How did she even arrive here safely? Evelyn winced to keep any pained noises down as the door slid open, and she stumbled in as if she were in a drunken stupor. Her usual tightly braided hair was unkempt and strands loose from the braid.
The door slid closed behind her as Evelyn tried to take another step to get to the bedroom, but ended up slamming her knee onto the floor below as the pain didn’t even register to her.
Everything was so bright and so loud. Her chest hurts. Her mind was in so much agony, she couldn’t think of anything else. Despite this, her stubbornness continued to push through-
Think- Think! Her body was drenched in sweat, and she couldn’t breathe. She was burning up to the point that an ice-cold bath would be ideal.
Breathe, breathe, inhale-
“Turn off the lights-” Evelyn hissed into the empty room. Unknown to her, their home’s lights were already shut off because the sun’s rays were significant enough.
It was still so bright. Her palms rested on the cold floor as she tried to push herself up, only to fail and collapse onto the floor. Her hands balled into fists.
Her mind was so loud with the howling winds. It was all she could hear, her hands went to her ears as if it would bring some relief.
It did not.
Flashes of radiant green lights appeared behind her closed eyes. She couldn’t open them, too bright. She couldn’t keep them closed, the green illumination-
“Anders-” Evelyn whimpered, her pride wounded just for calling out for him.
She was desperate. She needed him. She wasn’t sure what for, for his support or his abilities? Or both?
The Echani hybrid doesn’t even know if he’s home yet, on the way, or was going to be working late. Part of her was hoping he was home, the other part didn’t want him to see her like this.
Cold bath… Evelyn tried to push herself up again.
-# <@837236610684813342>
The clash of lightsabers shone, sparking, their deadly arcs like flashes of lightning in the dimly lit combat room of the Astral Drake.
Twin blades of rainbow strick out only to be blocked by a single black blade cursed with a crimson hue. One style was elegant, refined, like a dancer upon the stage, the other was ruthless, yet restrained, like a timed explosive waiting to go off.
“You have improved,” Anders stated with a prideful smile on his face.
“Thank you,” Draca smiled back. “So have you.”
“I do wish you would use just a single blade…”
Draca sighed. “Not this again…”
“Yes, this again! You are proficient enough that a second blade is not required. It does not add any-”
Anders stopped, going wide-eyed. Draca turned his head towards the other side of the ship.
“I felt it too!” He said.
They both deactivated their weapons and broke into a sprint. When they arrived at Anders’ bedroom, Evelyn was clinging to the wall for support, her knees trembling.
“Evelyn!” Anders managed to catch her before she collapsed.
She was falling but then she wasn’t.
~
This morning…
“If that would be all-”
“Did you register this box?” Dol questioned Evelyn as she gave him her usual resting schutta face. Evelyn remained quiet while pulling up the data on Envoy’s datapad and handed it over to Dol. Dol worked for both the Sith Artifacts division and of course, the Inquisitors division.
Evelyn hated to be around him but at least, she knew she was safe here. There were droids, cameras, security, and so many eyes in this building constantly, it would be difficult. Dol had a goal but he was no fool.
“I seem to be mistaken.” He handed the pad back as Evelyn nodded to one of the members for them to take their leave.
“I would be careful if I were you, Mrs. Anderson. One of the artifacts might….” He paused and waved his hand upwards, “Reveal some secrets to you.” Evelyn didn’t turn to look at him. She gave the worker another single nod as they grabbed the steel box and headed out. Evelyn’s hand went up to the side of her forehead as she massaged it. How odd. She was starting to get a headache.
That’s unusual for her.
~
She couldn’t breathe as she winced, her hand going to her chest. Was this a panic attack? The feeling of dread, suffocating, chest tightness- breathe! She didn’t hear Anderson call out her name but she felt ‘restrained.’ She was forced to open her eyes despite how bright everything was and she was able to make out his figure. She would be able to spot him anywhere without hesitation.
He was home.
