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imogenkol · 1 year

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❝ hey stop— stop! look at me. they’re dead now. you can stop. ❞ + imogen/bix xxx

First of all, sorry this took me forever to get to! Second, thank you!!!! I probably enjoyed this one a lil too much… but so did Imogen. Warning for strangulation under the cut!

Bix stopped dead in her tracks and Imogen saw the color drain from her face. She tried to follow her line of sight, but nothing in the crowd stood out. “What is it?” she asked and stepped closer, protectively reaching for Bix’s waist.

“That man over there by the café,” Bix muttered as her body started to tremble. Imogen saw him now. A rather unremarkable looking man in an Imperial doctor’s uniform conversed with another officer just outside of the establishment. He appeared exceptionally ordinary in almost every way, easily blending in with the many faces of the Empire and did not seem very threatening at all. Apart from his smile. Something about it felt off and unsettled even Imogen. “Doctor Gorst, he… he was the one who…”

“The one who interrogated you,” Imogen guessed. She did not need Bix to confirm, certainty settled deep within her bones and replaced the ice in her veins with a sudden fury – white-hot and steeped in hatred. The feeling tightly coiled her muscles like a predator who was about to pounce.

Panic seized Bix’s tone. “I-I can’t be here. If he sees me –”

“He won’t,” Imogen said with eerie calmness.

She kept her vengeful gaze locked on the doctor as she removed her coat and draped it over Bix’s shoulders. Gorst’s role as an Imperial interrogator granted him the privilege of two Stormtroopers to guard him in public spaces, but Imogen saw little issue in that. She pulled her attention away from the small group to address the mechanic.

“Keep out of sight,” she softly instructed and pulled the hood over Bix’s head. “He will not see you.”

Bix shook herself out of a stupor when Imogen began to walk away. Her hand shot out and caught the other woman’s wrist. “Hey, wait, what are you doing?”

“I’ll be right back.”

“Imogen –”

Imogen placed a reassuring hand on the side of Bix’s face, her thumb gently stroking her cheek. The look of alarm in her beloved’s eyes was the only excuse she needed. Imogen would not allow this ghost to haunt Bix any longer. “I will return to you shortly.”

Without another word, she severed their contact and smoothly blended into the general bustle on the street.

Imogen deftly weaved her way in between bodies that were nothing more than faceless obstacles to her, blocking her from her prey. The absence of her coat may not offer as much cover as she would prefer, but she kept her head down and managed not to draw attention to herself. The doctor finished his conversation and made his leave with the guards. Imogen trailed behind them while maintaining a safe distance, patiently waiting for the right opportunity to strike.

That opportunity came when the doctor was directed down a barely populated side street. Imogen had studied the city before their mission. She knew the layout enough to quickly calculate an alternate route which would position her ahead of them, allowing her the advantage of cutting them off at the pass. She picked up her pace and slipped into an alleyway behind two markets. A few quick turns and a couple of vaults over rusted fences later and she pressed up against a shadowed wall, attuning her senses to the footsteps that approached from around the corner. This will be swift and simple.

Once they were where she wanted them, Imogen stepped out to halt their progress. She eyed the doctor who tilted his head curiously at her unexpected appearance. The troopers on the other hand lifted their blasters and aimed directly at her chest.

“Move out of the way, citizen,” the one on the left ordered.

Imogen did not bother to even look at them. “Leave us,” she calmly commanded, her voice penetrating their minds and seizing control of their faculties. Both troopers simultaneously straightened as they lowered their weapons. Gorst frowned at his guards, but a short moment passed and Imogen watched with satisfaction as his eyes gradually widened in fear. She smiled and uttered one final instruction as the Stormtroopers harmlessly marched by her. “Seek out your commanding officers and apologize for abandoning your posts.”

They repeated her words in robotic tones and carried on until they were out of sight. Imogen stood like a statue in front of the doctor, soaking up the terror that rippled through him. Gorst still hadn’t uttered a single word – didn’t dare to. He stood nearly as still as Imogen, unsure when to expect the killing blow. She felt no rush.

“Do you wish to know what this is?” she asked.

Gorst swallowed hard and wrung his hands together. “I could hazard a guess, given my line of work.”

“You damaged someone very dear to me.”

