Star Wars: Eclipse (TheCorsair and Xana)

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Mustafar

"You wanna get in on the pool?"

Two men sat at a small table, idly watching a bank of monitors. The speaker, a tall, pale human in a grey jumpsuit, slouched in his chair with an air of boredom. His companion, a leathery Gungan, looked up from the blaster he was servicing. "What pool?"

"How long it'll take the Jedi to escape and kill us all."

The Gungan glanced at the lone figure on the monitor screens, then turned back to his weapon. "Miss Linora seems confident we can hold him. How meesa collect if we die?"

A shrug. "Nah. It's the satisfaction of knowwing you were right, really. You know, before you die."

The Gungan snorted, then made a few adjustments with a wrench. "Right. An' id he doesn't and none of us win?"

"Then, in a month, we use the money to bring a few girls in and we have us a party." The human chuckled. "That way, everyone wins."

The Gungan chuckled as well. "Right. Meesa in, then. Twenty-two days open?"

"Oooh, optimistic!" the human laughed, checking his data slate. "And yeah, it is. I'll put you down."



Upstairs, on the top floor of the small mansion she maintained, Linora Sunfell poured two glasses full of a purplish-black, sticky liquid. She wore a black silk robe over black silk pyjamas highlighted with fine silver threads, and her dark, wavy hair cascaded over her shoulders and back. At her waist, the chrome and lapiz lazuli hilt of a lightsaber peehed out from a sash.

Placing the two cups on a silver tray and lifting it with gloved hands, she paused and examined herself in a mirror. Her eyes were still a little shadowed, showing traces of bruising from the stress of her fight with Quentin two days ago. She smiled a little at that, the expression nasty. He'd learn to regret that, once she finished with Kaydia...

Her expression softened as she thought of the other woman. Carefully balancing the tray, she turned and crossed the room. Passing through a short hall lined with small crystalline sculptures, she gently rapped at a door. "Kaydia?" she called, her voice gentle. "Are you awake? I've brought you something."
 
Kaydia shook her head, hard to believe she was back on Mustafar. In many ways it felt as if she never left. She couldn’t for the life of her recall how many days it had been since she left with Quentin have the hit. How long had she been out when the slavers took her? How long had she been out of her mind off Inertia? She was pretty sure it was two days since the last time she shot up with Linora but she couldn’t really be sure.

This isn’t what she wanted. She wanted to go off world, with Quentin, she wanted to be away from this life she lived as Scarlet, away from the drugs and the death. But, as he had told her while he was still Quinn, this life never lets us go. Even if they could leave again, Linora would just hunt them down, and she’d be wracked with withdrawals, and useless to help him. Couldn’t protect herself form pirates, couldn’t protect Quentin from Black Sun. Couldn’t even kick her Inertia habit, as she felt her body craving it once more. Linora would offer her another dose and she wouldn’t turn it down. She couldn’t turn it down.

She should try to find out where Linora was keeping Quentin. He could flee. He could leave this all behind. He had a life, beyond all this. He was actually worth something. She would make him leave. Keep Linora distracted. It was all she was good for, anymore.

Knocking at the door brought her out of her own mind. She put up her mental barriers with a deep breath, before answering softly. “Come in.” It was Linora, of course. Kaydia’s eyes immediately went to her lightsaber, somehow adding a sinister edge to the otherwise intimate meeting. Made sense, Kaydia supposed. Linora couldn’t be sure where exactly Kaydia’s loyalties lied. Kaydia wasn’t even entirely sure where her loyalties lied. She still loved Quentin.

And yet, seeing Linora like this, dressed in soft silk and relaxed, recalled the last night they spent together. When they licked honey off each other’s bodies and fell asleep in each other’s arms. When Linora promised her vengeance for the ones who had hurt her. When Kaydia agreed once more to become Scarlet.

“How are you feeling?” Linora asked, as she put the tray down on the small table off the side of the bed. She offered one cup to Kaydia, and took a drink of her own.

“Okay, I guess.” After watching Linora swallow her drink, Kaydia took a sip herself. She wasn’t sure what Linora knew about everything, but the protectiveness she had shown suggested she knew something. It made sense, after all, her captors had told her they would sell her to the Black Sun. Linora would have been the person to contact, in that case.

“I know what they did to you,” Linora admitted, now. “I saw the…the holovid.”Linora clenched her fist, seething with rage as she spoke of it. “I am glad you killed those bastards.” Kaydia took a longer drink of her glass, pushing back the memories that threatened to flood her mind once more. Linora pulled Kaydia into her arms, “No one would hurt you, if you were mine.”

Kaydia didn’t speak, just rested against Linora, feeling helpless and hopeless once more. They stayed like that for a few more moments; Linora’s gloved fingers running through Kaydia’s hair, Kaydia calming herself to the rhythm of Linora’s heartbeat. Trying not to cry, trying not to remember the pain, the humiliation.

“I was a fool Kaydia. I should have never let you go. I haven’t stopped thinking of that night we spent together. I haven’t stopped thinking about you, and how you made me feel.” Linora confessed, caressing Kaydia’s cheek and looking into her eyes. “I was scared to share my heart again after Quentin…” She stopped, her voice cracking.

“Quentin said you broke his heart. That you …betrayed him,” Kaydia claimed, slightly unsure of herself.

“I’m sure he did. To get your sympathy, before getting you in bed,” Linora asserted. “He told me he loved me. Then he killed my master, and fled Coruscant with another woman. I wasn’t safe at the temple anymore. Only the Black Sun could keep me safe.”

“He what?” Kaydia questioned, pulling away from Linora now.

“Here, I’ll pull it up, “ Linora said, picking up the data pad form the bedside table. A moment later a decade old news report confirmed what Linora had told her, and supported by what the pirates had said. Quentin Hall was a fugitive from the Jedi Temple, with a massive bounty on his head. “It’s why he doesn’t use his real name anymore.”

Kaydia sat down on the bed rereading the news report, hoping to find some sign that it was all a lie. “He loves me. I know it. I…felt it.”

“I felt it too, Kaydia. It’s what he does. He make you fall for him, uses you, until you are no more value to him. If he really loved you Kaydia, he would have saved you from the pirates.”
 
Linora held up a hand before Kaydia could speak, interrupting her reply. "Believe me, I know how real it feels. But he's a Jedi. He still thinks of himself as one, even though he's on the run from the Order. He..." She shook her head. "He's delusional, I think."

She sat at arm's reach from the other woman, staring into her glass. "I loved him, too. Maybe I still do, because I should have killed him in self-defense. Because the last time I saw him, well..." Setting the glass down, she tugged the glove from her right hand. The gunmetal limb beneath was engraved and set with onyx and lapiz lazuli, and whirred faintly as myomers flexed the artificial joints. "He gave me this."

With a sigh, she sipped at her drink and stared at her hand. "He's more like me than he admits," she observed. "But at least I'm honest about being a criminal. He plays at being a Jedi. Hell, he probably let... well, what happened to you happen, just so he could feel like he had a reason to kill those pirates."

