Empress in Waiting
Arikal Lin, Jedi Sentinel and general, listened quietly to Revan as she spoke of the Outer Rim sieges. "In short, they are going very well."
Arikal sighed inwardly as a little smile crept up the side of her mouth. Revan had always liked to give long lengthy speeches right before summing it up in a short, simple sentence that explained that the generals and commanders hadn't really needed to hear the whole thing. Arikal snorted, mentally of course. Revan looked up as the generals stood to leave, some polite and quiet, others annoyed and grumbling among themselves. She caught Arikal's eye and nodded to signify that she wanted the single Jedi to stay behind with her and Malak. Arikal sighed again and walked up to the head of the table. "Yes?" she asked, polite and attentive.
Malak was in the second seat to the right, folding up papers. He glanced up at Revan and smiled slyly and knowingly. Revan sat back down sideways in her chair with a satisfied groan as Arikal reseated herself in a more dignified fashion. Her violet eyes blinked inquisitively up at Revan as the great leader tossed back her river of black hair. Her nearly black eyes with splotches of red glistened in the dim light, spots that once had not existed. Dark lashes framed them as one might frame a painting, but still giving her a darker and more sinister look, but still, even so she looked deadly beautiful. A pair of medallions held her black cape in place over her dark gold combat suit, inscribed with an inscription that even Arikal couldn't decipher. Malak's amber eyes held those same red specks in them, only not as pronounced. Revan snapped her fingers restlessly. A man with tousled brown hair appeared at her side. "Get me something cold," Revan demanded, "something cold and sweet."
Arikal couldn't help rolling her eyes. Revan had always been bossy, even when they'd all been padawans at the Enclave. Being a commanding general had changed nothing. Malak looked tired but Revan didn't. Revan never looked tired. She couldn't afford it. "Malak!" she ordered. "Massage my shoulders!"
Malak obeyed. Arikal sighed. "Revan, is there something you wanted?"
The leader peered up at Arikal. "General Lin, right?" She smirked. "You looked annoyed."
"Well, yes. I hate to say it, but some of the leaders are getting a bit annoyed with you." Arikal couldn't believe what she was saying but went on. "We are having great causalities and you act as if you don't care." She nibbled on her lip. "Excuse me for being so blunt, but people are dying. I watch them every day. They die on the field and they die of the disease that follows. And you appear to think that it's nothing. But it's everything Revan."
Revan did not look hurt or resentful. She looked amused. However, Malak looked furious. "Shut your mouth!" he growled.
Revan sighed. "Forget Malak over there," she said as if the two hadn't been comrades and best friends since as long as anyone remembered. For once, she was acting her real age, nineteen, not the age the war had given her. She talked to Arikal as if they were two college age girls at their lockers. "He's just dumb."
Arikal shook his head. "He shouldn't be getting angry," she murmured. "He's supposed to be a Jedi."
"What was that?" asked Revan. "Do you have something to share with us Lin?" She tilted her head forward to let Malak get the better part of her shoulders. Her black and red eyes snapped.
"No," Arikal lied. She mentally excused herself.
"Good."
And then Arikal looked at the pair with new eyes and a new heart. She saw them not as the heroes everyone else thought them to be, but as themselves. She saw Revan's true enjoyment of Malak's strong hands and their caress. She saw the lust in Malak's eyes, the red specks even more evident in both pairs of eyes. And fear roared through her. She looked out the conference room's window to the stars. "You're not going to be able to get away with this," she said softly.
Malak's hands stopped. Revan's eyes flew open at once. "What?"
Arikal met Revan's eyes with courage and the hope that those specks weren't really there. She gestured to Malak and her. "This. This love or whatever you call it. The Council will never allow it."
She heard Revan's low seductive chuckle and realized that was exactly what it was with horror. She stepped back from the pair as if they carried some sort of disease. Revan stepped forward. "We don't exactly plan to think that the Council will excuse us. In our eyes, well there isn't a Council. And if there was, we don't plan on returning to it."
Behind Revan was Malak. Arikal saw his eyes widen and realized that he hadn't thought that Revan would reveal that much information. And that strengthened Arikal's resolve. "What do you mean?" she said, shrugging but her violet eyes creased with confusion.
