Chapter Text
Kark. You knew that craft that just burst into the atmosphere. You really didn’t have time for this. The wound at your side still bled freely. You were hobbling as quickly as you could towards your own craft, which you were annoyed to see was still much further away than you’d like. You really did not have time for another one of Darth Maul’s spars. You had stopped calling them duels months ago, having fought with the Zabrak dozens of times over the course of two years. The first few had been life or death, without a doubt. You were surprised you had even made it out of those, but luckily the Force had seemed to be on your side and found multiple ways to save you. It felt a bit ridiculous, as the initial duels went on, as to why you were each pulled away from the fight. A few times it had been as simple as back up arriving on time, pushing the Sith away with a battleship shoved between the two of you. Another time the ground had crumbled under you, throwing you down several feet onto a ledge that was far enough below that Maul only glared down from the remaining cliff face and left you there. One time, which you remembered with some humor, he had had you backed up into a corner with a smug look on his face, only to be called away by his Master at the last moment. You still weren’t sure why he hadn’t finished the job, when your lightsaber had been kicked to the side and your leg injured enough that you wouldn’t be able to get to it before he did.
After that last real duel, the rest had been borderline friendly, as far as Sith standards go. Maul seemed to know what planets you were on on any given mission, and often pursued you for a quick bout. Before the match could weigh in either favor, he would disappear. You weren’t sure why it had been happening. But sometimes you even looked forward to the interactions. If anything, it was a real test of your skills. You hadn’t been a Jedi Knight for more than two years and you still felt wildly incapable compared to the others that you battled alongside. Battling Maul made you feel... confident. If only in your own grasp of the Force and your skills with your lightsaber. You weren’t lacking in skill. You just didn’t feel like you belonged alongside the likes of the Masters that taught you. Regardless of their reassurances that you would grow confident in your abilities with practice. You were not much of a negotiator, or a tactician. You knew how to fight and the Force flowed through you like it was the air in your lungs, the blood in your veins. You knew the Force, and the Force knew you. It hadn’t let you down before.
Although. Right now you were questioning its choices. Why would Maul come now? To this backwater planet where an old Jedi Temple had lay in ruins, your only mission an explorative one. Unfortunately, you had met a large group of locals who had claimed the temple as their own. You hadn’t fought them at all, you actually attempted to communicate that you just wanted to see something and then you’d be on your way. It didn’t seem to translate judging by the way they all raised their weapons and chased you out. You had actually made it out just fine from them, until some idiot with an electro staff came out of nowhere and slammed you in the ribs. A bounty hunter, by the looks of him. Probably here on the same rumor the Jedi were here for. Something valuable was still hidden in that Temple. You would have taken the time to fight the man, but your thoughts turned to the locals. The bounty hunter would not show them any mercy if his goal was a big pay day. You led the mercenary on a wild bantha chase in the surrounding forests, knocking into branches as you went, leaving an obvious trail but staying far head enough that it didn’t matter. He shot you once with a blaster, which landed solidly in your calf. It slowed you down, but you got him away from the ruins and shoved him into a swamp. He had to deal with the local wildlife at that point, giving you plenty of time to get back to your ship.
Or so you thought, now that Darth Maul was on his way. You considered heading back to the locals only for a moment, fearing that the man would only think they were in his way and expendable. You pulled your hand away from your side. The electro staff had done you dirty, ripping at the thin skin covering your ribs. It looked worse than it was, but you had been running with the wound for at least three standard hours now. You were exhausted. Your leg ached. You didn’t have time to deal with this. You especially didn’t have time to deal with him. Your ship was still too far away. Faintly, you could hear the landing gears engaging from Maul’s ship. Kark. He was landing far too close for your liking. Your ship was still too far away for you to make it in time, without running into the Sith Lord first. You glanced around quickly, attempting to find some place to hide and quiet your Force signature. There wasn’t much to work with. You had parked your ship in a clearing, so the closer you got to it, the more exposed you were. You could turn back now and deal with the locals, but in this condition they would easily overtake you. You didn’t think they would actually harm you, just run you off and then they’d have to deal with Maul which was not an option. You could turn back to where you left that bounty hunter, but that was another battle you didn’t have time for. Kriff. Now what.
You didn’t get a chance to make much of a decision as you spotted a dark figure approaching rapidly. You muttered a curse and darted off, parallel to your ship in the hopes of circling back around if you were able to lose Maul in the forest. With any luck you could deal with two problems at once. Leading Maul to that bounty hunter would be enough of a distraction for them both for you to head back to your ship and take off. If you didn’t bleed out first. You kept pushing your pain away mentally, which helped in the short term, it would make things worse when you finally got medical attention. But it was better than dying for now. You ignored the warm trickle of blood that went down your side, in favor of booking it through the trees and brush.