She sipped her drink again. "I wouldn't have," she murmured. "I'd have murdered them all." Suddenly she turned her attention back to Kaydia. "I know you did," she breathed, eyes wild and skin fkushed. She reached out, her metal fingers surprisingly warm as she touched Kaydia's hand. "Tell me about it," she breathed. "How did it feel, feeling them die? I saw the ship, Kaydia. Tell me how it felt, giving into your rage and slaughtering them?"
 
“How did it feel?” Kaydia repeated, obviously uncomfortable talking about that day. At least this was easier to discuss than the anguish and humiliation of her rape. “In the moment, while my body was still wracked with pain? It felt good, turning it outwards, making them feel a small measure of the agony I was feeling.”

“Honestly, I wish I could have killed some of them slower. Tortured them, until they begged for death. Fucked that bastard in the ass with his own sword.” Kaydia admitting, shuddering, as Linora moved behind her, and rubbed her shoulders. She remembered the look of terror in the last man’s eyes, as he begged for mercy. As he dropped his weapon and dropped to his knees, nearly sobbing. As she pulled his hair and forced his mouth open, an image she took from his own mind as he fantasized about taking his turn with her. Quivering lips wrapped around the barrel of her blaster, as his eyes were wet with tears. Quentin showed up before she could torture the man further, and tried to talk her out of murder. Of course, he would wake up then, wouldn’t he?

A long sigh, “Once I was done, it felt empty. I had killed every single one of them, but they had still raped me. Still broadcast it on the Holonet, for anyone to see. Still left me tainted and scarred by what they had done to me,” She finished her drink in a single swallow now, finding the spirit had dulled the pain of remembering. Her head was swimming in fantasies of murdering the pirates once more, taking her time with them. Of her and Linora doing it together, carving them limb from limb and fucking on their twitching bodies.

Linora was closer now, close enough Kaydia could feel her breasts brushing against her back as she massaged the tension from her upper back. “I don’t think you are tainted or scarred, Kaydia. I still think you are beautiful. And you have survived so much. So very much. I think it makes you even more beautiful. Like a diamond hardened under immense pressure.” Linora lips grazed her ear as she whispered, hot breath leaving her body tingling. “I’m not going to make the same mistake twice, Kaydia. I am never going to let you go. Again.”
 
Her heart beating madly with the admission, Linora leaned into Kaydia's back. "Never," she repeated, feeling unaccountably shy, "no matter what." By now, the massage had turned into gentle caressing of the assassin's shoulders and neck. "And... why did you let yourself feel empty?"

She sighed sadly. "I... know what they did. The video is what let me find you. But why would you let it make you empty?" Flesh-warm metal fingers trailed down her arm. "I know you're Kaydia, but you're also Scarlet. Anywhere the Black Sun is known, your name is feared. Don't let your suffering take that away."

The metal hand flattened on her stomach, pressing gently. "Use it," sbe hissed, breath hot on Kaydia's ear. "Your pain, your hatred, even your fear. You can draw strength from it I know you can." She smiled, voice low and soft. "I've sensed your hatred of the men who enslaved you. I've seen your handiwork, what you did to them. They feared you before. Let them fear you again."

Without moving away, she lifted her cup and drained it. "Jedi fear their emotions," she murmured. "We don't have to. Wr're free, Kaydia. Free of their rigid code. Free to experience life. Free experience our emotions. Joy. Hatred. Peace. Anger." Metal fingers gently stroked Kaydia's cheek, turning her head. Soft lips, still sticky and flavored with the drink, found hers.

"Passion."
 
Not once in her life had she ever embraced being Scarlet. Embraced being a killer. In many ways it felt like something that wasn’t allowed. Something she should be ashamed of. It was everything the Jedi Order had tried to prevent her from becoming, from succumbing to.

Yet, Linora was right. She hadn’t acted, because she wasn’t sure she would have been able to fight them all off alone. She waited for help that never came, and she suffered. Once her emotions took over, none of the pirates stood a chance against her. If only she would have tapped into her feelings the first time around. If only she would have let that anger and hatred power her, as she had let it power her before. She wouldn’t have been raped, she wouldn’t be back on Inertia. She would still be with Quentin, having the best sex of her life…

Perhaps she was afraid of what Quentin would have thought of her. He seemed sympathetic enough when he perceived what she had been through. Would he have been as sympathetic if she had done the same thing to men and women who only threatened to rape her? Was it only his own shame at not being able to help her? Whatever the case, it didn’t matter anymore. She was Scarlet, as much as she might have wanted to run away from the name and the memories, perhaps she was better off accepting it. She wasn’t a Jedi, she would never be a Jedi. She was a far better killer.

“Teach me,” She moaned against Linora’s lips, feeling that raw power radiating from Linora. Once more their lips met, Linora drinking down her pain, and replacing it with power. Linora was a Vigo now, because of Scarlet, and the two of them could rule this sector if they wanted. No one would hurt them, or even stand up to them. No one, except…

Kaydia broke off the kiss, difficult as it was to do so. As much as she just wanted to melt into Linora’s softness, and hear Linora’s screams of pleasure as Kaydia tasted her once more, He still weighed on her mind. She couldn’t relax, couldn’t give in, until she knew. “What are you going to do to Quentin?”

“I want to make him understand, Kaydia. Make him understand us, and this life. Make him understand how foolish the Jedi’s are, and how this way is so much better.”

“And if he won’t?”

“Then I am going to have to kill him.”


After showering together, Kaydia and Linora dressed together. Kaydia picked out a black on black dress, highlighting her hourglass figure with a leather belt cinching it at the waist. Linora opted for a coat over tight leather pants and gloves, tied off with a bow for the only symbolism of femininity in her outfit.

“I was going down to start on Quentin, if you want to join,” Linora offered casually, as she zipped Kaydia up. Kaydia hid her disapproval behind mental barriers.

“Perhaps I will.”
 
Suspended in his restraints, Quentin was sweating profusely. Not out of fear or discomfort, although the restraints certainly weren't comfortable, but because he had drawn on the Force to accelerate his metabolism. All of the various drugs he was purging had to go somewhere, after all, and not everything could be exhaled.

Linora had clearly had a hand in designing this cell, because it was clearly designed to restrain a Jedi. Suspension restraints that held him spread-eagled and which injected a chemical cocktail to muddy his thinking. Randomly strobing lights to keep him disoriented. Oh, and the occasional electric shock, just to convulse his muscles and keep things interesting. Very clever work.

He figured he'd be out in another half hour. But then, he wasn't the typical Jedi.

Muscles still twitching from the latest shock, he concentrated his perceptions on the restraint engulfing his right hand and wrist. Matter was nothing but fields of interlocking forces, after all. Once you had the knack, it was as easy to look within an object as upon it. The Miraluka had mastered this secret tens of thousands of years ago, and had taught it to the Jedi. Slowly, he began to understand the structure of the restraint.

