This fic was born entirely from the screenshot below (I see something flat I can lie down on in a game, I lie down on it). The sleeping emote was angstier than I expected, and with Scourge standing beside Cas like a guardian, I knew there had to be a story to go with this scene. It started as a moment of despair, brought on by Cas' unexpected dark side choice during 'Lockdown', and expanded into fight scenes and fortress flashbacks and some good old-fashioned enemies-to-allies bonding.
BELSAVIS
With Belsavis under threat of utter annihilation, Jedi Knight Caspian Serapis and his strange new ally, Lord Scourge, descend into the planet's Rakata vaults to put an end to Executor Krannus' explosive plan. But along the way, Cas finds himself struggling against more than Imperial forces. The ancient cells hold older, deadlier foes - but the real battle is with the shadows haunting his own mind. Not to mention his uncertain feelings about the Sith now sworn to his side....
Takes place after the Jedi Knight quest 'Lockdown'. Spoilers for the Jedi Knight story, obviously.
Read on AO3
Even in the depths of the cell blocks, Belsavis was never quiet. A low hum of energy was nearly constant as it carved its way through the ancient structures, and power gleamed in cold colours from the sockets set high in the walls. In the vast dimness of the corridors, the lights flickered like dying stars, and like eyes they seemed to follow the path of the intruders. Watchful. Waiting.
It was cold in the hollow passages beneath the snow. Some of the vaults were oddly temperate, warmed by the thermal energies of the planet where magma welled up through the crust. But here, Caspian’s breath shivered from him as he trotted along the sloping floor towards the surface. Scourge padded along behind him, an ever-present crimson shadow. Even though the angle of the floor put him below Cas, it did little to diminish the sense of his looming stature.
The Sith was an enigma to Cas, one he daily found himself agonising over since their escape from the Emperor’s fortress. Unsettlingly calm and yet unshakably forceful, Scourge had placed himself beside the Jedi; and even weeks on, Cas still had no idea if he was truly to be trusted.
In fairness, Scourge had not yet given the slightest indication of turning on his new ally. But that didn’t keep Cas from feeling distinctly on edge within his presence. The Sith was an intimidating figure, in both body and mind, and while Cas wasn’t exactly threatened by him, Scourge had a way of making him feel… peculiarly unsettled.
“We must hurry.” Scourge’s voice sounded close to Cas’ neck, startling him, and the Jedi tensed.
“I know,” he snapped back.
Urgency gnawed at Cas even without Scourge’s prompting. He was fighting the need to run, but his steps already sounded far too loud in the stillness, especially in comparison to Scourge’s tread, which was surprisingly light for someone of his bulk. And hurtling in blind panic through the depths of ancient alien ruins, filled with dangerous technology and even more dangerous foes, was at minimum an unwise course of action. Rushing to keep the one called Krannus from blowing up the planet’s power core was all well and good - but they had to make it there in one piece to do it.
There were other reasons, too, for the tight waves of nausea that were threatening to overtake Cas, reasons that had far less to do with what lay ahead, and more with what they’d just left behind. A now-deceased monstrosity of a creature let loose from centuries of confinement, which had left its mark upon both of them (though in truth, Scourge had taken the brunt of it, and Cas was still amazed by the Sith’s ability to press onward after such an encounter). And then….
Cas clenched his hand more tightly around the hilt of his lightsaber, still held at the ready. The Rakata vaults were swarming with enemies, and not just Imperials and rogue prisoners. He was much more concerned with encountering another band of the species called the Esh-kha. He and Scourge had already been forced to contend with one group of them on the way into the cells, and Cas knew that more were likely to be dispersing themselves through the bowels of the planet. They couldn’t afford the time it would take to fight their way through hordes of ancient, maddened beings bent on the annihilation of all ‘lesser’ species.
