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"If you're not gonna join me, I'd like to put my clothes back on."
Something flipped in Osha's mind. Had he really asked her to join him for a swim? After he murdered all her allies? Hysterical laughter escaped her.
"Join you? In there?" she asked, incredulous.
"It's very refreshing,” he said like that was all that mattered.
She stared at him, the saber shaking in her tight grip. It could not get any crazier than this, now could it? He had disarmed himself, completely.
Fine, then. Making a flash decision, she tossed the saber somewhere far behind her and heard it clank against the rocks. It would not stop him from simply calling it to him, but it would give her a moment longer to react if it came to it. Then, half of her mind screaming at her, the other half simply shrugging and accepting anything at this point, she started undressing. She pulled her shirts over her head, as quickly as possible so that she didn't break line of sight to him, and then pulled away her shoes and pants. She discarded the bandage over her wound but kept her underwear. No matter how comfortable this Sith was with his own body, she was not going to let a strange man ogle at her.
What gave her a pause, though, was that he was not even looking at her direction. When she had started undressing, he had turned away and was now looking past the rocks towards where the sea opened. What a strange show of consideration from a man who had reaped down Jedi like they were enemy soldiers.
To him, she supposed, they were.
Had been.
Half of her mind still screaming at her, she walked down to the water and then right into it, without stopping to feel it first. Hearing the water slosh at her feet, he turned back towards her. And still – no ogling. His eyes stayed at hers and did not drop down anywhere, not once. She would have noticed. There had been too many instances in meknek bars where men tried to sneak a glance. Instead, there was a pleasant smile on his face, as if he was happy she joined him.
Of course he is happy, her mind shouted at her. He got you exactly where he wanted! You are at his mercy and he will drown you the first chance he gets.
But why bother saving and healing her, if only to kill her the first chance he got, asked another part of her.
The water deepened steadily and soon she had to give herself to it. It was pleasantly cool, waking her up from the last remnants of her healing sleep. The water stung her half-healed wound, thought, and when it splashed up to her face, it tasted like salt. Sea water. A sea planet. Where was she? Where had he taken her?
He was there in the water with her – not far away, but not close either. Either of them would have to take multiple strokes to reach the other. He put some distance between the two of them as she trod water and watched him – leisurely moving backwards in the water, still a gentle look on his face that creeped Osha out. But that was enough distance between them that she dared to let him out of her sight, take a big gulp of air, and dive.
Down beneath the surface she went. The tide pool deepened quickly, going for deep blue, and Osha went straight for the depth. The murmur of the water surrounded her ears, the pressure held her tighter the deeper she went, and there, in the embrace of the water, she was alert and alive. If just for a moment, down in the blue there was stillness amid the chaos of her life.
Lungs burning, she turned and pushed back towards the light above, breached the surface and gasped for air. Shaking the water from her locks she looked around her and and homed her stare back in on him.
He had not advanced to her. Or maybe he had. She had surfaced from a different spot from where she dove. It was hard to tell.
"You can dive," he said with appreciation in his voice. "I was worried I'd never see you again."
How could he joke like that, when she was here at his mercy?
“Why didn’t you just kill me?" she asked, panting. "You killed them. You killed all of them."
"I killed Jedi."
"Did you kill Sol?"
"No."
"Mae?"
"No. Interesting you asked about him first, though."
Shit. Why had she abandoned the lightsaber to the shore and got in the water with that dangerous man? He had gotten into her head with Sith mind tricks or something. She took a couple of furious strokes towards the shore, got solid rock under her feet in the shallower water, and tried to locate the saber from the rocks.
"Going so soon?"
But finding the saber required taking her eyes off him. She snapped around and saw nothing new. There was just a man enjoying his bath. That was if you didn't know any better. In reality, there was a killer who had imprisoned her here, on an unknown planet.
But right now she had the upper ground. He was treading water – she was standing. She wouldn't dare to go for another dive, but she could still wash herself up. The floating dust of the forest was still clinging to her skin. Now careful not to look away from him for a second, she scrubbed her skin, trying to wash the phantoms of the battle away.
"I'm happy you joined," he said. He still trod water at that stupidly leisurely pace, as if he had no worries in the whole wide world. He leaned back, let his ears go underwater and dipped his hair wet, then ran his hands over it to drain the water.
"I'm not looking to make you happy," she snapped and kept on scrubbing, trying to reach for her back.
"Of course," was his response. Sarcastic, for sure. "Do you want help?"
She was instantly on her feet and backing away from the water. "Don't you dare come closer," she warned him while walking backwards, trying not to slip on the wet rock while watching his every movement. He raised his hands from the water in an apologetic gesture.
"Noted."
Shaking with nerves, she walked backwards to her clothes, not letting him out of her sight. But he was simply washing himself now, pouring water from his hands to his arms and face. As nonthreatening as a killer could be. She grabbed the bundle of her – Mae's – clothes and retreated behind a rock from where she could still see him but hide herself from view. After changing from her wet underwear into the dry clothes she glanced around for the saber, fetched it and went back to the shore. The saber was ready in her hand, her stance careful, but not complete.
"If you’re done, I’d like to get my clothes now," said the stranger from the water and began to approach.
Osha blinked. Would he just get up? With her right here, staring at him?
He was doing exactly that. He was walking into the shallow water and out of it. With slow movements he got up from the tide pool, looking at Osha like she was some kind of an animal in need of calming down. And – fuck. Osha had eyes. She could not not see, not if she wanted to make sure he did not try anything unexpected. So she looked, and as inappropriate it was to admit it to herself, she was not unaffected. He had a beautiful, well-honed body. And even with his genitals bared to the sea breeze and her stare, he carried himself without a care, elegantly like those marble sculptures in Coruscant palaces. He reminded her so much of those sculptures.
Except for the way he prowled towards her. She held the saber more tightly and pointed it at him. "Am I your prisoner?"
"Prisoner? You're the one with the weapon," he said and reached for his clothes, each movement very slow and careful. Could he have hidden another weapon within the clothes? Osha corrected her stance and readied herself for a confrontation.
But the stranger just picked up a shirt and started wrapping it on himself. "How was the water?"
Osha ground her teeth together and did not respond.
"I find it clears the head,” he continued, easy as anything. “Don't you?"
It did, and Osha knew it. The moment of clarity found only in the embrace of the deep was a gift she treasured. And she was not about to tell him that.
"I enjoy diving too. But it was best I stayed above the surface this time."
An image of a shark hunting from the deep flashed in Osha’s mind. The saber twitched in her grip. If he had gone underwater, without her being able to see her, she would be very tempted to use it now.
Why hadn’t she used it already anyway?
He finished wrapping his clothes back on and picked up his bag. "You dived well. Maybe there is something for me to learn from you. Master, pupil... It doesn't have to go only one way," he said with a twinkle in his eye, and began to walk away.
She was left at the shore, gripping the saber in her white-knuckled hands, watching him walk away. And even though she tried, she could not see the shark in him anymore.