“Anders, the winds are deafening-” Evelyn grimaced, her whisper barely audible. It sounded like a hurricane was just thundering into her ears. Swirls of green lights were now seen behind closed or open eyes. One hand grasped Anders’ arm in desperation and wanting his comfort. The other went up to the side of her head. Both Anders and Draca would notice a small trickle of blood coming out of her ears.
“The green lights are blinding- Help me, please,” her voice cracked slightly at the end. She had heard stories of migraines but this couldn’t be it. She’s never had one and it felt like her brain was going to explode out of her skull.
Green lights.
The blood, the tingling of the Dark Side within the air that poisoned the atmosphere. Then she asked, no, pleaded to him. His strong, stubborn, resilient wife had begged him for help.
Draca kneeled beside them and placed his hands over her head. A small pulse of soothing energy left his hands.
It was anything but soothing. Evelyn writhed, coughing blood. Draca recoiled as Anders held her tighter.
“That’s… never happened before. What do we do?” Draca glanced at his hands. Never had his attempts to heal backfired so disastrously.
Anders pursed his lips. “Leave us. I will take care of her.”
“But…”
Anders gave him a glare, the kind that left no room for argument, lest the consequences be delivered.
The young man hesitantly left the room, leaving Husband and Wife alone.
Anders placed a hand on Evelyn’s forehead. She was burning up. Normally, such sudden illnesses were impossible to take hold so quickly. Yet, as an Inquisitor, he had seen ways they could be done. The best way to combat the manipulation of the mind was to fight fire with fire.
It was a simple trick, really. Convince the mind that it was not in as much pain as it really was. It was far from a cure, but it bought them a few moments for him to think about their next steps.
And that green light Melissa had predicted.
Evelyn’s shoulders relaxed as she let out a sharp exhale of relief. It wasn’t gone but the winds had became quiet as a breeze. The green lights faded into barely a flicker here and there.
She hasn’t had anything this mentally intense since the first few years of training with Dol and she had forgotten how horrible and extreme it was in the beginning.
Her brows furrowed in confusion as her jaw tightened. She couldn’t process her thoughts and emotions correctly due to the sudden raise and drop of it all.
“I-” Evelyn started as she cleared her throat then she was startled to taste iron. Blood? Did she bite herself from the pain? She was unsure what to say or even think. The noise and green lights was confusing enough-
‘-green magical force-’ she heard that voice in her head. Melissa’s.
“Anders, What is going on?” She sounded exhausted and hoped that with Anders’ intelligence and expertise with the Force and unusual things, he would know something.
“Am I under attack?” She wanted to move away to check her surroundings but she knew that it was his hand and their connection that was keeping it at bay. She had to remind herself to stay still despite she always hated mental invasion for years and this time? She needed it.
It helped she trusted Anders, her own husband, with this.
Unaware to her, she was trembling and holding him tight towards her still as if she was afraid to let go.
“Hush,” he silenced her.
And, subconsciously he held her tighter. She was not cold. Far from it. She was burning up. He inspected her carefully, his eyes meeting hers then moving down her body. The trembling, the uncertainty, it was as clear a sign as any he had seen.
“Yes and no,” he finally answered, wiping away the blood from her face. It was beginning to form a small puddle on the durasteel floor around them, glistening in the night like stars of life. Veins buldged on her forehead and she was sweating profusely.
“I have my suspicions,” Anders pursed his lips. “No, not suspicions, I am fairly certain in my analysis of what is occurring. What I am unsure of, however, is the presence of what appears to be Nightsister Magic coursing in your veins.”
He looked her back in the eyes. “Tell me, do you remember anything new?”
“Nightsister?” She had never heard of that word until this morning when handling artifacts.
Was Dol actually being honest?
She paused at the idea of Nightsister Magick coursing through her veins- what was he talking about? Why couldn’t she remember any of this? She must know but the pain was near unbearable.
