Btw Lunafox, I'm about to put up three more short installments on my original Fan Fiction post. If you are interested in my take on what happened on Iokath, then click the link and read on. Cheers from Oz, AureliaSulis

An Interlude on Iokath What more did the galaxy want of her? Sul had been encased in carbonite and for years her mind had been invaded by a dead and demented emperor. She had almost died more times than she could count, and in the end killed two emperors, almost killed a third, saved the galaxy, and still it was not enough. Still the galaxy wanted more of her, when all she wanted to do was to rest and heal her once-fractured mind, and then finally find that integral part of her who against all odds remained doggedly missing. Piloting a star ship was second-nature to her so as her hands automatically guided the craft down through the murky atmosphere of Iokath, Sul allowed her now-freed mind to wander unimpeded and unobserved. How long had it been since she had last seen her husband? It must have been at least six years. Six years without a word from Quinn except for that one brief letter. He must be dead, it was the only explanation, yet a part of her refused to accept that he was dead. If he still lived then why the continuing silence? Perhaps he had met someone else? No, she could not accept that either. They had gone through so much together. He could not just walk away from what they had shared. Sul’s eyes slid back to Theron who was studying the navigational display. She suspected that she loved him too, just in a different way. He was a friend, perhaps more than a friend, but not yet a lover even though his kisses were sufficient enticement for her to know him fully. Stubbornly she held back because she knew that another man held claim upon her body, heart and soul. Perhaps one day, if she received absolute proof that Quinn had perished, but even then it would be hard to accept it, even harder to be truly intimate with another. Sul just couldn’t understand Quinn’s continued absence. She had two of the galaxy’s top spies as her closest confidants yet still they claimed that they could not locate her husband. It was like he had vanished into the aether. However, once this Iokath problem was resolved she would take the matter into her own hands, and if need be, tear the galaxy apart atom by atom, molecule by molecule to find her husband. ---------------- Sul listened distractedly to what Lana was telling her, but her eyes kept glancing to the two distant figures standing with their backs to her, whilst looking out of the window. The one on the right was a woman in the armoured uniform of a Republic soldier, but the broad shouldered figure on the left pulled at her mind and body in an oddly unsettling way. Then both turned, and Sul’s legs threatened to give way beneath her. Quinn! The galaxy had finally given up what Sul had lost. She yearned to run to him, throw herself in his arms, but keenly aware of where she was, and who was watching, she hesitated and the moment was lost. “You’re looking more potent than ever, my lord,” Quinn said as he moved a few steps towards her, his words as smooth as silk. Hearing his voice Sul’s heart melted – and she inadvertently put a hand out to the nearby terminal to steady her trembling body. “Quinn, is that you?” Sul inwardly cursed herself for her stupid and inadequate words. Of course it was Quinn, no-one else in the galaxy had that effect upon her. Although his words were sublime, his eyes seemed oddly distant, so her heart which had been determined to fly out of her body to him, settled back in her chest to some equilibrium. “In the flesh,” he replied. Flesh! Sul again fought hard for control, she was getting mixed signals from Quinn and it confused and unsettled her. “I thought I’d never see you again,” she finally managed. “The feeling is mutual my lord,” he said, then his eyes softened in an all too familiar way as he added, “but perhaps we can save the displays of affection for a more private setting.” “Or you know, forever,” growled Theron behind her. Sul turned and shot Theron a sharp glance. He was frowning and as their eyes met his gaze grew fierce and unrepentant. At that moment Sul understood that he had always known that Quinn lived and had kept the knowledge from her. Then her eyes flickered across to Lana and Sul saw a look of shame suffuse her face. Instantly Sul’s body was consumed by a rage so fierce, so unfamiliar and so intense that her hand instinctively moved towards her sheathed light sabre. As Quinn walked by her and to the holoterminal, he whispered two words to her, “Not now” and Sul knew that whatever their motives or reasons, her revenge would have to wait. She intimately understood that the Alliance needed to be kept whole, could not afford to be rent apart by her vengeance. What was most important was the immediate concern of Iokath, the super weapon and the claiming of it by both the Republic and the Empire. So Sul reluctantly put away her hot fury, replacing it instead with a cold anger useful for the physical battles ahead. Her revenge could wait, months or even long years, kept close and nurtured until the right time presented itself. There would surely be consequences for the lies. ----------------- Sul leaned upon the Holoterminal and coolly considered her options. Republic or Empire? Both cases put to her, apparently both solid in merit. She had grown to womanhood under Imperial skies, and trained in the Force as Sith. Her choice should be easy and clear, especially given the immediate connection she had felt with the new Empress Acina on Drumond Kaas. Yet still she hesitated, even though her beloved Quinn was the Empire’s emissary and that she longed to please him and have him by her side again. All too well Sul knew the power plays within the Dark Council and understood that not all who followed the empress or swore allegiance to her would share her reforming vision, or even if her vision was in fact a true one. Sul suspected that the empress might well have been deceiving her, doing whatever it took to attain a final endgame with the Sith Empire ascendant over all. Trust was in short supply nowadays and Sul, who desperately wanted to trust, was finding herself loath to do so. If only Darth Marr had not died for she sorely wanted his counsel, even the counsel of the Jedi Master Satele Shan would be welcome now. She desired a third path that did not involve the Empire or the Republic. She wanted to lay down the law that Iokath would be guarded, isolated, its technology kept in trust for future generations. If only Marr had not died, if only he was Emperor. Sul knew that she could have trusted him and that her trust wouldn’t be squandered. But there was no Marr, no third option. It was only Republic or Empire. Finally she made up her mind. She knew the faults and failings of the Empire, but the real Republic was a closed book to her. She suspected that she had been lied to over the years about the Republic, fed a diet of propaganda and misinformation by her peers and elders. So she would give the Republic a chance, one chance to demonstrate that they still walked in the Light. She straightened, and with her gaze resting on Quinn’s face she calmly stated, “The Alliance will ally with the Republic.” A look of sorrow veiled Quinn’s eyes and with a muttered, “I’m sorry my lord” he threw two flash bombs and then all hell broke loose. ------------------ There will be another installment in due course.

