be roped into braiding yours?"

"Of course."

He sighed heavily, shaking his head, and his irritation rose. He had been working hard since Korriban's Flame to keep his distance from her, as best he could. The way she had looked at him after he stepped away from her, after she'd calmed down, the soft hints of pleasure and desire he'd felt coursing through her body the entire time… as interesting as it was and as much as he might enjoy exploring it further - well, for starters he could not feel desire himself, and there was too much to focus on without the distractions of a lover. For both of them - which was one of the many reasons the doctor's presence irritated him. But … allowing her to feel and embrace the dark side as she had, as she did with the doctor...there was no real harm in that, was there?

"If you don't want to do it - " she started.

He cut her off with a raised hand and a soft 'turn around'. He tried to be gentle as his fingers slowly worked her hair into a long braid, and he could feel every little thing she felt - peace, then pleasure, desire… She swayed slightly and he sensed exhaustion. Fatigue. They'd found shelter in a tent the night before at the outpost several klicks away from the Nightmare Lands and, from what he could tell, she had slept long, if not well. But he knew that his fingers running through her hair was doing this to her.

"What'd you mean when you said you were learning from me?" she asked quietly.

"I only meant that I am surprised I have learned the most of the Force from a Jedi," he responded in a quiet voice as well, mentally sensing more than physically feeling her shiver. "Revan taught me to be effective when I became the Emperor's Wrath. And now I have learned as much from you."

"Is that a threat?" she asked, half-teasing. "I know what you did to your last master."

"Indeed you do," and his voice held a soft laugh. "It is always a dangerous time, no, when the pupil exceeds the master?" He gently tugged her hair into the band she used, then ran his hand the length of the braid, and he wondered fleetingly if her hair was as soft as it looked. "There."

She turned to face him, touching the braid as well, and she grinned. "Wow. How'd you learn to braid like this?"

"A woman I was involved with long ago would ask me to braid her hair every morning."

"Ooh, Scourge had a girlfriend?"

He scowled, inwardly kicking himself for bringing it up. "This is not the time, nor the place. You have taken a break - now we must stop Lord Fulminiss."

"Yeah, okay. We'll table it for later."

He half-sighed, half-groaned, and Aurelia smiled.

Fulminiss was quite a warrior. And by that, Aurelia meant that he was quite a dirty cheat. He would use fancy Force tricks like lightning and blasting her back and knocking her out when she had the upper hand. Why couldn't he use his lightsaber or why couldn't he just knock it the hell off ? She was so irritated by his smug "interlopers" comment and his sleazy combat skills that she had no problem striking him down with a lightsaber to the gut. Gods, Sith were the worst. Then she realized Tala-Reh and Valen-Da were still there and she nearly groaned. The Voss were almost as bad.

"Outsider," Valen-Da said to her. "A victory well-earned. My vision nears completion.

"Way to stand off in the corner during the battle," she scowled. "Thanks a lot."

"Forgive her tone, honored one," Tala-Reh murmured. "She does not understand our ways."

Yeah, damn right.

Valen-Da took this moment to try and explain everything - what Fulminiss had planned, his own vision, and the evilness that was Sel-Makor; an ages-old being of twisted, pure malice, the heart of the Nightmare Lands. He said it needed to be destroyed, and Aurelia tended to agree; nobody, no matter how infuriatingly vague or arrogant, should have to go through the insanity she saw in the Nightmare Lands.

"I accompanied Fulminiss so Tala-Reh would follow," Valen-Da murmured. "Only she can destroy Sel-Makor."

"What, your 'vision' told you that?" Aurelia snarked. She and visions weren't at a very good standing right now; to be honest, she wasn't even sure she believed in Scourge's.

Valen-Da nodded.

"Well, what's my role in all this?"

He turned to face her. "Your part is done. Tala-Reh would not be here without you."

"Honored one," she said to him, "tell me what I must do."

"Descend the steps into the maw of Sel-Makor." Valen-Da faced her again. "Confront the evil. Destroy it."

Aurelia folded her arms across her chest, frowning. Wasn't this a better job for a Jedi?