When he asked his question, just like an itch that needed to be taken care of, she started to scratch away mentally and she winced again. The deeper she tried to go, everything was getting worse. It was still so hot. The winds was getting loud again but-
“The winds- Chanting?” She whispered, “The further I try, the worse everything becomes.” Just how far back should she try to go?
She returned his gaze but with intensity. If she had went through this before and it was agony then, she can do it again. Just in a different direction.
“I have to know what happened.” She waited for his guidance and help to do this. Despite it all, she wanted to find answers and it angered her that a memory was missing. If he refused, Anders would know his wife enough that just like during an event on Selen when she ran out of the tent into the danger, she would find another way.
Then she realized something. Her hand went up to his cheek gently, “if you do not wish to do this, we can find someone else.” It meant it would had to be locked away again for them to find someone else.
“But it is you, I trust.”
She trusted him.
Anders had broken many minds over his illustrious career as an Inquisitor. There were so many names, so many faces he had left a broken, heaping mess. They all just blurred together, a distant flucker on a candle in the wind.
He could count the amount of times he had repaired a mind on one hand.
If he refused? Just like in the tent on Selen, he knew her well enough that she would find another way, find someone else, find someone who would not be as delicate as he would be.
“It is a complicated procedure. Breaking into a consciousness is akin to destroying a door. The rest of the building still stands, though you can enter and wander to your hearts content. Repairing it? You risk damaging the foundations, hammer a nail into the wrong support and the entire structure cokes crumbling down.”
He wiped some hair out of her eyes. Her beautiful, beautiful eyes.
“I can do it, but it will be… unpleasant.”
Evelyn’s brows furrowed as her eyes closed when he brushed some strands of her silver hair. Her head was still pounding despite the temporary band-aid Anders had done.
“I know,” she whispered. It was why she gave him a chance to back out on this and she could always find someone else.
Course deep down she knew, they both had trust issues. So exactly who could they trust with this besides each other?
It scared her to finally fully trust him. Despite that he was her husband, they had some rocky moments and there were intense doubts from her about him. Those doubts are usually washed away with how he treats Draca and her. Sometimes even Melissa when the young Echani doesn’t drive him nuts.
‘Green flames,’ Melissa’s voice echoed in her mind as the flashes reappeared. It seems thinking about them made the itch more unbearable and she just wanted to chisel it away.
‘I want answers,’ Evelyn was determined on this.
Dol had completely nearly broken her mind over and over. If she grew stronger from that and her resolve became true, she can do it again. She opened her eyes, looked up at Anders while mustering up a bit of energy to tip toe to be able gently peck him on the lips. For her, to give herself some confidence.
For him, to be reassured.
“I will be okay.”
‘Green flames.’
Little did Evelyn realise that Anders had already begun his preparations, he peered into her consciousness, amber eyes of a fellow Grand Inquisitor peering back at him. Shades of her history with that Sith flooded his vision. He could see it all clearly, fractured, splintered, like cracks in a glass.
The mind was a beautiful fragile thing. There was no putting a band-aid on the bleeding. When a mind was broken, truly broken, there was no going back. If Anders made one mistake, he would cause irreversible damage. He had to be careful.
‘I want answers.’
‘And you shall have them.’ He responded to her telepathically, wordlessly, no movement of his lips, except for when she kissed him, the tingle radiating through his body.
“I know. I would trust no-one else with this. Brace yourself. This will be… uncomfortable.”
He placed a hand on her forehead, took a deep breath, and began his expedition into her inner sanctum.
The Amber eyes of the Sith faded into the howling winds and were replaced with dark eyes of a female Shaevalian. An artifact appeared, pulsating, only to fade away when a chain shattered, silver pieces glowed into neon green as a memory started to form.
One clear whisper in the wind that Anders can hear, The Sith Code, ‘Through victory, my chains are broken.’