Time. That was what it came down to. Time was why Cas felt sick with revulsion, why when a man who had already been taken captive and tortured looked up and begged the Jedi for aid, Cas had forced an awful refusal from his own lips. And abandoned Doctor Gantrell in the vault that would almost certainly become his tomb.
It had been a tactical decision, one life against hypothetical trillions. There was no way to be sure exactly how far ahead Krannus had gotten, and it would have taken hours to bring the helpless, injured Gantrell to a place of safety, possibly wading through throngs of Esh-kha to get there. Even with an escort, the scientist’s chances of survival would have been questionable.
“Stopping Krannus is the only thing that matters,” Cas had said, hating himself even as he spoke.
The look of utter shock on Gantrell’s bruised and bloodied face still haunted him.
“But… you’re a Jedi! You - you can’t just leave me here to die!”
You’re a Jedi. You’re a Jedi. You can’t….
“Caspian!” Scourge’s bark of warning was accompanied by the blur of a red saber as it flashed past, intercepting an Esh-ka blade and yanking the Jedi back to the present. Cas staggered, disoriented, watching as Scourge deftly parried the blow and answered with a brutal one of his own. A horrible squeal echoed through the corridor as the Esh-kha fell; but they had reached an intersection of the passageways, and more enemies were already rushing at them from either side.
“Focus your mind on the present!” Scourge reprimanded sharply, and whirled to engage the next Esh-kha that drove at him.
His heart still hammering with surprise, Cas ignited his own lightsaber and hastily fell into a position next to Scourge. Back to back, they fended off the alien ambush, their blades weaving bright patterns of white-hot red and golden green. The Esh-kha were relentless; by far larger and stronger than Cas, even than Scourge, they attacked with driven savagery. Whatever alloy formed their weapons was not easily severed, even by lightsabers, and sparks sprayed around the Jedi and Sith each time their blades clashed with the long pole-arms of their foes.
Cas gritted his teeth as he batted away a powerful strike, ducked, and slashed upward with both hands on his lightsaber, sending an Esh-kha reeling. Before the alien could recover, Cas had run them through. Given the choice, he preferred to incapacitate an enemy; but their previous encounter with the Esh-kha had made it quite apparent that a fight with this species was, invariably, a kill or be killed scenario. He didn’t like it. He didn’t have to like it. Necessary, whispered a thin voice in his mind. The knot in his gut seemed to tighten.
The Esh-kha were fearsome enemies, and even experienced combatants like Cas and Scourge were hard pressed to hold their ground. Half a dozen Esh-kha had rushed them, and while four had fallen, the remaining two seemed tireless and all the more vicious for their fellows’ deaths.
Cas was literally backed against Scourge now, feeling the stretch and pull of the Sith’s muscles against his own as they each sought an opening in their opponents’ onslaught. It was… surprisingly distracting. Perhaps that was why the next thrust from the Esh-kha caught him off guard; he barely deflected the blade that grazed across his ribs and still stumbled sideways from the force of it, a low cry gasping from his lungs.
In an instant, Scourge was in front of him, scything round to put himself between both Esh-kha and the Jedi. “Insect,” hissed Scourge, and with an almost contemptuous motion, too quick to parry, he slashed the alien in two from neck to navel.
Cas grimaced, clutching at his side as he straightened. His lightsaber was raised defensively as the last Esh-kha turned on him, but Scourge was already lifting his own blade to strike. Their eyes met, and Cas felt a jolt, a moment of sudden understanding in the chaos of battle. He pushed out sharply through the Force. The Esh-kha went skidding away, in perfect coordination with the scarlet saber that drove upward to impale the alien from behind.
Scourge wore a look of faint satisfaction as he withdrew his weapon with a flourish and switched it off. Cas followed suit with his own. The sound seemed very loud in the sudden stillness that had descended again. The stale air was hung with the scent of singed flesh.
Wincing, Cas limped over to the rectangular pedestal situated in the crossroads of the corridors. Whether it was a seat, or an altar, or simply a marker of some kind, he couldn’t know, but it was solid and served well enough as something to lean against.
