Chapter 66: Step

Olia was still gone. She had taken a speeder bike out into the desert one day and hadn't come back for several weeks now.

Kalista didn't know if the other woman was dead, but at this point, it was starting to look like a fair assumption. If that was the case, she was alone now in a sea of enemies.

Well, not completely alone. There was Caleb…but the encounter with Aldrex's beast had shaken her trust that the other acolyte could truly keep her safe. She shuddered as she remembered it.

The Twi'lek only recalled a handful of times where she had felt so helpless, most of which were when she was a child. Everything she had built up since coming to the academy, all the skills she had painstakingly trained…it was all useless, torn away in a single moment.

Caleb had said called the beast a monster after it had torn through the defenses of five acolytes simultaneously. She had agreed, but other things had filtered into her mind.

The beast was a monster. She would never deny that. But what kind of creature could hold said monster's leash?

She had rarely given much thought to subject of Olia's obsession. The quiet man had been little more than a distant threat to her. Someone else's problem. But now…

The answer that came to her was simple. Aldrex was a monster of a different kind.

His return to the academy had been quiet, but not unnoticed. Olia was not the only one to listen to rumors.

For all the connections he had made with the soldiers of Korriban, it had always struck her as odd that he did not do the same for other acolytes, save for his creature. Perhaps he was the paranoid type, unwilling to risk someone of higher standing controlling the arrangement. Or perhaps he simply found it easier to deal with non-Force Sensitive subordinates.

Whatever the case, whether Aldrex knew it or not, he was the subject of some gossip among those who both feared and resented him.

It had started small. Just some grumbling from the acolytes he had driven off from their hunting grounds. The few who actually wished him harm never took action because Aldrex was difficult to find on the best of days, save for when he ventured into the archives or the training halls. 

However, most were content to simply ignore him.

But then, Lord Renning had died and the Inquisitors began interrogations. The grumbling had quieted, but a new crowd had taken interest.

The warriors who had trained with a lightsaber all their life knew the signs of such a wound on sight. To them, it was a mark of either honor or punishment. The one bearing such a mark had either defeated a wielder of a lightsaber or had been humiliated by one.

And Aldrex did not walk like a broken man.

Many had assumed that the wound had been dealt by Lord Renning during the course of…whatever had happened to him. However, the more observant gossips noted that the wound had been present before Renning's demise, leading to an explosion of other theories.

It all continued to grow from there. The whispers had grown louder after the droid incident and there was some chatter that he had been involved in an expedition in the Valley of the Dark Lords.

The more she listened, the more Kalista realized just how little she actually knew about the most silent…well, the most silent living acolyte of their group. Qiv was the most silent because he had disappeared some time ago.

The marks on his face meant that he had been a slave prior to his conscription into the Sith, but it was obvious that he had not been like she was. Pleasure slaves were things to be shown off to wealthy associates, to be pawed and leered at. No sane master would ever devalue their property by branding their faces.

Household slaves like the twins held similar privileges, but with none of the drawbacks. It was why she despised them.

No, she suspected that Aldrex had been a labor slave or a pit fighter. He had the muscle mass to fit either one, though she leaned more towards the former due to the lack of scars prior to the first trial.

But beyond that…she knew nothing.

He was quiet, passive even, and seemed content to leave everyone else alone. He didn't threaten the other acolytes or attempt to establish dominance over them as so many had tried with her.

Intentionally, at least. If some of the rumors were to be believed, he seemed to do that without meaning to.

To her knowledge, he had never been threatened or confronted by another acolyte, though whether that was due to his personal power or the sheer difficulty in finding him she wasn't certain. And Olia…

Kalista paused as she slowly realized something.

Olia was afraid of him.

She had known about their "rivalry" since the beginning, though she had mostly viewed it as one of Olia's quirks. She had watched it turn from an amusing pastime to an obsession. Because it didn't involve her, it was something to be tolerated, but barely acknowledged.

It was only now that Kalista realized that the motivation behind Olia's obsession had shifted. It wasn't about asserting dominance anymore, but rather getting rid of something she was afraid of. As she scoured her memories, she recalled that the change had come at the same time that the rumors had changed.