Then he heard the door open. Waves of fear washed across his skin, followed by two familiar presences. One like dark flame, burning by freezing. The other seething rage, armoring a core of dispair. With a sigh he opened his eyes, taking in the forms of Linora and Kaydia. Both were guarding their thoughts, but it was clear from their body language that this wasn't a rescue. He composed his thoughts, submerging his distress at seeing the woman he loved standing with the woman who he had loved.

"I hope you'll forgive my poor manners," he said, forcing a wry smile. "I pride myself on my manners, but... well, I'm a little tied up right now."
 
MFF Dub-con Scene: Quentin, Kaydia, and Linora
  • Index
    • Seeing Quentin like this was a blow. Almost immediately Kaydia felt her resolve falter, as she wanted to rush to his side and free him. Hold him, kiss him, beg his forgiveness. Even the things Linora had told her, had showed her couldn’t completely diminish her feelings. She couldn’t bring herself to meet his gaze, for fear all her defenses would come down, and once more she’d be vulnerable before him.

    “I would have considered it rude if you weren’t tied up right now,” Linora remarked, watching his face as he began to understand that she had Kaydia, body and mind. His woman was now hers. She made her way to a locked cabinet on the far side of the cell, opening it to find a plethora of drugs and other paraphernalia within. She selected a needle and a small milky vial that needed no label.

    Kaydia watched in silence as Linora measure out the dose, tension seizing her heart as memories bubbled back up to the surface. “What are you doing?” She asked, the cracking in her voice as she spoke speaking volumes about how she felt about the scene playing out before her.

    Linora turned to face her, placing the needle down on the table as Linora moved to Kaydia’s side. “I’m making him understand,“ Her hand came up to caress Kaydia’s face, running the back of two fingers from her temple to her chin. “You needed this, after what happened to you. After what he let happen to you ” Kaydia’s face contorted in pain, regretting her own weakness, regretting the way she would continue to betray and let him down because of her won weakness. He wasn’t hers to keep. “He will understand, Kaydia. Once I’m done with him.”

    “Wait. Not like this…” Kaydia pleaded as Linora turned to resume the task at hand. Placing her hand on Linora’s shoulder, she fought against the emotions warring within her. Self-loathing at betraying him, at knowing she wasn’t good enough for him. Needing to have him, to keep him, to feel him against and inside her again.
    “There’s another way. A better way.”

    “Oh?” Linora asked, only half turning to face her. “By all means, show me.” Kaydia pushed past her, reaching for a jar of Merakuya Honey.

    “There is a saying that I think applies to this situation. ‘You can catch more flies with honey…’” Kaydia explained, dipping two fingers in the jar to collect a considerable serving. Smearing it over her lips and tongue, Kaydia couldn’t help the shudder that passed through her, as she walked over to Quentin. She pushed her lips against him, forcing honey on his own, and in his mouth. It was a perverse satire of the time they shared alcohol between kisses, and Kaydia was caught between how good it felt to kiss him and how much she hated herself for forcing this on him. Still, she moaned into the kiss, sliding her tongue over his as she sought the forgiveness she didn’t deserve. The forgiveness she would never deserve. Kissing him was divine and she would go to hell for doing this to him.

    Once the honey had dissolved into the heat of their mouths -neither quite sure who got most of the dose- Kaydia dropped herself to her knees. Linora released bindings on his ankles as she watched Kaydia work, the heat of the scene before her having its own effect on her. Deft fingers worked at his pants, unbuckling his belt and pulling his pants and boxers down in a single motion. He was nude to the waist down before her, and Kaydiasighed as she looked upon his cock, remembering all the pleasure it had given her. Lamenting taking this from him, even as she salivated at the sight of it.

    She went slow, teasing tongue tracing his veins as she sighed against his length. She wanted him to enjoy this, but even more than that she wanted him. Wanted him even if he didn’t want her. Hungry lips wrapped around the crown of his cock, licking him in a swirling motion before filling her mouth with his meat.
     
  • Index
    • Merakuya.

    Quentin's eyes widened as he caught the scent, and as he saw the peculiar opalescent sheen of the thick amber fluid. Even in his current predicament, bound and waiting torture, watching the woman he loved aid in selecting the method of that torture, he felt his mind ache and his cock harden at the memories it awakened. The sensuality of his heightened senses and his enhanced perception of the Force, and of days and nights with Naadia as she'd taught him everything she knew. Used properly, he knew, merakuya could break him like no other drug or chemical could. "Kaydia!" he called, desperation and shameful eagerness in his voice, "you don't have to do this! Whatever she's told you..."

    "I told her the truth about you, Quentin," Linora snapped. "About what you are and what you've done."

    He ignored her, reaching out to ha lover with words and with the Force. "Whatever she's told you, Kaydia, you know me. You've been in my..."

    Her lips silenced him, her honey-sweetened tongue thrusting into his mouth as her hands slid over his face in rough mockery of a caress. The drug hit him hard, making him acutely aware of the rigid edges of his shackles abrasion get the skin of his wrists and ankles. If the cool air contrasting with the heat of her body, and the lazy currents from the air circulator ghosting over his skin. He felt the small, soft hairs on her forearms tickle his chest, and the slight chopping of her lips on his, and the bitter-sweet flavor of the knarr she'd drunk under the sweetness of the merakuya.

    He had no idea how long she kissed him. He couldn't say for sure if he was kissing her back, or if he was just greedily seeking every last speck of the honey in her mouth. But when she pulled back, his nerves were alight and his body rigid with the craving for more. More of the merakuya. More of her lips and touch. More of the air currents and the harsh manacles and...

    Shutting his eyes for a moment, he tried to ignore the desperate aching need created by the drug. Tried to focus on the calming rhythms of meditation is n the Litany. Tried to ignore the feel of each of the ridges of her fingerprints as they trailed over his skin, and the way his body arched into her touch.

    He felt air displace and his eyes snapped open to see her kneeling between his thighs, and he gave an involuntary main as she worked open his pants. "Kaydia," he groaned, voice desperate, "no. Please, no. Don't... don't.. do this..." Her breath caressed his rigid shaft and he bucked, Vic bobbing as his hips rocked upwards. "Kaydia!" he repeated, frantically.

    Her mouth closed around his throbbing meat like a wet, sultry oven, and he thrashed in his restraints. "Kaydia!". Her name tore itself from his lips in a desperate plea, both for her to stop and for her to continue. He told himself he wanted to pull away, but the sight of his liver with her lips wrapped around his glistening meat as her head moved up and down, and the agonizing merakuya-enhanced pleasure it brought, left him desperately offering himself so she could take more.

    "Please," he whimpered, tears trickling from the corners of his eyes. "Please."
     
    Kaydia knew in that moment she was a monster. She had likely always been a monster. It wasn’t the drugs or the torture or the rape. None of those things had made her into this, they had only worked because she was already this way. It was always just her.

    Even still, hearing Quentin beg her, beg for some small mercy she wasn’t capable of granting him stung, while the haze of Merakuya gripped her mind. While she felt his own body fight against his mind, and she was filled with sympathy and guilt and bliss. While her mouth enveloped him and slid over and along the veins and ridges and smooth skin. While she felt the subtle vibrations of her throat as she moaned against him, and left a slick trail of saliva in the wake of her lip. How easily she glided up and down his shaft, and how the slight pressure of her tongue rubbing heightened the pleasure all the more.