You suddenly heard a shout behind you, Maul had spotted you. Kriff. This wasn’t ideal. You weren’t as deep into the woods as you needed to be to double back on your trail and send him astray. The shout distracted you enough that a rather loopy tree root grabbed your boot unexpectedly and you face planted into the dirt, hard. Dank ferrik. This day was going right to Hoth in a Tauntaun. You shoved your hands into the mud to lift yourself but you could already hear Maul’s footfalls approaching. You needed to make a stand and hope for the best. You took three painful breaths and shoved yourself up, twirling around just in time to bring your lightsaber up, blocking the angry red blade that swung down at you.
“What are you doing here?” Maul glared at you with bared teeth, his yellow eyes blazing.
“I could ask you the same.” You pushed out a kick, forcing him to take a few steps back. You moved back as well, giving yourself some space to figure something out while you distracted the Sith with questions.
“What are you looking for here, Maul?” You slowly began moving to the side, encouraging him to circle as well. He took the bait, it was so easy to get him monologuing.
“That’s none of your concern, Jedi.” He said it with a snarl, but honestly at this point it didn’t scare you anymore.
“Could it be a certain Jedi artifact? A prized Force item?” His eyes darted to the side, and you knew you had caught him. You let out a pained chuckle. “That’s what I thought.”
The implication that you already had the item would have worked if you hadn’t needed to shake your head to clear your vision. Blackness kept creeping into your periphery, which you knew meant you didn’t have much time to make a run for it before you collapsed. The energy you pulled from the Force only lasted so long until you were too exhausted to maintain it. Maul seemed to catch on that something was wrong. He raised a tattooed brow, his eyes looking you up and down as he assessed what he could of you through the mud coating your body. He paused his steps, his eyes piercing.
“You don’t have it.” He extinguished his saber, clipping it to his belt. You blinked rapidly. Why had he done that? This didn’t make sense. Normally he would attempt to get the answers out of you in a fight. It surprised you enough that you extinguished your own saber, swaying slightly as you tried several times to clip it to your own belt.
Your vision was starting to darken faster than you could blink it away. Before you realized what was happening the world was tilting, your body seemingly falling in slow motion to the muddy terrain again. Quicker than you could have imagined, strong arms grabbed you and held you up.
“What happened?” Maul’s voice was closer than it had ever been to you, and softer than you had ever heard him. He tilted you so that you could face him. You wished your vision would clear up enough so you could actually see his face.
“It’s nothing.” You didn’t want him to find the temple, and possibly hurt the locals. They didn’t deserve it. Whatever he wanted with the artifact could wait. He needed a Jedi to open up the temple anyway, it wouldn’t work for him. Strong fingers gripped your chin, tilting you so you were facing him directly. Something pushed through you, the Force but stranger than how it normally felt to you. Some of the exhaustion ebbed away and you could see him clearly.
“I’m not going to ask again.” Maul whispered darkly, clearly implying that he would find out for himself if you didn’t tell him. You swallowed, suddenly remembering that he most likely wouldn’t hesitate to invade your mind if he wanted to. Your mouth was dryer than expected.
“B- Bounty hunter. Electro staff. Got me in the ribs.” He removed his hand from your chin, trailing it lightly at your side and moving your torn robes out of the way so that he could inspect the wound. His eyes narrowed.
“How long have you been running?” He demanded, his voice with an unexpected steely edge.
“Three..? Four hours?”
He met your eyes again. There was something in his expression that you hadn’t seen before, and you wished you weren’t so kriffing exhausted so that you could figure it out. Whatever boost of energy he had sent toward you was waning already. He crouched, adjusting you slightly, before standing up again with you in his arms.
“What—-“
“Be quiet.”
Your jaw snapped shut with a click. Mostly out of surprise. Maul made his way carefully out of the denser part of the forest that you had led him through. He made sure not to bump you into any of the branches of the surrounding trees, even though there had been plenty of times where he had been smacked with them himself. Before you realized it you were back to the clearing where you had left your ship. He had landed his own next to yours. You strained your neck muscles to look up at him again in confusion, and he met your gaze.
“Sleep.”
And you did.
