#imperial agent chapter 2

[monocytogenes]

The Most Egregious Abuse - read on ao3

The cipher agent, the arsenal, and the consequences of betrayal.

Excerpt:

He’d barely turned a corner when he found himself face-to-face with the man himself. In a flash, he let off a shot. As he squeezed the trigger, with preternatural precision, Kothe lifted a hand and caught the bolt, the energy fizzling out ineffectually against his palm. “Well, well,” Kothe said, with all the mild disappointment of a mechanic assessing a cracked repulsorlift engine. “This explains a few things.” Pravin backed up a step, keeping his weapon pointed, hand trembling slightly. “So you found a way to overcome the restraints. Alright.” He gestured vaguely at Pravin’s bloodstained jacket. “Should I bother asking where Wheel and Saber are?” “I don’t think you’d like the answer.” Kothe sighed. “Seems I was right about you.” A laugh, half-hysterical, escaped Pravin’s throat; fury rising to choke him against his better instincts. “Tell me, Ardun, does it hurt?”

[kartaylirsden]

Chapters: 2/25 Fandom: Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Female Imperial Agent | Cipher Nine/Male Sith Warrior (SWTOR) Characters: Female Imperial Agent | Cipher Nine, Male Sith Warrior | Empire's Wrath (Star Wars), Light Side Sith Warrior (SWTOR) Additional Tags: Slow Burn, Star Wars: The Old Republic - Knights of the Fallen Empire, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Background Female Imperial Agent/Theron Shan - Freeform Series: Part 1 of Black Codex: Alliance Personnel Only Summary:

Frozen amid his and Valkorion's dreams, the Empire's Wrath does not see the galaxy burn.

His allies live it.

[the-baddest-of-batches]

Aay'Han Chapter 2 Sneak Peek...

I don't have a direction to go. Krikk has been tinkering with his suit transponder but even he can't get a signal through this snow. Comms are properly useless. It was just bullheaded stupidity that sent me out here. The whole of the second team, Myren, even our pilots could be anywhere on this forsaken planet.

Staring at the face of the mountain, I try to decide whether to admit my fault and return, or go on without any real plan. Something on the face of the mountain moves. It's ahead of me, on the outcroppings over the cave. It's dark, but it's moving.

My hand reaches for my blaster, but I wait. It could be a team member. It could be a native–if anything truly lives on this planet–or it could be hostile. Either way, it's alive... Read on Wattpad

Read on AO3

[whataperfectwasteoftime]

The Rift Masterlist

Pairing: Marcus Moreno x Marcus Pike x Marcus Acacius x Reader

Rating: E (Explicit smut, 18+ only)

Warnings: Time Travel Nonsense, foursome dynamics (M/M/M/F), lots of mlm action, so if that's not your thing... I'm not really sure what you're doing here. More warnings will be listed under individual chapter headings.

Summary:

Marcus Moreno and the Heroics managed to contain the detonation of a supervillain's black hole bomb in the middle of Washington, DC, but the energy blast created a mysterious crack in the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue. Scientists are calling it a rift in time and space. Marcus Moreno calls it a logistical security nightmare.

Several weeks after the Rift opens, unusually well-preserved ancient Roman artifacts begin to flood the black market, inundating Special Agent Marcus Pike's team with work. He enlists you, a Classical Archaeologist with a focus on Imperial Roman art and a curator at the National Gallery of Art, to assist his team in identifying the growing pile of smuggled artifacts.

Despite the Heroics' desperate attempts to close the Rift, it's only a matter of time before something much larger than gold coins makes its way through the crack in spacetime and onto the streets of DC...

Or:

Three people named Marcus are smooshed together into the same space.

A/N: @leslie-lyman said, "I want all three Marcuses at the same time but also that would be a nightmare to write." I laughed, trying to imagine how on earth someone would bring together a superhero, an FBI Agent, and Roman General. And then I kept thinking about it. And then this entire story happened. Thank you, dear Les for the idea and for egging me on as always. <3 Thank you also to @littlebirdsbookshelf who beta'd this entire work, listened to me scream about it in her DMs at all hours, and most importantly, who never gave up on me when I was convinced that my brain was out of stories.

Table of Contents

Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6** Chapter 7 Chapter 8** Chapter 9 Epilogue**

[hannibals-favourite-meal]

.⋆｡His Greatest Strength｡⋆.

Kylo Ren x plus size reader

His Choice Masterlist

He would always be hers and she would always be his, now he just has to get rid of the one thing keeping them apart

Chapter Warnings: smut, size kink, d/s dynamics, death, nudity, kylo is still a bad guy but we love him, murder, slight somnophilia, possessive!Kylo

WC: 1.9k

Minors DNI

Library- @hannibals-favourite-meal-library

Something deep within her had shifted, an inherent change so subtle it was hard to notice at first but when Y/N looked back on who she was a mere 2 months ago, it was jarring. While physically, she was much the same, save for the still healing cuts on her back and her sky-high libido, she was, mentally, a completely different person. 

She had a voice and a powerful one at that. She was treated with a respect that she couldn’t even dream of when she was still in the hutt’s clutches. She was confident and most importantly, she was safe. 

“Come back to bed.” Her safety glanced up at her from where he was hunched over at his desk. His face reflected the dim blue light of the holopad in front of him, illuminating the smallest details of his face perfectly. His brown eyes flicked down to where the black silk sheets had fallen to her lap, exposing her naked tits. He groaned and forced his gaze back to his work.

“Stop that, you’re distracting me.” She smirked in response, moving to sit up on her knees, the sheets pooling below her exposing the entirety of her naked body to the large man.

“I’m not doing anything. I’m being a good girl for you master.” She purred, making him moan. Her smile widened when his shoulders fell, knowing that she had won. 

So much had changed between them as well. While outside of their rooms, Kylo treated her as he did before, just as a slave albeit with far more gentleness than any other in her position would have received but a slave none-the-less. But within the safety of the massive bed chamber, she was his queen. He spent every second he could showing her just how much he adored her.

He still had his secrets, as did she, but he was open with her. He did not let his frustration and anger rule his hand when he was with her- he could not risk harming her again like he did before. In those moments, she took control, pulling his frustration out of him with the warmth of her cunt.

“You are being a brat. I fucked you less than an hour ago.” He pointed out but still turned off the pad and stood from his desk. Her gaze fell to his own chest which was marked up by various hickies and scratches from her nails. “Lay back then, I’ll fuck that attitude out of you.”

