For the Last Time
Suggested Theme:
Main Theme- Shadow by Chromatics
The Pardoner is wrapped in a black shimmersilk robe and purple-black boots encase his feet. He is toweling his long red hair with a towel as white as the moon in the office's window. His Familiar is fluttering near him with their golden eyes focused on the moon's malicious grin.
"Do you wear those boots in the bath?" The Princess, The Senator, The Rebel, The Queen, The Jedi, The Mother, and The General across the universes remark as she half-concentrates on the flimsi in her wrinkled hands.
"I haven't shown my legs to your son, why should you get to see them?" He teases without the acid his General counterpart is infamous for.
"My son…how do you feel about him now?" His blue eyes look at the crescent and then flick back to her.
"While I was bathing in your ginormous tub, I entertained many ideas about him. My two favorites were that he had multiple personality disorder or that he was a superhero going through an identity crisis. Actually, identity crisis seems the most logical given the carved out names on the trees…" She grimaces at his excited tone like a first-time sleuth about to walk into a grisly murder.
"And you feel?" He smiles, then frowns, and then nothing.
"A lot…but they'll pass with time." She shakes her head.
"There's anger in you." He shakes his head in turn, wet droplets hit the white couch by him.
"When you're significant other has been lying to you since the start of your relationship, you get angry. However, I can understand why he lied. You see, on the Finalizer, Kylo Ren was known for whipping out his lightsaber and destroying equipment seemingly at random, and slamming Stormtroopers against the walls. Since he's strong in the Force, he probably felt their fear and hatred and heard their thoughts about how he's a temperamental screw-up that should've never been co-commander."
"So he probably invented 'Matt' to prove them wrong or prove that to himself. And then I crashed into him and asked him out. I did eventually asked about him and Kylo because they looked nearly identical, and he told me they were long-lost identical twins. I…guess he didn't fess up then because he was worried I would leave him. I don't think I would have, but… Maybe I would've taken a day to think about it more, have a long talk with him, and probably accept it."
"But he didn't tell the truth, and now it's blown up to this." He gestures wildly towards the portraits with his burnt hand. "I…need more than a day. But that can wait after the reunion."
"So you're not staying then?"
"Not forever, I have clients, friends that need me too. I can't just put my life on hold for something so…selfish in the grand scheme of things." He looks at her for offense, but she sighs.
"I understand."
—
The Reborn has his pale hands press up against the glass of the observation window. He is searching in the darkness for…
"You've wandered away from your caretakers again, Princess?" Ensign Gilead Pellaeon half teases and half enquires. With a spin that makes the stars on his collar weep, he gives the handsome blonde man his undivided attention.
"I bet you just wanted some alone time, didn't you?" He is often guarded by Stormtroopers or Dark Father himself, so it surprises the officers and the technicians whenever they find him by himself. Most return the little princess, as most of the officers and Stormtroopers have dubbed him, to Dark Father.
The Reborn only tilts his head to the side; the green teardrop of his black lace diadem touches his left eyebrow.
"I can't leave you alone, but I will watch the stars with you for a bit." Pellaeon compromises, and Eos accepts with a regal nod.
Kylo Ren remembers all of Han's smuggler tricks to sneak onto New Alderaan; Han hated dealing with the nosy custom agents at the ports that would search him regardless of the fact that he was married to the highest official on the planet.
He slips out of the ship without his helmet, but he makes sure to clip his lightsaber to his belt. He does not sense anything beyond the domesticated animals roaming about this piece of the archipelago.
Of course, she wouldn't drag the New Republic Defense Fleet for another family squabble. But I thought she would have some security force if only for show; I really only sense her, Armitage, and I think Sheeva. Where's Chewie? Where's Han? Did I finally give him the justification to leave and never come back? He remembers Ben, before the Praxeum, often fearing that his father wouldn't come back from his smuggling runs.
Armitage must know the truth now. Does he hate me? Is he only with mother out of vengeance? Or maybe he stayed to mediate our reunion? Will he stay afterwards? Or will he finally leave me? He feels like Ben, after murdering his fellow padawans, and has the urge to flee from this planet and the people inside the blue-tinted glass house.
His tattered cape rakes through the red-gold sand on the steps as he finally knocks twice on the door to meet his fate.
"Welcome home, Ben." His mother's hair has gone shockingly pale blue instead of the gray he imagined, while her face is lined with more wrinkles.
"Is my hair going to turn blue?" He blurts out, which makes his mother snort and shake her head.
"It should be gone within a week."
"You're going to go bald!?" His mother brings her right hand to her right temple and uses her fingers to rub circles; he recalls his mother doing this whenever Han or Luke said something inane.
"No, my hair color will return to normal. I don't know why your boyfriend would create a snake that spits hair dye as a wedding present." He shakes his head in wonderment, not bothering to attempt to understand Armitage's thought process behind the gift's creation.
"…..Is Armitage…okay?" He whispers and hates himself for acting like a child about to be punish for pouring Corellian whiskey on Threepio again.
"He's…..in the office. You should ask him yourself." She's frowning, so she wasn't able to decipher his emotional state completely. She hates not knowing everything about her opponents. But I think with Armitage she's concerned. Not sure if it's for me or for him. She hooks an arm with his, guiding him to the office and making sure he won't run away.
"Where's…..Han and Chewie?" He finally asks after they make it up the stairs. She sets her face politically blank, but her eyes shine with old hurt. He looks at his boots.
"They left after you….so did Luke. I don't know where they are." And he doesn't need the Force to know that she's telling the truth. He can feel her loneliness deep inside the Force; it's a deep blue like the long-gone oceans of her childhood.
