master negotiator

It wasn't until they'd managed the feat of actually hitting the opening just right that it dawned on Afir just what she'd done in that cavern. She couldn't go back to treating Rex like someone who hadn't touched her soul. And that had nothing to do with his saving her life.

"Step lightly," he whispered to her, seeking something in the dark.

She nodded and reached out with the force to see what he feared. An echo of darkness sprang back, something menacing approaching.

"Have you met Ventress yet?" she asked him.

"Red lightsabers, my hairstyle, has it in for General Skywalker?"

"Got it in one," she muttered as she looked up at the inky sky. No light. No moon. Just a few smatterings of small, distant stars.

"I owe her a bit of payback," he told her, taking off his helmet so that he could look her in the eye.

She met his stare and lifted her chin. "You'll leave it to me," she ordered. "She's a Sith. Or not quite a Sith, but just as deadly. You are to her what droids are to us."

Rex snorted and put his helmet back on. "Not quite that useless, I hope."

"Meaningless," Afir corrected him, a restraining hand going to his arm. "Soulless. Bloodless. Something to be cut down on the way to a larger goal."
He swallowed, although the emotion he choked back was hidden behind the void of his facepiece. He didn't have time to respond before that voice cut through his armor to chill his blood.

"Well put, Jedi," Ventress told them. She force leapt to their side, lightsabers still on her belt.

Afir nodded. "What business do you have on this planet?" she asked, bowing.

Rex gaped at her as he reached for his blaster.

Only to find the damn thing ripped from his grasp and sent flying toward the hole they'd just crawled out of.

Ventress bared her teeth. "Going to talk me to death?" she asked. "Or, no, could it be that I've rounded up Master Yoda's negotiator?" Her question was cruelly voiced. "There are but a few jedi who stomach not the fight. Who choose not to use their lightsabers. No matter. That will only make my job easier."

Afir lifted an eyebrow even as she lifted her hand to stop Rex from charging. "There's a difference between those who relish warfare for the sake of warfare and those who use their weapons in defense of the weak and for the greater good."

Ventress's thin laugh cut the air. "So you do not relish using your lightsaber? Fine then, you can feel mine just the same as I have no such compunction."

"I don't believe that was an accusation ever made," Rex hissed.

Afir rolled her eyes at him even as she threw up her hands to send Ventress skidding across the dewy grass.

The pale, woman-like figure picked herself up and stood at ready, glowering at the human before her. "I have been trained by Count Dooku and Narek Ag."

"And I knew Narek. I remember his goodness and his kindness and his humor and his sense of fair play from my own childhood. Think you that he would approve this career choice for you?" Afir asked softly. "Give this up, Ventress, for the universe is too huge to pay the price for one death and in blaming the jedi you blame the wrong entity."

"The jedi did nothing!" the dark jedi swore. She charged at Afir, both lightsabers out and ready. Afir simply waited, biding her time, then leapt over her opponent.

"If you think that's true then you're mistaken," Afir told her. The stuck-up mien was in place. The finely wrought nose was held high, the delicate chin jutted out. "If that is what has driven you the dark side then see the error of your ways and repent. I was a small child when Narek disappeared. And I know how the council at least fretted for him. We searched - - they did. Narek's mission was to Gundi Maei. Until you appeared no one even knew that he'd ever stepped foot on Rattatak. Why did none of your people get word to us that one of our own was stranded? Why was no appeal made to the Senate on behalf of those in that moon system?" Afir's voice held tears. The questions were true from her heart. The man they discussed had obviously been dear to her. Her distress was real.

Ventress's head hung down. Hatred fired her eyes. "Lies," she hissed. "Drivel thrown to you by your leaders."

Afir simply shook her head. "Come with me to the temple and question them yourself. Read the truth in their eyes. See our archives and know the mission that Narek was on when he came to be on your world. Will you not share with us the lessons he taught you? Will you not fill in the empty pages of his life for us so that we may honor him and know his full story and pass it down with his legend?" she asked.

Rex's eyes were wide and he jerked from watching the crouched tiger to stare at Afir in amazement.

Ventress sprang. "A trap! More lies! Webs spun by the treacherous!"

With effort Afir stopped the maddened forward motion, picked up the woman using nothing more than the force flowing through her - - directed by her sweet, soft hands - - and slammed the pale visage to the ground twenty feet away. Rex could do no more than watch. She'd fared better than any he'd ever seen against this warrior and she'd yet to draw sword or blaster.

Ventress hissed, groaned, and jumped to her feet again.

"Assaj, please," Afir begged in a soft, tearful whisper. "We could be as sisters. The force is strong in you even now. The good that Narek saw and the training he gave you is there. Why do you turn from it? Why do you side with one who will not even show you all of his ways? What sense is there in this?"
Ventress ignored the plea and charged again.

This time at the last instant Afir drew her own blade and it held the two red lasers at bay. Rex hated that red glow so close to her pretty face. There seemed little he could do about it, though, without getting his own body uselessly hacked off. He'd let his girl have her go, then step in. Although the hell of it was, she seemed as determined to bring the villainess home with them as to defeat her.

"Feel my power," Ventress told the other woman. "This is what the jedi denied me. And now I am stronger for it."

"You are a slave to your anger, Ventress," Afir corrected with a head shake. "A pawn of those feeding their power with hate. Better to be your own woman, your own master, and not taste that dark rush than to taste it and lust after ever more."

Rex's heart stopped as she slipped one foot behind her, letting the blades down closer to her precious face, her tender body. Then she moved her wieght back, stepping clear of the other woman and dropping her own blade. In too small a span of time to recognize seconds or milliseconds or anything else - - in the same motion, the same movement - - she picked up Ventress and hurled her into the pit from which they'd just come.