She squealed with delight as he pushed her back against the mattress, his lips connecting to her neck once more.

——————

Kylo slipped from their bed as quietly as he could so as to not wake her. Y/N muttered in her sleep, her brow furrowing with the lack of his warmth next to her but she was soothed with a soft kiss to her head and the covers pulled back up to her shoulders. 

He left their chambers without even glancing at where his helmet rested, he wouldn’t need it for this. 

The Imperial Guards gave no indication of their surprise over the sith’s sudden appearance as he approached the Supreme Leader’s temporary chambers. They simply moved aside, allowing him entrance with no question as to why he was there.

“Kylo Ren.” Snoke’s voice grated on his ears but he continued into the rooms until coming face-to-face with his master. “To what do I owe this unexpected visit?” He came to a stop right before the throne-like bed, his expression neutral.

“It’s about Y/N.” The older sith scoffed and looked away from his pupil, quite obviously displeased with the subject of their conversation. His pockmarked waved him off but Kylo would not budge, not on this. “You told me she ran. That your agents watched her leave willingly with the rebels.”

“She did. I would not lie to you about this, my boy. She saw her opportunity to leave you and she did, what pleasure slave would do differently?” Kylo’s resolve did not waver for a moment.

“She told me that she was taken by them.” Snoke’s jaw clenched and his eyes grew dark with anger.

Kylo was playing with fire, but this time he would not flinch away. He would let the flames wash over him because he knew that he would not be hurt. “What exactly are you accusing me of, boy?” He hissed, his voice dripping with venom.

From inside his cloak, Kylo pulled out the holopad he had been studying earlier. The screen displayed a video that he had retrieved from the ship’s database. Someone had tried to erase it but with some difficulty and a few rounds of ‘convincing’ he had gotten it back. It showed the rebel ship entering a completely empty hangar on the Star Destroyer where there were, conveniently, no troopers around to stop them. It soon cut to the outside of his chambers, the angle of the camera was just sharp enough to reveal Y/N laying on the bed, half-naked and covered in blood. But more importantly, it showed the small group of rebels injecting some unknown substance into her neck and then hauling her away.

“I know that the shields were activated and all docking bays were monitored by at least 10 troopers. I made the order myself. So how exactly did these half-dead rebels gain access to not only the Destroyer but also my chambers.” He knew the answer already, an interrogation of a select few admirals had taken care of that, but he wanted the truth from his master before he did anything else.

Smoke snapped, rage quickly filling the room as Kylo felt the force around him ripple with it. “I have heard enough of this! She was a reward for your good behaviour and rewards can be easily taken away! She has become a distraction from your mission and I won’t tolerate it any longer. She dies tonight!”

Before he could summon his guard or even make a move from the bed, Snoke went silent. In the middle of his tirade, Kylo had pulled his cloak back away from his hip, taking a hold of his lightsaber. And right as the sith had made the declaration that Y/N would die, the blade had been ignited. With no hesitation, he threw the weapon at his master.

He watched in slow motion as the red light sliced through the air, the broken crystal causing it to crackle ominously before it finally connected with Snoke’s torso, just as easily slicing through him as it did the air. It embedded itself in the far wall behind him before falling to the ground and turning off.

Snoke’s eyes were wide with shock and pain. “She is mine.” Kylo snarled as the other man’s force signature waned and then faded away as his body fell apart. 

The now lone sith raised his hand, flexing his fingers and his blade flew back to him. He calmly tucked it back into his belt, just as the Imperial Guards rushed in, their own weapons activated, prepared to defend their master. 

He turned to them and with an unbothered voice said, “Clean this up and inform the fleet, there’s been a change in command.” And then he left.

——————

Y/N moaned as pleasure curled in her gut, rousing her from a very pleasant dream. “Mmmm Kylo.” She reached for her lover, eager to have her dream become a reality but instead she was met with a cold pillow and empty sheets.

When she began to sit up, a sudden force pushed her back down as a voice spoke up from between her legs. “Stay still.” Her eyes flicked down and in the darkness of the room, she could just make out the massive body of her lover nestled between her thighs, his face buried in her centre.

She smiled and relaxed, her hands travelling down to his hair. He gave an approving nip to her sensitive inner thigh before returning to the task at hand. He sucked her clit into his mouth as he slipped two fingers into her cunt. 

“Oh!” She moaned, her hips bucking up to meet his onslaught. “Thought you-fuck- were done for the night.” His fingers curled up, shutting her up immediately.

“Let’s just say I was… reinvigorated.” He said against her cunt, the vibrations of his words on her bundle of nerves, sending a shock of pleasure through her.

“I’m not complaining but I really need you inside me right now.” She clutched at his shoulders in an attempt to pull him up to her. Kylo ignored her for the moment, continuing to play with her until she whined and tugged at his hair. “Please master.” She begged and he finally conceded.

He crawled up her body, kissing her heated skin along the way. As he reached her tits, he briefly stopped, giving both nipples a quick suck before moving on. “Hi there.” She cooed as he finally lay on top of her.

He gave her a crooked smile. “Hi.” He responded and then finally kissed her lips. Her arms wrapped around his neck, keeping him close as the kiss quickly heated. With practised ease, their tongues tangled together and she could taste herself on his lips. The air around them began to heat up as their need for each other became overwhelming.

Reaching between their bodies, Kylo took his cock in hand and lined himself up with her core. Y/N whined into his mouth as he gently pushed into her, slowly enough that she could adjust to his size but quickly enough that both of them were sated for the moment. 

As he finally buried himself within her, she winced, her already bruised cunt oversensitive from his attention. But the pain only added to the warm haze she was quickly falling into. When she relaxed below him, Kylo finally began to move.

At first, he slowly rolled his hips, teasing them both with the gentle pace but as soon as the whines began to slip from her lips, he became more aggressive, his eyes flashing with emotions she had never seen before.

“No one will touch you, you’ll always be by my side.” Her moans echoed through his ears like the most beautiful of symphonies, both grounding him and sending him into a fog of pure pleasure. “You will be mine forever.” His thrusts were deep and all-consuming. “You will be my empress, rule beside me as I reshape the Order to be everything I have ever wanted.”

“I am your only, and you are mine.” Her nails dug into his back, making him hiss. His cock bashed against that soft spot inside of her and she screamed.

