Jedi and the Maverick (closed for LassardLost)

Aria took several gasping breaths, trying to recover after the intensity of her orgasm, her lips pressed against his cheek, her eyes closed. "That," she gasped, giggling with that drunken sort of laughter that came in the wake of such intense pleasure, "was amazing. And fucking exhausting." She ran her fingers absentmindedly through his hair. "Why the fuck don't we do that more often?"

Davin, whose breath had just come down after their orgasm, started laughing.

"What, you mean the sex? Because if we did that more often we basically might as well live with my cock in your pussy. Or maybe you meant all the bondage stuff... yeah. Yeah, we should do that more often."

Davin sighed, and turned over onto his back, pulling Aria onto him as he did, wrapping his arms around her. He used the Force to pull the sheets over the both of them.

"I love lying like this. Because for all the assess you've kicked - including mine - and for all the shit you give people - including me - when you're on top of me like this, after we've been intimate, it's like I can hold you within me and never let you go. Like you fit on my body like a perfect match." Davin thought for a moment and then smiled, running his fingers through Aria's hair. "You do."

Aria turned her head so Davin wouldn't see her smile, though he was certainly audible in her voice when she spoke. "Oh for fuck's sake. Are you going to turn all sappy and romantic on me now? Because you know flattery will get you nowhere with me." Her reprimand was entirely unconvincing. Partly because of her smile, partly because she didn't put much effort into sounding threatening, and partly because she lifted her head and pressed a long, slow kiss to his mouth as soon as she finished speaking.

"I can't fucking believe your cheesy lines have ever worked on any woman in the galaxy. Ever." And yet, even as she spoke, she molded her body against his, and there was a smile on her face, which seemed to suggest that his cheesy lines worked on her, whether she wanted to admit it or not.

Davin couldn't help but chuckle at Aria's response. He probably would never know why he just loved how she responded to these kinds of things.

"Well, those other women won't have to worry about my cheesy lines anymore. You're the one stuck with them now. For the rest of your life."

As Davin spoke the words he felt a warmth spread through his body. For the rest of your life. They had agreed that they would live together, and they would die together. There really was no reason to keep on going with the other, and in this Davin found a comfort like he had never experienced before. They would be together until the end, whenever that would be.

And with this happy thought, Davin started drifting off into sleep.

Well, those other women won't have to worry about my cheesy lines anymore. You're the one stuck with them now. For the rest of your life.

Aria laughed, her heart skipping a beat at the idea of having someone to spend her life with. It hadn't occurred to her, for some reason, the idea that she might actually still be both alive and with Davin decades down the road. It wasn't so much that she hadn't believed they would stay together before now - rather, she was entirely unaccustomed to the idea of thinking about her future in such distant terms. As an Imperial agent, it had always been about the next mission. She'd had no guarantees beyond that. And then, after her defection, a lot of her life had simply been a question of where her next meal would come from, and where she'd be able to scrounge up enough money to refuel.

Now? Now they had more money than they knew what to do with, or they would, once they were finished on Coruscant. They had each other. And suddenly, Aria Maverick had a future.

Only, with that thought came a second one, one that had implications that both angered and scared her. She hated that she had to even consider it. She wanted to go back to thinking about tomorrow, and maybe the next day, and nothing else, and pretending like they could keep doing that forever.

"Davin." She nudged him, dragging him back out of the beginnings of his sleep. She smirked. "Pay back for waking me up with stupid questions," she said, though the amusement on her lips didn't reach her eyes. "I, um, you know that I'm not ever going to be..." She paused. She had no idea how to say what she was trying to say, and immediately let out a string of vicious curses, frustrated at herself. "How the fuck is it so hard to say one fucking thing?" She raked her fingers through her hair, growling at herself. "Okay. So. I'm not... I'm not ever really going to be a normal lover. Girlfriend. Whatever. You have to know that kind of usual domestic life isn't in the cards for us, right?"

She finally looked at Davin instead of down at her hands, and he was looking at her like he thought she'd lost her mind. She cursed again, but she didn't blame him. "I, um, I can't have kids. I mean, I'd make a fucking terrible parent anyway, but... but I can't ever give that to you. If you wanted it."

Davin blinked at Aria blankly for a moment before a broad smile spread across his face. He leaned down and kissed Aria on the lips and then ran his fingers down the side of her cheek. His smile was one of amusement, but his eyes leant his smile a kindness of understanding.

"To be honest, when I said we'll be together for the rest of our lives, I never imagined children in the future. And I sure as hell don't imagine us settling down in a nice quiet inner rim planet with a home and a Quivarian hound in the back." Davin chuckled, but then went on. "I think having a child, being the way we are, and the way we probably always will be, might be a really bad idea for the child. I can't imagine us being able to do anything remotely dangerous and having to worry about a small life that we call our own..." Davin almost literally shuddered at the thought of possible loss of a child. "Out of curiosity, though, are you physically able to have a child? Not that it changes anything at all, but I'm just curious."

