Song: "The High Council Meeting and Qui-Gon's Funeral" from The Phantom Menace OST

Khetsuu carried Saikhan's limp body back to Kaleela and cremated her in front of the hall privately. His clothes, blistered with ash and covered in her blood, stuck to his thinning body as he glared motionless into the blaze where she slept. Tears dripped down his face as he stood alone with her.

That's five now. Five that I've loved and lost.

He washed himself, pressed balm to his wrists and neck and cheeks, then dressed for the night. Swooping up his daughter, who was standing against the wall for support, he drank in her screams of laughter.

I still love. I am not fury.

The terror over his brutality paralyzed him so he almost dropped Rón. I'll move on. I'll love the others more fervently than before. I can undo my mistakes.

He caught a sob from the inner room and set his daughter down, kissing her briefly on the cheek. "I'll be right out."

She nodded shyly, still not able to form words well enough to say Okay. Khetsuu rushed into the bedroom where Shia was holding the form of a dead woman.

He backed up; his mouth might as well be stuffed with cotton. Tikhél lay limp on the ground, her eyes blank and her body stiff.

Shia's voice was grave. "The others are ill. They're fading quickly."

But her voice could have been coming from far away, from the other side of life, or perhaps from so far away he did not register the words.

She doesn't know about Saikhan and the others yet.

His knees buckled, and he caught the door of the closet just before he fell. Unable to speak—for his throat was constricted. Tikhél. Oh, Tikhél.

"Queru died earlier today." Her voice was soft. Has she forgiven me for my affairs?

And why didn't she tell me when I was grieving Saikhan?

"Qymaen?" she asked as he went to the door. "Why don't you speak?"

✺✺✺

Khetsuu rushed out of the house with Rón, violent trembling descending over him. His voice was insistent. "Rón, you must run away."

But his daughter blinked enormous, slit-pupiled eyes at him with silent sadness. What am I thinking? She's only a year old. She won't understand.

He couldn't take her anywhere where she'd be safe from the illness that had seized Tikhél and Queru, and that would seize Shia and the others in its snake-like bond soon enough. And offworld, she would get hunted down by the Huk system and killed even more brutally.

She brushed his cheek with a meaty hand. Her mouth formed a single word. "Ah....pah?"

Khetsuu gripped her shoulders. "Rón...." Her eyes stared deeply into his own, and she kissed him on both cheeks, giving a silent grin.

The image of Amidala flashed through his mind. She was willing to help us.

For my own pride, I may end up sacrificing my sweet Rón in cold blood.

"I lost your namesake," he murmured, encasing her in his arms. "I won't lose you too. I'll figure something out."

✺✺✺

"Don't touch me," he growled at Shia, pacing around their bedroom. "Not now."

"Why?" she asked. "I know you're in pain. But—"

"They are all dead," he said severely. "Nine women in two weeks."

"Let me heal you," Shia said, reaching out to catch him in an embrace again, but he pulled away. "You have been alone for too long. Come, love me."

"I don't care. Leave me alone."

"I will not," she said, resting her hands across her rounding belly. "You refused to do something about the famines or the trafficking. At least don't push me away too."

"You should have thought of that before you married me."

Shia was silent, and he turned to the wall. "All those men are dead. And I liked it. I was stronger—more powerful than can be perceived."

Shia's half-human face twisted in confusion, and he continued speaking as if the words came from someone else. His tone grew deeper. Darker. Icier. "And now I will submit to no one. I will not accept help—not from the Republic. I will break the necks of all those heathens in the Galactic Senate, and I will eliminate every last Yam in this God-forsaken galaxy!"

Shia gripped her stomach and backed up. "Qymaen, stop!"

His voice came out laced with naked fury. "If I hear my first name used again, the speaker shall instantly be killed."

She gazed at him in horror. "I'm going," Khetsuu said. "I'm getting us out of this situation myself."

He'd lost them. He'd lost them all. Nine wives and twenty-eight children, all dead because of the illness that had claimed their sweet bodies. He would not lose Shia, Rón, or the tiny life growing within his wife.

He grew heavy against her, his knees buckling all at once. Gripping her close to him, he took shuddering breaths with his eyes free of tears, but gods, how he longed to sob in her arms—but he submitted to no one and nothing, not even the truth that he had to openly grieve them. And for the first time since they had married, she refused to return the embrace.

◈◈◈

Did you know....

● My favorite aspect of Grievous in Legends is how he cared for his children. Labyrinth of Evil (my favorite Legends novel ever) details how after his battles, he would come back to Kalee just to be with them again.

● The song above is something I imagine him to sing to Rón. 

Tell me what you think....

● Have you read Labyrinth of Evil? If so, what was your favorite part?

● What would you do in Khetsuu's situation?

● What really keeps him from taking Rón somewhere safe?