“My stars, my pet, my goddess, my queen.” He punctuated each praise with a devastating thrust, punching into her cunt with so much force that she was shoved up the mattress with her only anchor being the man above her.

“You’re fucking mine!” He howled and she came with a silent sob before she went totally limp beneath him, the pleasure causing her to black out. Kylo followed quickly after, forcing his cock as deep as it could go as his own end smashed into him.

He carefully withdrew from her, internally wincing at the state that he had left her in. He wrapped her up in his arms and pulled the covers over them both as he waited for her to regain her senses.

Everything was going to change, he would make sure of that and she would be by his side the entire time- his drug, his weakness, his everything.

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His Choice

@the-queen-of-sorrows

[vinca-majors]

Yangsze Choo in conversation - St. Louis 2/21/24

Yangsze Choo is one of my favorite authors (The Ghost Bride is one of my favorite books ever) and last week she came to STL for her The Fox Wife book tour! I wrote up a little summary of the things she said about herself and her novels for anyone interested.

Her name is pronounced Yong-shee

She was warm, humble, funny, gracious, relaxed, and genuinely kind

She is very petite (I'd be surprised if she clears 5') and has a lovely, precise British accent reminiscent of Julie Andrews because she attended British schools when growing up

While she currently lives in California, she is Malaysian and spent parts of her childhood in Germany and Japan

This was her first time visiting Missouri and she only had the kindest things to say about it (this was heartwarming to everyone in attendance since flyover states get no love)

She is a slow writer and her drafts always have an excessively large word count

She never uses outlines "because I don't think like that" and blames her slow writing on this; her husband says if she would use outlines maybe there would be "less howling and rolling on the floor"

"There are thousands of good books that people could be reading. I am honored that people choose to read mine."

The Ghost Bride

One of her favorite scenes is the first chapter

She wrote a trial scene in the Courts of Hell but it was cut for wordcount

Pre-publication, she figured only her "mother and her hairdresser" would read it

Her older sister's feedback on a draft was that there wasn't enough romance and that what there was "is creepy"; her father's feedback was that it didn't read like classic literature; "With a family like this, who needs critics?"

She wanted to be the audiobook reader because many of the Malaysian words in the book have a specific pronunciation; she had to audition to do it "because usually voice actors do this unless you're Neil Gaiman"; the audition was in a studio in New York the day after Neil himself had been there ("I was like 'Can I touch everything that he touched?'")

She was in Trader Joe's when she got the call from her agent that Netflix wanted to make a screen adaptation - "'Give it to them! Give it to them!'"

She wasn't interested in writing the screenplay for the Netflix adaptation - "Novel writing and screenwriting are very different things."

She didn't have a problem with the book's ugly villain being played by a handsome actor - "That's Hollywood"

The Night Tiger

Her audiobook recording was an Audie Award Finalist - "My publisher says I should tell people that more often."

The Fox Wife

It is a story about "others", "what's on the other side of the door", first love, and is "a love story for old people"

Her favorite Austen is Persuasion and that inspired the elements of "regret and do-overs"

She said most ancient Chinese myths about foxes are about the human men who subdue the beautiful, wily female foxes and bear sons by them who pass the Imperial Exams; she wanted a story from the fox's point of view

She wrote it practically in the order that it reads and wrote the two timelines concurrently

The margins are wide and include footnotes because ancient Chinese scrolls had margins for readers to write notes in, which were incorporated into rewrites of those scrolls; this was also a way for women to engage with other female readers in a time when only men could gather to discuss literature and philosophy

She loves the footnotes in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell and was inspired to include asides/short stories in the footnotes of her own novel

Her first draft was 240,000 words long - she had to cut the bulk of the footnotes, a whole character, an entire arc, and "another murder"

She calls herself 'an old auntie' and doesn't know who the hot Asian actors are today, but her fancast for Kuro is Toshiro Mifune

If she could spend the day as any of her characters she would be Snow because she's "always wanted to run along rooftops and along garden walls"

Her favorite scene is—(looking at my bookmark at the halfway point) "Well, I won't spoil it for you. I love the last scene."

4th novel

It's about plants because she loves plants - she regularly listens to the NPR gardening podcast

She has always thought that ginseng root looks like a human baby; this book will be about a ginseng root that is a fairy changeling

At heart it's about parenthood

[martianbugsbunny]

To Convince You That I Love You (A Kalluzeb Fic): Chapter 2

*staring and waving thru the window* I'm really enjoying this fic, it's I think four chapters, so it's already halfway done lol, and it's loads of fun. And speaking of fun Kallus is going to pass out and be sped back to the Ghost for emergency transport to medical facilities!!! Woo-hoo!!! This one's from Zeb's POV, so strap y'allselves in and get ready for him to be completely wigging about what happened to Kallus but also being as gentle as possible when moving him bc I am such a sucker for that. Read on and enjoy!

Zeb heard the explosion and instantly fired the last three shots he needed to finish off the stormtroopers with perfect precision. He sprinted towards the landing pad, fear shooting through him. Come on, Kal, please don’t have been in the blast.

The shuttle was a smoking ruin, the metal buckling against the inferno inside. That agent they had been tracking was dead. There was no way she could have survived.

But Zeb didn’t care about the mission anymore. He filtered out the smoldering pile of rubble and scanned his surroundings for any sign of Kallus.

Finally he saw Kallus lying several yards away from the shuttle, thrown by the power of the blast. Zeb sprinted over, moving faster than he could remember doing in a long time. His palms were sweating and he could hardly feel his legs, he was so terrified. Losing Kallus was…well, it was his personal worse-case scenario.

He knelt down. Kallus’s leg was twisted at an unnatural angle, and there was a piece of metal embedded in his upper arm. Worse, his nose was bleeding heavily, and there were dark bruises around his eyes and behind his ears: sure signs of a head injury. Somehow, though, he was still (barely) awake.

“Something’s not right,” he muttered. He couldn’t seem to focus his gaze on Zeb’s face. “Everything’s…foggy.”

Then his eyes fell shut and his head tipped to one side, the muscles in his neck slack.

Zeb slung his bo-rifle onto his back. There was no good way to pick Kallus up, with one of each limb wounded, so he simply did his best to support Kallus’s legs above the injured joint and thanked his lucky stars that his wounded arm was not the one that ended up held tightly against Zeb’s chest.

