Scourge leaned back in the chair and idly twisted the silver ring on his right cheek tendril. He hadn't expected this news despite the moments of disquiet he'd experienced in the past couple of weeks.
Sayonar leaned against the desk containing the holo terminal, a stern look on her face. "I can't believe you're actually going to her aid after she abandoned you in the Nulastine."
His arm whipped out, quick like a snake, hand capturing her wrist and pulling her down onto his lap. Her yelp of surprise followed by a thumping of her fist on his shoulder raised no emotional response, and he felt nothing but the pressure of her weight. Oh, how she enjoyed those little moments of play, and he indulged her far more often than he should since his rescue from the asteroid belt.
He pressed his forehead against hers. "That's not very Jedi of you, Nulis. Perhaps my evil Sithy ways are rubbing off on you at last."
"You wish. But I still don't understand. We should be following the latest lead to your cure."
He wormed his hand between her thighs, hoping to feel the heat residing there if only for a moment, her sudden gasp was his only reward. "Are you so impatient for me to lie between your legs that passion has replaced compassion in your heart?"
"Don't be mean." Her fake pout was adorable.
"I am Sith. We had entire volumes devoted to the art of being mean at the academy."
"And I'm sure you were a stellar student."
"I survived. The true mark of excellence."
Her quirked eyebrow shifted into a frown. "How do you know she's even still alive."
He closed his eyes, his demeanor a fortress of concentration. "Our connection, the Emperor's mark. My darkness can sense her, faint and far away, but still alive. Your light would recoil from that touch, my love, but my darkness feels her call for help. I just can't tell from which direction, and the galaxy is a big place."
She kissed the corner of his mouth. "Then we go together. I refuse to let you out of my sight so soon after getting you back. I don't ever want to go through that again. No, is not an option, so don't even say it."
"Who am I to fight such a force of will? Surely I am helpless before you."
She curled her fingers around his chin tendrils and gave a playful tug. "And don't you forget it."
He slid his hand further up her thighs and wrapped her closer in his free arm. "As if I could."
#
Corso and Akaavi stood before the closed door of his and Ky's cabin.
"No one has entered since she left us," said Akaavi. "It remains the same. Nothing has been touched. Are you sure you want to do this?"
"No, I'm not." He pressed the panel and remained frozen while the door slid open. Stale air wafted across his face carrying only the faint scent of the soap they'd both used. There was no hint of the Neimoidian sage and Ishi-Tib coconut body wash and hair rinse she liked so much. He'd have to remember to buy her some the next time they were on Port Nowhere.
Ambient lighting flickered on from behind the trim along the edges of the ceiling and bathed the room in a pale glow. "I'd like some time alone." He crossed through the door and closed it behind without waiting for Akaavi's reply.
The space was dead without Ky in it, empty and quiet, yet restless with the energy he'd brought with him. His fingers skimmed across the top of the dresser leaving four trails through the thin layer of dust. At the end, he knelt and pried open one of the wall panels and removed the tiny purple box, the silk cool and slick in his hand. He flipped the top open and stared at the tiny stone that glinted much too cheerily for his current mood. The lid clicked shut, and he put it back where it belonged, out of sight and waiting for the right time that may never come.
They were forty-eight hours into the four-day flight to Untuar IV, Scourge's base, and Corso hadn't slept yet. Bleary-eyed and exhausted, he stripped and crawled into their bed. The one place he didn't want to be and the one place he couldn't stand not to be. When he'd fallen into fitful sleep, the other came—beastly and leering from the dark recesses of his mind. It prowled his dreams and turned them to nightmares of memory.
Singat 9, ramshackle buildings, forcefield buzzing like flies around a corpse. Stick figure silhouettes ambled to and fro, drunk on starvation and hopelessness. They sagged against clapboard siding arguing with death and losing the fight.
Faces flashed in front of him, friendly flesh falling away to whitened bones that clacked and rattled as they tumbled to his feet. The feeding vats full of swill, rushing to gather what he could for those he tried to save. So many. Too many. People reaching with hungry hands disintegrating to dust that swept through his fingers.
Laughter and jeers from catwalks and guard towers, the moans of the dying, the screams of the living. One bright spot on a canvas of misery. Golden hair, cornflower blue eyes, 'be my wife,' 'don't go out alone,' 'wait for me.'
Beautiful countenance lying askew on broken neck. Body abused and discarded. Blue eyes dim and clouded with accusation, looking at him but not seeing. Hot tears falling on cold, pale skin. "I tried, Belia. I tried, but you never listen."
