Still Much to Learn

[Hawkins Grime]

The boy ran towards him, landing one foot against Grime's thigh and pushed off that for leverage. Orar used the shoulder to get even more height on Grime before leaning into the following punch. Hawkins twisted awkwardly, at least as far as Orar could tell, and then suddenly a metal hand caught the incoming punch and the other hand held Orar by his leg. The boy braced for impact as he slammed into the ground, coughing and gasping for air.

Hawkins did not take a second glance at the boy squirming in the dust as he turned to face the small girl at the side of the training area.

"Averre?"

She nodded meekly. He could smell her fear from here.

"Let's go then. You can set them in while I speak with... Mandalore."

If he could smell the fear, he could feel her reluctance.

The two of them stepped off; Averre picked up a small crate of tools and other supplies. Orar remained on ground, cradling his chest.

=======

Mirshe and Averre fussed over the exoskeleton after the light saber "training" between De'Ville and Grime.

"How bad is it then?"

Mirshe gave Hawkins a sideways glance to quiet him. He smirked. He knew more than they just how bad it was. But he was still getting the hang of just how far the new exoskeleton would go. Given enough time, it could restore him to some state of normalcy. The standard of normalcy being his status quo of broken, fleshless, muscle tissue and shattered bones.

"Averre. Those stones and gems I brought back from Dxun. I want them set into my new body."

The girl stopped only for a moment to consider it and then nodded in a quick fashion before continuing to work.

=======

The knock came at the recently replaced door, metal against metal. He'd left her alone for the better part of a day so far. He knew her time was short; why waste it then?

"Oh, Master?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

De'Ville opened her eyes from her meditation, unfolding her legs and gesturing, the Force opening her door. "Come in, my apprentice." She was wearing a black sports bra and black shorts that were as form fitting as her top. Her right side was unbandaged, the still healing cuts there open to the air.

She stretched out a long leg, flexing her bare foot, and nodded her head, indicating he should come inside. "Sit. We will talk - unless you wish to...spar again?" Lilaena stretched behind her with her left arm and picked up a tube of bacta salve off the table. She carefully unscrewed it and began applying it to her side.

[Hawkins Grime]

Hawkins Grime entered the room with a grin that could peel the paint off the walls, had there been any.

"No, no, Master."

Grime enjoyed how they toyed with the titles. The emphasis on her part was more than obvious, and on his part, well, it just rolled off the tongue like broken glass laced in acid. He glanced towards her fresh wounds, the smile on his perfect face unwavering.

"Some of us still need our rest; however I do look forward to our next match. Dueling before was almost becoming boring compared to yesterday."

He entered the room and began to undo the straps to the cloak wrapped around his shoulders and the black and brown cloth fell about his arms, revealing the metal plates that made Grime's upper torso. The artificial flesh of his face ended just at the base of his neck where it became coiled muscles of steel that disappeared beneath a metal collar bone and chest plate. A bit awkwardly, just out of habit from his former exoskeleton, Hawkins sunk to his knees then lowered himself backwards until his back was against the wall and he could recline in a more natural position, his legs stretched out before him.

"I hope you don't mind if... my technician makes a few modifications while we talk? She should be here soon."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"That will not be a problem, providing she knows how to keep quiet." De'Ville dabbed the last cut with gel, and capped the tube. If she hadn't aggravated the injuries in the sparring match with Grime they would have healed by now.

She got to her feet and pulled a pair of grey sweats on over her shorts. "So. How is your pain today?"

[Hawkins Grime]

"Are you asking for another taste? Because it is quite ripe at the moment. That boy, Orar, is fast and without mercy. Although, you can tell he hasn't killed many men yet."

Grime turned his head to the door as Averre walked in, squinting her eyes in the shadows after coming in from outside. She noted Grime and meekly knelt beside him. Her small hands fidgeted with her small data pad, linking them to the interface of Hawkins' exoskeleton wirelessly. The metal plate on his shoulder began to open with a slight hiss, like a blooming flower, revealing the coiled, artificial muscles underneath. Grime's eyes followed Lilaena as if the girl wasn't even there.

"How is your pain then?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Her eyes flickered toward him. "I am more in control today. But then, emotional pain is different from physical pain. Of course, you have unhealthy amounts of both."

She sat down again, her right arm resting on the back of the chair to give the bacta a chance to absorb and dry. "Both can leave one vulnerable to attack, and both can be inflicted on others to one's advantage.

