Your gateway to endless inspiration
Damn! This is surprisingly heartwrenching.
Darth Malak deserved better - not just because you have no choice but to kill him in game (thank goodness for fanfic options!) but because the tragic fall is always more interesting than cartoonish evil.
And Alek of the KotOR comics is the perfect set up for the tragic fall. Someone never quite sure of himself, someone too caught in the orbit of Revan’s brightness. Bound to burn out.
Here’s a bit of my take on Darth Malak, fighting against being Alek. Liminal Space on AO3 It was right there, Revan’s ship. He’d expect it, of course, this betrayal, maybe even wanted Malak to try to give him an excuse to strike back. Revan had been displeased with him again, seemed to always be these days. Alek, we have much to discuss when I return, he’d said before he’d left, a slight threat in his cold monotone. Alek. When it was just the two of them, Revan insisted on the name still. That hurt, a reminder of what should be, the thing they’d broken. Revan was, of course, only Revan now. Revan hadn’t removed his mask that last time. Even so, Malak had felt his eyes, watching, tracing the metal line of his jaw. Do you like what you’ve made, Revan? He’d brushed the edge of the mask, daring Revan to do something, anything, but he’d just stared, face hidden, and said nothing. Malak had decided then. Hating stopped the hurting or at least made you forget. And hating made you strong. Revan had tried to keep him from the Star Forge, Alek, you let it control you. Lies. He was jealous, Revan, jealous because the Star Forge spoke to Malak in ways it didn’t speak to him. Malak could feel it pulsing in his veins, the rhythm of the crystal that fueled it, felt himself growing stronger the longer he stayed. He’d watched the battle from the bridge of his own ship, unable to contain his laughter, or rather that cruel mechanical sound that passed for his laugh, when the Jedi strike team had boarded Revan’s ship. Truly the Force was with him, wanted him to win, wanted him to take out Revan and the Jedi all in one blow. Admiral Karath, fire on Lord Revan’s ship. Sir? Fire. On the bridge. I want no survivors. The explosion was beautiful, the flashes of light against the black of space. If he’d had a mouth, Malak would have smiled. He felt it, Revan’s death; didn’t feel like he’d expected, though, thought it would hurt, but it was barely a whimper. Later, when he was alone, Alek would blink back silent tears that knotted his throat, would wish he’d been on the bridge of the ship exploding in the emptiness of space.