Memories of You (Reader/Grievous)

Chapter 1

Complicated. That was the only word you could use to even begin describing how you felt about what you had experienced. In all of one day, you'd been kidnapped, nearly killed three times, then confronted with a lover you had thought died nearly a year ago. A lover who was, for all accounts, nothing more than a whispered name to be written in old legends of a race that wasn't your own.

Honestly, you didn't even recognize him at first. He had changed in body and mind so completely that there was almost nothing left of him in soul. Metal encased what little organic flesh left to him, his voice rendered harsh and ragged from the damage of the crash you had assumed killed him mere days, weeks, months beforehand. In hindsight, you would have called it a miracle, a blessing, a work of whatever gods that existed in the heavens to bring back one of the only people you trusted with your entire existence.

But at the first moment of seeing him, the only emotion that flooded your veins was utter terror.

Your wrists were bound. Your shoulders were in the clutches of droids, held still as if they still felt a worry that you would attempt to turn and run (as if there was anywhere to run to, since the ship itself had long since left the surface of the planet). The pressure hurt, but it had soon become nothing more than a dull, pulsing ache. Something that would leave bruises the next day.

He entered the empty, darkened room with an air of muddled regality. A wounded, but very deadly predator, movements as sleek and fluid as a river as it crashed down the side of a mountain. Even slouched and across the room, his height was obvious and tremendous over your own-plenty to make you feel intimidated with your first, sharp gasp upon sight of him.

He was a shadow. He was a beast. But you didn't truly realize the extend of the rumors for the creature's aura of strength until he stood before you.

To call him a droid was not only offensive in later hindsight, but outright incorrect. Even though his cape surrounded most of his shoulders, there were still slight, but pulsing organs within his chest, protected with durasteel plates. His face was covered in a skeletal-like mask, but what struck you with the most awe and terror weren't any of the former items, but his eyes.

They were sharp, like a predator. Gold and sleek, they were not the eyes of any sort of droid you had ever seen. They were organic. They were powerful. They were the eyes of a skilled warrior and expert tactician.

But there was something more about those sharp, golden eyes that stared down at you, unyeilding and silent. They were familiar eyes. You had seen them before. A year before, to be exact.

To say you couldn't breathe was an understatement.

You couldn't even think.

"Sir," One of the droids beeped behind you, half-forcing you out of your terrified eye-lock. "This is the villager you requested to be brought on-board."

The general didn't reply at first. His stare held on you, so harsh and striking that all you could do in feeble response was glance down at the ground, body shaking like a leaf in the wind. The air was suddenly so cold, even though you were wearing layers of heavy cloth that was originally supposed to compensate for far, far colder weather. You had grown far too used to the heat of another planet before they had sent you away.

Luckily, the silence wasn't prolonged for more than half a minute. However, it was punctuated with a question that you didn't expect to get from the most feared general of the droid armies of the Separatists. It was simple. It was concise. It was...gentle.

"Tell me your full name." It wasn't exactly something you expected from him, and the confusion must have been obvious on your face when you finally glanced up at him. But the motion, the confusion, maybe even the assumed hesitation angered the general, because he took a sudden step forward and loomed even more heavily over your body.