"And all emotion ring through the Force. You are growing skilled in reading emotions... sensations and ripples through the energy of a person. I can sense deception in another being through this method. And also it can be learned to project a different emotion to others than what you are actually experiencing."

The girl was small, quiet, and working deftly with Hawkins' exoskeleton. Not for the first time, Lilaena wondered what her story was. Who would willingly put up with him, especially if they were as afraid as this girl was?

[Hawkins Grime]

In more control today? Hawkins enjoyed the simple act of running his tongue along the inside of teeth as he thought that over for a moment. While he might have unhealthy amounts of both emotional and physical pain, Grime wondered what scabs covered her emotional scars having to do with those two individuals he had just glanced from their fight the other day.

Averre bit her lip in concentration, trying to keep her eyes on her work and keep her mind out of their business. She knew that Grime was nothing short of a horrid monster and that De'Ville, being some kind of mentor figure, couldn't be much better... But back to the work at hand. With her hands, she pried her way past the synthetic muscles until she reached the soft membrane underneath. She withdrew one hand, slick in blueish fluid from the exoskeleton, and reached towards the small crate she had brought in.

"I seem to only sense another's pain. Whether it be... emotional or physical. I've not noted anything else beyond that unless it is some other inclination they might have that is associated with pain. Are these the foundations to telepathy?"

The ability to read another person's mind was something Grime had sought after since learning he had Force potential. That maybe he was even on the verge of such a thing was almost helping keep his attention off the girl's fingers as they pressed against the thin membrane separating his broken corpse from the rest of the galaxy. And she could sense deception? Very interesting.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Telepathy. Oh how she had been beaten for failing to exhibit any potential in the mental arts.

She inclined her head toward him. "Yes, it is part of the process. Learning to do this, reading the body and brain to detect true emotion... it is a stepping stone to the higher mental manipulations that can be possible, if you have the talent."

[Hawkins Grime]

Grime could read the body well enough, that was the whole point of the Echani martial art. Combat was a form of expression and knowing Echani was to know how to read your opponent's expressions, whether those be the subtle ticks or gestures before drawing a weapon, or the finer details of how their blade is held, how they might step, and/or in what direction. All of this was for naught though when situations escalated beyond combat. Hawkins Grime played in the realm of levels upon levels of traps, feints, and misdirection.

"How does one know if they have the talent? I thought all force adepts were capable of the wide variety of abilities. Obviously, we have different preferences, but can we not all do the same things if we learn them?"

He paused for a moment. It was difficult to tell if it simply from processing his own question or because Rowan dug further into the exoskeleton's muscles, clearing more room before she put a spacer that held the cords back so she could continue to work.

"You're saying its possible that I could not have the talent for telepathy?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She shrugged. "It is possible, yes, but I doubt it. I suppose we'll find out, however."

Lilaena knew he wanted to learn telepathy more than anything, but she also knew that it was the one thing she couldn't teach him. Once he discovered that - not that she was deceiving him, she was careful not to promise anything in that regard - he would probably leave. It was important to finish his training before then.

It was important that he learn she was not here to cater to his every whim, she trained him as she saw fit, for her purposes. Their time apart seemed to have muddled the line between master and apprentice.

She focused her attention on the girl who crouched beside him, feeling the girl's obvious nervous energy, but also her studious attention to detail as she worked on Grime's exoskeleton. The more Averre concentrated the less she was afraid.

"Can you still feel my pain?" Her green eyes flicked back to his face. She was not as raw as she had been the day before, even her side was numbing under the gel she had coated the wounds with. "And her - what do you sense of the girl?"

[Hawkins Grime]

Averre bit her lip in anxious frustration as she examined the space she had made between Hawkins' artificial muscles and the small gem she now held in her palm. She glanced at the woman sitting in the chair and then back to the gem.

=======

"What?"

"Do I have to spell it out for you or put it in binary so that you can understand it, you dumb piece of -"

"Boss..."

Morrolan risked interrupting the Boss to prevent the situation from escalating any further. The gunslinger was sure the girl was about to go into shock if he had gone any further. e'Drain wasn't sure why Grime even bothered getting as angry with her as he did. She just shut down like an overheating computer when it got as tense. She probably thought Grime would eventually melt her face off or something. He know she'd seen it happen before. And they had all seen what was left of Malchiel...

"Boss, you just want her to... implant those stones you recovered from Dxun, right? Beneath your plating, closer to your... body?"

