Carnifex watched silently as Stardust resigned herself to playing his game, his face an impassive mask as she told the other prisoner that she was sorry for what she had to do.
As he had calculated.
Stardust rushed up from the chair, yelling a mighty battle cry, and grappled with the other prisoner on the floor. Carnifex approached slowly, hands clasped around his waist, and stood witness as Stardust took the blade that he had given her and drove it into the other man. She struck him again and again, blood arcing out to splatter across the floor in a crimson wave. She did not stop until all life had drained out from the other prisoner, his body limply lying in a steadily growing red pool.
Stardust rose, blood coating her beautiful green skin, and without remorse flung the dagger directly into the face of one of his guards. There was a gurgling cry of alarm, and then the guard toppled down onto his back and convulsed for a few seconds before falling still. The other guard did not move, his training and obedience rooting him to the spot even at the death of his companion.
"Good, very good." Carnifex approached Stardust slowly, like a wicked creature stalking towards its cornered prey. He reached out and smudged a droplet of blood that had fallen on Stardust's cheek. "You have done well, Stardust. Though you should know that I had not been entirely honest with you," he walked over to where the prisoner laid, his lifeless eyes staring blankly at the ceiling. Carnifex stopped just before his boots would track into the blood, which unnaturally changed course away from him.
"This was not a member of Clan Solus, nor was he ever a Mandalorian. He was the son of an Alliance senator, one whose own father surrendered him to me. And do you know why?" Carnifex shifted his body to look at Stardust, "Because I asked him to. Because this corpse's father serves me utterly; body, mind, and soul. Should I have requested that the Senator kill his son with his own hand, he would have done so. Should I have requested he kill his wife and her unborn child, he would have done so. Should I have requested he take his own life, shoot himself through the air, jump from his podium on the Senate floor in full view of his colleagues, he would have done so gladly."
Carnifex turned his gaze to look upon the last remaining guard, who remained frozen in place awaiting orders. "Just as this guard, which you have spared your rage, will do my bidding without question." Carnifex then gave the order, "Terminate yourself." The guard reached to his side, removed his blaster pistol from its holster, pressed the barrel against the underside of his chin, and pulled the trigger. His body collapsed the floor a moment later, blood pooling out from where the bolt had traveled through his brain and out his cranium.
Carnifex then turned his gaze back to Stardust, "Just as you have eagerly done my bidding, killed an innocent boy because I said the name of a long-dead woman. Do you want to know the truth about Yasha Cadera?" Carnifex approached Stardust, his form looming threateningly over her as he continued to speak. "She's dead, Stardust, I killed her in cold blood. Australis' bullets may have wounded her, but it was my blade that cut through her heart. That thing that cavorts with those fools on Alderaan? That's nothing more than a bundle of memories imprinted on living biotechnology, that's not the real Yasha, the real Yasha died on Mandalore."
Carnifex reached out, wrapping his fingers around Stardust's neck and lifting her up into the air as his immense power in the Force seized her limbs and forced them to remain at her side. "Do you want to know where the real Yasha is, Stardust?" His eyes then shifted to look at the spot where Gunnr and Girak-Kaine were watching, silently and out of view. "She's right here," Carnifex whispered, a far cry from the almost boisterous roar his voice had previously been mere seconds before.
His fingers released their grasp on Stardust's throat, and she was allowed to fall to the floor with full possessions of her limbs restored. His admission that Yasha was here at this very moment was the cue for Gunnr to reveal herself from the shadows and join her husband at his side. "After Yasha died on Mandalore, I came into possession of her spirit. The priests on Ithor attempted to hide from me what was rightfully mine, so I destroyed them and their precious pond. I brought Yasha's spirit back to Panatha," Carnifex reached out to gently play with Gunnr's hair, coiling one strand around his finger. "And I placed it into a new body, with new memories, with a new life."
"Gunnr is Yasha, she always has been. She has always been mine."