About To Crash, Chapter 1

"No," Carth said firmly, shaking his head. The woman in front of him smiled, her blue eyes sparkling with that devilish glint he had come to know all too well.

"Yes," she said.

"Dammit woman-"

"You don't want to blow our cover, do you?" she said sweetly. Carth knew he had lost.

He could almost feel her triumphant gaze on his back when he turned around and walked away to get her what she wanted. Of all the things he had gone through during this mission, this had got to be the worst one. He never would have thought this crazy mission to find the Star Maps would eventually lead to him having to pretend to be a slave to a former smuggler now studying at the Sith academy on Korriban, but Deidranna had made it very clear that if he was to step foot on the planet's surface, he had better act his role. The woman seemed to thoroughly enjoy the situation.

And so it was that he was here, inside the enemy's training facility in the middle of the night, walking through the silent corridors just so she could have a glass of water. He swore that once they got out of this blasted planet, he would put the woman over his knee and teach her a lesson. Of course, he was pretty sure she would not treat that as a bad thing.

He smiled and it felt good. It was a strange feeling to have in a place like this, but he felt it nevertheless. It had been a long time since the last time he had feelings like this towards a woman. For the first time in years, he had started to think his life might have a purpose beyond revenge. That felt good too.

Once Carth reached the refresher all the way at the other side of the academy, he poured his 'Master' a glass of water and then started heading back, his mind all the while playing with his earlier idea of teaching her a lesson. In hindsight, that was probably a mistake. Had he paid more attention to where he was walking, instead of humoring himself by thinking about the things Deidranna could do and a blaster could not, he most likely would not have gotten lost.

Blasted Sith and their maze-like academy. He stopped, glancing around. It seemed that anywhere he looked, the corridors continued endlessly, each one looking exactly like the last one. Deciding the statue on his right looked somewhat familiar (though most likely only because the academy was filled with statues just like it), he chose to check that hallway first. Deidranna's room was the last one in its corridor, so he figured finding her room could not be that hard. He was wrong. The first four corridors were wrong ones. The fifth one was too, but unlike in the other corridors Carth had examined, the occupant of the last room in this one was actually awake.

"You take a wrong turn somewhere?" the Sith snapped, not turning to look away from the datapad she was studying.

Carth stiffened, staring at the figure in front of him for what felt like hours, but couldn't have been more than a few seconds. It had been four years since he had last heard that voice, but he would have recognized it anywhere.

"Morgana?"

Now, the woman did turn to look at him. She lowered her black hood, revealing a face Carth had seen in his dreams repeatedly over the last four years. At first glance, she looked exactly as she had four years ago, but after a closer look, she managed to look completely different. Her skin was no longer the creamy white he remembered it to be -- instead it was a sickly color of grey, with creases and visible veins traveling across her face. She had the same curly, fair hair, and her eyes were still the exact color of Telosian oceans, but there was a coldness in her stare that had not been there before -- looking at her almost felt like looking at the business end of a blaster.

"Oh, lovely," Morgana said, "my beloved husband. Who'd have thought our paths would cross after all these years?"

Carth continued staring at her, still squeezing the glass of water in his hand as if it held the meaning of all life in it. Millions of thoughts and questions ran through his mind, but each and every one of them seemed to escape before he could find actual words for any of them.

"It's really you!" He finally blurted out rather stupidly.

"Really who?" Deidranna's voice asked from behind him. She walked next to him and snatched the glass from his hands. "You know, I've been waiting for this water for ages. I was starting to get worried over you, too. Figures I'd find you chit chatting with some Sith bitch."

Suddenly, Morgana burst out laughing. "Is this who you're sleeping with now?" She asked, her voice beyond amused. "A curious choice, indeed."

"What? I- no, Gana- what?"

"Oh please, like it takes Force powers to read a man," Morgana said, rolling her eyes.

"Gana?" Deidranna asked, her face turning pale, "Gana as in Morgana? This is your wife?"

Carth didn't bother to answer. In fact, he barely registered Deidranna's presence. "Gana, I thought you were dead! How- I looked for you, I swear I looked everywhere!"

"Touch me, Carth, and I'll kill you," Morgana snarled as Carth took a step closer to her. He stopped, staring at his wife with a look of complete and utter disbelief on his face.

"I strongly advice against that," Deidranna said calmly. Carth shook his head to clear his mind, his gaze darting back and forth between the two women a few times, until it finally settled back on Morgana.

"Gana how- why are you here?" He asked, only now noticing the traditional Sith attire she was wearing.

Morgana snorted. "Why don't you tell me why you are here? I am sure Master Uthar would be interested in knowing what kind of company he has present here."

"You're with the Sith?" Carth asked. It was a stupid question and he knew it, but the idea of his wife being the enemy he had been fighting for years was not something he could comprehend.

"Really, honey," Morgana said mockingly, "I never would have married you in the first place if you truly were that inane."

"But- but the Sith destroyed Telos. They killed Dustil!"

"You think I don't know that?" Morgana spat the words out bitterly. "Telos was nothing but a test to assure my loyalty. I was the one who gave the order, not Malak."

"No," Carth said stubbornly, refusing to believe what he heard. Morgana paid no attention to his interruption.

"Sacrificing my son was a small price to pay for the power I now wield."

"No, I don't believe you. The Gana I knew would never-"

"You never knew me, Carth. You were never even there for me. Unlike Saul."

"Please don't say that, Gana." His eyes were beginning to fill with tears as the realization that this was reality and not just some really fracked up dream slowly started making its way to his mind. His pained look only seemed to provoke Morgana to torment him further.

"Saul was there to comfort me when you were not," she continued mercilessly, her eyes sparkling with wicked amusement. "He was there to give me the child I had always wanted."

"Gana, stop!" Carth pleaded. "You're lying. This isn't who you are -- The Sith, they've brainwashed you! Please, Gana, I love you."

Her expression softened and for a while, she actually looked like the woman he had married. He stood still as she walked up to him and gently ran her fingers through his hair. She lifted herself to stand on her toes to whisper something in his ear.

"I really don't care," she whispered with the exact same tone she had used to tell him how much she loved him.

Then everything happened fast. He heard a sharp hiss and felt a burning pain run through his side, but before he even had time to realize Morgana had just stabbed him with a lightsaber, he saw her flying backwards through the air and towards the wall with incredible speed. He winced as he heard the sound of bones crushing and watched her slide down to the floor.

"You will not hurt him," it was Deidranna's voice. Carth had completely forgotten she was even there. She had remained on the background, either not wanting to intrude a private moment or, more likely, too shocked to actually do anything. Apparently watching Carth get stabbed by a lightsaber had snapped her out of it. She drew out her weapon, stepping closer to Morgana's body.

"Carth," Morgana rasped, her voice barely a whisper. "I must... tell you something."

"De, no!" Carth shouted when he realized his wife had survived the collision. Deidranna stopped, though clearly unwillingly. Morgana begged him to come closer, and against his better judgement, Carth did so, biting through his lip to withstand the pain of his wound. He gathered her broken body on his arms and listened as she whispered her dying words to him.

"You didn't know, did you?" She finally coughed, loud enough for even Deidranna to hear. She somehow even managed a faint laugh, even though blood was dribbling from her mouth. "Remember my dying words... remember them... whenever you look at her."

With that, life escaped her body, a sadistic smile frozen on her lips even in death.

A/N: I generally don't like the idea of writing Morgana to be a complete bitch, but once I got this AU idea, I simply could not resist writing it down. Also I shamelessly stole the title 'About To Crash' from a song by Dream Theater, because I suck at good titles.