Raezyr's face went red. All his training told him to release his anger, lash out, destroy, but this was Dianna. He strained to keep his emotions in check despite everything he had been taught, because patience was also a quality a Sith was supposed to possess.
All he could manage to say was a single word. "Why?"
"Do you mean, aside from the fact that you punched me in the face and then convinced my second in command to do the very thing that you knew I didn't want? Do you mean, 'why,' aside from that?" She said coldly and calmly.
"You never would have gone willingly, and had you not, you'd probably be dead right now, or worse: in a Republic prison cell awaiting trial," the big man said. Her words had robbed him of a lot of his indignant anger. He had stupidly assumed that she'd get over the physical assault once she came to and realized that this was best, but he should have known better.
"Look, this way the Kingsmen can carry on. You can set up here or somewhere else and start over again," Raezyr reasoned. "But without you, it's over."
"It's over anyway," she said.
"Trych and I can help you out," Raezyr offered. "Our investments on Den Var were sound and they're flourishing like mad. You'll never believe how well they're doing. We can stake you again."
"No, I still owe you two more credits than I can ever repay now," she said sadly. "It's over."
"It's not over," the big man insisted. "Forget about those credits you owe..."
"You're not getting it, Raez!" Dianna exclaimed. "It's over. Not because I don't have money. Not because I already owe massive debts, it's over because of you. It's over because of Trychon. In the end, it's over because of me."
Raezyr opened his mouth to speak but she interrupted. "I failed in my judgement. I never should have allowed the Sith to stay at my base. Since then there's been nothing but trouble with the Republic and the Jedi. You've been the only redeeming aspect of that failure."
The Sith's eyes grew cold. "Now you're sounding like Rhox."
"Yeah, well I trust her judgement, and she's had you Sith pegged as trouble makers from the start!"
"So did Zanz," Raezyr retorted. "Where did trusting him get you?"
Dianna turned her back to Raezyr but said nothing.
"Look, babe. Just come to Den Var with Trych and I," Raezyr said calmly. "This whole thing was a major blow to all of us, and we're all upset right now." He stepped forward and put his hands on her shoulders.
She shrugged away from his touch. "Just go, Raez. I need time to sort this out."
"Absolutely," he agreed. "Take a few days, then come and meet us in Den Var. Things will look better once you've been able to get some perspective."
She spun around to face him again. "You're not hearing what I'm saying, Raez. I need time. Not a few days. Not even a few weeks. I need to sort my life out. I need to figure my future out, and I have no idea how long that will take."
Raezyr nodded slowly. "Take as long as you need, just promise that you'll come to me on Den Var when it's all over."
Dianna closed her eyes tightly in a wince for a moment, then looked up into her lover's eyes before she began. "Raez... I..."
Suddenly she was interrupted by the squawking of the comm box on the wall. "Di, Raez, you two better come up to Main Control. A ship just popped into the system."
No comments:
Post a Comment