——
You jolted awake, inhaling deeply, only remembering that you had been fighting Maul and your adrenaline skyrocketed. Looking around, you didn’t recognize the ship you were in. It was dimly lit and you were on the only cot available that you could see. You took a moment to take a few deep breaths, hoping to calm yourself down and reach out with your awareness. It took several moments, but you finally had a grasp on the Force around you and found that you were the only one you could detect in the immediate vicinity. That calmed you down. Wherever you were, Maul currently wasn’t a threat. But, your brows scrunched together as you tried to piece together where you were. You remembered the Sith... carrying you? That couldn’t be right. He could be merciful with you at times, but he had never been outright kind. He must have realized that he needed you for the temple and decided to keep you alive for now.
Your hand felt down your side, and you were surprised to find that your ribs had been wrapped in bandages, with a few bacta patches held down in the wrappings on top of your wound. Why would he waste bacta on you? You checked the blast burn on your leg, to find that that had also been cleaned and wrapped. Well this was... unexpected. You reached out within the Force again, half tempted to make a run for your ship and make your escape. For some reason, the temptation to wait for Maul and ask him what was going on pulled enough at you that you were actually considering staying on, what you could only assume was, his ship.
You didn’t have time to make your choice, as you felt the Sith's presence approaching. His own existence within the Force reached for you, and you met it with a mentally solid wall. He was probably just seeing if you were still there, but you didn’t want to take any chances. You felt what you imagined to be his hand pull away from the mental wall, and back to his own person. The hydraulics of the ship's ramp hissed, lowering the stairs as your heart raced at the prospect of being on Maul’s ship while the man was on it himself. You had never even dreamed of breaking into his ship when you had had plenty of chances in the past. Kriff. What were you supposed to do? You noticed now that you weren’t even in your robes, just your undergarments due to where the injuries had been so that he could take care of them. You didn’t even have the energy to process Maul actually caring for your wounds.
Maul paused at the opening to the room you were in, a hand placed lightly on the door frame, as if hesitant to approach.
“He is no longer a problem.”
Your brain wildly went through your last interaction to make sense of this before you remembered: the bounty hunter. Oh. You knew better than to ask him any further questions. You were just glad he didn’t go after the people in the temple, actually wait did he go near—-
“I did not go near the... people at your temple.” His voice was even and calm as he correctly read your annoyed facial expression. “I did not look into your mind, you are practically shouting at me.” He tapped his temple to indicate that he meant mentally.
“Thank you, I think.”
Maul nodded and finally entered the room— his room. Oh, kriff. You were in his bedroom. How were you ever going to explain this if you made it out of here alive? Maul’s expression twitched slightly and you finally remembered to make the effort to prevent yourself from projecting. You weren’t even sure why you were being so loud, considering that this was something you had had a control on since you were a Padawan. Normally, you had a durasteel defense in his presence. He sat at the edge of the cot, and you could feel your panic rising again as you clamped down on your durasteel mental walls.
“Please. Calm yourself. I promise you that I will do you no harm while we are on this planet or in my ship.” You met his gaze with a doubtful expression. What good was the word of a man who had tried to kill you so many times?
“Am I free to go?” The Sith sighed, clearly annoyed that you didn’t understand the situation yet.
“You are not my prisoner, but I doubt that you’ll be able to walk just yet.” He pointed toward the injury on your leg. While it was feeling better than before, you knew you had pulled too much from the Force earlier and wouldn’t be able to use it until you had completely rested. Your hands gripped at your shorts in discomfort.
“Where are my clothes?” Maul nodded towards a pile of cloth on a side table that turned out to be your destroyed robes. Between the blaster fire, electro staff, branches from the forest, and Maker knows what else they had already been a disaster. You could also tell that there were some areas that had been cut, you glanced up at him when your hands held up an obvious gash in the cloth that has now made your robes impossible to wear again. The Sith shrugged one shoulder.
“It was the fastest way to get to your injuries.”
“Ah... I don’t have any clothing then.” There was a beat of silence that passed between the two of you as Maul appeared to realize he destroyed your only clothing. He stood and paused for a moment, clearly debating something, before taking off his outer most robe and holding it out to you. You blinked stupidly at it for a beat before taking it.
“Get some rest.” Maul left without another word, allowing you to put his robe on without his gaze on you. His robe. It was still warm, you noticed as you tied it around your body. You pushed a funny feeling away from yourself, it reminded you oddly of enjoyment which you did not think was appropriate in this moment. You quickly got into the bed again, it’s thin sheet pulled back up over you.
What in Makers name was going on?