    She had long suspected that she were good at his, given the way she had used it in the past to get what she wanted out of men. Never before had the knowledge of how good she was tormented her so. She felt every fiber of Quentin’s being fighting against the skill of her mouth and tongue, against the silken heat of her cheeks and the tightness of her throat. To think, the last time they did this he forced her to take all of him. Fucked her throat without a care. Playfully of course, and never really against her will. Unlike now, as she swallowed his cock to the base. Last time she watched the delight on his face as she sucked, as she let him use her. Now she couldn’t bring herself to look, just feel the empathic tears forming in her own eyes as she moved faster down him.

    Linora shuddered as she watched it all play out before her. One finger dipped into the jar and sucked slowly, lingeringly, tapping into the immense rapture taking place before her. Kaydia was good at his, very good. Not merely the blow Job, though she was indeed incredible at that, but at the whole cruelty thing, and once she learned to actually embrace it all she would be truly terrifying. Linora found herself on her knees beside Kaydia, one hand rubbing her back, the other caressing her inner thigh.

    She watched up close as Quentin’s cock disappeared between those plump lips basking in the nirvana they both experienced and fought against. So she stoked the fires a bit, sliding fingers up Kaydia’s thigh until she reached that apex of soft heat. Metal fingers maneuvered around her panties and parted her lips, causing her to stumbling along the rhythm she had built up. For a few moments she just shuddered and moaned against the manhood buried in her mouth, lips trembling around the base of him. A second set of lips trembling around Linora’s fingers until fingers and mouth moved along the same pace.

    A few more strokes before Linora pulled out, slipping one finger soaked in Kaydia’s desire in her mouth. After slurping every last bit off her finger, she pulled Kaydia off of Quentin’s cock, thrusting an eager tongue into her mouth. The musk of Kaydia’s cunt on Linora’s tongue, and Quentin’s salty precum on Kaydia’s lips mixed in their kiss as both women savored one another. And then Kaydia was back to sucking Quentin off as Linora stood.

    “Don’t you want to taste how aroused all this makes her? How much she enjoys doing this to you?” Linora threatened, bringing a musky finger up to Quentin’s lips. She smeared Kaydia’s own lust on his mouth and his tongue as he gasped for mercy, and more.

    “Don’t let him cum yet. I want to hear him beg,” Linora instructed, pulling Kaydia to her feet. She stood behind the redhead, biting hungrily at her neck while one hand groped at a breast and the other moved between her legs. Wet suction could be heard as Linora fingered Kaydia, both women moaning and sighing into the utter confusion of who was really feeling the ecstasy of it all.
     
    The sudden presence of Linora - her heat mingling with Kaydia's warmth, her metallic fingers slick with Kaydia's arousal as they caressed his lips - was erotic agony. Even without the merakuya he'd have been able to smell both womem's arousal, but with it their musk was a physical presence in the room. Kaydia's soft sighs and Linora's husky moans were like shouts, as were their elevated pulses and the soft hum of servoes mingling with the wet sounds of Kaydia's sex. "Don't let him cum yet," Linora whispered, her attentions a chill black wind in the Force. "I want to hear him beg."

    Desperately Quentin screwed his eyes tight shut, trying to shut out the erotic vision of the two gorgeous women tangled together. But the sense of perception he'd learned at his master's bidding betrayed him, showing him his lover and his former lover through the Force, causing his blood to surge and his cock to harden painfully...


    "Did he ever tell you about us?" Linora whispered, lips caressing Kaydia's ear as a second dark metal finger plunged into her dripping slit. "About our first time?" Her teeth grazed Kaydia's earlobe as her thumb grazed the assin's clit, and she opened her memories to the other woman.

    "We'd known each other for years," she whispered, "and we were both nearing the Trials. Our Masters were in conference with the Council, and we'd been assigned to assist in the Great Library." Teeth nipped at Kaydia's neck, and the callused heat of her flesh hand cupped and squeezed the softness of her breast.

    "It was hot in there, and both of us were stripped down to our undershirts. And I still remember how it clung to him, showing off those back muscles as he lifted boxes of data tapes, and I wanted to feel them." Her tongue played over the little bruise she'd left on Kaydia's neck, and her fingers slipped in and out.

    "So I did, and he turned, and then... hell, I don't remember who kissed who first. But neither of us stopped at kissing..." Her memories played out as she half -turned Kaydia, tongue filling her mouth as her fingers thrust deep within her. Fevered sense-impressions of a younger Quentin, bare tattooless chest glistening with sweat in dim light filtering in from high windows. Of hesitant, desperate skin on skin as her back pressed against shelves and one leg hooked around lean buttocks. Of clumsy fumbling followed by a shocking sense of almost painful fullness as he filled her...

    "Fuck me," Linora pleaded, staring into Kaydia's eyes. Lust danced in her own dark orbs, lust fueled by memories and the delicious deceptive softness of the assassin. "Bend me over Quentin, and make me cum on him while he watches." Fingers slick with Kaydia's lust caressed her cheeks as she kissed the assassin with a fierce hunger. "Let him see how wrong the code is about desire..."
     
    Linora told the story, with words and her mind, and Kaydia could see it, could feel it. The passion and desperate lust, mixing with present emotions in a confusing surge as feelings pasted between the three of them. She could See Quentin and Linora together, feel him inside her, feel her around him, feel the combined bliss of that first nervous union.

    She remembered her own youthful indiscretions, back at the temple. Kazak’s mouth on hers, his tongue pushing between her lips. The exhilaration of his embrace, and the terror that built in her gut as she felt herself give in. There is no passion, only peace. But there was no peace in that moment, as every cell in her body awoke to his touch, moving like lightning along the path his fingers traced down her arms. She remembered how it took all her willpower to push him away.

    “Stop,” She whispered, horrified at the way her body reacted to him. Horrified by fact that she wanted more.

    “You don’t want me to stop,” he whispered against her cheeks his lips brushed them, hands tight around her waist, “Search your feelings. You want this.”

    “No, I don’t,” She insisted, pushing him harder now, until their bodies weren’t touching anymore. Violet eyes met hers, disappointment and longing reaching towards her psyche. Then he nodded, and turned away, tension radiating from his being.

    Would that have been her and Kazak, if she didn’t fear her own fall then? After killing her master, there was little to fear from sex and lust anymore, but for teenaged Kaydia, who feared her darkness and shortcomings, desire was disturbing.

    Teenaged anxiety and shameful lust, and deep seated guilt boiled up now, as she stared at Quentin, eyes clenched shut, trying desperately to escape the exquisite torment, trying desperately to push back against sensual memories of happier times.

    “We should stop…” She begged on Quentin’s behalf, his distress amplifying her own.