Evelyn found herself sitting on the floor. Immediately, she wanted to look around but she had no control over her body. Soon, she started to look around and realized that this was a memory of her when she was younger. The room they were in was one of her mother’s favorites. Marble coated floors with tall marble pillars that reached to the starry skies above. Mirrors and expensive paintings watching the pair as they hung on the walls. A woman stood before her, wearing a red hooded robe. Despite the darkness of the marble room, Evelyn could make out that she was a Shaevalian as her black hair was tied back. She moved swiftly and sat down before Evelyn and Evelyn noticed that there was blood on the floor. Strange symbols and shapes that she had not yet learned. She was sitting in the middle of one of them, and the woman was sitting in the middle of the other. From an outside perspective, it almost looked like the number eight.
Evelyn could feel excitement as if she was about to learn something new. She was always a curious person and had an appetite for knowledge before she was trained under Master Dol.
“Do you trust me?,” the hooded female asked.
“Of course, Mother Ēsor,” Evelyn replied, causing the adult Evelyn to reel back. While she couldn’t control anything in this memory, she remembered everything she felt and her gut was screaming at her not to trust this woman and yet, she just said she did. Mother reached to her side and picked up a beautiful ritual dagger. The blade part was oddly dark green with red hilt.
“Hold out your arm, little Evelyn,” Mother Ēsor requested, her hand extended towards Evelyn. For the first time since Evelyn trained underneath Mother, she hesitated.
“What ritual is this again, Mother Ēsor?”
“To help you gain better focus on the Magick. To connect with my sisters and myself.” The answer seemed to please young Evelyn as she extended her arm to Ēsor.
“This will sting, my star.” The dagger’s tip easily sliced Evelyn’s forearm as she gritted her teeth but did not cry out. She didn’t want to seem weak to her favorite person. Then Mother Ēsor made the same slice on hers.
“Now, over this symbol, like this–” Ēsor explained as she had her forearm hover over a symbol, blood dripping and starting to pool onto it. Evelyn followed, the moment a drop of her blood touched Ēsor’s, the symbol glowed bright neon green and the circle around them also started to glow. Evelyn watched in wonder and amazement. Mother Ēsor started to chant and slowly, Evelyn started to feel tired. As if she was being drained and then pulled towards Ēsor direction.
“Evelyn!” Her mother’s voice cut through the fatigue as Evelyn looked up in confusion, wondering why her parents were there and who was that strange man with them? There was a sickening crack as Ēsor’s head was completely on backwards, eliciting a startled cry from Evelyn as she started to scoot back, disrupting the symbols and cancelling the ritual. Her mother ran to her and yanked her up, holding her face between her hands and checking her over.
“Did she–”
“No, my Lady Davinna. We arrived just in time. Evelyn still has her soul and Ēsor Animae did not finish. My lady, I must warn you, it was long enough for Evelyn to be able to use Magick or the Force, much better than she had before with the Nightsister’s blood now coursing through her. She would need guidance.”
Evelyn’s mom did not respond as she ushered one of the servants, “Take her to the medic wing,” then turned around to face the strange man. “A deal is a deal, Darth Dol. Let us discuss more about you becoming her teacher. Follow me, please.” Davinna walked past Dol and Evelyn looked over to Dol.
Evelyn never forgot the malicious grin on Dol’s face as she was being escorted away by a servant.
A faceless figure appeared, it had the same clothes and shape as of Ēsor but the ‘skin’ was translucent. The ghostly arm held up and both Anderson and Evelyn were pushed out by intense green energy, the sounds of chains snapping and breaking loudly.
Her memories were being freed.
Everything mentally hit her like a hyperspace jump. Evelyn cried out, clinging harder to Anderson, her eyes squeezed shut. Flashes of memories that were locked away, all was revealed. It was so loud and overwhelming. She felt her knees buckled but Anderson’s grip was steadfast and true.
Then silence. All she could hear was her heavy breathing. There were so many emotions and Evelyn needed some kind of shock to help her sort herself. The pain stopped and was replaced by exhaustion.
All that sneaking suspicion that Anders had on his wife if she had the Force or not was finally answered.
And what an answer it was.