“You are injured?” Scourge wasted no time in stepping close again, his eyes narrowed as he peered down at the Jedi. “Show me.”
Cas was breathing heavily in the aftermath of the fight. The dark thoughts that had been driven away by the clash of battle were rushing back to claim him again, coiling around his innards, suffocating him. He shook his head mutely, trying to ward them off, but every breath caught inside, breaking his focus.
Scourge wasn’t waiting for an answer; he lifted Cas’ arm away and pushed his large hand to the bloodied gash in the man’s side. Cas inhaled sharply, roused as pressure summoned pain. He was starting to suspect a fractured rib or two.
“What are you - get off, I’ll be fine -“ he panted, squirming back against the pedestal.
“Healing you,” said Scourge shortly, and then ordered, “Keep still.”
Cas had enough time to register how strangely cool the Sith’s hand felt against his skin, before his touch blossomed into sudden agony.
“AaaAAHHHHFUCK -“
He was accustomed to the gentle, lighter touch of the Jedi healers, and even the rough efficiency of Republic medics. But this was another kind of healing altogether, the sort that reached into his very cells and dragged them back together, forcibly mending them through the darkness of his companion’s will. His surroundings spun as he buckled beneath Scourge’s hand, and then he wasn’t in the depths of Belsavis anymore, but a place of shining, shadowed metal; Scourge was standing over him, black-armoured, forcing him back to life again and again; and a shrouded husk of a voice was clamped around his mind like a shock collar, numbing him with an endless command of submit, submit, submit -
“Breathe, Jedi.”
He tried, pulling in several great, gasping breaths. The shadows withdrew, seeping back into the corners of his awareness, and the pain receded. Cas found himself sagging sideways across the pedestal, doing his level best not to throw up.
“What… what the….” His chest heaved, or was that his stomach? He groaned, groping a hand around to his side. Though still throbbing, the flesh there was already knitted together, and inhaling no longer caused a sharp twinge inside.
Dazed, he glanced up. Scourge was watching him carefully.
“There was no time to be gentle,” came the brusque explanation.
Cas couldn’t find a response to this. He panted harshly as he stared up at Scourge, his normally focussed conviction in tatters.
Ever since waking from his nightmare as the Emperor’s thrall, trying to make sense of his emotions had been like trying to hold back a hurricane. Before, there had been calm, steady resolve. Now it was as though he’d sprung a leak, and all the things that were supposed to set him apart as a Jedi were bleeding out, leaving his emotions unguarded. He didn’t know what to make of it; he just knew that it was deeply unsettling. And now, in the raw aftermath of battle, the sensations threatened to overwhelm him. He wanted to sob, and he wanted to rage, and most of all he just wanted to rest. None of which was going to do a damn bit of good in preventing the planet and the surrounding hyperspace from being consumed.
Shaking, Cas pulled himself onto the narrow pedestal. “I need a minute,” he said raggedly, and a moment later he found himself curled on his uninjured side, huddled there and shivering under a sudden, cold sweat.
“We must press on,” said Scourge. Cas cringed away from the weight behind the words and hid his face behind his arm.
“Just - give me a bloody minute, alright?” he lashed out, his voice splintering around the words.
He expected another rebuke. It had quickly become evident that Scourge did not consider a pledge of loyalty any reason to keep from arguing with his new ally, and Cas couldn’t deny feeling the same. Their relationship was untried, but already somewhat… contentious. No surprise, Cas had thought grimly, given their backgrounds.
Now, however, the Sith remained strangely silent. After several moments, Cas dared a look up at his companion from behind the limp shield of his arm. Scourge was simply standing there, hands folded in front of him as he kept watch like a dark sentinel.
Cas wet his lips, letting his eyes fall closed as he tried to calm his breathing. After another few moments, he spoke waveringly.
“I… I saw things. Just now, when you touched - when you healed me.”
