Star Wars: Legacy » Places

         Marco put a hand on Artemis' shoulder as the Sith helped Corven to his feet, "Put that down Artemis, who knows where it's been."

Corven smiled a big, toothy smile, looking up at Marco beneath charming dark eyebrows. "My hands are clean of innocent blood this day."

"You're the reason so much was spilled, this day."

"And yet you led the charge."

Marco wanted to respond, but found himself speechless. He scowled and turned on his heel, walking to the edge of the landing ramp to peer off at the carnage he'd caused. Smoke and fire poured out of a great black gash in the ground, orange-hot metal jutted out of the black smoke in places, standing as glowing mementos of long-dead cries for mercy. Marco hadn't heard Ariadne approaching him from behind, but whether it was because of the wind, his own roaring thoughts, or her own stealthiness (or perhaps some mix of the three) he wasn't sure of.


“Feels good, doesn’t it? To be in control, to hold the power over life and death in your meaty hands? You like it, Marco, I can tell by the look in your eyes.”

“You’re wrong,” he snapped.

“Nope," she smiled an unnerving smile, sly like she knew something he didn't. "You're terrified of it maybe, but you like it all the same. In the end, Link’s vote didn’t even matter, did it? All that mattered was that he thought it did. You had the final say who lived and who died, and your friends would have followed whatever orders you gave them.”

“My friends do what I say because I’ve earned their trust, and I don’t intend to break it.”

“And they’ll be the ones who will follow you into battle to take down your father and save Nikka; they’ll willingly risk their skins for you, all you have to do is ask. That’s power. You like what power can do for you, Marco. You like being in control.”

Something in the middle of her sentence suddenly caught his attention. “How do you know about Nikka? I haven’t spoken her name since we rescued you.”

She smiled back at him naively as she turned to walk away, “Yes you did, remember?”

Marco frowned, “Yes, I must have.” But he hadn't, and he knew it. The thought occurred to him that she may have slipped up intentionally. Why else would she initiate the conversation? He wasn't sure how clever Ariadne was, but he figured it was a good bet that she was a very clever girl. The way she smiled at him in the end, the way she manipulated him into questioning whether he'd actually mentioned Nikka, made him feel uneasy; made him feel not in control. And he hated it.

With a sigh, he walked to the far wall and flipped a switch, closing the landing ramp, then headed for the cockpit to join his friends.