The fury behind Grime's blue eyes turned toward e'Drain for the briefest moment and the hair on the back of his neck stood.

=======

"I can feel your pain. But not nearly as much. I can't taste the grooves of each scar or the tang of blood in my mouth from each weeping cut. I just know where they are. And that bacta is something like ice to my sense of your pain."

Rowan bit her lip harder as she took the gem between her fingers and aimed the pointed edge towards the light blue membrane. Grime's metal fist clenched as he responded to the pressure.

"The girl... I feel scars long gone, etched into something deeper than her flesh..."

He inhaled sharply, his head tilting back against the wall as Averre pushed the gem into the membrane further until it was seated in blood. Holding it there with one hand, she grabbed the applicator that she had already prepared. Rowan squeezed the trigger and more blueish fluid, the same as the membrane, came out, spilling over the gem until it was completely covered. She lifted her finger after another moment and then covered those small spots as well. Hawkins sighed in some degree of relief but with every breath in, he held it for a moment as he adjusted to the sharp spike of pain in his shoulder. Given her degree of concentration, Rowan was oblivious to their subject of conversation. Or so she seemed.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena nodded, watching the girl intently. What was she doing to him?

She closed her eyes, concentrating a moment and centering herself. Projecting an emotion without giving it away on her face was difficult, usually the facial expression helped sell the emotion to the other person. First calm, then happiness, an emotion she had rarely ever felt truly.

Keeping her face still, she looked at her apprentice. "And now? What do you sense from me?"

[Hawkins Grime]

"Your pain, still... No, only your pain. I can tell your mind isn't on your pain entirely, far from it..."

Hawkins tried to focus harder, reaching beyond the spikes of pain from his shoulder, beyond his mere existence of pain, however from De'Ville he could seem to only detect her pain and to what degree she was aware of it herself. Why couldn't he determine anything else. He'd seen glimpses into the witch before, when she healed him and then just yesterday. He snarled in frustration and Averre fell back in surprise. Hawkins glanced at her, wanting to vent hatred and malice against the weakling, but his gaze returned to Lilaena, searching for more answers.

"Why don't you heal yourself like you attempted to with me back in my ship? I understand the inability to heal something as ruined as my own body but what about those?"

Rowan assumed that the worst had passed and shuffled closer once again to finish her work with that shoulder.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She smiled, almost a grin. "It would be tempting to try, but to heal I must take some of the injury into myself. It damages me. So it does not work on myself.

"And it uses a great deal of energy. I would exhaust myself and accomplish nothing in the process."

[Hawkins Grime]

Grime decided quickly enough that such a healing skill was relatively pointless for him to learn.

The girl removed the spacer and the coiled muscles slid back into place like living, metal snakes. The blossomed metal plates of his shoulder slid back into place with a slight hiss, blueish fluid seeping through the cracks until they pressurized and sealed. She glanced at Grime for a moment before making to move towards his other shoulder.

"No, Averre. You can leave. We will continue later."

She seemed startled enough that he had addressed her, much less used her name; it took her a moment to realize that she was dismissed and quickly packed her tools up before getting to her feet. Hawkins watched her stumble through the door, her soft shoes making a light slapping noise against her feet as Rowan walked away. He grimaced before looking back to De'Ville.

"What were you thinking before? What was I supposed to recognize? Try thinking of something that causes you pain; I can sense those things in that girl when she thinks of them, maybe I can do the same with others?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She narrowed her eyes, thoughtful. "I was happy." De'Ville smiled again, but this time the expression was not genuine.

Inhaling deeply, she brushed her hair back from her eyes, and the false smile turned to a smirk. She thought of A'na, and the time she'd whipped her so badly for forgetting a Vaapad form that Lilaena had not been able to sit for a week, not lie on her back. She had had to scrub the deck off her own blood, the cuts deep on her back still weeping. She held the memory tightly within the safety of her mental blocks, then released it, feeling it in her heart instead.

[Hawkins Grime]

Happy? Hawkins felt something like bloody mucus at the back of his throat. He swallowed it as reluctantly as he admitted to himself that he had sensed nothing of the sort from her. There was a moment of silence and then it came, like the trickle before the dam breaks and the flood comes following through. He saw that woman with the white hair, like in a mist behind his eye lids as they closed. She stood upon a floor slick with blood. And then the flood hit him. The pain in his shoulder spiked and his arm flinched and trembled of its own accord.

