**Chapter 510**
**Shadows of the Past**
**Aayla POV**
**Aboard the Gray Wolf – Private Armory and Dressing Chamber**
The armory dressing room was surprisingly spacious and warm, filled with the soft hum of overhead lights and the faint scent of cleaning oil and polished beskar. Aayla Secura stood near her assigned locker, still adjusting to the casual intimacy of the group as she pulled on her modified armor.
"So… you guys all dress in the same room?" she asked, unable to keep the curiosity out of her voice.
Kayla, halfway into her pink-accented chest plate, glanced over with a casual shrug. "Uh, yeah. Is that a problem?"
Visenya, completely unbothered as she fastened her breastplate over her bare torso, smiled softly. "Yeah, we're all married and we've done a lot more embarrassing stuff together. Being naked around each other isn't really an issue anymore."
Aayla's lekku twitched. She looked over at Dagon, who was calmly checking the seals on his black beskar armor. "And… Dagon, you're okay with this?"
He looked up, a small, tired but genuine smile crossing his face. "To be honest, after the first few times we were all together, the shyness just… went away. It feels natural now."
Aayla was quiet for a moment, processing. Then her curiosity shifted to something deeper.
"Okay, question — and this is just me being direct — how did you unlock such great power in the dark side?" She glanced at the others, who had all paused in various states of undress. "I understand you were a soldier from an apocalyptic world, but before you started using the Mind Prison technique… according to Ahsoka, you made a ball of lightning powerful enough to destroy a CIS frigate."
The room grew still. The girls exchanged glances. Ahsoka looked down. Shin's hands paused on her vambraces.
Dagon was quiet for a long moment. Then he sighed, setting his helmet down.
"You know… this was always going to come up eventually," he said, voice low. "Since I'm guessing apart from the moments you girls saw — which I allowed — there are darker parts of my life. How I earned the nickname 'Dagon Blood' in my old world." He tapped a command on his wrist gauntlet. "Luckily, the Shield has a new feature. It can show memories."
A holographic projector built into the gauntlet activated. The air shimmered, and a haunting scene materialized before them.
---
A young boy — no older than eleven — stood in the middle of a nightmare.
Bodies lay around him, melting from some horrific chemical or energy attack. His leg was impaled on a jagged piece of rebar. Human savages surrounded him, laughing cruelly.
The boy's screams echoed through the recording, raw and broken:
"I CAN'T BEAR THE PAIN ANYMORE…
AHHH… I WANT TO DIE…
LET ME DIE… PLEASE… I WANT TO DIE…
I DON'T WANT TO DIE…
LET ME DIE FAST…
CAN'T DIE YET…
IN TRUTH… I DON'T WANT TO DIE…
I DON'T HAVE THE WILL TO LIVE ANYMORE…
EVERYTHING FEELS LIKE BEFORE…
I WONDER WHY I'M STILL ALIVE…
NO!
TO BE PUSHED TO THIS EXTENT…
WHY DO I WISH TO 'LIVE'?
WHY AM I…
I WANT TO GO HOME…"
Then something inside the boy snapped.
He ripped the rebar from his own leg with a guttural scream and began slaughtering the savages around him — ripping throats, smashing skulls, moving with primal, terrifying fury.
"IF IT'S 'LIVE TO RETURN'…
I WILL KILL…
NO MATTER WHO THE FUCK MY ENEMY IS…"
The hologram faded.
---
The dressing room was deathly silent.
Dagon stared at the spot where the image had been, his expression distant. "I wanted to go home after twenty-five years of war. I still wasn't home at age fifty after forty-three years of brutal fighting. Without any kindness… I was finally home, just to die."
He looked up at them, red star burning softly in his eye.
"I didn't think it would be a problem originally. The dark side, the Force — they didn't exist where I came from. So eventually it became second nature for me to be dark. The memories, the war… it was burned into the very core of my soul."
Aayla felt her throat tighten. The girls moved without hesitation.
Ahsoka was first, wrapping her arms around him tightly. Zule pressed against his other side. Shin rested her head on his shoulder. Kayla, Visenya, Flare, Stella, and Erictia surrounded him completely, offering silent comfort through touch and presence.
Aayla stepped closer, hesitant at first, then gently placed her hand on his armored arm. "I… I'm sorry. I didn't know."
Dagon exhaled slowly, leaning into their warmth. "Now you do. That's who I was. That's what I became to survive. The dark side isn't something I chose — it chose me long before I ever knew the Force existed."
He looked at each of them, eyes softening. "But you… all of you… you're helping me remember there's more than just survival. More than just killing to go home."
Aayla felt something shift inside her chest — a quiet understanding. She wasn't the only broken one here. They all carried scars.
She stepped fully into the circle, resting her forehead against Dagon's shoulder.
"Thank you for showing me," she whispered.
Dagon's armored hand gently rested on her back. "We don't hide from each other anymore."
The group stayed like that for a long moment — eight women and one war-weary man, finding strength in shared vulnerability.