Almost as soon as he had said it, Davin felt a pang of regret - what if during her torture that ability had been taken away from her. He would feel horrible for having asked it, and for giving Aria a reason to remember that part of her past. If she had lost her ability to bear a child during her years of torture, the manner in which it would have happened... "Uh, you know what, just - it doesn't matter. You don't have to answer that."

The knot under her breastbone had cleared as soon as Davin kissed her. What he'd said afterwards, about their lives never really being appropriate for a child, really only confirmed what he'd told her with his kiss: that it didn't matter to him, that it wasn't the relationship-ending revelation she had feared. It was times like these that reminded her how entirely different they were as people. The concept of family like that seemed totally foreign to her, but some part of her could see Davin in the role of a father. She'd honestly had no idea if it was something he wanted.

Out of curiosity, though, are you physically able to have a child? Not that it changes anything at all, but I'm just curious.

A pause. She could read his face like a book, the dawning realization of the implications of what she'd said, and what he'd asked. He back-tracked immediately, assuring her that she didn't need to answer.

She pressed a kiss to his lips, then to his jaw, then his neck just below his ear. "I said 'can't' for a reason," she answered softly. "Vila decided that it would be easier for me to use all of my, um, assets in serving her if I didn't need to concern myself with the potential for pregnancy. She put me under and told me I would never have to worry about it again when I woke up. i have no idea what she did, if it's reversible, or what. I never asked because it didn't matter to me at the time. Hell, it had never mattered to me until..." She paused and, in a rare moment of vulnerability, smiled sheepishly at him. "Not until it occurred to me a minute ago that it might matter to you..."

Hearing Aria's response, and her so willfully admitting that it hadn't mattered until she thought of whether it would to him, made Davin's heart explode in his chest. He held her tight in response, almost to the point he thought he should stop lest he squeeze all the air out of her.

"Well, as far as I'm concerned. We don't need to find out whether its reversible." Though Davin felt a slight pang of... something as he uttered the words, realizing that his being a father would never really be on the table, he had truly meant it when he had expressed his concern as their lives being appropriate for that kind of thing. He simply could not imagine adding the complexity of a child, with the love that would come with it, to their lives. And he was pretty sure he would go ape shit if he ended up living in a "nice home by the water" for the rest of his life.

More than content, and still feeling wonderful at Aria's - well, her complete and utter declaration of love, as far as he saw it - Davin sighed, ran his fingers through her hair and closed his eyes.

"That wasn't a stupid question, but it has opened the door for me to ask you another one when you're sleeping... at some point." He cuddled Aria in his arms. "I'm sure I'll think of one at some point... when you're in deep sleep." He smiled, caressing Aria's shoulder as he made himself comfortable in bed, again beginning to drift off.

Aria poked him in the ribs while she settled down with her head on his chest. "If you fucking wake me up again for another stupid question, I'm gonna kill you. Or sew your mouth shut." She grinned. "Actually, that sounds kind of tempting. I'd still get to use your body, but without having to listen to all your shit..." she teased.

If Davin responded, she didn't hear it. She hadn't been kidding when she said their sex had been exhausting. It took her less than a minute to fall fast asleep.

--------------------

Aria woke before Davin did, and it took her almost twenty minutes to convince herself that she wanted to come the rest of the way out of the pleasant half-dream state between waking and sleeping. Once she did, though, she only stood up and wandered out of her (their) bedroom for long enough to grab an data pad and a portable holo. She brought them back with her when she returned to the bedroom, and crawled into bed next to the still-sleeping Davin with the datapad in her lap. She used one hand to start setting up her various sales and drops - she had shipment of kolto to sell, as well as two ships, and a ship to commission. And that didn't even touch any of the shit they were going to have to deal with concerning the Jedi. That was Davin's problem.

Davin awoke to the subtle jerk of the Shadow's Hand coming out of hyperspace. Aria was awake next to him, looking busy with some things on her datapad.

"Coruscant?" He asked in half sleep. Aria seemed engaged with what she was doing, and only nodded subtly, a slight frown of concentration on her face as she looked between datapads.

Coruscant. Davin sat up in bed almost with a start, threw his covers off him and marched into his little room across the hall. Without washing he put his pants on, and then opened a small drawer underneath the bed. In it was a special long distance comm, tailored to reach out over a transient randomly generated channel - one that could be used for a one-time, encrypted communication with another commlink of the same type. He pressed it on.

"Ti- Master Tiderus. This is Davin Graff. Come in." It had occurred to Davin that he had no need to call any Jedi Master by his title any longer, but he wasn't sure what to make of Master Tiderus yet. And given that he felt he had never received anything but good from him - and he did not know the extent to which he had collaborated with the Jedi or was included in their machinations - he wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt. For what he felt was the longest time, he believed with conviction that Tiderus would always tell him the truth. Now, he really wasn't sure, but he had to meet with him first anyway. He at least had a feeling that he could trust him.