She almost smacked herself for not figuring it out sooner. Olia, as a former Jedi, would recognize lightsaber wounds as easily as someone raised among the Sith would.

Plans started forming in her mind as she hurriedly made her way back to her quarters. With Olia gone, her most powerful protector was Caleb, who had proven to be inadequate in the face of Aldrex.

She tried to ignore the twinge of pain in her chest as she thought that.

She didn't care for him. He was just a means to an end.

Kalista had not taken any actions against Aldrex or his interests save for allying with Olia. Perhaps he would be amenable to negotiating an…arrangement?

She prayed to whatever was listening that it wasn't too late.

...

The Twi'lek woman was only a few corridors from her quarters when she felt it. The eyes boring into her back, setting her skin to crawling.

"Did you really think you'd gotten away from me?"

She knew that voice, made hoarse by sand and sun. It had haunted her nightmares and memories for years. It came with a leering smile showing too many teeth as calloused hands roughly caressed her face.

Kalista froze for a moment before slowly turning.

The malevolent smile widened, "Surprised?"

"I-I killed you, Varg. I know you're dead." She managed to reply with only a hint of a stammer, "I'm free of you."

Drago Varg stood before her once more with no sign that his neck had been broken. The tall, wiry human leaned against the wall, still dressed in the clothes she knew he had died in.

He chuckled, the sound like grinding rocks, "Free? You were never free from me, girl. You're still in my cage."

"The Force shall free me…" Kalista tried to mutter the last line of the Sith Code like some sort of prayer. She had never paid much mind to it before, but it was as good a lifeline as any right now.

This only seemed to amuse Varg, "There is no freedom with the Sith. At least, not for a scared little girl like you."

He took a step forward. She instinctively took one back. She wanted to curse her fear, but she couldn't help it.

"Freedom requires the power and will to seize it."

Step.

"And you never had any of either to begin with. All of your anger and hatred amounted to nothing."

Step.

"All you could do was mewl and beg for scraps. Put yourself at the mercy of your betters."

Varg was now in her face, having covered the distance faster than she could react. Suddenly, the smile widened into something inhuman.

"Run."

Her legs moved against her will, taking her away from the thing that wore the face of Drago Varg. It didn't reach out for her and she didn't stop to see if the dead man was following her.

She simply ran in a blind panic. But she only made it through a few turns before she ran head long into something.

A pair of arms wrapped around her.

"Kalista? What's the matter?"

She nearly let out a sob at the sound of Caleb's voice and allowed herself to cling to him.

"I-I…" Kalista started to try and explain until she looked up and froze.

Her lover's tattooed face was warped by the same too-wide-smile that not-Varg had worn. She stifled a scream and tried to pry herself out of its grip, only to find that its arms had hardened the grip into one of iron.

"Shh…" Caleb's voice shushed with mock concern, "It's okay to be afraid."

The arms around her tightened and tightened until her breath only came in gasps and her ribs creaked beneath her skin. When one of them finally broke with a sickening snap, she didn't have the air to cry out in agony. She kicked and thrashed weakly, to no avail.

This was her end. She was certain of it. No help would be coming, nor was she strong enough to save herself.

As her life was slowly crushed out of her, she went still, loosening every restraint she had to keep back her emotions and hide them away. She allowed herself to weep as she had not done since she was torn from her mother's arms.

She was helpless as her skin began to flake away from her body, revealing the muscle and sinews beneath. Her tears dried as muscle and soft tissue turned to dust, leaving an empty skeleton loosely held together by ligaments.

When even that faded away, all that was left was a heart, still beating in her killer's hand. Each beat came slower and slower, until at last, it went still.

The monster, its prize in hand, reverted to its natural form before disincorporating into a cloud of smoke. Only a small pile of ash was left behind as evidence of the grisly murder.

Moments later, two pairs of footsteps rounded the corner.

"Glad you finally took me up on that offer to spar, though it's too bad your arm's still messed up." Caleb commented jovially, "Still, you're a hell of a dirty fighter. Reminded me of my brawling days."

"A decision I think I'm starting to regret." Aldrex grimaced, rubbing at his side.

Yellow eyes briefly passed over the pile of ashes, its owner smiling slightly before continuing as though nothing had happened.

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