#sheeeeeesh

Rakha stirs, coming awake within her dream inside the Astral Prism. The familiar sense of peace and silence touches her mind, shutting out the squirming of the tadpole, the growling of the beast.

Instead she hears only the Emperor, its basso murmur resonant in the silence humming with magic.

"They say that home is where a person can be their truest selves," it says thoughtfully as it sees her open her eyes. "Without guile, without pretense. You did well to see off the githyanki who had invaded mine."

She opens her eyes and looks up, and then blinks several times, bewildered.

The Emperor is sitting half out of its armor, stretched on the stone next to her, watching her with its intense, violet gaze. It doesn't move as she sits up slowly, just tracks its eyes to hers unblinkingly.

"And now," it goes on, slowly and deliberately, "that you have seen where I come from, you know all there is to know about me. At least all that matters."

It leans forward slightly towards her by a few inches. "The flavors of my favorite fiddlehead soup, should you wish to experience it for yourself. My beloved confidant and loyal companion, Rascal. The very first reward I gifted myself on completion of my first adventure. The garments with which I concealed and later constructed my appearance as the Emperor. We spoke of my relationship with Duke Belynne Stelmane, a story I have told no one else."

It tilts its head. She gets the impression that it is watching her expression very closely. "I have no more secrets from you," it says gravely. "No need to resort to subterfuge. We are true allies now, working towards a common goal."

(A/N: Rakha's relationship with the Emperor really has been such an interesting ride.

There was actually a point where I thought that Rakha might - in a fit of terrible decision-making and depressive self-sabotage - sleep with the Emperor at this point, if she was in a bad enough place over the revelations about her heritage and desperate enough for the comfort that the Prism (and the Emperor) provides.

However, Wyll and Jaheira a little bit, and far more importantly MINSC, have had a tremendous impact on her in the last couple of in-game days. I really did not at all expect the degree to which Minsc would throw her entire world off its axis and put cracks in her certainty about allying with the Emperor or even the idea that it has good intentions towards her at all.

It was already jarring when she heard the Emperor describe Minsc derisively with terms that Rakha would also apply to herself. But that one conversation with Minsc - about the Emperor appearing as Dynaheir - changed her entire perspective. It told Minsc what he wanted to hear, Minsc said, and all of a sudden Rakha hears everything the Emperor says with more skepticism.

And this conversation is FULL of manipulation, a barrage of facts and imagery designed to make the Emperor look humanized and vulnerable. And frankly if Minsc hadn't put Rakha so much on her guard so recently, it might be working a lot better.

I really wish there was an option to call the Emperor out specifically on the Dynheir thing - about appearing to someone as their dead friend, and would he have done that to her too if she had any friends that she remembered - but sadly there isn't.)

"Why did you resort to subterfuge at all?" she asks slowly. Her voice is the same as it always is, flat and matter-of-fact and somewhat tired, but she can see the Emperor stiffen at the question.

"The only way we were ever going to get close enough to the brain to destroy it was by working together," it says, trying now to match her matter-of-fact attitude. "But few would trust a mind flayer, so I did what I had to do to convince you. I studied you. Your motivations, your actions, your desires. I deduced the best way to align your goals with my own."

It told Minsc exactly what he wanted to hear...

Part of her is afraid, desperately afraid. This place, this little pocket dimension, has been one of her only sources of true peace since this whole mess began. Perhaps she should cling to it, shy away from the fight, maintain the status quo rather than risk losing this iota of safety...

But there is rage in her, too - rage at seeing how she has been manipulated, at hearing the Emperor acknowledge it so baldly. And with the beast sedated in her brain, it is her rage for once, all her, boiling through every vein.

"You tried to control me," she rasps.

"I needed your absolute dedication to the cause," it responds placidly. "I anticipated the challenge, and I anticipated your resistance. What I didn't anticipate was how reasonable you would be. You don't like to be coddled, cajoled. But you responded well to logic, to rational arguments, to cold hard facts. You saw straight to the core of what really mattered."

(A/N: LOL. Well that's fun. :D That's an incredibly accurate assessment of Rakha, actually. Apparently the distinction between this description and the one Hector got (where the Emperor goes straight to the seduction) is whether or not you've slurped the Astral Worm, but it does work so incredibly well in a more general sense for how Rakha's personality has evolved. XD )

Rakha shifts uncomfortably. It does know her very well indeed, there's no question of that. And there was a time when that would have brought her comfort, desperate and hungry for understanding and comfort as she has been.

But it's too late now, isn't it? The glass is cracked, and the dark behind it can't be unseen.

"I enjoyed our conversations," she mutters. There's regret in her tone, and a flicker of rueful amusement too. On some level she listened to the Emperor because she wanted to, regardless of its actions.

"As did I." It pushes itself to its feet in an abrupt, smooth motion.

She follows warily, her shoulders hunched slightly forward as if expecting an attack that doesn't come. Surely it sees by now that she no longer trusts it. Surely it will see occasion to lash out. She would, in its place.