He felt more than saw the way Scourge shifted and glanced down at him.
“You had a vision?”
“I-I’m not sure.” Cas swallowed and squeezed his eyes shut more firmly. “Not… not like you had, I don’t think, it was more….” Try as he might, his focus still refused to hold. “A memory? It looked like - the Emperor’s fortress.” His breath caught, like he’d reached out to touch something scorched by a sun, only to find it ice cold. “There was so much darkness… so much pain… but you were there, you - you did something -“
He clutched at his head. His body was quivering again.
“I don’t know.” The lack of certainty was agonising. “I don’t know if it even happened. It’s all so muddled, I can’t make sense of it - why can’t I remember -“
The pause that followed was oddly weighted with consideration, as though Scourge were holding something back. But a moment later, the sense of it had passed.
“Now is not the time to dwell on these things. You must focus,” said Scourge keenly. “Focus on our goal.”
Cas’ stomach gave another jolt, this time of surprise, as he felt the Sith’s hand descend and come to rest atop his shoulder. Unthinkingly he reached for it. Once again, he was struck by how unnaturally cold Scourge’s skin was against his own. But the touch was grounding, so he clung to it, grasping tightly at his companion’s hand as he sought the eye of the storm within himself.
Scourge was right. They had to keep going. They had to stop Krannus. He couldn’t think about anything else, he had to focus on that one task, only that, or else Gantrell’s death would mean nothing.
The man’s stricken face stabbed at his mind’s eye again. He gritted his teeth, and scrubbed the back of his hand hard across his eyes.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, as though the words might flit away and find the doctor and somehow make it right. But they only dissolved into the stale air around him.
He inhaled one more shuddering breath, released Scourge’s hand, and sat up. The Sith stepped back, his eyes trained on Cas, but betraying nothing.
“Are you ready now, Jedi?”
No, Cas wanted to say, as he slid onto his feet again, his body aching and exhausted and his mind little better. How could anyone be ready for the enormity and desperation of what they were trying to do?
Yet he swallowed this back and gave a shallow nod, forcing all the conviction he could muster into his reply. “Yes. I’m ready.”
Time seemed to suddenly start again, pressing at him, reminding him that it was not their ally. The ancient walls were closing in around them. Cas straightened against the dull throbbing in his side and pushed himself into motion, setting off at a swift pace along the passageway.
“You fought well,” commented Scourge unexpectedly, as the pair resumed their trek towards the surface. “Even few Jedi would be able to hold their own against these creatures.”
Cas was so startled that he nearly stumbled. He shot a quick look at his companion, frowning. “I… was that a… compliment?” he questioned, uncertain he’d heard correctly.
“An observation,” said Scourge, which offered no clarity on the matter. His head tilted. “You are… remarkably resilient. Even more so than I had anticipated.”
Cas glanced over again, futilely searching the Sith’s face for any hint of falsehood. He swallowed. “I… thank you,” he said awkwardly. “I can’t say I like having that tested, but….”
“You don’t have a choice,” Scourge pointed out calmly. “You will be tested by far greater challenges than what awaits us on this world. So it is best that you don’t become complacent.”
Cas grimaced, as this last remark neatly sloshed cold water over the unanticipated warmth creeping across his face. He gave himself a mental shake. He was already struggling with enough doubts and uncertainties; he didn’t need to add another, more personal layer of distraction on top of everything else.
And besides, he told himself sternly, the man was a Sith. Scourge had said so himself, that this part of him was never going to change. They had a common goal for now, but once that was accomplished - if it was accomplished - Cas had no doubt that they’d each fall back to their respective sides of the galaxy. They would be enemies again, in name if not in deed. He couldn’t envision this unlikely alliance with Scourge lasting beyond their mutual desire to see the Emperor destroyed. In every other way, he and Scourge were simply… too different.