Davin's commlink crackled to life.

"Davin?"

"Yes."

"You're back."

"I am."

"And the artifact?"

"Secured." It was the truth. It would never fall into enemy hands - or for that matter, anyone's. There was a slight pause before Tiderus responded.

"Very well, I presume you are contacting me here rather than on the usual channels for a reason."

"Yes. Can I trust you?" The question itself was the first test. Another pause.

When Tiderus responded, his tone had dropped. "Yes."

The answer surprised Davin. A disciple asking his Master whether he could be trusted should not have been received with such a straight forward response. The fact that it did, meant Tiderus knew something was up; almost as if he expected Davin to ask him.

Tiderus continued. "I'm sending you some coordinates. When you're ready. Meet me there. I'll be alone, and I'll come to the hangar. You won't have to get off the ship if you don't want to."

Davin was taken aback. Tiderus apparently knew much. The Jedi must have divulged to him of his past... but if that were the case. Why would he send him into it?

Davin responded in an affirmative, stared at his commlink for a moment, somewhat stunned and confused, but on alert. He slipped the commlink back into the drawer and walked back into Aria's bedroom.

She had just gotten dressed after having washed up.

"I've got coordinates for a private meeting with Tiderus whenever we're ready. It looks like its far away from anywhere close to the council. We should meet him there when you think it makes sense - maybe after all our business is done." Davin sighed, his mind clearly occupied with his unusually clairvoyant and candid conversation with his... Master?

We should meet him there when you think it makes sense - maybe after all our business is done.

Aria smirked. "I am done. You slept for almost two hours after I woke up. We've got an appointment to drop the kolto in about 30 minutes, and I've already got buyers lined up for both ships. Once Tiderius sends us the money for the mission, we'll have enough to purchase the commission of a new ship." She handed him a datapad. "The frame's about twice the size of the Shadow's Hand, but it's got the capacity to bear much larger engines, and a couple of hidden guns. The mechanic tells me he can have her ready in about two weeks."

She walked past him and into the cockpit. "We can meet your old master within an hour, if you want. Just tell me where we need to go."

Davin nodded approvingly, a smirk on his face. Of course she was done with all that already. Why would he have expected anything different.

On the way to the cockpit Davin gave Aria's ass a little spank, and when she rounded on him to - he wasn't sure, tell him off or do something in return - he spurted out the coordinates.

Aria gave him a look and turned back to her ship's console to enter the coordinates into the nav computer. As she did, Davin came up behind her, pressing his hips to her ass and placing his hands on her waist. He kissed her in her neck.

"I'm ready to meet Tiderus... but I wonder if he's ready to deal with us?" Her ass felt good against him. "It's gonna be half an hour before we get to him right?" He grinded his hips against Aria's ass again, his cock getting hard. "I was thinking, I don't take you from behind enough. It's... a travesty, really."

What the fuck? Already? Yeap. Already. Was all the Davin thought as he licked Aria's neck up to her ear.

Some part of Aria felt like it was somehow unfair that Davin could utter a single sentence and she'd be aching to fuck him. That line of thought disappeared somewhere between being distracted by the feeling of his cock straining against her ass through his pants and her awareness that she was entirely capable of doing the same thing to him.

She slipped out from between Davin and the console and stripped off her shorts, grinning wickedly. "You know what else we don't do enough?" She grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled him down for a kiss. Then, without letting go, she sat down in her pilot's chair, pulling Davin down further. She threaded the fingers of her other hand through his hair as well and simply kept guiding him down further and further until he was kneeling in front of her with his lips leaving a trail of kisses downward from her navel. "Your tongue is far too fucking talented to let it go to waste," she panted, her desire rising quickly.

Davin smirked as he kissed Aria down her body to between her legs. "Get those legs up on the chair... I'm hungry," he growled, as Aria obliged. He dove in readily, his entire mouth covering her slit, and his tongue jutting out. He started out like the way he loved to start, with long, hard licks of her slit from bottom to top. After lapping her that way several times, he came down on her clit, gently sucking on it, roving his tongue over the little nub again and again. Finally, he covered her again with his mouth, and jut his tongue out into her pussy. He started humming low, letting the vibrations from his throat carry through his closed mouth into her. He alternated his humming moans with a rapid side to side movement of his tongue inside his lover, relishing her taste.

Aria left her hands buried in his hair and relaxed back into her chair to enjoy the things Davin was doing to her. Her jaw dropped open and her eyes slid shut. "F-fuck, Davin, your mouth is so fucking amazing..." She propped her feet up on the edge of the chair and spread her legs as much as possible, panting and moaning with every breath.