But it takes a different tack, one she does not expect at all.

"Sometimes," it says, its voice lowering almost to a purr, "I felt almost like we were dancing our way towards something deeper..."

(A/N: Lol. Lmao, even. In this scenario this is such a blatant last-ditch hail mary attempt on the Emperor's part that it's deeply funny. There is no way it would be trying this with Rakha unless EVERYTHING else had failed.)

Rakha stares at it. Something deeper.

She remembers very little of the world, but she is no fool, and she has had enough people express interest in her since she woke up that she has no trouble parsing what this means. Romance. Sex.

It thinks she can be convinced that she cares about it, the way she does Wyll. It thinks it can TAKE her from Wyll, and use that to keep her attentive, obedient, docile. It thinks she would turn on Wyll for quick pleasure, flattery...

...or for the promise of the Prism always within her grasp, bound by romantic attachment as well as necessity.

She swallows uncomfortably. That last part is, unfortunately, all too tempting regardless of the circumstance. But is it enough to be worth betraying Wyll? Is it enough to surrender to the manipulation, rather than stand against it as Minsc did?

No.

No. No. No. No. No. NO.

"Absolutely not, you bastard,"(*) she snarls, a wounded animal crying defiance at the trap closed around its leg.

The Emperor's head snaps back, its eyes narrowing to purple slits. "Bastard?" it murmurs. "If only you knew..." Then a strange rattling noise like an alien laugh. "But why conceal it? You may as well see for yourself."

It moves lightning quick, lifting a hand and squeezing it into a fist. At once Rakha feels her whole body go stiff as a board, and her vision flares to white and into a series of images - familiar but different, a slightly different angle, just enough to reveal the cold... hard... facts...

The Emperor hovering over a woman's squirming body - Duke Stelmane, in her quarters in the Elfsong. Her eyes flashing open as her body goes still, a purple light in her eyes signifying total mental control. That violent glint still in her eyes as she speaks with merchants across the table from the Emperor in the headquarters of the Knights of the Shield. A blank, slackjawed expression on her face as she raises a glass numbly in its direction.

No sign of the warm partnership the Emperor described. Subservience. Control. Helpless submission.

The vision snaps away like a light going out, and Rakha comes back to herself to find the Emperor staring daggers at her, its tentacles twitching wildly. "Did you like it?" it growls. "The truth? This was the alternative relationship we *could* have had. Aren't you glad I finessed my methods?"

It drifts a step closer, and Rakha backpedals just out of its reach, feeling her heart rate start to quicken.

"But since you insist on thwarting my craft," it goes on, inexorable and cold as a rolling glacier, "let us be blunt. You are my puppet. Make no mistake. Without me, you have no value. You will take me to the brain because you have no other choice. And once we are there, you will do exactly what I tell you to."

It draws another foot closer and her skin prickles as one of its tentacles brushes casually against her arm. "And you would do well to reconsider unlocking your potential. Your puerile attachment to your material form jeopardizes us all. If I must, I will force you."

(A/N: Holy shit. a;lskjdf;alsjkdf;lasdja wow. Okay. I knew that it was possible to learn that the Emperor's intentions towards Stelmane weren't as charitable as it made them out to be, but this is such an incredible mask-off switch, far more intense than I was aware of. And holy SHIT does this cut Rakha right to the marrow. She TRUSTED this asshole. She really, truly believed that she was following well-intentioned guidance, and it is making it perfectly clear now that it sees her as nothing but a gnat that it knew it could control.

You are my puppet. Without me you have no value. Goddamn, what a kick in everything Rakha most fears about herself. Sheesh.)

Rakha's whole body is trembling with desperate, helpless rage. Only the knowledge that killing the Emperor here and now would leave her vulnerable to the brain's transformation keeps her from throttling its tentacles off one by one. Thank the gods that the beast sleeps in the Astral, or it would surely be the end of everything.

The Emperor is right about one thing. They need each other. But they will not always. One day this will be finished - and then she most certainly has debts she will be coming to collect.

"First chance I get," she growls hoarsely, "I will rip your head off, mind flayer."

"I'll remember that," it answers coldly, and with a wave of its hand sends her falling backwards into darkness.

-----

Wyll and Jaheira both hear Rakha come awake. Both of them look over as she squirms in her bindings in the corner of camp, beginning to thrash around violently for a few moments before suddenly going still. In the nighttime quiet they can hear the harshness of her breathing.

This isn't exactly unusual; she wakes from terrible, bloody dreams all the time. But somehow this is different, and after a moment Wyll goes to her side to check on her, laying a hand on her shoulder.

She jerks away from the touch, curling into herself. "You were right..." he hears her whisper, almost inaudibly. There's rage in the tone - and fear too, and the combination has sent her trembling in every limb. "You were right. You were right... you were right... you were right..."

"Right?" he asks gently. "What happened? Right about what?"

But she shakes her head and doesn't elaborate, just lies there shivering with her eyes open, staring towards the fire, for a very, very long time.

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