=======

CENSORED stood beside the woman with white hair. He glanced down at his hands for a moment, realizing the awkwardness of the moment, and then the moment passed with a burning sensation in his shoulder and all was right. CENSORED looked down at the girl scrubbing the floor, her shirt was ripped in the back and he could practically taste the blood dripping from her open wounds. Her efforts seemed pointless, just pushing her own blood around in the murky water of her brush. He made to move forward but the woman with white hair glared at him as if to not interrupt. The man stood there for a moment longer before it felt like he was ripped into space by his right arm.

=======

Grime inhaled sharply and his blue eyes rolled about the room in a distinct moment of disorientation. He grounded himself when his eyes found De'Ville's. He continued to breath heavily, his metal chest rising and sagging with some effort. Who that woman with white hair was only so important. It was what she had done to De'Ville that made her that much more significant. But now wasn't the time to pry. Nor mention the strange experience he had just. Grime knew what it was to be... vulnerable.

"Yes. That I felt."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena found herself breathing heavily, and carefully locked that memory back with the others. She was not that girl anymore. Salem had helped her remove A'na's influence. She was beskar. A'na had beaten her but it only made her stronger.

She swallowed, looking over at her horrific apprentice. "I felt something as well." He opened his mouth to speak, but she waved her hand, cutting him off while she narrowed her eyes at his shoulder where the girl had been working. Something...older. She thought she could guess what his plan was, but it did not matter at the moment.

"So, you could sense that? Try this, then." De'Ville pulled out the memory of when she had woken up to find that Salemescro was gone. She had been seven, and she had thought he was her friend. That he would take her with him, away from A'na who he called 'crazy.' After that... she had just given herself over to A'na, taking her instructions and abuse as best she could, wanting to be the best padawan she could be.

But that morning... she had been happy, and then quickly confused and sad, when she discovered that the boy had abandoned her. It was her first taste of despair.

[Hawkins Grime]

She felt something as well?

Had she seen what he had as well? The strangeness had still not worked itself out in his mind enough for him to properly gauge something as bizarre but then again... Hawkins had little time to prepare before though before De'Ville said,

"Try this, then."

And the resonating pain in his shoulder came to the forefront of his mind once again. He accepted that pain, like pouring engine fuel into raging fire.

=======

The room was small. CENSORED stood by the door and took a moment to determine where he was. Again, it was only the briefest thought before everything seemed more than normal and familiar to him. There sat the same girl on a small bed. And across from her was an empty bunk. CENSORED could see something about her, as if she were trying to decipher some puzzle behind her small face. The stillness in the room seemed to be an atmosphere unto itself. As if it were waiting for something.

The anticipation was there, CENSORED felt like it had been building for eons, or maybe just since the girl had woken up and then a concept seemed to materialize in that atmosphere. The anticipation was pointless. Nothing was coming to disrupt that stillness there in that little room. And out of that came a deafening pain. As he tried to digest the sensation, CENSORED felt that same vacuum, being ripped like a rag doll out of the room, the ship, into space, and then consuming darkness.

=======

The transition was a bit more gradual this time. Hawkins Grime knew exactly where he was and that the woman sitting across from him was nothing of that girl he had just seen in that lonely room. That initial taste of despair, Hawkins had known that kind of loss in another life as well and all the ritual pain that followed.

"I sensed her despair. And only a taste of what came after."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

De'Ville got to her feet, walking the space between them, her eyes on his exoskeleton. "...Her despair? Not mine?" Curious wording.

She knelt beside him, reaching out with the Force and not quite touching his shoulder. "One of the items you took from the Tomb." Lilaena did not ask it as a question. "I can feel you drawing on it. It is...different than what you usually do."

[Hawkins Grime]

Her despair? Not mine?

Maybe De'Ville could not separate the two beings but Grime knew what it was like. A boy had grown up in the murky shadows of Nar Shadda, traveling with other children like a pack of dogs. And then that boy had been thrown into the Bloody Pits, where he was raised into manhood with dust and blood in his mouth every day. That manling had never known hope like they showed in the holovids but he did not seek such an optimistic future by the time he knew any different. The grunge of Nar Shadda turned that boy into a cold man who caught the eye of a Hutt Crime Boss and in turn, that cold man became a prince of murderers. That prince was prepared for his ascension until his subjects brought him down, condemned him to a death he wasn't meant to survive. That man didn't survive though. Just like that little girl. What came out of those ordeals was something else entirely. From that despair rose the monsters that people feared would come for them eventually.