It was almost disappointing how quickly he was bringing her up to her edge, simply because she wanted more time to enjoy everything he was doing to her. But it was only almost, because she knew his cock was going to take the place of his tongue, a thought which was getting more and more appealing by the moment. She yanked his head back and leaned down to kiss him, moaning at the taste of her sex on his mouth.

"Fuck me," she purred. "Bend me over the fucking console and take me."

Davin grinned, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand before lifting Aria up off the chair and kissing her hard on the lips, his hands settling on her hips. When he let go, he gently moved her into position facing the console, and Aria placed her hands on it, sticking her ass out towards him. Davin eyed her between the legs: she was dripping - literally her own juices dripping down the inside of one of her legs.

Davin placed his hands on Aria's ass, letting his palms and fingers feel her smoothness, and then, he placed the tip of his cock right up against her pussy from behind.

On the view screen in front of them, Coruscant had progressed from being a small pin drop in the distance to the large orb of bustling sentient activity, covered in city; its lights visible clearly from space.

Davin smirked. He found himself particularly happy that the first time he was seeing Coruscant after his first, last and most harrowing mission as a Jedi, was as he was fucking his lover from behind. It was as if it were a symbol of his disregard for the people that had sent him out; that he was going to see soon.

Davin slid into Aria, all the way, gasping as buried himself, feeling her smooth ass against his hips. He started fucking her from behind, reaching his hand around to play with her clit and provide pressure for her there with each thrust.

"Uhhn... God... Aria... " he let out as his pace quickened. Between his workings on Aria just a moment before, and his own intensity of desire, the two came quickly, and Davin found himself buried to the hilt inside his lover and letting loose a loud groan of ecstasy as he filled Aria for countless time, relishing her own contractions as a sign of her own pleasure being fulfilled. His cum dripped from her onto the floor as he finished.

Staying there for a moment, he slowly pulled out, but then grabbed Aria to turn and face him - which he in fact didn't need to do, as she had already begun to turn on her own. And they kissed. Nude from the bottom, standing in front of the view screen with the Shadow's Hand descending into the Coruscant atmosphere, Davin and Aria kissed long, with their tongues dancing in each others' mouths, and their arms groping each other like it would be the last time they would see each other for a long time.

Aria and Davin were almost late for the kolto drop because they spent so long in each others' arms. They fucked again, twice, before Aria finally ended up in her pilot's chair, in Davin's lap, both naked, flying down to the surface.

The kolto sale went quickly - she sold the kolto to a coalition of doctors who were operating in the lower reaches of the city, working to deal with the remaining damage done by the Sacking of Coruscant and to help people who were trapped in areas that had been taken by the gangs during the chaos. The doctors were extremely pleased with the huge amount of kolto she brought them. Aria was similarly pleased by the huge influx of credits that they got from the sale. It was the first time in a long time she'd was this flush with cash.

The whole process only took about 20 minutes. When they returned to the ship, Aria caught Davin the moment they stepped back into the main part of the ship from the cargo hold. She pushed him back against a wall and kissed him thoroughly. "So. Shall we go see Tiderius?"

Before Davin could respond, however, J4 walked around a corner and spotted them. "Oh! Captain! The sale of the ship belonging to the deceased Sith Lord Vila has been completed. I forwarded the funds to the shipyard, as requested. The foreman wishes me to inform you that your new ship will be ready two weeks from the day you finalize the blueprints."

Aria twisted around to face the robot and took the datapad he was holding. "Okay. Go see about the sale of this thing, and put together some kind of storage for Davin's and my stuff while we wait for the new ship to be finished."

"Right away." J4 disappeared, apparently anxious to leave the lovers alone.

Aria looked up at Davin and held the pad out to him, grinning cheekily. "Wanna see? I figured you should take a look at the design before we finalize it. Since, you know, you're going to be calling it home too."

The designs on the datapad were quite unlike anything else in the galaxy. It had a large yacht frame, with the interior bearing all the comforts one would expect of such a ship. Only, large sections of what would have been interior space were closed off to make room for larger engines, hidden weapons, and secret compartments. At once part luxury ship, part smuggling vessel and part starfighter, it was as deceiving in its appearance as the Shadow's Hand. Just in a very different way.

Aria couldn't contain her smile as Davin looked over the prints. She had to admit, she was pretty proud of her work. "So? What do you think? And what do you want to call her?"

Davin studied the plans for the ship quietly, seriously; his arm still hanging around Aria's waist as he held the data pad in the other arm.

After a moment he whistled in amazement, his brow furrowed as he wrapped his mind around all the mods in an already powerful hunk of metal. "Woman, you know how to make a ship."

