IX: Tear it Down

While Aorum was still on the estate, Gavira went out of her way to try to get to know him when she wasn’t busy with her other duties.  He was a pleasant conversationalist, and a lot like his father in some ways, though she could see that he didn’t quite have the man’s overwhelming confidence.  That, she mused, would come in time.  Given the tasks he was delegated, she had a feeling he might be next in line for the Kasteele empire.

He didn’t stay very long.  The debacle with the Hutts was something that needed to be resolved right away, and so he was heading off for that sector of space once more.  Duvek approached her shortly after his son’s departure, a new assignment on hand.

“It’s a simple one,” he said. “An assassination job.  The less people you bring with you, the better.  I want it to be quick and clean, and to point at the Farrod Family.  They’ve grown much too lax over the past years, and I don’t take kindly to them staging so many attacks on my vessels.  We need an excuse to strike at them, and I believe this one will do.”

Gavira harbored some qualms about the enigmatic aura surrounding the job, though she didn’t pry too much.  Sometimes, it was best to go in blind to avoid culpability later.

“Care to tell me who the target is?” she asked, toying with a lock of his hair.

“I’d prefer to leave it a surprise,” he replied.

—

And a surprise it was.  A very jarring one for her.  

She had found herself staring back at Aorum, the tip of her blade aimed at him while he had a small holdout blaster pointed at her.  The only information that she had been given was where the target was the room where they were staying at one of the expensive hostels on Nal Hutta.  She could have killed him easily as soon as she broke into the room, but she stayed her hand when she sensed the familiarity of his presence, a foreboding sinking in.  She thought perhaps she was there to prevent his assassination, but coded herself for deluding herself into believing that lie.  Once she was in the room, it was very apparent who her hit was.

Aorum had been the one who had reacted first, jumping out of his bed with a blaster in hand, the red targeting light dancing across her chest.  His expression was tight, only shifting to shock when his eyes adjusted to the dark lighting to make out who was standing in front of him.  Gavira lowered the blade as a show of good faith, Aorum slowly doing the same while he kept a careful eye on the gleaming red weapon.  His thumb moved, flicking the switch to set the blaster to stun.  Gavira turned her lightsaber off, dousing them in darkness, an afterimage of Aorum blazing before her eyes.

“I thought I’d be lucky enough to not wind up like the others,” Aorum muttered.

“Others?” Gavira queried, her brows pressing together. “Explain.”

“Father does a good job at sweeping his failures under the rug.  I’m not his only child, but you’ve probably suspected he’s got more floating around.  Most, if not all of them, work for him.  Even the illegitimate ones.  Those who show promise move up the ranks and might get a shot at inheriting the empire when he’s gone.  He disposes of everyone else.”

“You expected this?”

“Suspected,” Aorum corrected. “I didn’t believe he would show his hand so early, not until after I’d concluded negotiations with the Hutts for our new agreement, which means…he’s sent another one of my brothers or sisters to remedy that mistake and was only humoring me long enough to have me killed.”

Aorum’s tone grew resentful.

“Just like Father.”

A thick silence descended upon the two of them as Gavira absorbed what Aorum had to say.  

The lack of a wife and the abundance of children she had heard about here and there meant that either Duvek had had several flings, or that he had those women disposed of once their usefulness came to an end.  Considering Duvek and all of his facets, she was of the opinion it was the latter.  She knew he wouldn’t attempt anything of the sort with her; he knew from the start that she was powerful and that she could kill him readily if she so desired.  Their relationship was based on mutual respect of the power they both wielded, and navigating it so that they didn’t step on each others’ toes and bruise egos.  Gavira also did not anticipate giving him another child to add to his rather large collection of offspring.  She knew now that she was capable of conceiving, but she also knew that whatever child she had deserved better than being swept up in the drama of the Kasteele drug ring.

It was a good thing she had made that decision early on.  She didn’t want any of her children being pawns with little value for someone else’s game.

She had hoped that Duvek was above all of that.  Simply cutting off his underperforming offspring would have earned her approval.  Killing them was drawing a line in the sand.  That she would not stand for.  Anger that had been welling up while the young man explained the details of his family and how things were conducted burned her.  If Duvek knew her at all, he would know she wouldn’t stand for this.  Unless this was a test of loyalty.  In that case, she was going to prove to be very disloyal to him.  

Aorum shifted his weight where he stood.

“So will you be killing me now or did you want to get a chase in for the adrenaline rush?”

“Oh, shut up,” Gavira snarled, seeing him stiffen in the darkness with how harsh her tone was. “I just decided I’m not working for your kriffing Father anymore.”

—

A quick exchange of funds took place before Gavira left to return to Duvek’s estate.  Aorum had enough money to start fresh somewhere else, as long as he laid low and was smart about it.  Before she even set foot in his chambers, she could sense the satisfaction rolling off of Duvek.  He assumed she had completed what she had been sent to accomplish, his network of guards relaying her return to him.  She made quick work of the two guarding the doors in the hall, flicking her wrists and wrenching their heads to face their spines, letting them slide down to the tiles unceremoniously before flinging the doors open with another wave of her hands.

Duvek seemed to sense something was awry as he looked up from a small stack of datapads he had been going over at his desk.  With another movement from Gavira’s end, the desk was soon embedded in the wall.  Duvek looked at it with a raised brow before meeting her gaze.

“Did the job not go well?” he inquired as she stalked up to him.

She could have Force-shoved him through the window at his back and shredded his flesh into ribbons on the glass.  She could have crushed his windpipe with a small gesture and watch him asphyxiate at her feet.  Instead, she treated him to a good old-fashioned slap across the face.  Duvek took it rather well, rubbing his cheek where the imprint of Gavira’s hand could still be seen.

