Ianna could still see his eyes as two orbs of unnatural amber light that contrasted sharply with the pitch-black room.
Old animal instincts hard coded into the genes of her most ancient ancestors reared their head, warning her of the creature before her.
Her arms and legs were locked into place and her eyelids refused to blink even as they began to ache from dryness. She barely breathed, as though not doing anything would cause the thing to avert its attention.
She knew it was stupid, but her body refused to obey nevertheless. Neither of her two hearts could decide whether they wanted to stop suddenly or beat faster.
However, the choice to obey or not was taken out of her hands. The massive paws of Aldrex's Shadow easily carried her slight frame away from the doorway. The creature's unblinking eyes seemed to follow her unwilling movement across the room until the alien set her down on the edge of her own bed.
If she didn't know better, she might have said it was with an awkward gentleness.
Ianna could tell that the creature smiled as his eyes crinkled at the edges. A second later, the lights began to fade on. Now, she could see him more clearly.
Before, she thought he had his hands clasped in his lap. Now, she could see that his left arm was actually in a sling while his right was resting lightly on his leg.
As the light level increased slowly, she felt her heartbeats unconsciously edge towards more normal rhythms at no longer being in complete darkness. Warmth started returning to the room as well, but there was still a persistent chill that didn't let her get completely comfortable.
"Better?" Aldrex asked, his voice level. There was even a hint of polite concern in his tone.
Ianna still refused to answer. Refused to tear her gaze away from his eyes.
In the end, it was Aldrex who broke eye contact first when he rolled his eyes, something so unexpected from the normally expressionless man that it made Ianna blink in surprise.
"If I was going to kill you, we wouldn't be speaking right now." He stated bluntly, "I would have done it five minutes ago when you went out of your way to kill that acolyte."
If they weren't already, her eyes would have widened, "H-How did you…?"
The corners of his mouth twitched up into a smirk, a trace amount of smugness leaking through his control, "I have eyes everywhere, my dear. I have been aware of your "extracurricular" activities for some time now."
She had made absolutely certain that there were no witnesses, no possible way to trace it back to her. There were no security cameras at any of the murder sites.
So how had he done it? Some kind of Force magic? Or was it something else?
Despite the circumstances, Ianna was starting to calm down enough to begin thinking rationally again. Part of her was cursing her earlier act of blocking her side of the Force bond. If she hadn't, Terrak would have felt the moment she panicked and come racing from…wherever he was to rescue her.
But then, so might Garsh. And she had little desire to be in his presence more than necessary.
"Then why are you here instead of an Inquisitor?" Ianna knew the consequences if she had been caught. She had seen it more than once from a distance.
If Aldrex wasn't here to kill her, then he wanted something. What that something was, she wasn't sure.
"So long as it didn't affect me or my interests, I could care less what you do in your free time…unless there was some way I could benefit from it." He replied, confirming her suspicions.
"While I am rather curious about how precisely you killed those acolytes, I am much more interested in something else. A certain Quarren that we are both acquainted with."
A spark of irritation broke through the fear. Of course the squid had something to do with this.
It was this frustration that allowed Ianna to finally loosen her sarcastic tongue, "Why? Can't keep track of your friends?"
"I never really counted Garsh as a friend…but especially not now." While there was no outward reaction on his face, there was a harsh, cold edge to his voice that hadn't been there before.
With her understanding of fear had come a greater understanding and ability to sense other emotions. She blinked in surprise at the hatred in the other acolyte's tone. Just what had Garsh done?
Just out of sight, Ianna heard the room's third occupant shift. Because of her hyper-focus on Aldrex, she had actually forgotten he was there.
"Because of my "eyes" and…other means, I know exactly what Garsh has been doing. And what Garsh is." Aldrex continued, "Tell me, Ianna. Were you aware that he was a Jedi?"
The Zabrak's eyebrows shot up into her hairline as that threw her for a loop, "A Jedi? No. No. I-I…This is Korriban! How could Jedi even get here?"
"With a great deal of effort…but it's possible. It wouldn't even be the first time it has happened." He replied before elaborating, "Specifically, he's a Jedi Shadow. They're particularly adept at infiltrating enemy ranks and going unnoticed."
"…That's why he's afraid of me." She muttered.
She didn't particularly want to believe Aldrex. Other than his apparent hatred of Garsh, she had no idea what the other acolyte's motivations were. However, she couldn't deny that what he was saying matched up with her own suspicions.
"I wouldn't say he's afraid. Shadows tend to be more zealous than most other Jedi when it comes to their Code. It's not often that they even acknowledge that particular emotion." Aldrex commented, a bitter smile on his face, "But he is wary. It seems that he has been avoiding the more…obviously corrupted of us."
