Decoy (Rex)

11: Bloody rose in a cage

Tw: Violence, manipulation, blood, a pervert.

"981, welcome back."

Ranov'la lifted her gaze to look at Pudico, Lucian's nails digging into her arm with his tight grip. Pudico gave her a disappointed look.

"Thank you, Mister Pudico," Ranov'la whispered.

"Why did you leave us? You had everything you'd ever need!" Pudico brushed his brown hair back from in front of his eyes. "And you know what deserters get, don't you?"

Ranov'la's eyes stung with the threat of tears. "Yes I do."

Pudico waved her away. "Next!"

Lucian steered her out of Pudico's view while the people next in line approached. Ranov'la followed Lucian along, not even trying to tug herself free.

"Ranov'la, you heard what Pudico said," Lucian firmly said as they entered their shared room that held a bedroom and a kitchen. "The standard punishment for deserters."

Ranov'la nodded, itching to smack him.

Lucian sighed and lifted his gaze to the ceiling. "I don't like doing this, sweetheart, you know that! But I can't just let you run off again! So you'll be locked in your room for the next little bit until you learn your lesson!"

"Someone will notice I'm gone," Ranov'la furiously said. "Someone will look for me!"

"No! They'll notice that Senator Amidala is missing!" Lucian sneered. "No one is going to notice that you're gone! No one even knows you exist except for the people here!"

Ranov'la flinched, realizing that he was right.

No one would come to save her.

No one would even realize she was gone.

People would panic, noticing that Padmé had vanished, but no one would know that Ranov'la was missing.

No one.

Lucian locked the door, turning to face her with a heavy sigh. "We need to talk."

"About what?" Ranov'la crossed her arms. "About how you kidnapped me? About how I need to go home?"

"This is your home!" Lucian shouted, slamming his hand into the wall next to her head.

Ranov'la shirked away from him, fear flashing in her eyes. Lucian took a deep breath before pressing his forehead to hers, mumbling apologies.

"I'm going to get some rest," Ranov'la whispered, hoping to evade him as long as possible.

She hurried away, as he called after her, "You can't avoid it forever! We're going to talk eventually! And when we do, you'll admit that you like me!"

Ranov'la slammed the bedroom door shut.

"I don't think she's fit for any assignments," Lucian informed Pudico. "She's acting out, and I'd consider her a risk."

Pudico hummed. "What do you suggest then? You know her best."

"I suggest suspending her and keeping her in her room until she accepts that she's not going anywhere. She has to make the best of the situation," Lucian advised.

Pudico slowly nodded. "I agree. 981 needs to learn that we're the only ones who will care for her."

Lucian grinned. "Yes, sir."

Pudico dismissed him and Lucian returned to their room, where Ranov'la was still sulking. He rapped on the door gently, and called her name.

"What?" Ranov'la spat out. "I don't want to talk to you."

"I'm your Guardian, I have to take care of you," Lucian soothingly said. "Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?"

"Let me go home."

"I can't do that," Lucian softly said. "But how about you come out and we chat about what I can do to make you happy here? I know you hate it here, but there's got to be something I can do."

Ranov'la opened the door by a crack, giving him a hesitant look.

"There you go," Lucian cooed, giving her an encouraging smile. "Come out."

She poked his eye and shut the door, laughing wildly as she locked it.

Lucian scowled and held his hand over his eye, ire rising in him. "Ranov'la! Come out!"

"No! You can't make me!"

Lucian rolled his eyes and slammed his shoulder into the door, knocking it down. Ranov'la yelped and jumped away from him, but he grabbed her by her collar and pinned her to the wall.

"Listen here, I know you think you're too good to work the streets like I do, but I'm not going to stand aside and watch you get executed," Lucian hissed into her ear. "So can you behave and not get yourself killed?"

Ranov'la wiggled in his grasp. "I don't want to sell spice! I don't want to do Pudico's dirty work! I want to live somewhere where I don't have to watch people die! I want to do things I want to do!"

"Well when we retire we can do that, but until then you have to behave!" Lucian snarled and slammed her head into the wall.

Spots danced in her vision and she felt something trickle down her forehead. Lucian released her and she stumbled to the floor, the edges of her vision going black.

"I'm not going to retire with you!" Ranov'la touched the blood that was now on her head. "Get it through your thick skull that there will never be something between us!"

"Get it through your thick skull that no one will ever care about you!" Lucian retaliated. "Who even knows you exist?"

Ranov'la spat at his feet.

Lucian's lips pulled back in a sneer and he sent his foot into her chest, making her shout out in pain. He crouched next to her head and tipped her chin up so their gazes met.

"Be grateful that I'm treating you so well."

He walked away, leaving Ranov'la dazed with a throbbing head and chest. She propped herself against the frame of the bed and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath.

She didn't suspect that her rib was broken, because Lucian wasn't strong enough to do that.

She giggled to herself at the insult. 

Perhaps she had a severe head injury.

Ranov'la sighed and wiped the blood on her forehead away, then looked down at it.

The blood had smudged on the tattoo, staining the rose in the cage red.

A bloody rose in a cage.

Ranov'la giggled again, though even she didn't know what was funny.

"Ranov'la," Lucian gently said as he returned. "Let me treat you."

He lowered himself down next to her and applied the bacta to her head, murmuring praises to her as she hissed at the sting. He kept telling her how well she was doing, and a tear slipped from her eye, travelling down her cheek.

"I know, you're so brave," Lucian told her. "But this is what happens when you don't listen. You did this to yourself."

"Okay," Ranov'la muttered and leaned her head against him, in a moment of vulnerability.

Lucian smiled, his chest and pants tightening as she tucked herself into his side.

I hate Lucian.