    “I hope whatever I did to deserve that was worth it,” he said with a laugh.

“Tell me you didn’t send me to perform a hit on your son,” she said tightly.

    Duvek tilted his head up, amusement on his features.

“Why lie?  I did what needed to be done, and I hope you did what needed to be done too.  It is your job after all.”

“You’re sick,” she spat.

He snorted a laugh.

“This coming from the woman who gets by in life by consuming the life essence from others.  I didn’t know you had such a bleeding heart for hopeless cases, Dearest.”

“How many?” she asked, jabbing him in the chest.

“You’ll have to be more specific,” Duvek replied, rubbing where her nail had dug into his tunic. “How many what?”

“How many children of yours have you had euthanized because they weren’t enough like you?”

The look he turned on her was demeaning at best.  She resisted the urge to slap him again so she could hear what he had to say, even though she knew she would hate it.

“Honestly?  I’ve lost count.  Gavira.  Sweetheart, in this line of business, only the best make it, and my children are no exception.  If they start to turn out weak and spineless, then I have no room for them in the family.  It’s a mercy, really.  Letting them live and flounder about in the galaxy would be far more cruel of a fate.”

“But they would still be alive,” Gavira retorted through gritted teeth.

“Haven’t you been listening?” Duvek chuckled. “They’re better off dead—“

Gavira didn’t know what happened next, only that she was not in control of her actions and that Duvek’s explosion of fear was pleasant to feel ripple out from his very core.  He said words but she wasn't listening anymore as she lunged at him.  A knife that had been concealed up one of his heavy sleeves dropped down to his palm, the hilt flashing as his arm arced at her.  Gavira grabbed his wrist and twisted his hand back far enough for something inside to give an audible snap.  The knife hit the ground, but Duvek was still moving with the momentum, swinging a fist at her solar plexus.

Gavira turned to the side so the hit grazed her ribs, maintaining her grip on his arm and putting another hand on his shoulder to flip him so he would be on his back, vulnerable.  Duvek once again rolled with the motion so that the two of them were splayed on the ground, spines hitting the low steps leading up to where his desk had once been.  She hadn’t paid much attention to the objects that had fallen off of the desk and onto the ground.  Duvek had though.  He snatched up something that appeared sharp and drove it into her side, causing her to emit a hiss as the object cut past her clothing and deep into her skin.

She blindly rammed her elbow into his throat, ceasing the pressure he had been applying on the makeshift weapon as he put his focus on breathing and squirming away.  She wasn’t far after him, grabbing the edge of his tunic so his bootheels squeaked on the tiles, bringing him to his knees.  Duvek raised a foot to aim a kick at her face.  Gavira gripped the heel of his boot and shoved hard, applying some added Force to it so that he flipped over the highback chairs situated around a low table.  The chairs went toppling as Duvek flailed, hitting three-quarters of them on his way down.  Slapping a palm on the floor and pushing herself to her feet, Gavira stalked after him.  The wound at her side hurt, but it wasn’t on par with what had to be broken or fractured bones that Duvek was now suffering from as he grunted on the ground.  He was still getting his bearings and trying to pry open a drawer from the marble table to presumably extract a hidden blaster when she had him by his long hair.

Jerking his head back, she could see the pain on his face, muddied by terror when the familiar snap-hiss of a lightsaber sounded at her side.

“If you kill me—“ he started.

Gavira smiled at him, her eyes narrowing.

“I’m not going to kill you, Duvek.  But I am going to make you wish I did.”

The red blade swooped over his head.  Duvek managed to twist his neck in her grip enough to plow his horned scalp into her side, but not before her lightsaber made contact.  There was a sharp smell of burnt hair and bone, followed by the clatter of metal on the tiles below; half of Duvek’s prized horns lay on the floor, along with his luxurious tail of brunette hair, still simmering at the base where it had been cut off.

    Gavira had to skitter away to avoid any further damage from what horns that remained on his head, glistening with her own blood along the golden points.  Rivulets of red ran down his face in small rivers, threatening to fall into his eyes as he wiped at it, smearing it over his features.  Duvek’s eyes were not on Gavira, but rather what she had sliced off his person.  His mouth was hanging open, a look of utter incredulity on his face.  He didn’t look very imposing now.

    “You–you–”

“Yes,” Gavira said, straightening up, ignoring the warmth growing at her side. “I did.  And I haven’t even started with the worst of it yet–”

    She froze, head snapping to the doors that she had made sure to seal behind her.  People were gathering at them.  People who were heavily armed.  She would have been perfectly fine taking them all on, if she hadn’t been the one who had trained them.  Inwardly, she cursed herself for teaching them so many techniques on how to counter Force-users.  Of course Duvek would apply contingencies in case she were to turn on him, and of course he would trick her into stabbing herself in the back.

    She pointed at him with her still-glowing ‘saber, the weapon humming lowly.  Duvek raised his eyes to meet her, his own wide and staring.

    “If I hear of you disposing of any more children of yours, there will be hell to pay.  You can be sure of it.  I will personally storm your gates and make sure that you won’t have to worry about increasing the size of your legacy any longer.”

She took a swift step forward and felt a jolt of glee in her chest to see him shift away.

“Glad we cleared that up, Sweetheart,” she purred. “I don’t know if you can tell, and I don’t know if this is a first for you, but you are being dumped.”

She blew him a kiss, stretched her hand out towards the ceiling and telekinetically pinched several pipes.  They burst through the tiles, raining debris down on their heads, and inducing a cloud of steam from the broken pipelines.  Gavira used that as her cover just as the doors blew inward, brilliant bolts of red punching into the haze while Duvek howled for them to hold their fire unless they wanted to kill their employer too.

When the smoke cleared, the Sith was gone.