A deadly shadow in the dark, a shiv to the ribs, dying breath spewed from lips gone blue with strangulation. Five dead, killed them all, the ones who murdered his love. Nobody cared, nobody was coming.
Can't remember name, can't think, reduced to rage and survival instinct. Wanting to die. The beast fighting to live. Hunker down, guard the food, don't sleep, time gone so far away a minute didn't count.
Trapped in the past and retreading steps down narrow streets, across rooftops and rafters. Unthinking, unloving, no remorse, shrinking inside the empty shell of who he used to be. No one left to save. Humanity lost, animal now.
Belia's face merging with Ky's; dead eyes staring past him and into eternity. Sweet Maker, not again.
Corso tossed and turned, the beast roared, and he woke, clammy with sweat and shaking.
He lay for a time catching his breath, gathering his thoughts then rolled from the bed and entered the refresher to splash water on his face. He didn't—couldn't look at his reflection in the mirror.
Donned in trousers and a loose shirt, he walked to the galley and searched for a bottle of gin but settled for the cabinet's only offering of whiskey.
Two sips under his belt and he noticed movement by the door. Skavak leaned against the frame, his arms crossed over his chest, his hip free of his blaster.
"What do you want, Skavak?"
"Oh, you know. The usual exchange of insults and barbs. We both know it's coming. Might as well get it over with. Clear the air."
Corso focused on the far wall, unable to look at the man. "My air won't be clear as long as you're breathing it."
"Such hostility. Besides Ky, what's really eating you?"
"The weapons that killed my folks were traced back to you. Found that out when me and Ky were looking for you after Nowhere."
"I sold to the Empire, never the Separatists. What the Imps did with them wasn't my concern. Don't lay that at my feet. I didn't pull the trigger."
Corso rolled the glass back and forth between his palms. "You ever look at yourself through the lens of your victims?"
"I try not to look too close at anything except profit."
"And what lens did you use on Ky?"
A laugh grunted up from Skavak's throat. "For the life of me, I can't understand what she sees in you, farm boy."
Corso stared into the amber liquid, still refusing to look at the man. "Integrity, honor, loyalty? Things you wouldn't know anything about."
"Loyalty? You're the one who turned your back, aren't you?"
Corso's grip tightened around the glass. "And you're the one who couldn't keep his filthy hands to himself. You used her. Walk away, Skavak. Let it be."
"Ky never does anything she doesn't want to. You, of all people, should know that. You left, she had nothing else to lose. What the hell did you think was going to happen? I'm not the only expert in the user's game, and you should never have let her go."
Rising anger and unrelenting guilt hammered at Corso's temples. "Don't you think I know that? I've gone over that day a thousand times in my head. If I had it to do over again, I'd have slung her over my shoulder, sat on her, tied her down rather than let her leave with scum like you."
"But you didn't. If she was mine, I'd have torn the universe apart, used every contact I had, every dirty trick I knew. I'd have done anything to keep her with me."
Corso set the glass down with a thud and turned to face Skavak. "But she's not yours, is she? And she's not mine. Ky doesn't belong to anyone."
Skavak's eyes narrowed, time for a deeper cut. "You dumb fucking hick. It was your name she called in the middle of the night. It was your memory she locked herself away with and cried more tears than she'd ever admit."
Skavak's words pummeled Corso like fists, each one striking a vital blow to nerves already raw from weeks of loneliness and regret. Scourge had warned him. Scourge was right.
"Then why the hell are you really here?"
Skavak's final words sent him over the edge. 'Because you don't fucking deserve her.'
Corso flung himself off the stool, kicking it back into the wall. He crashed into Skavak, tumbling them both into the corridor. Fists flew, skulls thudded against flooring and walls, flesh split and bled, bruises flowered on ribs and faces.
A Wookie's roar drowned out the grunts and cursing. Two strong hairy hands grabbed the two scuffling men, slinging them in opposite directions. Lips drawn back over teeth, Bowdaar threatened to break their legs if they didn't stay still. Both men had the sense to know he could make good on that threat.
Two days later they landed on Untuar IV. Corso and Skavak were finally allowed to leave their respective places of confinement. Bowdaar growled a warning, Akaavi gave them 'the look' before they stepped onto the exit ramp. Scourge and Sayonar waited at the bottom, Seph and Kira standing not far behind.
The Sith Lord's unsettling gaze halted first on Skavak then on Corso; scanning, reading, probing. "Follow me," Scourge said at last.
Seated around a table in Scourge's conference room, the Sith slid a datachip onto the table and spoke first. "I am told you have something for me. May I see it?"