    “You don’t want to stop,” Linora asserted, pulling Kaydia closer, “You want this. You want to be Scarlet. Embrace it. Give in. This is who you are…”

    She was torn between Quentin’s anguish, muddled with forced arousal, and Linora’s nearly overpowering lust. Her own ache, longing to have Linora or Quentin’s fingers and tongue caressing her, longing for Quentin’s cock to be buried within her once more. Wanted to bring both of them to orgasm, and taste their pleasure.

    While Kaydia struggled against her own guilt, Linora activated the chains that bound Quentin, slacking until he was on the ground. She forced him into a sitting position, cock throbbing up in unwilling desire, and slipped out of her clothing. Kaydia watched her disrobe, admiring her slender, athletic figure, admiring its movements and contortions as Linora positioned herself over Quentin. She watched Linora submerge him within her body, her slit swallowing his pulsing meat, soaking with desire. The sight caused her to lick her lips, moving to hand and knees to savor their intercourse. Her tongue slid along his shaft, collecting Linora’s lubrication until she reached Linora’s clit.

    Even more, She could feel the sex happening before her eyes. Feel through Linora’s mind how good Quentin felt within her, thickness pressing into all of her walls. Feel through Quentin’s mind, that silken grip tightening around his meat. Felt the shudder in both of their minds as her tongue teased them, as Linora’s pace faltered and Quentin buck involuntarily into her. Felt her own clit throbbing with ache as she licked and sucked at Linora’s.

    The empathic link she had shared and Quentin before same amplified as all three minds worked in concert, a confusing mass of paradise, even as reluctance and hesitation lingered. Linora fucking herself on Quentin, using him for her own delight as Kaydia used her tongue to send them both to even greater heights.

    “Are you going to cum, as I do?” Linora asked, but whether to Quentin or Kaydia, none could be entirely sure.
     
    Under normal circumstances, Quentin knew, he was... well, not stronger than Linora. Better trained and more disciplined, though. Normally, he could have fought her off. But there was nothing normal about these circumstances. Not when he had been fed a drug he associated with bliss, not when a woman he'd loved assaulted his mind with memories of their first time and the sensations of her own arousal.

    His eyes bulged and he bit his lip hard enough to draw blood as Linora's slick walls slid over his engorged shaft, swallowing him whole. He gasped as she took his length with a single smooth thrust, the knowledge that he was being raped warring with the agonizing pleasure as her walls gripped his length and her juices flowed down his shaft. He gritted his teeth as he fought back the primal urge to fuck, to ease his tornent by spilling his seed into her body.

    Kaydia's tongue traced his shaft and he cried out, hips arching involuntarily as he lifted Linora off the ground. Linora cried out as well, her own pleasure flooding his mind as her fingertips played hot and cool over his chest. He felt them tangle in Kaydia's hair as Linora spread herself wider to take more of his shaft and Kaydia's tongue, and he felt Kaydia throb as he tasted his meat and Linora's juices through her tongue. "Are you going to cum, as I do?" Linora breathed, arching her back and playing with her own nipples.

    "F... fu... fuck me," Quentin whimpered, eyes tearing as he begged Linora. Begged Kaydia. Begged both women.

    "I didn't hear you, Quentin," Linora answered with a feral grin of triumph. "What?"

    "Fuck. Me," Quentin snarled, shame at being raped, and rage at his rapist, and lust and the confused emotions pouring off both women warring in him. "Fuck me, you bitch!"

    In response, Linora pulled Kaydia away from her ministrations and devoured her lips, sucking all traces of mingled flavor from her lios. "Such a mouth on him, Scarlet," she murmured, holding herself still on Quentin's cock. "Why don't you ride his face, so we don't have to listen as we use him?"
     
    “No,” Kaydia murmured, pushing herself back against the wall.

    “Hmm?” Linora moaned, reaching out for Kaydia, not stopping her pace on Quentin. Kaydia could feel Linora’s impending orgasm, tightening within her own core. “You want to…ride him?” Linora moaned out, eyes wild and unfocused, “I’m almost there. Then you can have -ahhh- him!”

    “This isn’t…” Kaydia struggled with the words, struggled against her own longing, against the foreign lust and repulsion invading her mind. Memories of her own rape overlaid with Quentin’s as her heart pounded in her chest. “This isn’t right. Stop.”

    “He loves it. Listen to him beg for me,” Linora growled. She caressed his face in a mocking manner.

    “Stop, please…” Kaydia pleaded, that familiar terror mixing with shameful arousal.

    “Don’t go weak on me now!” Linora roared, slamming herself into Quentin, their bodies making a moist smacking sound as they met. “He let you get raped! Don’t save him when he didn’t save you! He… deserves… this.” Boisterous moans and sighs broke up the last line as Linora’s rapture reached its peak. Kaydia cried out as it flooded through her as well, the unwilling orgasm recalling her violation once more. Triumphant laughter filled the cell as Linora rode out her climax, laughter that burrowed into Kaydia’s mind, igniting that rage.

    “Stop!” Kaydia screamed, force pushing Linora into a far wall. The sudden impact contrasted greatly with the pleasure of her release, leaving her dizzy and confused for a moment. Kaydia took advantage of her disorientation, lunging at her, unleashing pent up rage and hurt in the form of fists. Pain cleared the haze that had filled Linora’s mind, driving her to defend herself against the unexpected turn of events.

    “Scarlet! Scarlet stop!” Linora reasoned with her, trying to remind her of who she was, who she really was, deep down. But the name only brought hatred, Kaydia bringing her hands down to strangle Linora.

    “That’s not my name! That’s not who I am!” Kaydia screamed at her, throttling her with both thumbs pushed into her larynx and with the force. Linora drew on her own darkness now, to letting the pain of Kaydia’s betray fuel her rage. Kaydia flew into the opposite wall, impacting with enough force to drive the air from her lungs.

    “You are going to defend him? Really? You raped him too. You got wet on forcing yourself on him. You are just like me,” Linora accused, keeping Kaydia light headed with her own force choke. “Don’t fight it. Give in. No one can hurt Scarlet. Never again.”

    “I’m KAYDIA!” She screamed, louder the invisible pressure constricting her breathing. Purple lightning sparked from her finger tips, distracting Linora from her own force choke, forcing her to defend. Now, with both women drawing on powerful emotions to power their attacks, they were evenly matched. Unable to overcome Linora’s defenses, Kaydia turned her power towards Quentin, force lightning destroying the restraints that held him back.
     
    "Holy shit!" the pale human gasped, lunging towards the monitors. "Check this out!"

    The Gungan looked up from his book. "What?"

    The human tapped some controls. "The boss, and that new bitch of hers - they're going to town on that Jedi! This records, right?"

    Craning his head, the Gungan caught sight of the boss riding the Jedi while the red-head crouched beside the both of them. He shook his head. "Yeah, it does. Why?"

    The human looked back at him, shocked. "Because this is some hot footage, man. I'm gonna..."

    "Spare meesa," the Gungan groaned, waving. "You mammals and your rutting. Why you think that's arousing, I'll never know."

    "Yeah, well... holy. Shit."

    "Really. Meesa don't care."

    "No, no!" The human hit a button. As alarms sounded, he grabbed his blaster. "He's breaking loose!"

