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ARAMINTA didn't like pirates. Octavian had often had them work with unsavoury allies who would become enemies the second a transaction was made. She didn't like them because they were predictably unpredictable, they would always want more and would always be disloyal. That was something Octavian had prided his charges in, that they were loyal and in control, they were not messy and easily swayed. They remained strong by being disciplined and at attention, and Araminta had represented that from the moment she had received her brand.
It was definitely not heightened by the fact that the pirates now reminded her of how she had once thought and had to think to succeed as Octavian's charge. That she looked at them and saw her past and, at some point, what would have been her future. She saw people she had worked with, people she had manipulated and betrayed on orders, she saw people who were capable of the same immoral things. They had no limits if it meant they got what they wanted. Even if what they wanted was vastly different.
It wasn't that. Because that would just be admitting she had shifted since being an assassin and had no idea where she stood. So she told herself it was just another one of her old habits that may never die. How she still did her routine in the morning, how she slept with a weapon on her, she never entered a room without looking for escape routes, and she still remained capable of killing. Disliking pirates and what they stood for was another habit that hadn't died. And when Araminta woke up with her world spinning, she was reminded why the habit existed in the first place.
She heard shuffling before her eyes opened, two bodies beside hers. Hopefully Anakin and Obi-wan. Araminta hissed as she tried to open her eyes, and then again as she pulled her eyebrows pinching her eyes shut. There was a beat of silence, and then someone moved and rolled her gently over. Araminta kept her eyes shut, feigning unconsciousness until she was sure who she was with, or that she had the strength to defend herself after waking.
"Is she awake?" Anakin's voice warbled.
"No," she spat out around dry lips.
"Oh, good, she's alright," Obi-wan said dryly.
Araminta cracked her eyes open again, seeing Anakin above her. He looked as disoriented as she felt, eyes hooded but lips still turned into a smirk. The assassin winced again and pushed herself upright, bracing herself with her hands. Anakin didn't move immediately, tilting his head back to avoid colliding skulls with her as she sat up, placing their faces annoyingly close together.
She was the one to back up, blinking and noticing her wrists were bound together with mechanical cuffs, which emitted a glowing blue cord that was connected to restraints around her middle, and then around the middle of her companions.
"What happened?" Anakin asked, turning away from Araminta to the older Jedi.
"Well, I guess that pirate brew is stronger than we thought," Obi-wan sighed.