The links work for me. Try clicking on the links in my post rather than the follow-up replies.

Here you go... Malavai still can't quite believe he's got his girl back. Sul feeling pensive. Go on Malavai, give your wife a kiss. Hopefully the links work okay.

Yeah, I got that other name stuck in my head. I thought Malavai but my brain kept typing Malachi (as from the Bible). Nevermind, I've fixed the error now. I've got ideas for other mini-stories about Malavai and Sul, but since I'm juggling university study for a BA in Writing, finding the time to write non-university related material is problematic. I play from Australia and the last few days there has been extreme game lag, so much so that there is a red dot or red cross for connectivity most of the time. The only benefit to this lag is that while the world has frozen, my character can run around (in a limited space) and get close up to her companion, so I was able to do some nice screenshots of Sul and Malavai together staring into each other's eyes and holding hands (yeah, I'm a tragic when it comes to those two). Anyway, I hope to put up another mini-story soon so keep an eye on the Fan Fiction page and my story there.

Something I'd like to add that the non-action by the Sith Warrior to find her lover and husband is a major plot failing by the writers. Given that she had two trained spies as her close companions - one ex-Empire, the other ex-Republic, it should have been easy for them to track Quinn down. I mean Lara Beniko, with her Imperial contacts, should have tracked Quinn down within a matter of days. Quinn was both an Imperial officer and held in an Imperial prison, he would have had a computer file on him, and Lara or Theron 'should' have been able to slice into that database and find out exactly what had happened to Quinn. The only reasons that I can come up with is that Theron jealously didn't want Sul to be aware that Quinn still lived and so kept the information to himself - and that Lara might have felt that Quinn was an unnecessary distraction for Sul while bigger events were in play, and so kept the information to herself. Still, Sul should have insisted and her failure rankles with me. The only reason I can come up with for her own non-action, is that she was swept along by the flow of events connected with the Eternal Throne and the new Alliance.

No, just a typo. It's not the way I see it. Malavai to me is a follower, not a leader and once released from jail and with his Sith Warrior missing for so long and possibly dead, he naturally followed someone else. He fell into the orbit of another - the Sith Empress. His weakness, as I see it, was his sense of duty. Once he follows someone that sense of duty overpowers him. Which is why he felt himself trapped by his sense of duty. So once the Empress dies, he (in my character's version of the story where she aligned with the Republic) is no longer anchored to the Empress and is free to find his own way again, which was naturally right back to Sul. That's rather a severe line to take. All characters possess faults and failings, and some faults are so ingrained that they would be impossible to break - even by a personality as strong as the Sith Warrior. You couldn't be more wrong to think that this is a hate post, it's quite the opposite. Quinnis my favourite of the companions and I rushed through the content just so my Warrior could be reunited with him again. I just feel that Quinn believing that Sul no longer loved him was just not enough to keep him from her side. His sense of duty to her should have caused him to run back to her as soon as he was aware that she was alive - hell, if I was him, I would have crossed a galaxy to reclaim my spot by her side. No, something else held him back, and that something else was his sense of duty to his new Master.