At least, that was what he was forcibly telling himself. Doing his best to override the strange, soft breath of a voice suggesting that things were never as clear cut as they seemed. That voice had been the one to immediately believe Scourge’s offer of help, and had later defended him against the scathing scepticism of the Jedi Council. And now, with only ancient alien vibrations to fill the space between Cas and his dark ally, that voice was….
Definitely in the way.
Sharp light spilled towards them as the floor of the passage levelled off, and the exit to Belsavis’ surface came into view. After the dark warren of the vaults below, Cas found himself squinting a bit as he and Scourge emerged into daylight.
He had to pause again as a flurry of snow dove at them from the high rocks on either side of the entrance. The open air felt even colder than the underground corridors; the wind was erratic but harsh, the sunlight turned aside by the towering enclosures of ice that walled off most of this area. Cas hunched over, wishing he’d thought to bring a robe to bundle around himself. Yet another regret that was only serving to amplify his misery.
He tried to still his chattering teeth as he consulted his holo. “There aren’t many scans of this part of the planet,” he said aloud. “But they’ve sent coordinates to what should be an entrance leading to the core. It’s not far.”
Scourge nodded, still unbothered by the cold. “Let us waste no more time, then.”
“There’s a Republic outpost on the way,” Cas went on, his voice unstable as a violent shiver passed through him. “We can try and pick up a speeder there, make up for some of that wasted time.” This last was a bit of a challenging shot at his companion, but he wasn’t at all surprised when it bounced off the Sith with no noticeable reaction. He had yet to find something that would elicit any sort of rise out of Scourge beyond vague irritation.
He didn’t wait for a reply this time, but tucked his holo away and trudged off as quickly as he dared across the frozen ground. Scourge fell in at his back, keeping a guarded eye on their surroundings.
Cas resisted the urge to huddle his arms around himself or jam his hands under his armpits as he walked. Resilient, Scourge had called him. He wasn’t sure if he believed it, but he’d be damned if he was going to do anything to dispel that impression.
He’d put an end to Krannus’ plans. And he’d prove himself to this Sith at his side. No matter what it took.
Excerpt from my WIP fic ‘Shadows on Belsavis’ because it goes so well with these screenshots.
His heart still hammering with surprise, Cas ignited his own lightsaber and hastily fell into a position next to Scourge. Back to back, they fended off the alien ambush, their blades weaving bright patterns of white-hot red and golden green. The Esh-kha were relentless; by far larger and stronger than Cas, even than Scourge, they attacked with driven savagery. Whatever alloy formed their weapons was not easily severed, even by lightsabers, and sparks sprayed around the Jedi and Sith each time their blades clashed with the long pole-arms of their foes.
Cas gritted his teeth as he batted away a powerful strike, ducked, and slashed upward with both hands on his lightsaber, sending an Esh-kha reeling. Before the alien could recover, Cas had run them through. Given the choice, he preferred to incapacitate an enemy; but their previous encounter with the Esh-kha had made it quite apparent that a fight with this species was, invariably, a kill or be killed scenario. He didn’t like it. He didn’t have to like it. Necessary, whispered a thin voice in his mind. The knot in his gut seemed to tighten.
The Esh-kha were fearsome enemies, and even experienced combatants like Cas and Scourge were hard pressed to hold their ground. Half a dozen Esh-kha had rushed them, and while four had fallen, the remaining two seemed tireless and all the more vicious for their fellows’ deaths.
Cas was literally backed against Scourge now, feeling the stretch and pull of the Sith’s muscles against his own as they each sought an opening in their opponents’ onslaught. It was… surprisingly distracting. Perhaps that was why the next thrust from the Esh-kha caught him off guard; he barely deflected the blade that grazed across his ribs and still stumbled sideways from the force of it, a low cry gasping from his lungs.
In an instant, Scourge was in front of him, scything round to put himself between both Esh-kha and the Jedi. “Insect,” hissed Scourge, and with an almost contemptuous motion, too quick to parry, he slashed the alien in two from neck to navel.