He dropped his hand to Aria's ass and gave it a squeeze as he continued to look at the data pad. "As for the name..." He handed the data pad back to her. "I'm gonna say: "Fire Star, Black Nova or Sex-House Sixty-Nine." Davin chuckled. He wasn't sure about the first two names, and was having trouble coming up with any at all, so made the last one reason a to feel up Aria's ass again. He was getting the urge to jump her again (what was new?) but the thought of meeting Tiderus was now firmly planted in his mind. In fact, he could almost feel his presence - calling to him. Earlier during the kolto sale he had mentioned in passing that he had had a sudden and strong feeling that they would find Tiderus in the Wadi quadrant, and Aria - having been busy in negotiations - had thrown him something of an acknowledgment by mumbling something in his general direction.

But for now, Aria was, in her usual aggressive way, playing back with Davin, and so he broke out of his feelings about Tiderus to focus in on what she was saying, by nibbling on the side of her neck.

... or Sex-House Sixty-Nine.

Aria snorted with laughter, not really expecting the abrupt change in tone from what sounded like at least mostly serious answers for the first two suggestions. "Wow. Subtle," she teased, wiggling her hips against him as his hand squeezed her ass again. "Well, it's no big deal. We have two weeks to come up with something good." She smiled, sighing softly when his lips found her neck. "Mmmm, once we're done with Tiderius and the other Jedi, what do you want to do for two weeks? Maybe catch a shuttle to Zeltron and have the ship delivered to us there..."

She felt his teeth catch her skin when she mentioned the Jedi. It said a lot about their relationship that she was able to pick up on his stress so easily. She lifted her hand to his face and guided him gently away from her neck so she could look him in the eyes. "Hey. You okay?"

once we're done with Tiderus and the other Jedi...

The other Jedi...

Until the point they had actually gotten here, Davin had felt no concern about the Jedi. He had just survived a showdown with the entire Sith academy on Korriban after all, hadn't he? He was more powerful than many of these Jedi now, as he had let himself loose from the chains of the their narrow thinking. Yet as they had flown in across the city, and as he had felt Tiderus' presence, he began to become more concerned that they were entering a situation which was endangering the two of them an their relationship.

Davin looked down at his feet for a moment before looking back into Aria's eyes.

"We agreed that we live together and we die together. That we won't sacrifice our lives for the other because there is no way we are going to live apart." Davin looked off toward the cockpit, continuing his thoughts even as he seemed lost in them.

"If we get separated; if they try to take you from me, I can't guarantee that I won't... kill everyone else - the Jedi I mean - to get you. In fact I have no qualms in doing so." He looked back at Aria and snaked his fingers into the hair behind her head,
pulling her closer to him, their foreheads touching.

"I wouldn't rest until I have you back, no matter how long it takes. Remember that."

Davin felt a sense of gravity about him, that this, being amongst the Jedi now - speaking with them for the first time since the truth about his life had been revealed to him - was all a very serious matter - as if he had never thought of it that way before. Now that he was thinking of it that way, his greatest concern - that the two of them remaining together - was coming to the fore.

Aria's heart sputtered in her chest in response to Davin's words. She still wasn't exactly used to hearing these sorts of things. The idea that someone would go so far for her, for no reason other than because he wanted to be near her... It was strange. And slightly insane.

"Don't. If they try to take me away... Don't lose control." She caught his face between her hands, her expression some combination of a glare and fear. "You might be powerful. You could probably take any of them one-on-one, but you can't honestly think that if you just start slaughtering Jedi in their own temple they won't overpower and kill or capture you." There was a moment of silence and she looked seriously at him. "Keep your head. If they figure out who I am, it'll get bad, but we'll need every advantage we can get if we're going to get out of there. Letting anger get control of you isn't going to help." She paused again, anger flashing in her eyes. "And I'll never fucking forgive you if you get yourself killed." With that, she kissed him, hard, almost violently, pulling herself close to him and nearly pinning him to the wall.

Davin held Aria close to him for a moment after their kiss, embracing her tightly. She was right of course. It would be the height of folly to think that he would be a able to “take down” the Jedi Council on his own - not that he ever really thought he could or would do such a thing. But yet here he had been a moment ago, so confident in his new, unleashed, abilities that he was worrying that he might lose control and “kill everyone”. Davin shook his head slightly as if chastising himself: he would not allow his release from the constrains of the Jedi undo him into unbridled lust for power and arrogance as to his own abilities. That would be playing right into the Jedis’ narrative about leaving their ways. No. Aria was right. He would maintain his cool, remain calculating, and not allow even the possible difficulties that lay ahead betray his actions into doing something stupid that would jeopardize their relationship.

He kissed Aria back, though just a brief little thing, before smiling slightly.

“Don’t worry, I’d be too afraid to die. I’m worried you’ll die just to come after me out of sheer rage.” Davin’s smile widened a bit, but then vanished as he looked back to the cockpit.

“It’s Tiderus. I can feel him. He knows I’m here, and he’s calling to me.”