Kanan and Sabine had long since cleared out the troopers who had pinned down the Ghost. In fact, Zeb wondered for a moment why they hadn’t bothered reinforcing him and Kallus—but they were both trained soldiers and neither of them had commed for help, so there had really been no reason to worry.

Well, except for the fact that there was.

Zeb climbed aboard the Ghost and found Kanan and the kids debating over a topographic map he didn’t recognize at the holo-table. “There’s an outpost not too far from here, we could make a supply run before returning to base,” Ezra suggested.

“While we have an Imperial agent on board? Not gonna happen,” Sabine said. Zeb noticed that despite her confident tone, she still looked to Kanan for confirmation.

Kanan was saved from having to pick a side when he heard the sound of the ramp closing and turned to look at Zeb. “Ezra, go tell Hera to get the ship moving, now!” he commanded sharply. Ezra was turning pale, having gotten a look at the bloodied condition Kallus was in, but he did as he was told.

Zeb set Kallus down on the floor. “Let me guess: the explosion?” Sabine asked. Explosions were fairly run-of-the-mill for the Rebellion (especially when it came to the Specters) and hearing one in the distance wasn’t necessarily taken as a sign that someone was in trouble.

“Yeah.” Zeb found his throat tight, a pricking sensation he wasn’t used to irritating his eyes. “There were two Imperial fighters. They aimed for him and got the agent’s entire shuttle instead.”

Kanan wrapped his hand around Kallus’s wrist. It wasn’t the standard method of measuring a heartbeat, but his Jedi powers probably made it practical enough.

“We need to get him back to base soon,” Kanan said quietly. “Or he might not make it.”

Zeb paced to the edge of the room and slammed his fist down onto a crate. Kallus was always doing stupid things like this—putting himself in danger, taking too many risks, going way too far. When would enough be enough?

If Zeb had anything to say about it, Kallus would see the light sooner rather than later…if he lived to wake up again.

[fourgods-nobrakes]

heretic Rogue Trader ficlet

I'm still in chapter 2 but the first encounter with Uralon has been haunting me, so here is a small horny fic where my Rogue Trader also can't stop thinking about it.

Seth von Valancius makes a bad decision and fantasizes about another one. Also on AO3.

Obscura isn't something a person with any ambitions can afford to make a habit of. Seth has known that since before he was old enough to get his hands on any, and it's no less true now than it was then, or later when his little syndicate was running black-market chems on a planetary scale, before Theodora's agents turned up to throw his life completely into disarray. But every once in a while, for a Rogue Trader who has access to the good stuff that's not cut with rat poison—not more than once or twice a voyage, tops—it's nice to have something a little more intense than amasec to relax with.

He tips a little powder from the last confiscated shipment onto the glass top of Theodora's desk, cuts it and lines it up with a shard of wraithbone blade, and snorts a nice long line of medicinal narcotic. His nose goes numb. The room slows down around him. His head gets a little floaty but not in a warp way. 

He leans back in the too-fancy chair with its upholstery probably made from some creature that's been hunted to extinction. The warp shit... has been really weird. It would be, right, most people have at least the vague idea that warp travel is a nightmare. The layperson has no idea how fucked up it really gets.

Seth's throat itches. He rubs at it. There should be bruises there, or burns, or something. A mark on his skin instead of just in his mind. The vision on the way out of the Kiava Gamma Manufactorum was so intense, so vivid, he can't get it out of his head. He can feel that collar and the weight of the chains hanging from it, the chill of the floor seeping into his knees. His heart's speeding up now thinking about the looming, giant figure standing over him, the balefires, the voice that felt like it was shaking his bones. The taste of Chaos in the air and on his tongue.

Fuck, he could have gotten smeared to paste there. It wouldn't even have taken a weapon. The Obscura makes his skin tingle and his mouth feel dry as he falls into the memory. The giant armored hand gesturing in welcome, when it could have crushed his skull so casually. He unbuttons his trousers and reaches in; the Obscura means the first stroke down the length of his cock makes him dizzy, the ship swimming around him like he's back on that cold plasteel floor. He groans, closing his eyes to focus more on that image.

The Chaos Marine close enough to touch. The synthetic smells of the manufactorum overwhelmed by blood and a strange, bitter incense unlike anything the Imperial Cult uses. The weight of the crackling, sparking chains as Seth tried to look up at his captor and couldn't focus on the imposing presence. The arousal he didn't dare pay attention to then and can't deny now.

He's breathing hard, rubbing his cock to the vivid drug haze—the low, rhythmic rumble of the Chaos Marine's voice, like a sermon delivered by distant artillery. The growl of power armor and the flutter of vellum as he moves, the cold ceramite of his armored fingertips against Seth's face, a perfect threat. In the vision Seth couldn't look at his face, but in the dream his eyes glow a cold yellow and his teeth are pointed when he smiles.

Hear your very blood calling, he says in Seth's memory, begging you to submit to me, and Seth imagines a ceramite boot pressing threateningly against his dick and comes just like that, sick warp purples blooming behind his eyelids and tiny psychic shocks crawling over his skin.

The room is swaying gently around him as he falls back in the chair. He doesn't want to open his eyes, and the shreds of sensation are still clinging to his mind. He feels more unsettled than relieved. Surrender is a dangerous thing to be kinked for in a role like his, even when he doesn't really act on it, even when it's just an Obscura dream. 

Well. He won't make a habit of it.

[tiredassmage]

Betrayal, failure, and monster for the not-so nice OC asks. For Tyr!

[not-so-nice oc asks!]

These were all really good, so I'm warning now that I got... quite rambly about answering them. xD One of my favoritest guys ever, fr. Thank you for coming to my TED talk, etc etc lol

betrayal: Has your OC ever been betrayed by someone they thought they could trust? Has your OC ever betrayed someone who trusted them?

Oh, I am so glad you asked this one for him. One might say the surface-level answer is that betrayal is part of an agent's job, but there's some occasions I really want to dig my teeth into for this where some of Tyr's... surprises, shall we say, come across. This is gonna take us right into Imperial Agent chapter 2 spoilers, however, so beware those beneath the cut.

I can't resist starting with... the asterisk? The "should probably be the expected answer" that Tyr decided to fully turn on its head?