Revan smirked. "Exactly what I said," she finished smoothly before turning away. "And I will be Queen!" she proclaimed smugly.
Malak smiled. "Empress," he corrected.
"Empress!", Revan repeated triumphantly, throwing herself into Malak's arms with a giggle.
Arikal took another step backward. "You can't do that!" she rasped hoarsely, reaching for a glass of water. "You're drunk, or mad."
"Nope," Revan replied cheerfully.
"Yes, you must be!" said Arikal, not quite believing herself.
Revan turned to Malak. "Do I look drunk or mad?" she inquired thoughtfully.
"No, not at all!" said Malak, grinning.
"Oh, come on Arikal," said Revan with a laugh. "You know that you want to join us in ruling the galaxy!" Behind her, Malak guffawed.
Arikal shook her head. "I'm dreaming."
"Nope!" said Revan cheerfully. "You're not dreaming!"
"How are you going to upset the order of things? The council…"
Revan turned smugly to Malak. "She's still spouting the supposed 'wisdom' of the council!"
Malak stepped up. "We're setting up a new order of things."
Revan threw herself on a nearby couch. "And I am an empress in waiting!" she announced.
"You're no empress," challenged Arikal. "And I'm leaving. You really don't need me do you?"
Revan smiled. "No." But it was a lie.
A knock on the door gave them all a start. Revan reclined back, eyes shut. "That's probably the drinks. Let him in on your way out."
Arikal turned to the door, but then spun around. "That's another thing," she snapped. "You treat everyone like your servants, convinced that you're too high to be thrown done!"
Revan waved a hand. "Leave me."
Arikal spun around on her heel and marched to the door. Revan watched her icily. She was sure that Arikal's ambition would bring her back if the call of battle didn't. She was wrong.
Arikal opened the door on the man. He looked up and Arikal's violet eyes were challenged by his fierce brown ones. They were… different. She cocked her head to one side, convinced that, under separate circumstances, separate events, she and this man would have been something other than strangers, than friends. Something more.
"Get out of the way!" Revan snapped. Arikal nodded to the man and stepped past him to the hallway. "One minute," Revan then said. Arikal stopped. "General Lin, you must be attached to your troops are you not?" She took Arikal's silence as a yes. She smiled. "I have one more battle for you, one that may end the war: Malachor. Surely you have not forgotten?" She walked past the soldier, past Malak to the general in question. "It is critical that you fight this battle. Understand?"
Arikal nodded curtly. And she half walked, half ran done the hall, as far as she could get from Revan as possible. Then, at the opposite end of the ship, she knelt done on the ground and, drawing her knees up, burst into sobs before falling asleep there.
Later she awoke to the man looking down at her, the one that Revan had used as a servant, she met his eyes coolly. "Is there something you request of me?"
He smirked. "Do you play Pazaak?"
Arikal's nose wrinkled. "No."
He shrugged. "Ok, whatever," he said before walking away.
Arikal bit her lip. "Wait!" she called out, running to catch up.
"Yeah?"
"Do you know me?"
"Nope."
He obviously didn't know her out of uniform. "Then sure. Let's play Pazaak."
Present Day
Arikal remembered. And when she saw that man again, this time in a cell, the memory returned to the surface of her thoughts. And when she turned him into a Jedi, she realized that he didn't know that it was her that he had comforted her that he had seen sobbing. He must have thought her to be someone that had lost a close friend or something similar, and now, looking at Atton Rand, as he stood triumphant with Mandalore, the two having rescued her from Goto's Yacht. She thought I wonder if you remember me Atton. Me. From back then. Don't listen to my thoughts, I'd kill you, but maybe I'll tell you some day. That woman you played Pazaak with, after giving Revan her drink. It was me. Me being scared after learning of Revan's plans. Me being stupid, not telling the Council. Don't listen, you shouldn't know, not now. But, maybe someday, when I find this "Empress in Waiting" and tell her reign never really began, I'll tell you. Don't you dare hear this, but I want you to know. It was me. And someday, together, we'll find Revan and learn why she did the things she did. We'll fly away from here, together, like you once suggested. You probably don't remember, so I'm wasting my thoughts. End