"You will not survive," Valen-Da finished.

Aurelia couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You're asking Tala-Reh to make the ultimate sacrifice - you're asking her to give her life for a vision ?"

"This is my destiny," she said, her voice ever stony. "My actions will save all of Voss."

"No!" Sel-Makor's disembodied voice was angry, and it howled the word. "Violation. Defilement. Extinction. This must not be!"

And then Aurelia felt it in her mind, the utter darkness of Sel-Makor settling inside her. She shook her head to try and clear it, and she fought it, even as it commanded her to shove Valen-Da into it; even as it promised her rewards and power for doing so. She wouldn't - she couldn't do it (and frankly she was getting real sick of being possessed by the dark side).

"You are a being of pure evil," she said, her voice strong. "And you must be destroyed."

Tala-Reh walked the steps that led down into Sel-Makor's heart - and moments later the being bellowed in rage. It closed in on itself and the room shook and Aurelia's heart ached just a little. That Tala-Reh would so willingly sacrifice herself for the greater good… Aurelia knew that, as a Jedi, she always had to be prepared to do the same but she never wanted to. She was too selfish.

When the shaking stopped, Aurelia stood up. Valen-Da tried his usual Voss Mystic bantha shit on her but she scoffed. "You used Tala-Reh," she said. "You used her, and you manipulate the other Voss into doing whatever you want."

"Outsiders cannot understand. My vision guided all Voss to a better life."

"Anyone else could have destroyed Sel-Makor - you could have. But instead you set up a whole ruse and tricked Tala-Reh by saying it was her 'destiny', when I could have easily just thrown my kriffing lightsaber in there. Not only that, but in this ruse, you let people die. Innocent and guilty alike."

"Lives were lost," he murmured. "Many more were saved."

Arguing was meaningless at this point and Aurelia let him return to Voss-Ka without another comment. But she and Scourge lingered a few moments.

"I...I probably should've stepped in or something, offered myself up as a sacrifice," she murmured, staring at the pile of rubble burying Sel-Makor, "but I've just never understood the whole 'risking your life for the greater good' thing. I don't know… it just doesn't make much sense to me."

"If it had been any of your crew instead of Tala-Reh," Scourge said softly, "would you have done the same?"

Aurelia looked at him for a moment, and her answer came almost immediately. "No," she murmured. "If it'd been Kira, I would've stepped up and sacrificed myself. Same with Doc or Rusk… Even you."

Scourge met her eyes quietly. "You continue to baffle me, Jedi. Something, I must say, I do not admit lightly."

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"I've not decided yet."

"Hmm." She looked back to the rubble with a sigh, and neither of them spoke for a few moments. Then Scourge murmured, "Your Jedi Exile thought much the same. At times."

"What, about not sacrificing your loved ones?"

He nodded. "When she, Revan, and I confronted the Emperor there was a moment when Revan was almost overcome by the strength of the Emperor. Meetra threw her lightsaber to knock the Emperor's own weapon from his hands to save her friend's life. She could have killed the Emperor then and there - but it would've meant sacrificing Revan."

Aurelia sighed. "I would do it too," she whispered, "if it meant I got to keep someone I loved safe."

"This time, Jedi, it would not be one life against another - it would be one life against the entire galaxy. There will be no room for unnecessary heroics when you face him."

She nodded glumly, wishing for just one second that she was someone else. That she had never been born Sith, or Jedi - that she was no one special.

"Shall we return to the ship?" Scourge asked quietly.

"Yeah, I guess. I'm sick of this planet."

"I can see why you're a Knight," he said as they started to walk. "You possess no diplomatic skills whatsoever."

"Is that a joke, or fact?"

He didn't respond.

They were almost out of the Nightmare Lands, walking in silence, when Aurelia heard a noise, a rustling from a nearby bush. She stopped, and so did Scourge. Her hand twitched to her lightsaber, and she scanned the area.

"You feel it?" she asked Scourge.

He nodded, igniting his lightsaber. Aurelia did the same.

And then there was a blaster at the back of her head.