Davin let go of Aria and strode into the cockpit. He stared out into the busy scene before him - of innumerable impossibly tall structures rising into the sky, cut across by the lines of speeders and other vehicles hurrying back and forth.

He closed his eyes and reached out with the Force.

Come see me, Davin. Come see before you see the Council.

Davin heard Tiderus’ voice like a distant caller, though still clear. He felt full of uncertainty towards him. Had he been part of the Council’s ploy? Why, if he had known about his past, had he advocated for him to be appointed a Jedi Knight despite the Council’s concerns?

Tiderus…

I know you know about the past. Come to me. I mean you no harm. Search your feelings, you know this is true.

Davin did feel this to be true. It had always felt that way towards Tiderus, even after his leaving the Jedi. But how would he respond to Aria?

I’m coming. Davin responded.

By this time - or perhaps she had been there all along - Aria was standing beside Davin. Though she was Force-sensitive, she had not trained that part of her, and so as Davin now found himself in Coruscant, the place where the strongest Jedi were gathered - and as he engaged in the subtleties of the Force through his interaction with Tiderus, he started feeling unpleasantly “other”, relative to Aria. He didn’t like this feeling. He felt like it put a distance between them; as if he was now entering some other mystical world in which he would need to leave her behind temporarily. And he had sworn never to do that again.

“I’m sorry, it was Tiderus. He was… reassuring me that he means me no harm, and he’s telling me to see him before we go to the Council. Which of course I was planning to do anyway but - I believe him, that he means no harm to me. And I don’t think he would attempt anything against you.”

Davin felt better, and now realized that the way to keep Aria with him when he needed to focus in on the Force was to keep her in the loop.

“Shall we go then?"

Aria watched as Davin walked into the cockpit, staring off into the distance, as if in a daze. She was struck by the feeling that he wouldn't be able to hear her if she spoke.

It felt very strange, watching Davin engage with the Force like that. She didn't know how she knew what he was doing, but she did. She became suddenly certain that of they were going to survive, she was going o need to learn how to use her latent sensitivity. It was too powerful a tool to avoid any longer... But that would have to come after this encounter with the Jedi. As useful as another properly trained adept would be, she would be in more danger going in with limited training than she would if she simply continued to protect herself.

Davin told her that Tiderius meant them no harm. She believed it - the Jedi might advocated abandoning attachment, but you can't have the sort of relationship that master and apprentice do without forming one anyway. Tiderius harming Davin would be like a father harming his own son. Certainly not outside the realm of possibility, but also certainly very unlikely. Besides, out here, alone, a single Jedi, even a master, didn't pose *that* much of a threat.

She looked up at Davin. He was nervous. So was she. "Yeah. Let's get this overwith." A cheeky smirk flitted across her face. "Just remember, when this is all over... Sex on the beach. And you promised to torture me with romance, remember?"

"Torture you with romance... hmm... yes, I did, didn't I?" Davin smirked, as he feigned imagining what he was going to do to Aria, his yes drifting up and to the side. But just as soon as he did so, his face returned to a neutral look, his eyes again somewhat distant. Realizing that he was "doing that" again, he looked at Aria apologetically. "Sorry, I'll try not to do that... again."

* * *

Tiderus had fed the Shadow's Hand a set of coordinates, which Aria navigated to. It was certainly nowhere near the Jedi Council. Rather, it was in a pretty seedy part of the bowels of Coruscant, down on the ground level where natural light barely reached. It was like perpetual night time down here, with all kinds of arrays of bright and not-so-bright lights, colored and white, flashing and flickering. Many of the upper cities liquid piping ran down here. Massive tubes wound their way back and forth between buildings, some of them dripping at the sites of old rusted welding. This made for streets filled with puddles, steam rising from sewers, and the chitter-chatter of a thousand different alien languages echoing through the streets.

Davin and Aria stood at the top of the ramp as it descended, its pistons releasing pressure as it did. Davin wore his black pants and tight black tunic. He left his old Jedi robes in this little room on the Shadow's Hand: he wasn't going to need that any more. Davin almost reached out and took hold of Aria's hand, but then he refrained. Though he did trust Tiderus, so much of his life had been a lie that somehow he felt he must always be on guard - and that meant guarding what was most precious to him. If there was even the remotest chance that Tiderus had something planned against him, he didn't want to make it completely obvious that he and Aria were... lovers.

"But it's already completely obvious, Davin. You're going to have to block your feelings better than that when you stand before the Council." Tiderus' voice pierced through a gush of steam coming up from the road. As it cleared, he stepped forward, smiling warmly. Both of his hands were out, palms upward, as if to show that he carried no weapon, neither physically nor internally.

Davin felt conflicting pangs of longing and anger. Longing for the company of his Master, anger for all the lies he had been a part of. But he took Tiderus' advice right away, and locked himself down.