——
Somehow, you did end up sleeping for a while. You weren’t sure how much time had passed, your communicator was nowhere to be found. You were slightly worried that he had destroyed it but for some reason you had a feeling that he did not. You stretched your aching muscles, adjusting on the cot to sit properly so that you could meditate. You needed to ease the strain on your connection to the Force, and meditating was the best way to do so. It was easy to fall into a light trance, the routine having been built up every day for just over two decades. You felt for your deep connection to the Force, the one that flowed through you the most. It felt tired, and strained. You gave it extra attention, soothing it back to normal. How you imagined the Force always felt best as a more materialistic feeling, like you were rubbing sore muscles or putting a salve on to a burn. It seemed to help guide you as you reaffirmed those connections to the Force back to the Light. It was something you would do so naturally now that when everything felt right again, you let your mind wander.
Maul was still nearby. This shouldn’t have surprised you, considering that you were on his ship. But he seemed to be confusing you at every turn today. You reached out tentatively, mostly wanting to alert him of your wakefulness so he wasn’t surprised when you left the ship. You pulled your touch from his metaphorical shoulder the moment he became aware of it and opened your eyes. He had left the ramp open, clearly pushing the confirmation that he did not hold you as his prisoner. You guessed it was time to just walk out and deal with whatever else today held in store for you. Your wounds ached a bit, but not nearly as bad as things could have been if Maul had not tended to them. That fact still bounced around in your brain, attempting to make any sense of it.
The sun on this planet had just started to set as you made your way down the ramp, and you held an arm up to block the glare from your eyes. The black arm of the robe you wore, his robe, entered your vision and you paused. You had forgotten you were wearing them. They were soft, and well worn. You swallowed before continuing down the ramp and into the grassy field. Luckily, your ship was still there. It had crossed your mind that the Sith made no promises of keeping your ship safe, even if he had claimed not to harm you while on the planet. You still weren’t sure you could trust the man at his word. He sat in the grass with his back towards you. The slow rise and fall of his chest indicated that he must have been meditating as well when you had reached out to him. The gesture was not lost on you that he was leaving himself exposed, having allowed you to keep you lightsaber and casually keeping his back to you.
“We will be going back to the temple, and getting that artifact.” Maul turned slightly, his yellow eyes bright against his tattooed skin. “You will open the path for me.”
“What makes you think that?” You asked, defiant as ever. He blinked once, looking up at you as the rays of the sun washed his face in a golden light, and turned to regard you fully.
“You will.” He stood from his seated position, calling his lightsaber up to his palm from the ground. “Let’s go.”
He walked in the direct of the temple, not once looking back to see if you had followed. He knew you would. You couldn’t help yourself. How did he expect you to open the path into the temple by yourself? Like most of the more ancient temples, this one required two Jedi, typically a Master and Apprentice, together to open the way. You had only come to this planet to see if the temple still existed, and if possible retrieve the artificial. The Council knew very well that if it were still intact you’d be calling immediately for assistance. They were expecting it. They even had several Knights and a few Masters in the same system waiting to fly over.
Getting near the temple was easier this time around, with Maul as an extra look out, it was easy to avoid the patrols that the villagers had started since your arrival. They must have met the bounty hunter as well before Maul had ... dealt with him, since they seemed particularly on edge. The sun set fully as they approached the walkways to the chamber below ground. None of the people had come this far around, more concerned with their main settlement in the temples upper levels and gardens. Once you opened the door, if you could open the door alone, they would be alerted to your presence. Making it much harder to escape. But, that would be a problem for later. For now, your thoughts filled with your confused questions as you followed silently behind Maul. Why exactly did he expect you to follow his every command, and why the kriff were you listening? It didn’t feel like he had any sort of mind control over you, you just ... trusted him. Trust was perhaps too strong of a word. You knew him well enough to know his typical behavior was not one to betray your agreement at this moment.
The path down to the inner parts of the temple was beautiful. The planets native plant species had crawled through the stone surfaces, placing vines along the ancient cracked stone walls. Flowers bloomed in various spots, with a light amount of moss coating each stone. You ran your hand lightly against the wall, admiring the natural progression of life taking over and bringing the building back to nature. The Force was peaceful here. No wonder the locals wanted to make this their home. You already felt stronger than before, the energy surrounding you seemingly giving you a boost. Your eyes trailed back to the figure in front of you, standing out amongst the shades of green and brown with his dark clothing and red skin. Even though he didn’t match the color of the world around him, Maul seemed to fit in here as much as you did. You pondered for a moment what that could mean, before focusing back on the crumbling walkway.