"….It's okay. We're together." The words leave his lips as clumsily as it did when he was a toddler trying to make his mother happy again. She offers him a small, sad smile. Like always.
Sheeva sits on the edge of the white couch's arm, away from their Creator. His thin lips are pinched in a contemplative frown, while his blue eyes are looking beyond the half-rainbow's horizon.
In the bath, he had that same look. I know he's not happy and a bit angry, but I don't know what he plans on doing to Kylo/Matt. Or if he'll say anything at all to him. Sheeva frowns when he hears the swish of the door. Their Creator turns his damp head to the door to see Kylo/Matt with his arm linked with the Senator's.
"…Hi." Kylo/Matt nearly whispers like he's afraid that their Creator will run away.
"Hello…whoever you are." Their Creator smiles with hardness in his eyes.
"I…" Kylo/Matt bites on the bottom of his lip, recusing himself. His brown eyes look at the spot on the couch right by their Creator. Their Creator evaluates him briefly and then waves towards the other couches. The Senator with a grim look tugs Kylo/Matt to the couch facing their Creator.
"Let's begin with some small questions and very truthful answers. Kylo, Matt, Ben, Prince Amidala, what's your favorite color?" Kylo/Matt wrinkles his nose, while the Senator shoots him a quizzical look.
"Red."
"What's your favorite season?"
"Summer."
"What's your favorite food?"
"Franjo pancakes with Wroshyr lice syrup."
"What's your favorite flower?"
"Starblossoms."
Their Creator nods their head, and his eyes turn sea-green.
"I believe you. Now, I'm going to ask you two very important questions." Kylo/Matt tenses for a moment and then finally nods.
"Would you rather be a grasshopper or a butterfly?" Kylo/Matt and the Senator exchange looks of bewilderment, while their Creator patiently waits for an answer.
"…A butterfly." Kylo/Matt nearly asks why, but their Creator interjects.
"May I have a lock of your hair?" Kylo/Matt nods slowly and goes for the lightsaber clipped to his belt. Their Creator raises a hand to stop him.
"There has to be scissors here; where are the scissors, Senator?" She points to her desk; their Creator gets up and moves towards the desk. Kylo/Matt focuses on their Creator's backside for a moment, but then looks away with pink shame. Their Creator finds scissors in the first drawer of the desk and brings it back. Kylo/Matt pulls on a curling lock by his ear, and their Creator snips it. He catches it with his burnt hand and hands the scissors to the Senator.
"Goodnight." Their Creator turns to leave, and Kylo/Matt uses a free hand to get a fistful of the robe's bottom. Their Creator turns his head and stares at him with blue eyes.
"I thought you were going to stay." The Senator speaks for her son.
"I didn't say for how long." And he needs time away from them, so he can think without their influence. Sheeva concludes as Kylo/Matt tightens his hold on the robe.
"You and I need to talk!" Their Creator sighs and lays his mismatched hands on top of the gloved ones.
"We did and will again. I will return with your child." Kylo/Matt turns as white as the moon and shakes.
"Wow, you really don't want any children do you? I'm just going to make another Familiar, but with your DNA." Their Creator teases, and Kylo/Matt breathes in and out, while the Senator rubs his back.
"Oh….that's fine. Where are you going?" Their Creator's eyes change to green and a playful smile dances on his face.
"Dune. I need to ride the Maker." Pink splotches cover Kylo's/Matt's face, while the Senator looks at their Creator like he's said something obscene.
"Oh, that's right the Maker means something completely different here…..I'm going to ride a sarlacc essentially. Well, it's more of a gigantic sandworm than a sarlacc, but then I would have to go into the ecology of the Dune series, even though there's no spice there, but I would be here for a couple of days." Kylo/Matt shoots him a pitiful, longing gaze like he wouldn't mind that, but the Senator whispers something in his ear. He sighs and nods.
"Then, it's goodbye for now."
"Yeah, I'll comm you before I enter hyperspace." Their Creator promises and gives Kylo/Matt a kiss on his nose.
Armitage Hux flies until he's just outside the Raxus system. He's about to make the jump into hyperspace, but he recalls his promise. He reaches down for his comm in the co-pilot seat.
The ship shakes and jerks like its hyperdrive blew out, and Armitage looks up for the source and sees red fire burning the blackness of space into the white of stars.
Golden eyes flecked with eons blink in the whiteness.
He screams.
Author's Comments- Here are the links:
This is the video that inspired this part of the series. Originally, I was going to give it more of a Flash Gordon flare because I was listening to Queen like mad, but then I calmed down after re-watching Twin Peaks and reading up on spoilers regarding The Return, which still compel to watch it because then I would understand at least 1% of what I read. Anyways, this video changed the tone for this story: a href=" watch?v=XFcdxPPWgKc"Link/a
Eos's outfit was directly inspired by Princess Irulan's outfit in the very beginning of David Lynch's Dune movie. I have a special fondness for that movie and its aesthetics: a href=" wikipedia/en/6/65/Princess_Irulan-Virginia_Madsen_%281984% "Link/a
It's great that Pellaeon is part of the New Canon and even Captain in Thrawn's Seventh Fleet. And I hope he's treated with respect given his importance in Legends/EU, but I will set my expectations low like I did with Thrawn when he was first announced to be in Rebels. Anyways, from his Legends physical description, I imagine him looking a lot like Robert Redford's Sundance Kid when he was young. And until New Canon gives me an age, I'm going to let him be in his smoldering 30s with that mustache: a href=" . "Link/a
After this part, I'll get into the final part of the series; it'll be multi-chapter and probably just as WTF as the previous entries in this series. I've been watching a lot of Twin Peaks: The Return clips recently, so let's see how far I can go into the weird.