Skavak removed the datapad from his vest and passed it down the table.
"Kixi, a slicer we met on Coruscant put some pretty heavy encryption on her datapad," warned Corso.
"I am aware." Scourge powered up the device and began keying in a sequence of digits and characters followed by his thumbprint on the biometric scanner.
Corso leaned forward, elbows on the table. "How?"
"When you and she were aboard my ship, she gave me full access in case anything ever happened to her. Not only does this contain her financial information, but also sensitive data she'd accumulated during her time as the Voidhound. Certain defenses, off the grid planets, lists of contacts, people open to bribes, or defection, names of those she suspected of treason, some still living. Nobody ever suspected just how deep her involvement in the war truly was."
"She could have trusted any of us," said Akaavi. "Why you?"
"Of course, she trusted you, but, I did not travel with her and, I cannot be broken. She counted on me to distribute her funds, sign ownership of her ship over to Bowdaar and Akaavi, make sure Corso was settled comfortably and to use or destroy the rest at my discretion."
Corso glared at Skavak who sat across the table. "But this doesn't help us find her, does it? What's the second word?"
"Belt," said Skavak.
Scourge slid the datapad to Corso. "Open up the file Brock, a subfolder under Balmorra."
Corso tapped on the screen. A star-chart displayed, and a single repeating beep filled the silence. Understanding dawned on Corso's face. "That ratty-ass belt she always wore whenever we left the ship. She tagged herself with a camo-tag. The same device she put on that box at Sonhem's place, the one with the reliquary inside."
"Ky tried to cover all contingencies before we left for the Nulastine, and she was very specific," said Scourge. "My astromech programmed the Soledad's droid to ping Seph daily with location and crew status. This," he tapped the datachip with a finger, "is a copy of the camo-tag program in case her datapad was taken or compromised. My TooVee droid gave it to Seph as soon as he returned from Nar Shaddaa. It was not to be used unless she disappeared."
"And if you hadn't returned from the Nulastine?" asked Sayonar.
"If I had not survived, Seph had standing orders to go to the aid of only three people; you, Kira and Ky. He would have contacted her people and gone for her regardless of whether or not I was here."
"And what if I hadn't survived to bring the datapad to you?" asked Skavak.
"Ky contacted Akaavi every two weeks. I, in turn, did the same. Either way, I would have known," answered Seph.
"And here I thought you just wanted to talk to me," said Akaavi.
"That was just an added incentive." Seph cast a wink in the Zabrak's direction.
Corso laid the datapad on the table with trembling hands. "The point is, we can track her. We can find her."
"Or her remains," said Seph.
"She's still alive." Corso and Skavak said in unison.
"I concur," said Scourge. "Seph. Prepare the Segomo for takeoff."
"The Soledad would be roomier, and its hyperdrive has an upgrade of point five past light speed," said Akaavi.
"But does it have stealth?" countered Scourge. "We will be the vanguard. Seph can follow us in the Soledad with Doc, Rusk, and Gus and remain at distance until our strike team secures whatever we run into. Your ship also has a kolto tank that may be required. We leave in an hour."
Corso paced in front of Scourge's ship, the longest kriffing hour of his life. Seph finally sauntered down the ramp and motioned him inside where everyone else was waiting.
"Akaavi and Kira can bunk in the crew quarters, Sayonar with me, Skavak and Bowdaar in the cargo bay and Corso can take the spare room," said Scourge on his way to the cockpit.
"Let Skavak have the room." Corso's mind wrapped around the memory of one night in particular. "I'll bunk with Bowdaar." Corso's chin lifted in Skavak's direction. "And I still don't understand why the hell he's going with us."
"A resolution," was Scourge's cryptic reply. "Let's load this into the nav computer, shall we?"
Akaavi studied the display. "The Tangrene system. Isn't Tangrene an Imperial planet?"
"Yes." Scourge followed the course the red dot took across the Galaxy map. "But, they've already bypassed that planet to stop there at a dead world that lost its name eons ago. T7, transfer those coordinates to Seph and take us out. We've got at least a twelve-day journey ahead of us."
Scourge clamped a hand down on Corso and Skavak's shoulders as they turned to leave the cockpit. "I will chain you to the bulkhead by your collarbones if you start trouble aboard my ship. It will be most uncomfortable. I trust I've made myself clear."
He wrapped his arm around Sayonar's waist when she moved to stand beside him and watch the two men's retreating backs. "Two men in love with the same woman. Force help us."
"Resolution?" she said.
"One way or another."