His metal hand slid around De'Ville's wrist, her hand just a breath away from the metal plates of his shoulder where the dark gem rested beneath.

"I took the idea from that Tomb, just like I took the gems."

=======

Grime gasped for air in the dark. The masked man who exuded darkness and made Grime's flesh crawl had led the way into the darkness of what they had first thought was a Temple. It figured that such a structure, on the Demon Moon Dxun, was actually a Tomb. Lilaena was not far from where Grime stood and that other female, Razielle, or whatever her name was, probably stood in the masked man's shadow, following him around like some leashed pet.

Grime was kneeling beside a sarcophagus, one of two that stood sentinel on either side of the stair way that the masked man was walking up. His metal hands found the lip of the lid and lifted slowly, as quietly as possible. In fact the only noise he heard was his own pathetic breathing and his heart meagerly trying to pump what blood it could with the exoskeleton's help. The lid gave way and Hawkins eased it to the side, leaning it against the sarcophagus with a dull thud. He glanced behind him to see that De'Ville had only gone a bit further. Almost farther than he was comfortable with. His bloodshot eyes searched the darkness of the crypt as he waved his dim glow rod over what was inside.

The corpse inside was no human, humanoid maybe. It was of wicked intent, that was for sure, because Grime could see blades and all sorts of weapons implanted in and beneath the thing's flesh. Its teeth even looked like miniature daggers. Beyond the glimmer of metallic blades, the glow rod quickly caught Grime's attention as it revealed large gems embedded in the thing's flesh. One in each shoulder, and three in its chest.

"Grime!"

His metal fingers, with his pathetic degree of dexterity scrambled to remove the gems before he fell too far behind. This group had no patience for him as it was.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

His hand grasped her wrist, cold metal against warm flesh. De'Ville slid her eyes from his shoulder to his fingers, and then to his new face. "Interesting."

She pulled out of his hold, returning to her seat. "You seem to have a firm grasp on sensing pain, as you say. And you have the ability to inflict it, as you did yesterday." She nodded lightly toward her back. "Once you can reliably influence the emotions of others, then disciplines such as the Mind Trick will be the next step. But if all you can do is cause fear and pain, then your path to the higher mental powers will be cut short.

"You cannot convince a being that you are telling the truth, unless you can influence them in a positive manner."

[Hawkins Grime]

So, maybe there was a hope in the future that Grime might still be capable of telepathy beyond the projection of pain.

He leaned forward slowly, his metal elbows on his knees.

"I have not forgotten what I said when you... attempted to heal me back on the Wyvern. No one cares about the realtruth, Master. The people only know the truth as it is written by the hand of power. Like the Empire does now, or the Hutt syndicates... Or that masked man who led us on Dxun...

You've been with the terrorist alliance or whatever they're called for some time now. I've been training with the Mandalorians and gained their respect to some extent."

Grime looked at his metals hand, clenched and unclenched for a moment as his tasted his next words before speaking them.

"My Master... Is it not time you include me in our plans to tip the truth in our favor?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She canted her head and regarded him, her face impassive as she studied Hawkins and his new, expressive face. To wield him as a weapon, to lay waste to the Empire and carve the heart out of the new Empress... A half smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

"The Mando'ade are an impressive group, even more so the ones that live here, untainted by centuries of cultural rot. They've been forced to rely entirely on the basic tenets of their civilization, and so they are a formidable group of warriors.

"We will take them to the stars, and give them what they want. War. With the Empire. With our enemies. With anyone who stands in our way." Her lips curved in a cruel smile. "And we will grow stronger than anyone else, Grime. For now Callidus believes me a leashed dog, to attack those he points me at. But it may not always be so."

She turned to the side, pressing two fingers against her skin near the deepest cut she had received on Terephon. The bacta gel had sealed it, and if she would stop reopening them it would be completely healed by morning. "For now my purposes align with his. Destroy - or take over - the Empire."

De'Ville straightened, looking at the sleek machine man who sat on the floor in front of her. Finally he seemed capable, not just willing, to be a weapon in her hand. "What would it take to get the Mando'ade ready for such a thing? I have my own thoughts, but I would hear yours."

[Hawkins Grime]

"They need a push in the right direction. They've been sitting here for too long. Clan or no, they've grown as comfortable as one possibly can in the Wilds. They need a catalyst. Us."