One deeply important thing about Tyr (and his perception of his own career) is that he chose, agreed to Imperial Intelligence, went through Academy training, and was thus... as prepared as one could fairly expect to be for the kind of half-truths and lies an operative can expect to both perpetuate and be expected to swallow as part of their job, he might say. Which is just... background to add flavor to the fact that Tyr cites his reason for joining Intelligence as something one might call a flavor of patriotism - a genuine drive to serve the greater good of the Empire's citizens. Something that is complicated by Tyr's distaste for stereotypical Sith in-fighting and powerplays, but I digress.

This point is really just when Tyr says, Imperial Intelligence never betrayed me, he does actually believe it. With his entire heart. And that won't actually change even as he learns more about the Castellans and what he's been subjected to.

Tyr's faith in Keeper (or rather, the Minister of Intelligence, as his role is at that point) is... not that the man is perfect and incapable of fault, but that the man's in a rather tight position and genuinely does what he can for his operatives, even with his hands tied behind his back. I guess you could call it a kind of "you couldn't hurt me in a way that matters," but like... meant as a positive?

Some might call that one hell of a mental gymnastics routine. Maybe it's because they're related, even if Tyr never fully realizes it, or maybe it's just really that Tyr's short on authority and parental figures that he can rely on, so he's willing to do a lot to hold on to the ones he feels he does have.

So, arguably, that doesn't particularly answer the question, but it does set-up that Tyr's... really fucking ride or die, at his core. Once he really commits to someone, it... well, frankly, it takes a lot to dethrone them from his confidence. Tyr never feels betrayed by Intelligence, even if you might argue he very well should. He feels hung out to dry for doing his job by the Sith and the Dark Council. And there isn't really arguing that Kaliyo has essentially toyed with selling him out for the equivalent of a bag of corn chips and some salsa, but, really, neither of them expected much more or less of each other, so Tyr doesn't... tend to be fussed about it, honestly.

I think the one that stings, really, is his... dynamic with Lana Beniko, really. I'd be tempted to say there's a lot about their relationship that isn't necessarily exactly either of them's fault and, ultimately, I'd say on most days, in the end, they're actually quite perceptive of one another's needs and the differences and bonds between them. What does make him feel betrayed by her is a little unfair in the sense that there's no real way she could have known at the time what kind of traumas she was touching him off on - and, frankly, they're not particularly great at ever clearing it up out of some sort of "mutual respect to not talk about the past" that does cause them a bit more trouble than boons at times. The short of that (in this... already very long ramble, oops) is that it's Rishi, and it's the matter of Theron Shan. And even without Tyr's growing affections for Theron by then, Lana getting Theron caught by the Revanites without forewarning him would have still shot their budding trust in the foot and it leaves them somewhat hobbled even to this day. It made Tyr want to throw his guards back up - it reminds him of Corellia (which was no vacation, sure, but it was an operation he was made well aware of what he was agreeing to when Shara sent him in), but what the real issue is is that it reminds him of Castellans, and of the very touchy "job security" he's not particularly had since Imperial Intelligence was cannibalized. One thing Tyr always has strong feelings about is that you take care of your own, that operatives aren't disposable for the sake of being disposable. Risks are inherent in this work. They hardly need to make them more prominent by holding knives to each other's throats for the slightest of inconveniences.

And that leaves me with the second question, which is... also maybe not as clean as an answer as it could be, lol. But to dig deeper than the surface level of the occupation's inherent moments, I think... the one that haunts me the most, and the one that haunts him, though he'd need to be forced to actually admit it and realize (let alone deal) with his feelings about it, is Shara - Watcher Two.

They never intend to hurt one another. Both of them realize in their relationship's infancy that it's an inherent possibility, maybe even a likelihood. What I think happens is they sort of... accidentally fall in love with a reflection of one another rather than... who ends up standing before them. And some of that - a lot of that, even - may well ride on Tyr. And what's left unsaid.

He never confronts her about the whole of the Castellans. He never even says to her that he knows - that's a secret he keeps between himself, his crew, and the old man, as far as the people who were there to live through it with him. Tyr never tells her he's made a deal with Ardun Kothe, that he's turned genuinely double agent for the SIS. I can't say with certainty it even... occurs to him to consider it.

Some of it is the relatively high certainty that, in the end, as things are, they're not likely to ever see each other again. They'll both be reassigned, if she continues work at all, and that means both of them have to say goodbye. It's better for both of them if she puts him from her mind, and he doesn't need or want to make that any harder for her.

Either of them.

And he's not convinced he'll ever actually make it out of the Empire. Most Ciphers don't survive five years of the work, after all. Certainly not Ciphers who have already once caught the ire of the Dark Council, despite their best intentions. There's few people Tyr genuinely holds close, and he wants to see none of them take the fall with him when the day comes that he finally pays the price for his betrayals.

Shara should've gotten out. At least one of them deserved it, as he'll tell the old man on Rishi. At least one of them actually made it. He hopes. He has to believe, in that moment.

Until that all falls apart when he sees her face on Nathema again, years later. And she calls him a liar - cites the Republic alignments of the Alliance - except it's not about that, is it? It's about trust. It's about working with someone so long that they knew the back of your hand as well as you - maybe even better. It was about, why didn't you ever tell me? That you were suffering, that you wanted to run? It's... it's if it was love, if we would've crossed galaxies for each other... why wasn't she invited to return the favor?

Something he'll never have the opportunity to try to explain now. Just the bitter-tasting realization that none of his answers would've sufficed anyway. In the end, he'll feel he robbed her of the one thing he's been so damn afraid of losing for so long: the chance to choose.

failure: What's your OC's greatest failure? Have they been able to move past it? Does anyone else know about it?

I think there's a part of him that would consider his greatest failure what we just covered: that one of the few people he'd relied on in one of the darkest times of his life, he'd betrayed, he'd hurt - in one of the gravest ways he's ever experienced hurt. And on that note, no, no one really knows about it. When he says his initial goodbyes to her after wrapping the Star Cabal operation, and then has to face repeating those goodbyes on Rishi, he bundles that part of himself and his experience up and sets it aside. What other choice does he have, really? It's safer that they never see one another again, and dwelling on it isn't going to change that.

He remembers her and their time together fondly, can be caught by later partners contemplatively watching rain droplets race each other down the windows at times during a storm, but he rarely makes an even indirect explanation of their relationship, let alone an explanation of it. He'd probably like to say there's nothing to be done about it now, so it doesn't matter, but that doesn't change the ache in his chest.