    "Fuck!" the Gungan snapped, throwing his book aside as he rose. "And I put a hundred down on twenty-two days!"


    Just as he was about to cum, Linora's amazing, unwelcome weight was hurled from him. Quentin grunted, eyes flying open as he tried to make sense out of what was going on as the Force raged in the room like a hurricane. Hate and anger and fear and self-loathing swirled and boiled, echoing the turmoil in his own mind to the point that he couldn't decide if it was without or within. And then blue-black lightning played over his skin, the burning pain scouring all thoughts of lust and arousal from his mind.

    But, he realized, his wrists and ankles were free.

    Drawing a deep breath, he quickly ran through the focusing exercises he'd learned as a youth. They helped, a little. Enough to let him focus and assess the situation. Fact: he was stark naked, with a rapidly dwindling hard-on. Fact: he could now move. Fact: Linora and Kaydia were both stark naked. Fact: they were lashing out at each other with raw hatred, the emotions mainfesting through the Force in brutal displays of psychokinetic power.

    Fact: both were distracted.

    He didn't waste time with anything fancy. Wrapping himself within a protective cloak of the Force, he rolled to his feet and charged. Linora saw him coming and lashed out, her telekinetic grip splashing and sliding away from him as he drove his knee into her gut. She turned two shades of green as she folded over his blow, gagging and vomiting. His fist smashed into her ear, helping her crash into the ground, and he kicked her in the stomach. "Bitch!" he shouted, stomping on her head with each word. "I'll! Kill! You!" Her lightsaber lept into his hand as he screamed the word kill, igniting with a snap-hiss sound as he brought it up. Crimson light splashed the walls like blood, and burning hatred flickered across his features.

    The cell door opened, and two figures entered firing. Quentin twisted, self-defense overriding his need for vengeance. The blade swung and slashed, deflecting blaster bolts into walls and ceiling and floor.
     
    Linora’s force lightning overpowered her as Kaydia turned towards freeing Quentin. She screamed as the other woman’s hatred coursed through her body, burning her from within. Was this her last act of life, freeing Quentin? At least she would die as Kaydia…

    Quentin’s lunge interrupted the arcing electricity, leaving her on hands and knees as Quentin took out a familiar rage on Linora. Her blurred vision returned as the lightsaber hissed to life, watching with wide eyes as he nearly brought it down into Linora. But the doors opened to guards wielding blasters, and they were both forced against the wall to evade the lasers. Quentin deflected the blasts, and Kaydia pulled a pistol towards herself, a handful of shots later both of their attackers were dead.

    Kaydia pulled Linora up, pressing the pistol against her head, “Walk.”

    “You really think you are going to make it out of here alive?” Linora snickered.

    “No, I don’t think any of us are. I just want to deal as much damage to the Black Sun as possible,” Kaydia explained, pushing Linora out into the hallway. She could only hope Quentin would have her back now. She knew he would be well justified to plunge the light saber through her back and into Linora’s body, killing both of his rapists in a single blow. Nonetheless, the three moved, met by a dozen Black Sun guards, wielding blaster pistols. “Tell them to drop their weapons.”

    Linora scoffed, and sighed. “Drop you weapons,” she gritted out. The command was obeyed, and the trio of naked force users moved past the group. Well trained thugs let them past as long as Linora was a hostage, and they made it to Linora’s ship.

    “Get us somewhere safe,” Kaydia instructed Quentin, pushing Linora back towards the cells on board the ship. She knew there was one on board that would hold a force user. The one that held Quentin as they traveled from Procopia back to Mustafar. She put Linora into the restraints and before turning her attention to the locked boxes in the room, containing all sorts of torture equipment.

    “You really think this will hold me? I designed it. I’ll be out inside ten minutes.” Linora taunted, voice hoarse with rage. Kaydia ignored her, finding the compartment that held the drugs. Just as she suspected, there was some Inertia on board. “What are you going to do, Kaydia? Shoot up like the junkie you are?” Linora growled, struggling against her restraints even now.

    “As a matter of fact, yes.” Kaydia answered, measuring out a large dose. She came around to Linora’s side, and tied the tourniquet around her arm.

    “You wouldn’t let me do this to him, but you’ll do it to me?” Linora roared, thrashing about. “You will suffer, you whore! I’ll have you raped a hundred times over. I’ll sell you to the nastiest hole in the wall brothel to be fucked for peanuts. I’ll leave you to rot in a cell while each of my men use you like the filthy slut you are!” Despite her struggle, Kaydia squeezed her arm still, long enough to push the needle into her vein and release the drugs into her system. It only took a moment for the cruel slew of threats and insults to stop, as Linora hung limply in the cell.

    “Don’t bother trying to cleanse it from your system,” Kaydia instructed, keeping a hold of the inertia for now, “It only makes the withdrawals come on faster. Trust me.”

    Suddenly something rocked the ship, a blast from another ship or anti-aircraft cannon, no doubt. She rushed over to the gunner seat.
     
    Captured lightsaber thrumming in his hand, Quentin followed the two women past the confused guards. Turmoil raged through him. He wanted them, wanted them both. Wanted to murder them both. Wanted to fuck Linora's brains out, or chain her to a wall and make her watch as he fucked Kaydia. Wanted to attack, take his rage and shame out in an orgy of violence that would end with both women in sizzling chunks. Wanted to curl in a ball and just wish the world away.

    But he was a Jedi, and the quick path - the easy path - wasn't the one he walked. So he masterec himself, and followed Kaydia through the halls of Linora's compound until they reached her private port and her yacht. Leaving Kaydia to secure the prisoner - did he trust his lover, even now? He didn't know, but he had the feeling he coukd. For now, at least. So he raced for the cockpit and settled in. Pre-flight was smooth and easy, and within minutes the small Correlian yacht was hurtling spaceward in full antigravity.

    The snub fighters, when they opened fire, weren't really a surprise. Z-95s. Six of them. They were outclassed by more modern starfighters, but were still tough and fast and - importantly - relatively cheap. Still, he'd outflown them before in an unarmed stock yacht. He'd wager that Linora's personal ship would fare better.

    The ship rocked under blaster fire, warning tones alerting him as he angled the deflectors. "Shooting to cripple," he murmured through gritted teeth. "And they probably have the schematics. This'll be tough."
     
    Kaydia fell against the gunner seat as another shot shook the ship, bracing herself as she tried to get into position. Sitting down as another blast shook the ship, Kaydia felt her rage building once more. She tried to focus it on the targets, as she unleashed several laser blasts, but the smaller ships dodged with ease.

    This was not something the assassin or former padawan had any experience with. She had some experience piloting but not with ship gun battles. And her experience with guns didn’t really translate that well over here. Snub fighters moved far quicker that people did, and did so in three dimensions.

    One came in from the lower left, and Kaydia followed a few clicks, half a dozen missed shots before it was out of range. “Fuck,” she growled shifting her attention towards another coming in from the mid right. She needed to focus, if their escape wasn’t going to be pointless. One deep breath later, Kaydia could see the path it would take, and suddenly she was leading the ship, instead of following it. Trusting her instincts, her fingers squeezed the triggers, and she was rewarded with an explosion of one of their pursuers.