"Tiderus." Davin nodded. He gestured to Aria. "You of course know Captain Maverick."

Tiderus nodded acknowledgment towards Aria, then looked back at Davin. He kept his distance, and sighed.

"You know, I actually wanted to have you killed when they first brought you."

Davin raised his eyebrows. "Those aren't exactly warm words of welcome."

Tiderus continued. "I didn't think it was fair. It's not fair to any sentient life form to take them and wipe out their memories. Their identity. Better that you at least honor the thing we all have as sentient creatures: choice. You made your choice to become a Sith. And a powerful Sith you were, Davin. The proper way to deal with you upon your capture would have been to obtain whatever information we could have, and killed you."

"But the Council thought it was a better mix of mercy and practicality to wipe you out and 're-educate' you."

Davin felt a bit of anger begin to well inside him as he imagined the Jedi sitting about discussing his fate calmly, coolly, as they so annoyingly can do.

"But I disagreed. Death would have been better. A much more merciful position, in my view. I think a few on the Council sensed that this was my intention - that I felt living for you would be more suffering than dying. They saw my expression of mercy as sincere, and so, ironically, once they had wiped you, assigned me to train you."

"So you were the one that brain-washed me." Davin said, a tone of defiance in his voice.

Tiderus shook his head. "No, no. The Council has a program from that. They have... skilled technicians... they feed you the basics about your life. My job was strictly Jedi training. I didn't see you until they had spend several months, rebuilding you, reconstructing you."

Davin's anger at the Council was certainly not diminishing. He listened.

"You did very well as a Jedi. But you always had a bit of lack of self-control. The Council knew this, and they wanted me to work on you until it was stamped out. I argued that you were ready, regardless of your occasional mistakes. I convinced them that those mistakes were not a carry-over from your past, but part of your new personality. The Council was impressed by how I had turned around - from desiring your death as an act of mercy, to advocating for the new Davin. They knighted you."

"You're saying that you didn't really believe I was ready to be a Jedi, you wanted me to go out there improperly trained... to kill me off..." No. That wasn't it. That didn't feel right.

Tiderus looked disappointed. "Davin. The Council had no idea that I sent you on this mission for the Medallion. I knew what you would find. I wanted you to know the truth. I wanted you to choose. If you did, and you chose the Dark Side, then so be it. If you stuck to the Light, then your training would truly have been complete. But it would have been your choice." He paused, looked at Davin up and down as if scanning him some how. "It was your choice."

Davin felt a rush of emotion. A warmth filled him. Throughout it all, Tiderus was the only one watching out for his own interest. No one at the Sith Academy would have done so, that's for sure. The Council considered him a toy to be played with. But Tiderus...

Davin fought back tears. He glared at Tiderus as if it was the first time seeing him, and he was a young Padawan learner, first laying eyes upon a great master. He was a great Master indeed.

Davin stepped forward and kneeled before Tiderus. "My Master."

Tiderus stepped back. "Stand, Davin. You don't need to do that." Davin stood, and the two embraced. Davin embraced the man that turned out to be the closest thing he would ever remember as a father.

"Thank you, Tiderus." Davin let go, and stepped back, looking at his Master in the eyes. He stood tall.

"I can't follow either the Jedi or the Sith, you know this."

Tiderus sighed. "I understand how you feel, Davin. But please know that this middle path is not easily trodden. Most will fall to the Dark Side."

Davin shrugged. "I just don't have any other option. I can't join the people who manipulated my life. And I certainly can't go back to the pointless evil of the Sith. Neither choice makes sense for me." Davin looked back at Aria, and stepped back towards her.

Now, he wrapped his hand around her waist. "This is my choice."

Tiderus nodded solemnly as he looked the two of them over, standing there on the ramp. Then his nod slowly turned into shaking his head, "no", slowly, in disbelief, a subtle smile appearing on his face.

"Well, I certainly didn't expect that."

Davin smiled, for the first time, at someone other than Aria. He beamed at Tiderus, almost like a giddy son with his girlfriend in front of his father. Tiderus chuckled -

A flash of red burst onto the scene. "Stop where you are!" A blaster bolt shot right past Aria's shoulder and ricocheted off one of the pistons of the Shadows Hand's ramp. Davin and Aria instinctively ducked and retreated into the ship, Aria firing of shots into the steam behind which a few more blaster bolts came flashing through. Davin saw Tiderus spin around, the hiss-pop of his lightsaber switching on, and the sound of blaster shots deflecting off the Jedi's weapon.

"It's the Council's troops! Go! They know you're here! I must have been followed. Get out!"

Davin reached out, "Come with us!"

"No! They won't hurt me. I am more useful here. You go - get out of here and don't come back!"

Aria was pulling Davin by his shirt forcefully back into the ship.