Aside from that, I think... there is genuinely a part of him that is realizing more and more that it's... it's not exactly great that he hasn't been able to get out. Maybe that's more in-line with greatest flaw, but... Tyr is the type to dress self-sacrifice as, if not a virtue, then just... a core of what he does, what he's meant to do. To be really bad at recognizing it's self-sacrifice.

And it's hard to miss the way he works, but... his own mindset isn't particularly good at saying no, enough, and... neither has the galaxy exactly been the most accommodating at telling him to quit already, lol. But... he's gotten more and more aware over the years - with age, with experience, with more and more wars under his belt - that it's not just himself he's harming with that kind of mentality. The very people he wants so badly to protect, to look after aren't having a great time watching him burn the candle from both ends, either. And he's... he wishes he was better at this also, really.

monster: Is your OC monstrous in any way? Is there something that makes them monstrous? Are they aware of their own monstrosity? Do they accept it or reject it?

I do spend a fair amount of time going on about how Tyr's actually an idealist, despite his consistent failure to fully recognize this, but I do also get reminded when I go back through chapter one with him that he's just as capable of calculated cold cuts as any Cipher. 'Monstrous' isn't something that'd come to mind for him, or as a descriptor of him coming from me, however.

If there's anything in this territory, it's that his more ruthless streak - that thread of him that's capable of channeling more Cipher Nine and less Tyr Deckard, agent of Imperial Intelligence, if you will - still slumbers, and still has a passing fancy for the false allure of vengeance, at times.

There is absolutely a part of him that could probably still be goaded to try burning the Empire and its systems down in a scorched earth blaze of glory. Tyr has almost always remembered that such tactics... never really worked. If they did, they wouldn't be in this war - or the last, or the one before it. They wouldn't have inherited the war of their fathers, and their fathers before them, and he wouldn't be facing down a galaxy that seems hellbent on leaving it to their children, either. The Republic has already tried to eradicate the Sith, and the Empire was still standing to make him an agent of it.

But there's that itch, still... it grows a bit quieter with each year, maybe - the seasonings of age and experience to temper its hiss. But the trigger itch to light a match and watch it burn for the way the Empire's eaten people up and discarded them - for that way it's used him. It's been tempting, at times. There's a reason he has such a damned hard time walking away when there's still fighting going. Even if he is starting to feel too old for this bullshit these days.

[xxlittle0birdxx]

‘We could just shove him out of the airlock,’ Ezra suggested brightly.

‘Ezra!’ Hera’s head whipped around to glare at him.

He pointed to Chopper. ‘It was his idea.’ Chopper waved his arms at Ezra, blatting that he would shove Ezra out of the airlock for ratting him out.

‘The last thing you need is a higher kill count,’ Sabine told the droid. ‘The Rebellion leaders are going to make Hera reprogram you and wipe your memory. You’re getting a reputation.’

‘What’s wrong with that?’ Ezra patted the top of Chopper’s dome.

The question seemed to stop Sabine in her tracks. ’Nothing…?’ She gave Chopper a thumbs-up. ‘Keep it up.’

‘No one is going to shove Agent Kallus out of an airlock.’ Hera’s lekku twitched so hard, the ends whipped from side to side.

Kanan, more well-versed with those signals than the kids, slashed a finger across his throat. ‘Let’s put a pin in that plan,’ he muttered.

‘What if we could turn him?’ Rex ventured. ‘He could serve as a spy. Be a good man to have on the inside.’

‘Is that even possible?’ Sabine’s nose wrinkled.

‘He wouldn’t be the first Imp to defect,’ Hera told her. ‘But he would be one of the highest-ranking ones.’

‘We could just go to a system with enough of an Imperial presence and drop him off,’ Zeb interjected. ‘Won’t be more than another day or two.’ The whole conversation made him feel twitchy. If they deposited him on some system with a garrison of troops, it would give Zeb an opportunity to smash some bucketheads in the process. He needed to work out some of his frustrations. Might as well put it to good use.

‘Any objections?’ Hera asked. ‘No?’ She fixed Zeb with a glare that brooked no argument. ‘He’s your responsibility while he’s on the ship, Zeb.’

‘Could you not talk about him like he’s some feral tooka that’s gonna piddle on the floor?’ Zeb growled.

The cockpit descended into silence.

[inyri]

A few side takes from the last chapter:

1) This entire piece of plot came out of a question I couldn’t shake that’s completely Imperial Agent specific. If you’re playing an IA who stayed allied with the Empire, the Order of Zildrog member who confronts you on Nathema is Marcus Trant. But what exactly did Cipher Nine do that would make Trant, Director of the SIS since she was a literal child, quit the Republic complete and join an apocalypse cult focused on killing her?

This was my answer to that question.

2) What happened at the end? We’ll get to that. But Garza learned something from Eclipse’s failure- they didn’t have a failsafe. She had to send Havoc to hunt them down, and she’s not one to repeat mistakes. The people for that new project came from Belsavis. The failsafe came from another prison entirely.

Do you remember Shadow Town?

[monocytogenes]

Fic authors self-rec

Tagged by @theluckywizard to rec five of my favorite fics I've written!

All the Times We've Said Goodbye

[T, SWTOR, Male Imperial Agent/Shara Jenn]

This is my first (and currently only) multichapter on Ao3, and is essentially a reimagining of the agent-specific arc in Shadow of Revan as an undercover heist. The former Cipher Nine gets called in for one last job--rescuing Shara, who he sort of kind of definitely still has feelings for, despite his attempts to make a clean break from the Empire.

If you like Cold War spy dramas, British snark, and that 'I'll take care of you'/'It's rotten work'/'Not for me, not if it's you' trope, then this'll be your cup of tea!

The Triumph of Old and New Friends

[T, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Gen]

This was a gift piece I wrote for someone on the DAFF server that's set pre-Inquisition and entirely consists of setting-native OCs. It's a thriller set at a fancy Orlesian party that I've been told has Agatha Christie vibes! Two bards know an assassin's afoot, and have to figure out his target in time to prevent a murder. Lots of character work and some exciting action in here, and I had a ton of fun drawing on canon worldbuilding and 17th century French culture.

The Incarnation of Failure

[T, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, Gen]

Out of all the stuff I wrote in the halcyon days after TFA's release, this piece is the nearest to my heart. It's an exploration of survivor's guilt, centered around Hux in the aftermath of Starkiller base's destruction: how does one cope in the wake of a tragedy, when reminders of your hand in it are everywhere? Dying is easy, living is harder.