    “Boom!” She called out, actually ecstatic that things were going her way for once. Another deep breath then, she needed to focus. There were still five of them. Quentin had steered the Ship between two tall buildings, and it caused the two ship directly behind them to line up to fit in the slender crevice. The next few shots were easy, and now they were down half their hunters.
    Once they were back out in the open, Kaydia readied herself to take another shot, putting her trust into the Force to guide her. She saw the ship’s movement in mind, and readied the attack, body tensing as she waited for the precise moment-

    The ship jerk as the fighters counter attacked, disrupting her aim. It was harder this time to push back her rage, letting off several wide shots out of frustration. She took a few more breaths, reminding herself that the longer this went on, the more likely they were to getting captured. The closer they were to Linora making good on the threats she had just issued. With serenity she hadn’t felt in a long time, Kaydia turned her attention back to their trackers. Feeling her body react right at the right moment to blast another ship out of the air. All she had to do was trust herself, and the force. Patience, tranquility, at one with the essence of all living things. Unconsciously she took another shot, another shot that hit it’s mark.

    You haven’t forgotten everything I thought you, Master Ki Adi’s voice inflected upon the thoughts. Immediately shame filled her, reminding her of what she had done, ten years ago. Reminding her of what she had done, less than an hour ago, as Quentin begged her to stop. Linora was right, she was just like her. She was nothing but Scarlet, nothing but a killer. Doubt clouded her mind now, as the last fighter ship peppered the yacht.

    No! Quentin was counting on her. If it were even possible to even earn his forgiveness or trust again, not getting captured against was certainly the first step. Once more she steadied herself with a deep breath letting the Force take over her senses and reflexes. The movements were quick and erratic, but still, with her mind opened to the possibilities of the force, she found a shot, and took it. She smirked as the last of their trailers were dispatched. Without any more distractions, Quentin left orbit, and set the hyper drive. To where, Kaydia had no clue.

    As good as it might have felt to be safe for a short time, it meant that she was alone with a man who had every right to hate her, and want to hurt her. Perhaps even kill her. It wasn’t anything less than she had done to her rapists. It wasn’t anything less than she deserved.
     
    Friction ignited air into plasma as Linora's yacht punched a hole through the Mustafarian mesosphere. Quentin, no stranger to these sort of desperate escapes, angled the deflectors and jigged and juked as the Headhunters blasted away. Kaydia scored a few hits in response, damaging one fighter and disintegrating a second in an expanding cloud of superheated wreckage. Then a chime sounded and , as Quentin pulled a lever, the stars stretched and vanished.

    "We're away," Quentin said, slumping back in his chair. "Bound for Procopia, again. Our stuff is still there, if no other reason."

    Our. The word hung in the air, silent and menacing, a reminder of what had happened. Another reminder, as if the electrical burns weren't enough. Or the chafed scrapes on wrist and ankle. Or the fact that he was still naked, and he could still smell Linora on his skin. The thought brought unbidden memories - the sight of Kaydia and Linora together, the heady cocktail of shame and rage and lust as the two women had taken turns assaulting him - and his cock hardened in response.

    "I..." he started to say, then let it die. "I can't do this, not right niw," he said angrily, pushing himself up and marching blindly past Kaydia. "I'm going to go and try to clean up."


    A little later...

    Linora, it seemed, was something of a hedonist.

    Quentin shifted in the large tub he'd found, submerging everything but his face, and peered around the room. Subdued lighting, tasteful art, an actual tub. On a starship. Sure, the water could also serve as reaction mass, but it was enormously self-indulgent.

    Sitting back up, he grabbed the bottle of brandy he'd taken from her liquorstocks, and swallowed a burning mouthfull. It didn't help, didn't take the edge off. He was still... confused. He wanted to kill Linora. Or take her in. Or just go inr,to her sell and fuck her raw, whether she wanted it ir not. He lived Kaydia. He hated her. He wanted to fuck her. Fuck Lunira. Fuck them both. Use them the way they'd used him.

    Another swallow. He wanted to curl up and sob. Another swallow. He wanted to scream, to break things. Another swallow. He knewxhe should meditate, regain his focus and balance. Another swallow. He didn't want to. He just wanted to feel numb, to stop hurting. Another...

    Empty. Fuck.

    His eyes fell on the other bottle. The one filled with a faintly floral scented thick amber fluid. Throwing the empty brandy bottle aside, he picked up the jar. He knew the merakuya wouldn't take the pain away. But it would numb it, for a time, under a haze of euphoria and sensory stimulation.

    His fingers worked the lid off, seemingly of their own volition, and the rich scent of the honey filled the air. It would be so easy...
     
    Kaydia just nodded as Quentin explained their destination, and his reasoning behind it. She couldn’t bring herself to look into his eyes, to see the hurt and hate that lingered within. She glanced at him -if not his eyes- as he started to speak, waiting for him to set the tone of their interactions. But he couldn’t even stand to be near her, and she really couldn’t blame him. She wanted to try to comfort him, to explain herself. That Linora would have killed him otherwise. That she was trying to spare him the pain of an Inertia addiction. But she didn’t give voice to the excuses. There were empty, and would not bring him any comfort.

    You’ll only hurt him. You aren’t capable of truly loving anyone.

    So she sat for a few moments, alone in the cockpit with her thoughts. Alone, with her hallucinations, reminding her that she was getting close to withdrawals again. She looked down at the vial she had brought with her from the cell. She had enough experience with it to gauge how long this would last her, and given the rate she was dosing Linora, she figured she had a week. Maybe a bit less, if Linora did try cleansing herself of the drug. She didn’t think it would take too long to get to Coruscant, if that’s where Quentin planned to go next. She didn’t know if he planned to take her with him, or leave her on Procopia. She didn’t know if he would ever want anything to do with her again.

    That last thought brought tears to her eyes, tears she quickly wiped away. She wasn’t allowed to feel sad when she hurt him. Still, she would rather he killed her than he leave her, as justified as he would be to do so. She shook her head, and forced herself up. Wallowing in self-pity wasn’t going to get her anywhere.

    They needed clothes. She made her way to the crew, looking for something that might fit Quentin. A plain black flight jumpsuit was the first thing she found, along with a plain white undershirt. No undergarments, but it should do for the meantime. For herself, she looked through Linora’s things onboard. That quickly became frustrating, as she discovered that Linora’s clothes are mostly well tailored to her lithe form, and her more voluptuous figure would spill out of them. She settled on a dress that was most likely loose on Linora, but hugged all of her own curves. It would do for now.

    She approached the the bathroom, rapping softly at the door left slightly ajar. “Quentin, I know you must hate me right now, but I found some clothes that might fit you. I’ll leave them out the door.” She was about to turn and leave, give him the space he clearly needed, when the scent hit her nose. Merakuya.

