Ask The Things We Do For Love

News about the Sith’s failure on Ithor reached him before it was dispersed across the rest of the Order. He could tweak the messaging, but the ultimate theme was the same - Ithor was a failed attempt on the Jedi. Sith Master Karys was captured. The Pureblood had spent hours agonizing over the news, his mind a whirlwind of emotions and thoughts.

Instead of organizing an infiltration mission or counterattack, Azar disguised himself and arrived on Ithor. As a sole individual, he could make his way discreetly past most checks. At most he could visit Karys, but he wasn’t stupid enough to attempt an all out breakout with so many Jedi in the area. He may have been a Sith Lord, but he wasn’t the self sacrificing type for an outcome that could see them both still killed. He had to be smarter than that.

Karys was being held in a medical bay. Enough time had passed where his worst injuries were healed, but he was left for monitoring. He would look up to see a medical worker step into the room that appeared Zeltron. The gaze of this aide fixed on him for a few moments before the door shut behind her. The worker took a swig of something from a bottle and her appearance shifted to something Karys knew very well.

Azar said nothing at first, staring at his husband on a firmly Jedi planet. He was the same beautiful man Karys fell in love with years ago with kohl-lined eyes, beautifully blue-polished nails and the bearing of a king. It was difficult to discern what was going through his mind at that moment, but he spoke first.

“Karys,” Azar said simply, letting the word roll off his tongue. They had been apart for weeks, almost months, but it felt as if they never parted when they were in that room together.

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Azar stared at his husband, but he didn’t reach out to grasp the proffered cybernetic hand. Instead the Pureblood stood there, calmly meeting those yellow eyes that mirrored his own. There was a moment of silence as Azar mulled over the situation, his face devoid of any obvious emotion.

Cyutadakyr was so far from Azar’s mind it was laughable. No, none of that mattered. The Pureblood’s eyes narrowed as he gazed at Karys, “The shame is mine,” He said, “To have married what I thought was a grown man, but is nothing more than an impetuous child,” Azar said calmly, “I failed to train you properly. I let my emotions govern me. Through the years you have displayed no initiative of your own, no campaigns you hatched that didn’t have the foundations laid down by me. Nothing but chasing my grand designs like a little puppy - the same I could expect from any lower ranked Sith but not from an equal partner,” Azar wouldn’t let Karys speak. If he tried to interject, the Pureblood would coil the Force around his neck to silence him. Karys had laid out all his rebuttals on Korriban, that wasn’t going to happen here.

It was Azar’s turn to talk.

“I let my love for you blind me to your failures..to your inaction,” He explained, his thoughts going to Ziost that remained out of his control. It didn't matter if Karys had visited since, the planet was still not taken over. Murzana had happened a long way back and huge progress was made on Dromund Kaas. But Ziost?, “Until you started to overstep,” Azar said icily, “I could forgive what happened on Murzana, but to think that you purposely tried to shift the dynamics of my relationships..that you thought you could simply fuck your way into gaining the obedience of men I love,” Azar’s lips curled towards a snarl, “You believe yourself invincible because you are my husband, and in many ways you are.”

He glared at Karys, “But that just means I decide what happens when you repeatedly disrespect me.”

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The more Karys spoke, the more Azar realized how delusional the man was. Sith were known to only consider their own perspective and pursue their selfish desires, but when it tread over Azar’s relationships, it was a line not even Karys was allowed to cross. As Karys listed off all his reasons for propositioning Vossari, there was a common theme - the word I. Karys wanted peace. Karys wanted to stop being jealous. Karys hadn’t even, for one second, ventured to consider how Vossari felt, hadn’t taken the time to cultivate any kind of romantic relationship - he went right for the physical to redefine roles. It was only a few steps below outright assault on Azar’s partner. And to purposely exclude Trael? And to not even approach Azar about any of this in the first place? None of that could be forgiven.

And what conclusion did Karys draw from it? Leaning into hatred and spite and to what end? Half baked assaults on planets? Retaliation against Vossari? Continued pointless attacks on Trodai? By the time Karys finished speaking, Azar was far more disappointed as he stared at the pathetic excuse of a being across from him. When had Karys lost his sense of identity to this degree? When had he turned into a hollowed out shell with no substance? Where was that drive to change and do better, where was that spirit Azar first came to love? Karys was no different now than one of the abominations crafted by Raze’s forgers. Consumed by hate and using it to power the engines of a machine that would get trampled as easily as Raze had when he grew too cocky.

Azar was a different kind of Sith. He was patient and calculating. Everything Karys uttered right then confirmed the very thing Karys despised being called - a liability. Azar knew what would happen to Karys - the Jedi would kill him or strip him of the Force. They knew it was a punishment worse than death to a Sith, even moreso to a Pureblood. It was something non-Pureblood threw around so easily, just as Tempest had with Nevizkas.

“Because you are lesser,” Azar said firmly as he looked at Karys. There was no love in his eye, no emotion or quake in his voice. At the end of the day, Azar Kressh was Sith. He was a Sith Lord. He was a King. He did not suffer insolence and Karys had abused his position as Azar’s husband to be nothing but.

“I will find you in the Force one day when we are liberated from the chains of our mortal burdens,” He said calmly as the Force began to surround Karys. He would begin to feel his life energy being siphoned away, gently tugged away from his very core. Azar was consuming him, feasting upon him, using Karys’ energy to empower his own. The Pureblood never broke eye contact, “A part of me will always love you. The part that knew you as Kare-bear, my Loth-kitten, my husband..” He said, the first traces of emotion seeping into his words, “But I will not allow you to unleash as a blight upon the galaxy that I intend to so meticulously design how I see fit.”

With that, the last traces of Karys’ energy would flood into Azar, leaving him empowered and with the last, dying essence of his husband lingering in his thoughts and body. It was only then, in his last moments, that Azar entwined their fingers. Because he knew he was catching a glimpse of the man he loved that was permanently buried beneath layers of bloodlust.

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