Better to be Wrecked

[M, SWTOR, Female Sith Warrior/Malavai Quinn]

Ah, Quinn. I wasn't spoiled for the twist in the warrior story, and it hit me like a truck, so I had to write about it. This piece examines Quinn's psyche around the theme of suicidality, beginning with his demotion and ending with the Quinncident. Better to be wrecked, if he couldn't be loved.

The Most Egregious Abuse

[M, SWTOR, a little bit of Male Imperial Agent/Shara Jenn but mostly Gen]

My take on the agent story Chapter 2 denouement! This one-shot's got it all--calculated deception, violent murder, resigning one's job in protest, and a more lighthearted interlude where two young enlisteds have to deal with a high-off-his-head, grievously injured Cipher agent showing up at their gate. I've joked that literally not a single person in this fic is having a good time, and it's very true--hurt, no comfort all the way.

[kanerallels]

Hey so uh. It's Steve Miller Au day. And while I remembered to post the fic on AO3, I forgot to put the link on here until just now! So here you are. First lines under the cut! Taglist: @laughingphoenixleader @accidental-spice @heckin-music-dork @day-to-day-thots @auroramagpie @opalknight @seleneisrising @cassie-fanfics (DM me if you want to be added or removed from the tag list!)

One of Ezra’s favorite things was being part of schemes. Being a member of the infamous Maurice’s crew, he’d been part of quite a few over the years. Mostly, they were battle plans, ways to break into Imperial headquarters, sneak past guards, or free prisoners.

But there was the odd scheme that didn’t have to do with their war with the Empire. And there was one in particular, that happened once a year, that was Ezra’s absolute favorite one.

He followed Sabine into the Ghost ’s lounge, where the others, with the exception of Kanan— his Master was off meeting with one of his agents, known to them by his code name, Fogerty, to collect some of the intelligence the agent had for him— were waiting. Hera was settled in her chair, Chopper nearby, while Zeb and Jyn were sitting at the holochess table. Okadiah sat near them on a crate, placidly sipping a mug of caf, and Kasmir was on his feet, pacing back and forth.

He spotted Ezra the minute he and Sabine stepped into the room. “Finally— we can get started.”

“Get started with what?” Sabine asked as she joined Jyn and Zeb.

Clasping his hands, Kasmir said, “Okay, we all know why we’re here.”

“We literally don’t,” Sabine pointed out. “You just told us all to gather here and that it was important.”

“Is something wrong?” Hera asked, her eyebrows knitting. “Is Kanan—”

Holding up a hand, Kasmir said, “He’s fine, Captain H, although he does have something to do with this. We’re coming up on one of my all time favorite holidays— the kid’s birthday.”

[burnwater13]

Concept art by Ryan Church, depicts Imp Remnants attacking a Trexler-Marauder on Nevarro. Image from The Mandalorian, Season 2, Episode 4, The Siege. Calendar from DataWorks.

Grogu often wondered how Greef Karga and Din Djarin managed to ‘forget’ that Nevarro was home to an Imperial base. That just seemed so unlikely. He could almost understand the Mandalorian ignoring the truth about the planet he lived on and had been operating out of for however many years it had taken the Tribe to find the place, set up their Covert, and do their thing. Mandalorians kept their heads down and focused on what was important to them. 

For the Mandalorian, Din Djarin, that would have only been one thing. Collect bounties and support the foundlings. That really was one thing to the Mandalorian. He had no other skills and no other trade. He was to independent to be a good mercenary and too fussy to be a good mechanic. Good enough was never good enough for him and that would have been a hit to any business person’s profit margin. Grogu didn’t doubt that’s why Ran Malk had wanted to use the Razor Crest, but not the pilot that came with the ship. Too costly.

But Greef Karga didn’t really have that same excuse. He had been the leader of the Nevarro chapter of the Bounty Hunters’ Guild. He’d known of the place and simply thought it was abandoned. But he’d never checked to see if that was true. He never even sent anyone there to see if that was true. He didn’t even have any of their droids or mechs check the place or monitor planetary space traffic to see if the place was really abandoned. He just assume everything was good. Uff.

Then they went back to Nevarro, just to fix the ship and wouldn’t you know, that Imperial base wasn’t really abandoned. Nope. It still had stormtroopers there. Why? That’s where Moff Gideon’s support troops came from when they were last on Nevarro! Didn’t anyone wonder where they had come from at the time? Sure, Grogu and his dad had high tailed it out of there, but Greef Karga had stayed. And Cara Dune! They had plenty of time to figure this mess out. But did they? No.

Why that mattered became pretty obvious when Grogu’s dad, Magistrate Karga and Marshal Dune returned to Nevarro City. His dad came back using his flight pack. Greef and Cara came skidding back in a Trexler Marauder! A troop carrier! A huge speeder designed to protect Imps when they were being moved from point A to point B. 

How did you miss that thing moving around Nevarro? How did you not find it? How bad were the sensors on everyone’s ships? Or were bounty hunters and pirates and the people who spent their time with them so uninterested in the actions of current and former governmental agents? Grogu just didn’t know. It seemed so strange to him. 

Of course, spending the day in the school in Nevarro City had been very educational. At least for Grogu and any child that was hoping to become a pirate or smuggler at some point in the future. He had been learning about hyperspace lanes, while his dad, the Mythrol, Cara, and Greef headed off to the old abandoned Imp base to, uh… sort it out? Clean it up? Shut it down. 

A few left over Imps would be no problem, right? Now, Grogu had always been told that ‘a few’ was a representation of two or three people, or things. Have a few frogs. Grab a few ration packs. Tell a few bedtime stories. Typically two but sometimes three. A few Imps was never 35 people. Never. That wasn’t a few. That was a platoon! Two or three squads! Half a company! How do you miss that many Imps?

That is really what boggled Grogu’s mind. Did those troopers not eat? Or maybe they just stayed on the base and watched vids in their off time? They never got bored and cut loose? They didn’t miss the people who had supported Moff Gideon and just remained where they were because there was no reason to after Kara Dune or Greef Karga? 

It was absurd to him that these Imps just happened to be on Nevarro and they just happened to now be of interest and they just happened to be CLONING MOFF GIDEON! How did that get overlooked? 