A bead of sweat rolled down his temple. “I-I don’t damage them, I merely –”

Imogen waved her hand and the doctor flew across the alley until he slammed into the far wall with a grunt. The back of his head made a hollow sound as it knocked against ferrocrete. His pain was music to Imogen’s ears. She kept him pinned there and casually approached, unclipping her lightsaber from her belt.

Gorst began to grovel pathetically. “Please, please, it was just a job. It’s just my job!”

Imogen hesitated before igniting her blade. Just a job. It is never just a job when one is a servant to the Empire. She once derived sick pleasure from the horror committed by her own hands. The image of Gorst’s unsettling smile flashed in her mind’s eye. He enjoyed it as well. The doctor had even filled a seat she had once occupied, in a way. They were much too similar and it disgusted Imogen to her core, especially when the next face she conjured was Bix’s the day she rescued her from this very man’s torment.

Deciding Gorst was unworthy of such a death, Imogen clipped the saber hilt back onto her belt. The hand she held out to keep him in place slowly started to close. Through the Force, she felt the doctor’s windpipe shut under her influence. She watched him struggle for what little breath she allowed – watched his eyes bulge as he realized he could no longer draw in any oxygen. She watched his lips turn blue. She watched every second of it, not noticing that she had inched closer and closer.

It wasn’t until she felt a tendon in his neck snap that Imogen looked down to see her hand wrapped tightly around his throat. At some point she had stopped channeling the Force altogether to strangle this man with her bare hands. She did not relent. Life still pumped through his veins. Her free hand joined the other and she squeezed with all her might and then some. Doctor Gorst’s heart would not give in easily, but eventually it could no longer fight Imogen’s violent will to snuff it out.

A pair of warm calloused hands materialized and cradled the sides of Imogen’s face, yanking her out of the dark trance she had been in. “Hey, stop – stop! Look at me.” Bix’s rich brown eyes filled her field of vision as the mechanic directed her gaze away from the doctor. “He’s dead now. You can stop.”

The rest of the world snapped back into focus and Imogen finally released her grip, the empty shell of Doctor Gorst crumpling to the ground in a heap. “Bix,” she breathed. “What are you doing? Why are you here?”

Bix continued to pull her away. Her eyes kept shifting from what was left of Gorst to Imogen. “I was worried about you.”

“I’m fine. I took care of it.”

“Clearly.” Her eyes lingered on the body for a few moments with an expression Imogen struggled to decipher. “We should have taken him alive, Imogen.”

“No,” Imogen replied with a sneer towards the body. “We really shouldn’t have.”

“They’ll just replace him.”

She knew it to be true, even before she took Gorst’s life, but a vengeful passion flared within her. “Then I will kill them, too. And I will kill any more after that.”

Bix stared at Imogen, absorbing her vow, and reached for the same hand that had just strangled a man to death. Instead of the usual chill of her skin, Imogen’s palm felt hot as it delicately fit against Bix’s. “Thank you. Really, you know I’ll sleep a little better at night knowing he’s gone,” Bix said in earnest. “But you can’t do something like this again. The rebellion is struggling enough as it is, we need every bit of leverage we can get and Gorst could have been more valuable to us alive. This put the mission at risk, Imogen. I really don’t want to worry about what the alliance will do if they start to view you as a liability.”

From the very moment they warily allowed her in, Imogen expected the alliance were just waiting for an indiscretion such as this. She hadn’t cared in the slightest before and certainly had no intentions of apologizing, but the frightened gleam in Bix’s eyes struck Imogen with the sudden desire to correct her actions. What defense could she possibly make? That she murdered an asset because he deserved it as much as she did?

“I will deliver a more valuable prize instead,” Imogen declared.

“Like what?”

“I am still a hunter and the Empire is full of prey.”

#my writing #oc insp: imogen kol #ship insp: if i had a heart #the inquisitor really jumped out here #almost wanted to wait to write this until season two but fuck me am i not gonna wait a year and a half #also been thinking about how much Imogen will struggle in the rebellion #at the end of the day she will do what she wants and that will not jive with the rebels #Luthen probably views Imogen as a force of nature he can only channel for a short period of time before she's just too much of a liability #and well... he's not fully wrong about that #but if he decides he needs to cut her loose somehow... things might get ugly #prompts: if i had a heart

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