“Here.” Maul paused in front of a large door, with an intricate swirl carved into it. The design swirled out from the center of a large circular door and made a trail of swirling paths towards two worn stones embedded in the wall on either side of it. This must be how you’d open it. You hand automatically reached for the stone on the right, you could see the outline from handprints over the centuries that had worn into it. You pulled away a moment before you actually touched the stone, realizing what you had been doing and looking down slightly embarrassed. You guessed he was right after all, you would open the way without much convincing. You looked over at Maul, attempting to school your face into a neutral expression.
A small smile tugged at his lips, you couldn’t remember ever seeing him smile without looking smug before. He placed his left hand to the stone on his side, looking at you expectantly. You doubted this would work for him, since he wasn’t a Jedi. You hesitate only for a moment before placing your right hand onto your stone. The moment your skin connected with the surface, the Force flooded into you. It was like it had always been waiting for you, it filled you completely. A calming energy that brought a smile to your face.
You turned to see how Maul was handling this flooding of Light, and found him already looking at you. He held his other hand out expectantly, the request for your own clear in his eyes. You reached out slowly, pressing your palm against his hesitantly. His fingers pushed between your own and interlaced them. Instantly you felt power rush through your arm, the connection the doorway had requested made. You could see bright auras around both of your bodies. Maul’s burned hot and bright, like yellow fire from his core spreading out to all of his limbs. Looking down at yourself you saw a deep, ocean blue at your stomach. The blue paled in color as it reached your arms but it was still strong. Your eyes drifted toward your laced fingers, surprised to see that his fiery yellow and your cool blue blending into a vibrant green in both of your hands. Thin lines of yellow slowly etched their way down your arm, while your own blue seemed to flow into his.
You blinked slightly at this, but were too caught up in the Force swirling through you to really put a pin into any feeling of concern over it. Your focus turned back toward the doorway, and you could feel it asking you to push it open. It was easy with the immense amount of power that you were drawing from. The building itself had enough that you were almost sure you could have done this alone, but Maul’s own energy made it so much easier. The door pulled itself apart and into the walls on either side easily, but the building shook slightly. That would not go unnoticed. The connection to the temple pulled away, and your hand dropped from the stone in front of you. You noticed after a moment that your hand was still laced with Maul’s own, and pulled away slightly. He let you go, and for some reason you mourned the loss of the connection. Your body shivered slightly, the feeling of excess energy still in your veins.
“Let’s go.” You stepped through the doorway, and the room took your breath away. It was a large dome adorn with carvings that covered it completely. You could tell this room was made for movement, and most likely had more intricate designs hidden behind several of the layers as some of the walls had holes cut into them to help with the movement of the walls themselves. You touched the rough stone in adoration. The artwork was beautiful. Most of it had been worn away with time so none of the colors or stonework shined as brightly as you knew they would have when they were made. Large circles with rays extending out of them which you knew must have been in bright gold ages ago.
You rubbed the pad of your finger gently at a smooth tile in a mosaic, removing the layer of dirt built up upon it and revealing a white tile. This temple reminded you of ones you had visited with your Master when you were just a Padawan. Mace Windu had taken you to many of the Jedi’s temples, teaching you their history and significance to the Order. As well as their presence in the Force. This temple felt older than any of the others you had been to, but you could tell that it was the same design. You turned to look at the center of the room and found a slightly raised platform, in front of which was a small podium that no doubt held the artifact that you were searching for.
You had walked halfway across the room toward the platform before you realized Maul had not followed you inside. His gaze slowly made its way across the room, taking in the artwork that covered the dome before finally landing on you. You looked at him quizzically before pointing to the platform, where Mace had always meditated and opened the podium to reveal what artifacts were stored at each temple. Maul shook his head before looking down the hallway again. You could hear the locals approaching. His hand reached for his lightsaber as your heart leapt into your throat.
“Don’t!” You didn’t mean to throw your hands up so dramatically, nor did you mean to still his arm in place with the Force. He simply leveled you with a look, clearly telling you to release him with a slight squint of his eyes.
“Please. Don’t hurt them.” You waited a beat before releasing his arm, he flexed the fingers of his right hand, looking at them with an odd expression on his face before meeting your eyes again.
“Get what we came for.” He made no move to grab his lightsaber again, but backed away from the entrance so that he had a better view down the hall. You gulped uncomfortably. You had never actually opened one of these yourself, Mace knew how much you enjoyed the artwork and always let you watch it move as he focused his energy to rotate the walls in the correct sequence to open the podium.