He stood there, stunned, as she thoughtfully watched the chasm from which Ventress's bloodcurdling scream now echoed.

"It's for the best," he told her finally, moving toward her. "She's no better than that Dooku and wasn't likely to change." He sought to comfort her.

"She still might," Afir told him, tightening her lips. "She knows now - - I can be restful about that at least - - she knows now that Narek meant something to someone other than herself. The seed's been planted and she may yet see the error of her ways. If nothing else she may decide to storm the temple to see what we've documented, even if she's still convinced it's lies." She looked at him again and it was truly her that saw him. "Come, now," she said briskly. "I'll warn them that she might be coming so that there are no surprises and they can come up with a protection of sorts for the younglings."

Rex glanced at confusion toward the hole in the mountain.

Afir saw and laughed. "Did you think I'd sent her to her death? She'll be able to use the force to catch herself on one of the ledges, to slow her fall. With luck she'll get some small injury for my pains, but she'll be crawling out of there far too soon to suit far too many on our side."

"I've seen you strike first and ask questions later many a time. I've seen both General Kenobi and General Skywalker go toe to toe with her with those laser swords of yours. Why did you wait so long?"

"I'm not the swordsman Obi-Wan is. I'm not the offensive tactician Anakin is. And, despite her pain and misdirection, she might have been raised in the temple as my sister. What right have I to strike her down simply because of the life choices she's made? I deny her the right to strike down innocents because of her own whims, why would I in turn do otherwise?"

"Think her innocent do you?"

She turned again from her quest to seek the shelter of the trees and a good vantage point to radio the command base. "Think you that she is simply evil?" she shook her head. "I do not deny that pure evil exists. But that being was once something good that was twisted. She is not innocent in that. And having been trained as a jedi she should have dealt with her pain and loss as we do. But I cannot find it in my heart to blame her for what she is. Her race is long-lived. Three-hundred years or more do most of them live. Does she not now seem still so young and seeking to you?"

"Afir," he told her, reaching out to trail his gloved fingers over a lock of hair. "You are too good."

She smiled at him. At him. Into his heart. Wonderingly.

The moment snapped and crackled between them. It wasn't the physical they'd experienced in the cave, although Rex could easily be moved in that direction. It was a metaphysical.

"When this is over will you be free?" she asked him.

"When this is over?" He shook his head. He had doubts about the war ending. And the odds of his living through it were small. He was a captain because he'd lived through so many campaigns. There weren't all that many that did.

Afir swallowed. "Jedi are disallowed attachments," she told him.

"You aren't attached to General Kenobi?" he asked in disbelief.

"It's a grey area," she half-shrugged. "I love him. He is my brother, closer than a twin almost, and yet if he is to join the force I will mourn him and honor his death and keep to my ways. As would he."

Rex nodded. He had no fucking clue what she was talking about. "And me?"

"Less grey. Physical attachments are pretty well prohibited. And I want more than your proximity."

Proximity, she was calling it.

"I want your heart and your soul and for you to think about me when you wake up and when you sleep and when you're tired and when you're happy and-"

He stopped her mouth with a kiss. "Know this, then, Afir Kuay Li'in," he told her. His eyes bore into hers, his face was only a breath away. His voice was fierce. "Not a day will go by when I will not treasure you. I have to lead my men. It's who I am. But know that in serving them I am serving you. When this is over I'll find a way to be with you, if you want. And keep yourself well. For something in me is whole with you and I would not see it shattered before I'd lived long and hard by your side."

Her eyelids fluttered down and her lips pressed together.

"I ask no promise from you, Afir," he whispered. "I'm not asking you to give up your vows. I only want you to know what is in me for you."

She nodded. Then she threw her arms around him and sobbed. "My heart is for you as well and I already mourn leaving this night behind. If only things were not as they are," she cried. "I want too much. I have a duty and a desire to serve the jedi and yet I want very badly to stay beside you and forget the things that brought us here."

"Shush, sweet one," he told her. "Wait until later to mourn. We are both of us still fine and we'll finish this war with the Seps before dreading anything else. Secret I'll be about tonight. But know every time your heart beats that I love you. I'll never be with anyone else. This is only you. Do you understand me?"

He drew her chin up so that she could see his eyes.

"Be careful," she whispered.

He nodded as he pressed his lips to hers again. He wanted to drink her in, to infuse in her a belief that it would work out in the end.

On a sigh she laid her head on his shoulder, her fingertips trailing back and forth just where his neck met his uniform. He was trying not to purr.

"If something happened to you I do not know if I could continue without mourning more deeply than I should," she told him. His arms tightened around her.

"I'll be even more careful than normal."

"No you won't," she laughed. "You'll be at the forefront like always. And I love you for risking yourself over your men."

"And you'll be letting me take the risks from here on out," he ordered.

"Whatever, Captain."

He laughed.

Someday she'd tell him about her father's love affair with Tahl. About Obi-Wan and what she suspected had passed between him and Siri Tachi to rend their hearts and their friendship. As they lay atop a thick canvas cover, hidden away in a locked room onboard a ship bound for Coruscant she would share the secrets entrusted her by other hearts. And she would mourn that she couldn't be freer with her own affection for him. Couldn't stand and make vows of her own deep and everlasting joining with him.

And, over and over and over, she'd listen to reports of what Anakin's troops were doing, what losses they'd suffered, and have to hide her fear and anxiety until she got word that he was safe and whole and on his way to some other front to do it again.

And she felt for Anakin and Padme. For she knew there was something deeper there than friendship. And she felt for Obi-Wan and Siri, for she knew now what they'd gone through for years now - - and denying themselves any comfort at all from each other all the while. She wished she had that strength. But she knew, even as they parted that first time, she knew that she would horde every secret moment with him - - saving up memories just in case what probably would happen did in fact happen. And she was left alone.