    She threw open the door at that, hurdling towards him to slap the jar from his hand. She knew she didn’t have a leg to stand on here, denying him the drugs that would numb his pain when she succumbed to her own weakness. Being the cause of his suffering and need for inebriation. But, whether it was because she knew what he was going through, knew how he was feeling, and knew how much she regretted giving into despair, or because she still loved him, and wanted to spare him further anguish and shame, she couldn’t let him make the same mistakes she had. Even if it meant his hatred.

    “You’re a Jedi, not some junkie! You are better than this, and you know it. I know it’s easy to give in, to give up, to surrender to the pain. But you are stronger than this. You don’t need drugs.”
     
    The jar, which was made of a stiff plastic, clattered and bounced along the tiles. He stared at it, watched it lay on its side as the honey within tried to decide if it was going to flow out. The subdued lighting struck lines of dull fire from the amber fluid. "A Jedi?" he murmured. "Yeah, some Jedi. Not Jedi enough to protect you. Not Jedi enough to protect myself."

    He threw himself across the tub, water sloshing out onto the floor as he opened what distance he could between them. "And what do you care?" he snapped, trying to ignore the love and shame and self-loathing and concern that flowed from her mind. "You've got your Inertia, don't you? That's what you wanted, isn't it? Inertia, and Linora?"

    He should be better than this. She was right, and he knew it. But he hurt. Not physically, not really. But his inability to protect her from the pirates mingled with his helplessness when he'd been raped to make him want to try not to care. And the confusion in his mind, the realization that - on some level - he'd wanted Linora only made it worse. Had he actually tried to escape, or had he allowed her...

    "Get out..." he snarled out through gritted teeth, reaching out through the Force and calling the tumbled jar back to his hand. "Leave me alone."
     
    "And what do you care?"

    The words hurt as much as anything that had happened to her in the past week. There was no effective armor against the truth.

    “Quentin, I…” I love you? I’m sorry? I know what you are going through? I want to kill myself? The words overflowed in her mind, but she couldn’t give them voice.

    "You've got your Inertia, don't you? That's what you wanted, isn't it? Inertia, and Linora?"

    Something about that question broke her. Clearly she had chosen him over Linora. Too late, perhaps, but still. “Yeah Quentin, because this is what I want. To be shackled to the damn drug that wrecked my life. To be used by a cartel that tortured me.” To hurt the man I love. Loved? Did she still love him? Was she allowed to still love him?

    "Get out..." he snarled out through gritted teeth, reaching out through the Force and calling the tumbled jar back to his hand. "Leave me alone."

    He was turning his pain inward, hurting himself out of shame. She saw right through it, felt it, continued to feel it alongside him. The downward spiral would only get worse, until he crashed. This was her fault, she couldn’t let him hurt himself over her own actions. The only thing she could do was get him to turn his pain outward, at her. Even if it meant him hating her.

    “You want to be on this stuff? Just give up, and give to the numbness? Why even bother leaving then? Let’s both go back to Mustafar and succumb to our vices. It’s easier that way Quentin. Let’s all just do what is easy.” She needed to go further, to really engage his hatred, his anger. So that he could externalize it at her, instead of let it eat him up from within. Words danced in her head, words that would surely inflame his wrath, words that would tugged at open wounds. It hurt her, to even think such things, but their effectiveness couldn’t be denied.

    “Are you mad I let her rape you, or mad I stopped her before you could finish?”
     
    “Are you mad I let her rape you, or mad I stopped her before you could finish?”

    He knew she was trying to provoke him. He could feel it. And ordinarily, he could have shrugged it off. But right now? Right now he wanted to lash out, to hurt someone - himself, or her if she wouldn't let him. "Yes!" he roared, ignoring the jar as he lunged forward. It sailed past to smack into the far wall, and he grabbed her wrists with bruising force as water sloshed over her. "Damn you!" he screamed, jerking her towards him. "You showed her how! Showed her my weaknesses, and you made me..."

    He gritted his teeth. Made him what? Made him remember Linora as she had been, when they'd been young and in love and thrilling to the forbidden fruit of their relationship? Made him enjoy her attack? Made him want, on some level, to participate?

    With another howl of anger and self-loathing he jerked her wrists, dragging her into the water. "You bitch!" he screamed in her face, slamming her into the far side of the tub. "I trusted you! I loved you!" He advanced, fists balled. "I love you, and you,,, you..." Suddenly, his hand was locked around her throat as he shoved her against the edge of the tub, choking her. "I..." he gasped, tears of shame and sorrow and rage streaming down his cheeks. "I... I..."
     
    Everything happened rather quickly. The splash of lukewarm water against her legs, the clatter of the jar of Merakuya against the wall, the vice grip upon her wrists, slippery yet strong. She resisted, mostly out of instinct, but he yanked her into the tub, his anger fueling his strength. Water splashed in the tub a she flailed against him, slipping down, hitting her head on the side as he slammed her into it. Her dress was soaked, sticking to her skin almost lewdly. He was atop her, between her thighs, water dripping down his skin as he looked down at her, rage burning in his eyes. She could only respond to his word with a pained cry.

    His fingers wrapped around her throat as he sought some outlet for the monsoon of emotions that passed through him, the same Monsoon of emotions she had felt, a few days prior. The shame, the hurt, the terror. The disappointment she had felt that he hadn’t helped her was betrayal in his, as she had done this to him. His emotions flood her mind, reopening the fresh wounds, reminding her of the despair she had tried drowning in Inertia.

    “Quen…tin…” She gasped, as his grip tighten around her neck. She reached for him for his face, her thumb rubbing a tear away. “I’m…sorry.” She didn’t fight him off, didn’t stop him, just looked up at him with resigned eyes. It was really quite fitting, that she might die like this. She had Killed Master Ki-Adi for getting in the way of her own addiction; it made sense in the grand scheme of the universe for Quentin to kill her for the same thing. It was even the same way, almost. She had choked her master through the force. This was the best way to atone for her crimes.
     
    "I'm... sorry..."

    She gasped the words out as he choked her, her thumb brushing a tear away. The effect was like ice water splashed across his naked body, and Quentin suddenly released her. Shaking, suddenly ashen, he backed away. "What... what was I..." He blanched as he saw the bruises on her throat, stark and fresh against her skin. That led him to see the other bruises on her body, wrists and ankles and on the exposed curve of her breasts, marks left by her own rapists. Pirates who had been far more brutal than Linora had been.

    His fury drained away like a lanced boil, and he could feel the truth of what she had said. Of how she'd done what she could to prevent him from being tortured and killed. Of how her betrayal had been an effort to save his life. The sudden shock of remorse nearly crushed him to the deck with its weight. "No, Kaydia. I'm sorry."

    Hesitantly he stepped forward. Gently he pulled her into his arms. "I'm sorry," he whispered, fresh tears in his eyes. He traced the bruises he'd left on her skin, and a fresh wave of self-loathing lashed through him. "You... you tried... to help me. And I..." He gritted his teeth. "I'm a fool, Kaydia. A fool, and hardly a Jedi. Not if I can lash out at the woman I love. At you."
     
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