Naturally, he was the Apprentice of Darth Lenora, a woman who exercised her ability in Nightsister Magick to great effect. She was a Sith first and foremost, though she was a Dark Side scientist the next. A researcher, a witch, a maniac.
Much like Dol. Now that Anders was a Grand Inquisitor, he had certain rights and privelages, access to classified information and people he would not have had otherwise.
He was already plotting, scheming, designing Dol’s demise in the most horrifically brutal way possible. Perhaps he would present Dol’s body to Idris Adenn in several bags, cut up like a sack of meat?
The thought almost made him smile.
“Anders?” Evelyn grabbed hold of his sleeve, gripping so tight her knuckles whitened.
He finished repairing the last cracks of her psyche like he was repairing a vase before it could be shattered into thousands of pieces.
“There,” he finally said. “How do you feel?”
How did she feel?
Even Evelyn couldn’t answer that directly and right away. She had to consider it for a moment.
Relief. She finally had answers and the gaps were being filled. The pain was gone but left behind a dull ache, sort of a soreness. She felt the mental and physical fatigue from it all.
Confused. If she had the Force and ability to learn this… Magick, why was it stored away? Why didn’t she become more of Dol’s apprentice? In a way, she was but the training could’ve had been much more different. She searched and found nothing from what she can remembered. It had to be a choice her parents had made or Dol would’ve not done it. Maybe.
Anger. Darth Dol saved her life. Evelyn being a very loyal individual, she felt like she owes him a favor now and it infuriates her.
She released her grip on Anders as she was certain her legs can now work properly. She wanted to try something. Her palm opened, and a small flame burst into life, hovering above her hand. As the hauntingly green glow illuminated her bright green eyes and white hair. Soon, it became slightly bigger, the size of a baseball. A new beast appeared in her eyes.
And the beast was hunger. Anders would know that look anywhere from being around Siths, power-hungry, or knowledge-hungry all his life. The desire to know more. The desire to get powerful. She wasn’t a weak person now, she could get stronger and help protect those she loves and holds dearly. Would Aketa be alive if this happened earlier?
No matter. Anders, Draca, and Melissa was her new family.
She needed to learn fast of what she can and cannot learn. The Echani hybrid continued to stare at the dancing flame with a dangerous newfound look.
“It was the first and only one I had learned and mastered…” She whispered.
Nearly two decades earlier.
“Is it possible that I can learn this technique?”
The flames burned bright, even from the fee feet of distance his Master had so g*raciously* afforded him, Zenod'ande'rson… no, that wasn’t his name anymore, was it?
Aequitas.
That is who he was now. His destiny had changed, his goals directly in front of him in a path all his own to take. Justice. Zenod'ande'rson was a relic of the past, the shell of his former self, weak and putiful. Aequitas was to be strong, powerful, mighty, the hammer of law and order in the galaxy. Those memories in his past were to set alight the fields in his soul as fuel for his power. Just like the green flames that flickered and lashed at his eyes. Just gazing at them hurt, like looking directly into a bright, neon star. Yet, what was the point if he could do no harm with them?
“You?” Darth Lenora sneered at him, her face wracked with either amusement or indignation, perhaps both. It was impossible to tell. “You, a male, which to learn the intricate arts of the Nightsisters? You are unworthy of such Magick. However, you have your own specialties, your own skills to perfect. The fact you would ask me such a question is insulting! I merely wished to show you so you’d understand.”
Aequitas furrowed his brow. “Understand what?”
Lenora’s grin curved into something feral. “How powerful I am.”
She threw the flames at him.
Present day
It had been half a minute and Anders hadn’t answered her. Of course, he was Male, and hence unworthy of Nightsister Magick. Evelyn was many things. She was strong, confident, stubborn, fierce, qualities that drew him to her in the first place, yet there was no mistaking that she was poor at masking her emotions, the concern wracking her face.
“Do you have any intention of learning once more?” Anders swallowed the lump in his throat and straightened himself.