Of course, Grogu had to take some responsibility for that mess as well. He’d just been happy to leave Nevarro. He was glad that the Mandalorian was tasked with finding Grogu’s people, whoever they were, so they’d be staying away from places like Nevarro. He could have reached out with the Force and assessed the planet and warned the Mandalorian. He could have told Din Djarin that he’d rather go back to Tatooine. Peli Motto liked him and she might have some of that Krayt dragon meat left over. Tatooine was closer than Nevarro, so if the ship was kind of wonky, well, going to Tatooine made a lot more sense. 

But he didn’t say any of that or do any of that. He’d let Din Djarin convince him that going all the way to Nevarro was the better plan and he regretted that almost as much as he regretted eating all of those crunchy blue things the boy at school had ‘shared’ with him. And that was his excuse for not scolding his dad about the whole fiasco. Maybe if he had scolded the Mandalorian they would have realized that their best course of action was to do the opposite of whatever anyone suggested to them. 

Go to Corvus? Nope. Bo-Katan couldn’t be trusted. Look for Jedi? Nope. Leave them alone. They were all gone. Return to Nevarro? No way. It wasn’t safe. It never would be as long as the people there were concerned about smuggling and piracy than teaching people who to read and write Aurebesh. 

Maybe they could go back to Arvala-7 and take over Kuiil’s farm? No one would expect them to do that, right? In any case, that would give Grogu the ability to say ‘I have spoken’ to his dad without getting in trouble and he liked the thought of that.

‘I have spoken!’

Concept art by Ryan Church for The Mandalorian, Season 2, Episode 4, The Siege. Depicts Imps on speeder bikes and in TIE Fighters chasing and firing on a Trexler Marauder troop transport, on Nevarro.

[worldenough-and-time]

dystopian au + forgotten first meeting for wolfstar ✨

Omg literally all I can think about with this prompt is @rollercoasterwords werewolf fighting ring au which I’m currently losing my mind over and has this exact combination of tropes. Feels very fated that I am looking at this ask now after just having read the latest chapter, on the night of the worm moon no less! Anyway, just taking the opportunity to rec one of my favorite WIPs.

But alas that is not the game so I will come up with my own premise (which will not be nearly as good as that fic, but what can a girl do in five minutes)

I think I’d be down for a sort of Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle structure where they have to go on a quest to find missing memories. So it’s a Voldy Won AU, and also a space opera (I just saw Dune 2, so yeah), where Remus is part of a rag tag group of rebels and Sirius is a Space Duke and double agent for the rebellion, and together with their Space Comrades they discover that Voldy (Space Emperor) has made Space Horcruxes to achieve immortality, however whoever tries to tamper with the Space Horcruxes gets their memory wiped and their memories scattered like puzzle pieces in the remaining Space Horcruxes. I think Sirius is probably the one who loses his memory, and Remus and the Rebels have to bring a very confused Space Duke from planet to planet to find the remaining Space Horcruxes and Sirius’s missing memories. Obviously it goes without saying that they were romantically entangled before the whole memory loss debacle and now have to start from square one whist traversing the galaxy together and dodging imperial Space Death Eaters.

Idk, the space opera bit might be a “hat on a hat” situation, but I had fun.

[nimata-beroya]

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Graphic Depiction of Violence, Graphic Torture, Water Inhalation, Water Torture, Waterboarding, Interrogation, Xenophobia, Homophobia, Fascism.

Fandom: Star Wars Rebels

Characters: Alexsandr Kallus, Garazeb Orrelios, Original Imperial Character(s)

Chapter: 1/3

Days: 14 & 18 (chapter 1), 2, 13 & 25 (Chapter 2); & 31 (chapter 3)

Prompt: Water Torture for @badthingshappenbingo || Feed Me Poison, Fill Me ‘till I Drown, Tortured for Information & Water Inhalation for @whumptober-archive

Whumpee: Alexsandr Kallus

Words: 2,872

Summary: Kallus gets captured in a mission gone wrong by someone from his past, who is determined to break him. Across the galaxy, Zeb is willing to do whatever it takes, even defying orders, to bring his mate back, safe and sound. But time is running out.

FEED ME POISON, FILL ME 'TIL I DROWN

Chapter 1

As soon as his torturer, an ensign according to the insignia on his uniform, stops pouring water on the cloth covering his face, Kallus resists the powerful urge to breathe in. Instead, he exhales as hard as he can to expel the water trapped under the rag and clogging his airway. Once his mouth, nose, and throat are clear, he gives in to the instinct and inhales deeply, providing his burning lungs of precious oxygen. Each desperate intake that comes after is labored and interrupted by painful hacking. The way the wet rag sticks to his face doesn’t help either.

Despite his best efforts not to inhale water, it’s inevitable. Kallus has been slowly drowning for some time now. The ensign knows his waterboarding technique well. But why shouldn’t he? The junior officer is following the orders of none other than ISB Agent Prumell, with whom Kallus has a long-standing enmity. Their quarrel started at the Academy and continued throughout their ISB training and work for the Bureau.

Prumell is enjoying taking out all the grievances they’ve had along the years on Kallus, coupled with the fact that he’s a defector. His face says it all —a smug smirk and cold eyes that show how happy he is for catching Kallus.

When captured, Kallus knew he was in serious trouble when he found out that Prumell would interrogate him. He had been the only one during the ISB training to break a fellow trainee during their first interrogation practice. And that student had been Kallus. Kallus never expected back then to Prumell to dredge up the most sordid details of his past, things that he’d told nobody, and use them to get under his skin and break him.

Truth be told, he should thank Prumell for it. The incident prompted Kallus to work tirelessly on his mental and physical resistance to torture. By the end of the training, Kallus was the only one who didn’t break, not even when they brought an inquisitor in. He outlasted all his fellow trainees, including Prumell. It’s one of the many things that allowed him to graduate at the top of the class.

Prumell understood that using protocol techniques alone during interrogation wouldn't work on Kallus. He began by bringing an interrogation droid in to inject a cursory round of truth serum and pain-enhancing drugs, before switching to the brutal method of waterboarding, worthy of ancient and less civilized times. Kallus has difficulties maintaining his mental acuteness thanks to the psychotropic agents running in his bloodstream. However, Kallus gathers strength to resist the torture, holding on to the thought that his silence assures the safety of the rebellion and those who he loves. If he dies, it’ll be for a good cause. But as things are, Kallus is unsure how much longer he can withstand the torture. He’s at a breaking point.

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