Several troopers emerged out of the smog. Davin could hear Tiderus. "I am a Jedi of the Council! Hold your fire!" The troops left Tiderus alone, but they advanced on the ship. Davin lost his balance as the ship lurched up into the air. Must have been J4 taking evasive action. Davin fell and slid to the bottom of the ramp as it started lifting up, he clutched onto the edge, and just before it closed managed to dodge a few more blaster shots as he pulled himself up and over the edge, rolling down with a hard thud onto the floor of the cargo bay as the ship took off. He was a bit dazed, but he shook it off right away.

Aria was nervous. Even if she believed that Tiderus wasn't much of a threat to them, this could still go very, very badly for them. It didn't even have to go badly in a violent, physical sense - she wasn't entirely sure she trusted herself not to do something rash if Tiderus said anything too particularly nasty to her lover.

When had she gotten so protective of him? She wondered about that as they walked down the ramp together, her hands twitching towards the blasters at her hips every time she so much as heard a sound.

When Tiderus himself came out of the mist, she actually grasped the blaster with her right hand, though she didn't draw it. He approached with his hands open, a sign of peace. She didn't draw, but she didn't take her hand off the weapon, either. If he noticed, he didn't say anything. Her suspicion shouldn't have been particularly surprising, anyway.

She could feel the tension in Davin beside her, too. Anger, betrayal, fear... She realized she couldn't even imagine what he was going through. She'd been alone her whole life. Sure, she'd had that fucked up relationship with Vila, but the betrayal of that had to be different. Vila was a Sith, and Aria had never imagined that the woman was capable of any sort of selfless love, even when she had been tricked into thinking that she had loved Aria at all. To be betrayed by someone who had been that kind of mentor, that father figure... Her free hand curled into a fist, her knuckles popping. The temptation to stride down the ramp and deck the smug Jedi bastard was dangerously strong.

It got worse once the conversation started, and Tiderus admitted to wanting to kill Davin after his arrival with the Jedi. Her top lip pulled back and she nearly snarled, but she held herself back; this was Davin's conversation, not hers. These were his issues to deal with. It turned out to be a good thing she hadn't interfered anyway - it turned out his desire to kill Davin had been a mercy, one she understood completely. And more? Davin believed him. So did Aria, but she barely knew the man. Davin would have been the better judge of his character, and he seemed sold on the idea of death as mercy.

She relaxed. They had someone on their side. Well, it was Davin's side, not hers, though she doubted at this point that the distinction would have mattered much to either of them.

Then, Davin was next to her again, slipping his arm around her, making clear the relationship he had with Aria. She felt a smug little smirk curling up the corner of her lips. She couldn't help it - as much as she was starting to like Tiderus, she still felt a little spark of gleeful pleasure at the idea of having "taken" Davin from the Jedi. After all, they'd fallen for each other long before any of these revelations about his past. He'd been hers even before the Jedi had lost him. Why the hell shouldn't she be proud of that?

"Fuck!" The first blaster bolt whizzed by her head, and if she hadn't leaned into Davin when he slipped his arm around her, she likely would have taken the hit. She ducked and whirled, dragged Davin back up into the cargo hold with her, cursing all the while. As she took shelter behind the wall of the cargo bay, she peered back out into the mist, taking careful stock of where the shots were coming from. She drew her blaster, took aim, and fired precisely back at each source. Most of them missed - hitting a target shrouded in mist like that was practically impossible - but it said something that she heard a yelp of pain after one of her shots. "Fucking Jedi can't even leave us to have a conversation," she ground out, ducking back behind the wall as the second volley came.

Davin stepped back down the ramp, reaching for Tiderus, trying to convince him to escape with them. "Oh, hell no!" She could see from the way the man was standing that he didn't intend to, and Davin was standing out in the fucking open trying to get to his master. "Idiot!" she cried, jumping out and grabbing him by the shirt to haul him backwards up the ramp again. "Get inside the fucking ship, you moron!"

The ship lurched as she shouted, sending her keeling over backwards while Davin stumbled around on the rising ramp. She sat up on time to see him slip down on the edge while the ship lifted off, the soldiers firing up at him hanging from the edge of the ramp. "DAVIN!" She barely managed to choke out the cry, her heart twisting in her chest. She clawed her way up the rising ramp, grabbed his hand and pulled with as much force as she could muster. It wasn't much, but between her pulling and Davin trying to haul himself back up, they managed to get him back into the ship, and tumbled together down onto the cargo-bay floor in a heap while J4 flew the ship up and away from danger.

She'd landed on top of him, and the moment she sat up, she slammed her fist into the metal floor next to his head, startling him. "You stupid fucker! We were being shot at and you fucking tried to run down the ramp towards them?! What kind of an idiot are you?" Her heart was hammering in her chest at the realization of just how close she'd come to losing him again. She buried her hand into his hair, holding him in place while she kissed him roughly. "I fucking told you to stop doing that stupid-ass heroic shit. Fuck."