#I think Dapatica's mindset informs a lot of who Viticalia is

[legacyofabsolutewalnuts]

Wanweird for the OC of your choice/

Wanweird - An unhappy fate.

This was...very hard to make a decision about. I have tragic aus for Vits, Montym, and Bel, but they’re all very long, so I chose to go with Dapatica’s canon fate. While not the most emotional perhaps, she dies as a sacrifice for a goal she privately doesn’t believe in, with her wives at her side, and I think that’s about as unhappy as it gets. Most of it is under the cut, as it got...a bit long. Thank you for letting me explore it! Perhaps I’ll post the unhappy aus for the others some day

There was little else to do but take up arms, and take as many of the blasted Skytroopers and Knights out with them as possible. Dapatica had made sure they hadn’t left the base with much, a limited about of supplies, and whatever weapons they could carry. Anything useful had already been dismantled, and while Cimesetli had protested the entire time they’d been loading his ship with anything that could be taken back to Dromund Kaas, he’d gone before the fleet had shown up.

They were going to lose ground, that was inevitable. The point was a stand, and to direct resources away from bigger fronts. They had made enough of a stink to draw a significant portion of the Eternal Empire’s forces away from other fronts. Hopefully, razing their former base of operations would add to the delay once they finally fell.

Sith weren’t supposed to think that way. Victory or death. But victory had long since passed as an option. Death was left. Dapatica had accepted that.

She had wanted to do this alone, but Leo had been right from the start, and alone she couldn’t hold out nearly as long. Cimesetli had taken most of her troops, against orders, but he was only a bounty hunter, outside military discipline, and her troops had been given orders by their Sith and Acina would have no choice to accept the decision she’d made. She had needed him gone long before the fleet showed up. Only one squad had stayed, a barricade created at her back.

Leo and Calica had stayed, no matter how much she’d wanted them to go. They wouldn’t hear leaving her, not if this was to be her last stand. Perhaps it was for the best, at least she could know their loyalty withstood all else, and it would not waver after she was gone. She had been forced to send Etelvina with Cimesetli because of it, nearly needing the Mandalorian to drag her Apprentice back kicking and screaming. He would have done it too, they had always had a good working relationship, and it was a shame to know most of her fellows wouldn’t compensate him well enough to get the best out of him. Men like him were needed in this war, alien or not. But she had worked to hard to leave her legacy in the hands of anyone else, if her wives were to die with her.

It should have gone to Viticalia. She was- had been- nearly a decade younger than Dapatica. Volatile Sith politics aside, Viticalia was supposed to outlive her. She had done what their parents couldn’t do with their family name, and one day, she was supposed to die, and Viticalia would be the one to have apprentices and children and continue the legacy. She had worked hard to get their family name to where Viticalia only had to worry about maintaining it.

And then Viticalia had gone and become the Emporer’s Wrath, above and beyond what Dapatica had ever asked of her sister, and things could have been perfect. The family name could be squandered for generations before the power and titles they’d amassed together were finally lost. But Viticalia would never have allowed her children to be so frivolous with their efforts.

If Etelvina was smart, and she was, cut-throat and cunning, which was why Dapatica had chosen her, she would keep Cimesetli on retainer, and use her Master’s name to her advantage to keep hold of what was now hers, with no relations to fight for what Dapatica was leaving behind.

It all should have gone to Viticalia. Etelvina should have become her Apprentice, on Dapatica’s death. Her sister wasn’t meant to be gone, the opening shot of a war, when she hadn’t known who she was firing at, or even that she was. She had been better than that. Better than a useless sacrifice. Marr be damned, Viticalia should have been one of the ones to come home, whether he did or not. But instead, she’d done her duty. Or so her Major Quinn had said. 

Dapatica had almost taken his head off there and then for saying such. Duty meant nothing anymore. He’d lived because he had been in Viticalia’s good graces, and her crew and her ship were all Dapatica had left of her. 

If the Force had a will, then duty to it or anything else was only a path of pain. The will of the Force was a crock of bantha shit. If the Force had a will, it should have kept those who could change the galaxy alive. But instead, it had let Viticalia die for duty. It should have only been a tool for good reason, it seemed.

Leo had laid up in a sniper nest, far enough back that she could run for the base, even if her bad leg gave her trouble. It wouldn’t be an escape, it was only so she could activate the defences and make it seem like the base needed to be occupied, forcing the Eternal Empire to follow her. She and Calica both had tried to show her their love as much as possible before they left. It would be the last time. They’d left their coms open.

Calica’s back was to her chest, Dapatica’s arms around her as they waited. It wouldn’t take long now, only a few minutes more before the Skytroopers set down. Calica’s rotary cannon was waiting, and her own lightsabers were a comfortable weight on her hips. She’d taken a page out of Viticalia’s book, loading up with grenades and a blaster of her own. The Force and her lightsabers wouldn’t be enough. Not to take as many of them out as she could. And she intended to take as many of them with her as possible, recompense for her own death, for Leocadia’s, and Calica’s, and Viticalia’s.

Acina would bow to Zakuul eventually. Either she would die fighting them, or live to see Viticalia’s sacrifice mean nothing.

According the Lady Beniko, this distraction would give her the opening to get onto an Eternal Empire station and get the data she would need to plan an assault on Zakuul itself. She had asked Dapatica for her help personally, hoping the information she was getting would allow her to free Viticalia.

Captured, she had said. She was convinced of it. Convinced Viticalia hadn’t been killed. That Viticalia had survived both the ship and killing Zakuul’s Emporer. She was certain they had left Viticalia alive.

She should have been able to feel her sister across galaxies if that was what it took. She had felt no death blow, and Viticalia’s apprentice Jaesa hadn’t felt it either. But she was simply no longer there. It wouldn’t have been surprising if Viticalia had had the power to hide her own death blows from them.

There was nothing left to say between them, and so the comm was silent for now. She’d told her wives of Lana’s opening, but not of her doubts. No, it was better they go to their deaths together at peace, rather having there been any doubt in their minds. They still would have joined her, they were better than that, but it wouldn’t have been fair to them.

Viticalia was gone. It would be pleasant to join her. Pleasant to have her wives at her side, and not have to watch everything they had worked so hard for fall. They would not have to watch their Empire crumble and debase itself.

Sacrifice. It had never been a Sith ideal. Perhaps in a time of war, it was, only phrased differently. A victory of sorts. At least it was not a surrender.

Leo’s voice broke the reverie, and Dapatica dropped a kiss in Calica’s hair before the other woman turned, kissing her once, and lifting her cannon. “Contact. Two clicks. Get ready.”

“Leo-”

“I know, I’ll see you both on the other side. I love you both.”

“Love you too.” Calica echoed it softly, and Dapatica drew herself to her full height, lips pursed, and watching the horizon line. They’d chosen the battlefield, taking the higher ground, and already she could see the approach, troops landing in quick succession. 

“I adore you both, and if this is where we meet our ends together, I am glad to have known you both for the time we had. May we meet again on the other side.” She shook herself once, centred, prepared, and ready to rage against the face of death for as long as she could. She let her voice carry. “Men! It’s been an honour. Let’s make them hurt.”