Evelyn exhaled slowly and closed her fist as the flames went away but Anders didn’t say anything. It looked like like he wasn’t quite here with her. Was he thinking about something?
Yet, she had the sense that something was wrong. She couldn’t explain it. Was this what Force users, such as Draca and Melissa, meant when they could just ‘sense’ things?
“Anders?” She watched him regain his composure and asked her a question that slightly threw her off guard. She thought that he would be suggesting himself or others to help train her, not asking if she wanted to learn more.
Of course, she did. And she had reasons.
“Yes. It would be good to be able to have this under control. Do you know anyone that can help me learn more about Nightsisters?” She couldn’t remember much about them from her own memory.
Lenora. Aphotis…
Absolutely not. Neither of those options appealed to him in the slightest. Both would willingly extract the essence of Evelyn’s magic simply because they could.
Anders began to rise to his feet, though his grip on Evelyn did not falter. He carried her over to the bed. He placed her gently upon the duvet and carefully wiped the hair out of her eyes.
He knew of ichor himself. With enough time, he could prepare it. Yet, what Evelyn could do? That was in a league entirely of its own.
He placed a gentle kiss upon her forehead. She tasted like sweat.
“I do not, but I will endeavour to find you a suitable teacher,” he was, after all the Combat Master. “Rest. I will bring you some water.”
Evelyn opened her mouth to protest about him carrying her but quickly shut it. Her cheeks flushed a slight redness in frustration but there was also acceptance. She was tired.
She should learn to lean onto those she trust. Maybe this was finally the beginning of her healing for herself. She let out a small sigh of relief when she was on the bed and considered going to the bathroom just for a bath until his lips placed on her forehead. Their eyes met while he spoke of finding someone for her and went to get water. She waited until he was out of sight and sat up to the edge of bed.
She detest being on the bed dirty. Unless it was them-
Her cheeks reddened once more as she diverted her thoughts to something else.
“Thirteen, go get the cold bath ready.” She heard the binary beep in respond and a whirl towards the bathroom.
It made sense logically for him to find someone, he was now Combat Master and had more access to the dossiers of the people of the Brotherhood. So she would leave it up to him and that made her nervous. She’s so used to doing everything for herself when she wanted answers or something.
While he searches, she figured she can go to the Academy and seek for more knowledge in their research division. But this wasn’t for now.
What was now was to recover from the ordeal. She needed to speak to Dol to why those memories were hidden away, was it his decision or her parents? And she was certain that, knowing Anders, he would want to talk to Dol too after what he saw in her memories. Anders had returned with a glass of water. She thanked him and took a sip before lowering the glass.
“I will be speaking to Dol tomorrow.”
Anders halted his movements immediately. “You absolutely will not.”
His words came out harsher than he had intended. The look on Evelyn’s face told him all he needed to know; she was ready to fight about it.
Why was everyone he knew either stubborn or defiant? What happened to the good old days when he would Force a small suggestion into the mind to get what he wanted? Could he do it here? No. Not to his wife. Her resolve was a quality of hers that he admired.
“Your mind is healing. It is fragile. The slightest pressure could strain the nerves and in the worst case scenario, Hurst blood vessels. If you wish to confront Dol, then you will only do so with my supervision. Is that understood?”
Evelyn’s bright green eyes narrowed at his words. Oh, she was ready to fight. Her head hurts, her body was tired, and she was mentally exhausted, but this, it sparked a flame in her. Silence and tension filled the air, giving it a bit of a heaviness.
She knows that he was coming from a place of concern, especially with her state of things. She would had done the same if the roles were reversed.
However.
“Then you must accept my supervision when you confront Lenora.”
Thirteen whirled in and chirped happily to inform Evelyn that her bath was ready but then realized with the tension-
It slowly and silently as it can be, moved backwards back into the bathroom as if nothing happened.
Anders waited until the droid was well and truly gone before he gave his answer.