Hawkins clenched his right fist, the burning sensation in his arm grew as the anticipation of destruction rose.

"It might be bold to suggest, but I think that if the Wilds have turned them into hardened nomads, I'd like to see what the Demon Moon might do to them."

At the mention of the Demon Moon, the gem embedded in every sense of Grime's flesh seemed to reciprocate towards the idea of returning there.

"We start there and when established, turn on targets of opportunity. I'll use what connections I have with the Black Markets in Iziz to get them started. We'll go out of the system as to not draw any attention from Iziz or its... allies. I can use some of the events going on in the actual Mandalore system to our advantage as a further distraction, for them and any who might be overly interested in our affairs."

He leaned his back against the wall, crossing his arms over his chest. Grime would let that sink in, let De'Ville think it over. This was something he had been thinking over for some time. The exoskeleton wrought by the Mandalorians' hands was only an example of their ingenuity towards the craft of war.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She nodded, slowly. "Establishing a foothold on the moon... a place to launch from and to prepare at... I like the idea. It sounds costly, though."

De'Ville ran a hand through her short hair. "I do not have many credits, but I am pretty good at making it appear like I do. Move money through enough accounts, the banks don't know whats going on before its too late. Between the two of us we should not have any problems getting what we need to get started."

[Hawkins Grime]

"It'll cost a bit more than just credits by the end of it."

He pushed himself up, his back sliding up the wall.

"That's the easy part though. What about Callidus?"

Hawkins was interested to hear what she had to say about this one. The man exuded power. The masked man was what De'Ville was to him, meaning Grime stood no chance by himself, new exoskeleton or not.

Grime had no great ambitions to simply usurp and rule in stead of the Empress, De'Ville, or Callidus. Grime wanted nothing of the sort. When he slept, the barely functional corpse inside the exoskeleton no longer dreamed of grandeur as he had in another life. He dreamed of a galaxy left in much of the same state as he was physically in now. Whole systems left like barren corpses. The gem in his shoulder almost hummed with agreement.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Callidus.

De'Ville considered the question. What about him? A means to an end, certainly, the end of the Empire. Callidus wanted power, wanted to rule it all - this giant anthill of a galaxy and him on top. To do that he needed the same thing she wanted. The death of the Empire.

Even as she thought it she had a feeling in the back of her head that perhaps that wasn't what he wanted at all. Perhaps he just let her believe what she wanted to be true.

She looked at her apprentice. "For now our purposes align. He wishes to use me to destroy his enemies, and at the moment that means the Empire. I will do that as I see fit. The more chaos we can create the better. He will not trouble us, and if he does I will deal with it."

De"Ville's green eyes glinted with amusement. "Perhaps we will destroy each other when it comes down to it. You'd enjoy that, wouldn't you."

[Hawkins Grime]

Grime let her see the smirk slide across his perfect, handsome, fake face.

"While I doubt I could be that lucky, Master, I would love to be there the moment when you destroy him."

=======

CENSORED stood in that same room, saying that exact same thing as his former self was saying but he took a few steps forward, closing that distance between them. De'Ville began to rise in defense.

"... I would love to be there when you destroy him, and..."

The flame that burst from CENSORED's right shoulder went relatively unnoticed as his hand closed around Lilaena's throat. Her skin was soft against his, and it melted like wax as he leaned in, grinning.

=======

Grime blinked or something similar to it, glancing down at his right hand, still feeling her soft skin between a grip that didn't exist. He had only taken but one step forward. The sarcastic smirk hadn't yet slipped from his face so Grime could judge that not even a moment had passed between that bizarre moment and this one.

"Don't worry, Master. I won't let him kill you..."

He took his steps forward with a grace like a nexu, a trait Hawkins had never been able to demonstrate while in his previous exoskeleton. He then knelt before where De'Ville sat, taking her hand, glancing up at her green eyes, and kissing the back of it with his colder than steel lips.

"I promise."

The gem hummed again and Grime could taste burnt flesh on his black tongue.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She regarded him impassively, resisting the urge to wrench her hand from his grasp. "Impressive. Quite convincing."

He released her hand, and stepped back, his exoskeleton silent and graceful.

"I almost believe you," De'Ville said, a wry twist to her lips. "If only because you feel you deserve the honor of killing me yourself." What a battle that would be, when the student believed himself fit to overthrow the master. Something she had never dreamed of doing to A'na Eldhil, yet now desired to be able to go back in time to destroy the woman, so far out of her grasp now.