I put this up on the fan fiction site, but since it directly relates to Malavai Quinn, I thought his fans might like to read it too. Although I am an independent author, this is my first attempt at writing fan fiction so forgive me any missteps in an unfamiliar genre. ------------- Major Malavai Quinn - Watching from the shadows He watched her furtively and from the shadows. His dark eyes drank in her face, and concealed by the heavy robes that she habitually wore, he imagined and remembered his hands caressing her lithe form, the slender yet incredibly strong body that he had known so well and so intimately. Even after five years encased in carbonite she seemed to him unaltered – her long pale hair still habitually tied back in a ponytail, her fringe falling across the terrible burn that marred one side of her otherwise perfect face, a burn that she never spoke about, presumably from a time before she trained as Sith. Sul, his Sith Warrior wife and lord, now the Commander of a ragtag Alliance built from the outcasts of Imperial, Republic and other forces. He was told that she was truly formidable but this fact he already knew. From years of fighting by her side he knew that none had bested her – which is why he had bestowed upon her the honourific ‘Invicta’ – Unconquered, a title that she humbly accepted, not because it was the truth, but because it came from him, and their love at the time seemed unconquered too. He wondered too about her five years in carbonite, and he touched again the much folded letter in his inside tunic pocket. It was a letter from Medical HQ that had confirmed that Sul was with child, his child – a letter sent to their apartment too late for her to know. Hours earlier she had vanished from the universe, vanished without a trace. He had searched for her for years, wondering where she could be, wondering if she birthed their child. Five years in carbonite! Perhaps now warmed his child still grew within her, unknown and unnoticed or perhaps it had died in-vitro, subsumed by the cold carbonite. As he stared at her, he yearned to join her, stand by her side again, but two things gave him pause. Her new rank mattered little to him, but the tall man stalking by her side, the one with the implants tattooing his face, seemed oddly possessive of her and at times their fingers brushed – it was clear that this Theron Shan, this ex-Republic spy was now important to Sul, was important in his wife’s new life. The idea that they could be intimate together set his teeth on edge but he did not blame her if she had succumbed, for she was passion personified and passion would always seek an outlet. In that aspect she was true Sith. However, it always sat oddly with him that Sul had always yearned and strove towards the Light. Countless times she had sheathed her weapon and turned aside instead of going for the killing blow – especially if there were civilians or children involved, or Malavai himself – when foolishly and dementedly he had betrayed her. Passion and compassion, and above all, forgiveness and mercy – all wrapped up in a beautiful if deadly package. She was truly an enigma. He had no chance against her, one look from those deep blue eyes and he was lost – it was no wonder that the ex-Republic spy was dogging her footsteps too. The other thing that gave Malavai pause – was his duty, duty to the new Sith Empress, and that above all kept him in the shadows watching still, cursing his weakness, desiring his wife, desiring a new life in this Alliance of hers, but knowing that duty trapped him still. --------------- Edit - typos fixed.

He watched her furtively and from the shadows. His dark eyes drank in her face, and concealed by the heavy robes that she habitually wore, he imagined and remembered his hands caressing her lithe form, the slender yet incredibly strong body that he had known so well and so intimately. Even after five years encased in carbonite she seemed to him unaltered – her long pale hair still habitually tied back in a ponytail, her fringe falling across the terrible burn that marred one side of her otherwise perfect face, a burn that she never spoke about, presumably from a time before she trained as Sith. Sul, his Sith Warrior wife and lord, now the Commander of a ragtag Alliance built from the outcasts of Imperial, Republic and other forces. He was told that she was truly formidable but this fact he already knew. From years of fighting by her side he knew that none had bested her – which is why he had bestowed upon her the honourific ‘Invicta’ – Unconquered, a title that she humbly accepted, not because it was the truth, but because it came from him, and their love at the time seemed unconquered too. He wondered too about her five years in carbonite, and he touched again the much folded letter in his inside tunic pocket. It was a letter from Medical HQ that had confirmed that Sul was with child, his child – a letter sent to their apartment too late for her to know. Hours earlier she had vanished from the universe, vanished without a trace. He had searched for her for years, wondering where she could be, wondering if she had birthed their child. Five years in carbonite! Perhaps now warmed his child still grew within her, unknown and unnoticed or perhaps it had died in-vitro, subsumed by the cold carbonite. As he stared at her, he yearned to join her, stand by her side again, but two things gave him pause. Her new rank mattered little to him, but the tall man stalking by her side, the one with the implants tattooing his face, seemed oddly possessive of her and at times their fingers brushed – it was clear that this Theron Shan, this ex-Republic spy was now important to Sul, was important in his wife’s new life. The idea that they could be intimate together set his teeth on edge but he did not blame her if she had succumbed, for she was passion personified and passion would always seek an outlet. In that aspect she was true Sith. However, it always sat oddly with him that Sul had always yearned and strove towards the Light. Countless times she had sheathed her weapon and turned aside instead of going for the killing blow – especially if there were civilians or children involved, or Malavai himself – when foolishly and dementedly he had betrayed her. Passion and compassion, and above all, forgiveness and mercy – all wrapped up in a beautiful if deadly package. She was truly an enigma. He had no chance against her, one look from those deep blue eyes and he was lost – it was no wonder that the ex-Republic spy was dogging her footsteps too. The other thing that gave Malavai pause – was his duty, duty to the new Sith Empress, and that above all kept him in the shadows watching still, cursing his weakness, desiring his wife, desiring a new life in this Alliance of hers, but knowing that duty trapped him still. -------------