“Absolutely not! I do not believe you are fully aware if who my old Master was, who my old Master is. She is a Sith the likes of which nearly has no equal. Her power is near unrivalled. For someone without access to the Force, she will annihilate them like ants. For someone who as if right now cannot control her abilities, she will squash you with no care, no regard. I will not allow it,” He folded his arms across his chest and straightened his posture. He had no intention on changing his stance on the matter.
And why should he? He could count the amount if individuals he gave a half a credit’s thought about on one hand, the majority of whom were now residents on his ship. He was effectively an intergalactic landlord for all intents and purposes.
Yet, this was his wife. He would have thought given her experiences with Dol that she would know she was currently outclassed.
There was no words between the two of them. Tension was high enough that Evelyn started to feel that flight-flight creeping up on her. She felt that Lenora or any of his enemies wouldn’t care how strong or weak she was or any of the people that happened to be close to him!? They weren’t going to wait around, twiddling thumbs while she starts to learn the Force and the Magick. Or for Anders to be prepared to take them down.
Evelyn was ready to fight, yet-
She threw her hands up, “I concede.” She stood up as she placed her hands on his waist, if he allowed her, and then slid her hands to interlock her fingers behind his back. Their eyes met. Her heartbeat went up as she can feel it thudding against her chest. Why being this close to him had such an effect on her?
“I am certain this had crossed your mind but the longer that enemy list of yours become, the more danger we all get in. In my past, I had used loved ones of my targets just to hurt them before I kill them. I fear the day Melissa gets hurt only to get Draca upset with you. I fear the day Draca gets targeted if he is not already. I dread the day that I may hear or watch that an enemy had gotten to you. I had heard the rumors about how you treat others at work, and Anders- that only makes the list longer.”
“Anders…” Her cold expression was gone. There was concern and gentleness. She realized she was getting off topic and went straight to it, “What I am trying to say, you do not have to shoulder it all. I am weak compared to the three of you and many of your enemies, I am aware, but let me help you fight to protect what little we both have.”
Fear gripped her heart tightly and she, for once in a long time, was terrified. The fear of his respond, possible rejection, and the fact she found herself to love and care again. Not just her husband, but she had found herself caring and wanting to protect Draca, and even Melissa.
The mirror was wrong. She was not a monster.
She was capable of love after all.
Contrary to popular belief, Anderson was not a monster. Not completely, anyways. He was a man built from the foundations of trauma that had been piled up one after another, family and friends that had abandoned him.
Brothers that ignored his existence. A mother that showed him no love. A father that warranted his demise. A planet that saw him only as a tool to be discarded. A Master that tormented him. Justice that eluded him.
A Jedi that he saw as a surrogate son. Friends that tolerated his presence in the same room as them. A wife that shared his bed.
He was not uncaring, unfeeling, completely devoid of empathy. His heart was tainted, yes, by the events of his life that had hardened it beyond normal measures. Yet, he was capable of feeling. He was capable of caring, and with Evelyn, he was capable of more. Much more.
Yet, the thoughts of losing her, Draca, and yes, even Snaz, Zoom ached him, tore at his consciousness like a raptor digging its claws in to his brain.
He had gained so much. To lose it all would destroy him. He was not a monster, but there was a side of him that was. A side of him he had to keep in check lest it be released like a tsunami upon the galaxy. It had a name. He had a name. One given by his Master.
Aequitas.
“I will… consider it.”
It was all he could promise. At least for right now.
Evelyn’s jaw tightened. She removed her arms from around him and the warmth was gone as she took a step back. All she could hope right now was that he would pull through to find her someone to help her get trained and gain an understanding of Magick.
At least, the training for the Force seems to be an easier access for her. She had Anders, Draca, and Melissa. Or so she hoped.
If not, there was others that she can ask for aid at the Arx Compound. Evelyn realized she was having the urge to go into another cleaning array even though everything was spotless and in order thanks to her OCD, it her needing to have some control coming to surface. With a controlled deep breath, the pilot had no more words and she was too tired to further anything else so she made her way to the bathroom to take that bath.