You walked to the small platform, brushing some dust away from it before stepping up. Some heat rushed to your face for a moment, a small amount of possible embarrassment if you couldn’t actually make this work. Especially after everything Maul had done to ensure that you made it this far. How would he react if he found out you weren’t as experienced as he thought you were? You squashed the feeling down and you sat to meditate. You weren’t entirely sure what you needed to do, but somehow you thought the temple may guide you through it as it had with the doorway. You sucked in a deep breath and exhaled, clearing out the air from your lungs and correcting your posture so that you could empty your mind.
“I am one with the Force, the Force is one with me.” You muttered under your breath, hoping that Maul would not hear the mantra you repeated to focus yourself when you were stressed. You closed your eyes and reached out around you. Just as you thought, the temple reached back with metaphorically open arms. Was it really as simple as a connection? Loud scraping sounds around you confirmed that yes, it really was. You opened your eyes a small amount to marvel at the stone that had been unseen for who knows how long. Many parts still held their colorful tiles and paint, bringing a smile to your face. You closed your eyes again and held on to your thread of connection with the temple, waiting patiently as the room settled into its new position. You could hear the mechanism in the podium in front of you start to creak open. You took another deep breath, willing yourself the patience to finish the ritual before seeking out the artifact.
It didn’t take long. The walls settled with a thump and an echo, loud enough that if the locals hadn’t heard you opening the door before, they certainly heard you now. You stood quickly, looking into the new opening of the podium. The artifact was a small, round pendant on a fine chain. You didn’t have time to think about what it could be, you just slipped it over your head and checked the crevices of its hiding place to see if anything else was in there. The pendant was its only occupant. You looked up at the new and beautiful art in front of you, bright colors shining in the thin strips of sunlight that came through the openings in the dome. You smiled before turning and jogging out.
Maul was waiting by the door, his arm outstretched to his side but his blazing yellow eyes focused on you. Or more specifically, the artifact around your neck. As you entered the hall you saw dozens of the locals frozen in place. Maul had done as you asked, for now. Before he could think to use them to his advantage and bargain their lives for the pendent, you jogged down the hall.
“Let’s go!” You shouted back to him over your shoulder. Shockingly, he followed. You passed by the people, as still as statues, without meeting their eyes. You felt slightly ashamed at breaking into the place they called home, even if it was part of your own people’s culture. As soon as you got toward the outskirts of the settlement, you paused, waiting for Maul to catch up with you. His focus was still behind him, keeping the people in their place as you both made your escape.
“Let them go. They won’t bother us this far out.” Maul nodded once and lowered his hand. You worried for only a moment that he had killed them, before you saw several confused forms walking out of the tunnel you had emerged from just a moment ago. You smiled brightly at the Sith before walking back toward your ships.
The path back was... awkward. You had both reached the moment when his promise to leave you unharmed was reaching its end. Soon you would be leaving the planet, and he had only ensured your safety on its surface and in his ship. You were certainly not going to go with him in his ship, but you were also now realizing that he wanted this artifact as well and you seriously doubted he would just let you walk away with it. Your anxious thoughts crowded you until you had finally reached your ship.
You stopped and turned to face him. You were about to question him before you realized he had not stopped walking, and was now so close that if you breathed in too deeply you would be touching him. His hand reached up for the pendent, which you immediately grabbed with your own hand, covering it completely.
“I can’t let you have this and you promised not to harm me while we are here.” You had intended to sound confident, but it mostly came out as a panicked rambling. His hand paused and changed directions, choosing to grip your jaw firmly and tilt your face up to his.
“So I did.” The intensity of his eyes on you sent a chill through your body. You knew very well what he was capable of, but you also hoped that he would be a man of his word. His thumb traced along your jawline before trailing it down your throat. Where his hand had held you felt hot, like he had burned you. His finger pulled at the fabric of his own robe around your form. There was something in his expression that said he wanted to say something, but you weren’t sure what. He sighed and rubbed the fabric between his fingers.
“Don’t lose this.” His hand dropped away and he walked up to his ship, the ramp already meeting him so he could immediately board. He did not turn around or give any indication of a farewell. He just closed the ramp and took off into the atmosphere, leaving you alone and confused.
You were filled with panic for a moment, realizing you still did not have your comm. you hurriedly opened your ship's ramp and rushed toward the cockpit. On top of the counsel you found your communicator, still in one piece, waiting for you. You were relieved, and slightly concerned that he had been in your ship. You clipped it back onto your arm and dialed out to the Council.
“I have the artifact.”