Ianna grimaced, knowing that her own appearance was beginning to show changes. She saw the yellow eyes in the mirror every morning and knew what they signified.
'But not Terrak…' She noted mentally.
"Based on what I have observed so far, I believe that he thinks your brother can be of use to his aims."
...
Oh, I had her with that one. The brief spike of anger that actually broke past her fear of me was all the indicator I needed.
Hook. Line. And sinker.
Garsh was a closed book to everyone, but I didn't need to actually know him to plant the idea that he was using Terrak into his sister's head. Especially when the thought might have already been bouncing around her head for some time beforehand.
Before this meeting, I had rewatched as much of the footage of them interacting as I could, noting their expressions and their body language. Terrak tried to place himself as a peacemaker between them, but Ianna was just as wary of Garsh as he was of her. They kept their distance from each other whenever possible, but that wasn't often.
I didn't know precisely what Garsh's objective was, but I had a few theories. I doubted that he knew Darth Rictus was involved, but it was possible that he was after something else.
One of the duties of Jedi Shadows was to hunt down Fallen Jedi. In that case, Olia might have been his target, but I didn't think that alone would be enough reason to infiltrate the Sith Academy.
The Council of First Knowledge could simply be taking advantage of the opportunity that the Empire's new recruitment policies provided, with access to Olia being a secondary objective rather than the primary goal.
In truth, I didn't really care what his end goal was. Hell, I would have been content to leave him alone if I hadn't been ordered to kill him.
But he made the mistake of messing with my head in the course of his mission.
For that, I was going to enjoy killing him.
"I can't say what he intends for your brother after he has achieved his goal, but I doubt it's going to be anything good. Shadows tend to be more…callous than normal Jedi. It's possible that he will simply discard Terrak and make his escape. Or worse, frame your brother for his own crimes to maintain his cover."
Each word I spoke was intended to spark Ianna's fury and exacerbate her paranoia. And by God, it was working.
The twins practically embodied the dangers of attachment that the Jedi so often preached against. Ianna was unstable at the best of times, barely able to function without her brother nearby. As such, she obsessed over him.
When Iren and Garsh started trying to separate them, she started spiraling even faster into the Dark Side than before.
She was a wildcard, one I intended to turn to my side without her knowing.
And the vastly diluted mixture of Sith Poison in a tiny injector I had positioned next to her neck with telekinesis while we had been speaking was going to help. Ianna's passive Force-based defenses were almost non-existent, so it was pathetically easy to bypass them without her noticing and numb a small patch on her neck with Crucitorn.
I would be depressed with how much practice I was getting with that power if it wasn't so damn useful.
The poison would take time to circulate through her system, especially given how diluted it was. But in return, it should increase her anger in a less conspicuous manner than if she had been given a larger dose and make her more prone to irrational actions.
Heh. Well, more than she already was.
The pain the poison normally inflicted should be much lower as well. Given that Zabrak had a much higher pain tolerance than most other humanoid species in the galaxy, it was possible that it would be at a level that she wouldn't even notice.
Once it was done, the injector was maneuvered over to Gaarurra's waiting hand, outside of Ianna's sight, and from there slipped into a pouch on his bandoleer.
It was nice having competent and loyal help.
A moment later, my datapad chimed softly. I plucked it from my bag with my good hand and looked at the screen.
Time was up, it seemed. While I accomplished all I planned to, I had been hoping to stick around for a little while longer. Oh well.
"What's that?" Ianna asked suspiciously. As angry as she was at Garsh, she was still very much wary of me.
"Just an alert I set for myself. I didn't think it would go over well if Garsh saw us speaking." I explained easily.
It was the truth, too…just not the whole truth. I couldn't imagine that Terrak would be too pleased either.
I hadn't just set the probe droids to alert me when Terrak or Garsh were on their way back. I had also subverted two of the combat droids in the training hall. Nothing as fancy as what Darth Rictus had done to me, but something to keep them busy for a little longer than they had intended.
"Just keep in mind what I've said, Ianna." I reminded her as I got up to leave, "We'll speak again some time soon."
As the door opened, Gaarurra fell into step behind me. Ianna said nothing, already beginning to lose herself in her thoughts.
I wish I had the time to stick around and watch the fireworks, but I still had so much more left to do.
My Wookiee companion woofed a question once the door had hissed closed, "So what now?"
"Now? Now, we go hunting. I still need materials for my ritual..."
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The first book of this fanfic has been completed on Patreon, you can look it up in the collection alongside the second book. You can visit Patreon if you want to read in Advance.
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