**Chapter 499**
**Breaking the Chains**
**Lantilles – Jedi Training Base**
**Dagon POV**
The training had gone on for nearly two hours.
Aayla was drenched. Spoiled milk soaked her hair, dripped from her lekku, and plastered her training tunic to her body, outlining every curve. Her chest heaved with exertion and barely contained rage. Not a single red balloon had been popped.
I circled her slowly, calm on the outside while my mind raced. *This might not be working the way I hoped… but she's feeling something. Better anger than emptiness.*
I stepped in close, faster than she could react, and ran my fingers firmly along the sensitive underside of her left lekku. Aayla gasped sharply, a mix of fury and unwanted pleasure flashing across her face. Before she could pull away, I delivered a light but firm spank to her ass, the sound echoing through the training hall.
She whirled on me, lightsaber flashing. "Stop touching me!"
I dodged the strike effortlessly, appearing behind her again. This time I tickled her side, making her flinch and curse, then brushed her other lekku with deliberate slowness.
"You're still holding back," I said, voice low. "All that pain, all that betrayal… and you're still trying to be the perfect Jedi."
Aayla spun, slashing wildly. I redirected her blade with a Force push and flung another sphere of milk at her face. It splattered across her cheek and mouth. She spat it out, eyes blazing.
I decided it was time to go deeper.
"I know about Volfe Karkko," I said calmly, circling her. "The Anzat Jedi Master who turned Sith. The one who seduced you. You and Quinlan killed him. I found his holocron on Saleucami. Not much in it… so I destroyed it."
Aayla's grip tightened on her lightsaber until her knuckles paled.
I continued, voice steady but probing. "Saleucami also had Anzati assassins training cloned CIS forces. I killed them. But one had notes on you and Vos. Detailed notes."
Her breathing grew ragged. The milk continued dripping from her body as she glared at me with raw hatred.
"You saw Quinlan as a father figure… a master… and a lover," I said softly. "Enough to form a Force bond. But it was never going to be enough, was it?"
"Shut up!" Aayla screamed, lunging at me again.
I sidestepped and gently swatted her lekku once more, making her stumble with a frustrated moan.
"You knew, deep down," I pressed. "Even if the Jedi didn't allow attachments, you knew Vos shouldn't have been sleeping with every woman he met on covert missions."
"He was a Jedi!" Aayla shouted, voice cracking. "It was for the good of the Order!"
I stopped moving, facing her directly. "So that's the lie you told yourself? Sleeping with women for information was acceptable? I won't deny that my own situation breaks the Jedi Code — I have a harem based on love and real commitment. I would never sleep around for missions. But even if you and Vos could have been together… would he have stayed faithful?"
Aayla's lightsaber trembled in her grip. Tears mixed with the milk on her face.
"He wouldn't," she whispered brokenly, the fight draining from her voice for the first time. "He never stayed… not really."
The training hall fell silent except for her heavy breathing.
I stepped closer, not touching her this time. My voice softened. "You deserved better than that, Aayla. You deserved someone who saw you as more than a tool or a conquest. Someone who would stay."
She looked up at me, eyes red and filled with centuries of pain. For a long moment, neither of us moved.
Then, with a scream of pure anguish, Aayla charged — not with technique, but with everything she had been holding back. Her strikes were wild, powerful, and honest.
I didn't taunt her anymore.
I simply defended, letting her pour out the poison that had been rotting inside her for far too long.
From the sidelines, the girls watched in silence. Ahsoka's expression was pained but understanding. Shin gave me a small nod — approval and concern mixed together.
This wasn't going to fix Aayla in one night.
But it was a beginning.