Aboard Defender-
class starship
13 ATC
K’hera sat on the couch, her daughter in her arms. She found it easier to look down at the baby than to turn her eyes to the man standing in front of her.
“K’hera?” Malavai asked after a few moments when she didn’t say anything.
K’saria glared at him from where she stood in the doorway to her ship’s common room. “If you want him to leave, just say the word and I’ll make sure he goes.”
“No,” K’hera said softly, running a gentle finger over her sleeping daughter’s cheek. “He put all of this effort into finding me for a reason. Let him speak his piece.”
Malavai looked exceedingly nervous—in fact, more nervous than she had ever seen him. “Thank you for giving me this chance.”
K’hera looked away. “Talk.”
He took a deep breath, then spoke quickly, as though wanting to get the words out before he had second thoughts. “I went back to where I’d left you, after it was all over. When I saw that you were gone, I
knew that you weren’t dead. I had to find you. I wanted more than anything to apologize.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Why? I tried to kill you, you did the same for me. We’re even. Aren’t we?”
Malavai shook his head. “I wasn’t thinking. I failed to properly analyze your motivations and determine a just solution to the problem your actions presented. I let my emotions get the better of me,” he said grimly, “and that was a terrible mistake.”
He took a step towards her, then another. K’saria’s hand started to move towards her lightsaber; K’hera shook her head at her and she relaxed her stance, frowning.
Malavai dropped to one knee in front of her, looking intently up at her with those eyes that she had always found so utterly captivating. “I should have let you explain. I should have known Baras would have coerced you somehow.”
K’hera snuggled her baby a little closer to herself.
“I’m sorry,” Malavai whispered. He sounded almost pleading. “I love you. I’ve always loved you. What I did was wrong, and I beg your forgiveness.”
She watched him for a long moment. “Get up.”
He slowly rose to his feet, frowning.
K’hera sighed. “I’ve tried very hard over the past year to not be in love with you, but nothing has worked. Even after everything…you still mean the galaxy to me. How can I not forgive you?”
In the doorway, K’saria looked torn between approval of her sister showing a Jedi-like degree of compassion, and anger that she would so easily accept the apology of a man who had left her to die a slow and painful death.
Malavai took a shaky breath, relief evident in his bearing. “I am beyond grateful.”
K’hera smiled tentatively. “You’re welcome. Now, come over here and meet your daughter.”
He moved eagerly over to the couch and sat down beside her, a smile spreading across his face as he looked at the bundle in her arms. “When I saw her, I wondered…she’s ours, then?”
K’hera nodded. “Her name is Vynia.”
“Vynia,” Malavai repeated. “That’s a beautiful name.” He looked from the child’s face to hers. “If I had known you were pregnant, I would never have—“ He broke off, swallowing hard.
“It’s all right,” K’hera murmured. “There’s no use dwelling on what could have been. We can start over, now.”
“Really?” Malavai asked. At this close range, she could feel raw, desperate hope pouring off him in the Force. “You—you’ll come back with me? To the Empire?”
K’hera glanced over at K’saria, giving her a significant look. “Yes.”
Hesitantly, he put an arm around her. “I would very much like that.”
She leaned back, resting her head on his shoulder. “So would I.”
*****
Dromund Kaas
11 ATC
The Pureblood woman’s golden eyes were glazed and distant, a small smile touching the corners of her mouth as she looked at something no one else could see.
“Her mind is broken, my lord,” the masked inquisitor said. “She no longer responds to the nightmare spells.”
“Then she is of no further use,” Darth Baras responded. He shook his head. “To think that she endured for so long…it is remarkable.”
“Such is the price of defiance,” the inquisitor murmured. “What is to be done with her, my lord?”
“Kill her—cleanly, mind you—and preserve the body,” Baras ordered. “I think I shall present a very special gift to my former apprentice. A reminder of what happens when my orders are not obeyed.”
The inquisitor bowed. “As you decree, my lord Voice.”