A/N: this is my take on what I see as the reunion between my sith inquisitor, and the man she loves, Andronikos Revel.
Kaliesa belongs to me, everyone else belongs to bioware and their amazing storytelling.
Kaliesa checked the coordinates on the datapad she carried one last time as she approached the cave in the middle of nowhere, Tatooine. According to Talos, it had been from where he had received his last communication from Andronikos about six months after she had been declared killed in action. Kali had to admit that she was very nervous about seeing Andronikos again. It had been five years after all, and as much as she loved him, she would understand if he had moved on. She would have wanted that for him after all.
She could still remember the datapad that Lana had pressed into her hands after they had crash landed in the swamp on Zakuul, and how she had stepped away to give Kaliesa some privacy to read what was written on it. And the words.. they were not something that Kali would forget any time soon. She swore she was also able to hear her husband's frustration as he wrote it as well.
"None of your Council friends will speak to me, and they grounded the Fury. Whole capital's in chaos. Rumors flying everywhere. Look, neither of us likes to be clingy, but you can't pull a disappearing act and not expect me to worry. We're a team.
I'm not a sentimental guy, you know that, but if something's happened to you... I don't think I can go back to my old life. Used to feel like relationships were nothing but dead weight. All I wanted was to fly free, no attachments. But what we have together-I wouldn't give that up for anything. I know you're alive. It would take more than an explosion to kill my girl. Even a really big one. If I don't hear from you, I'll commandeer a shuttle to find you myself."
After reading that, Kaliesa knew that she had to go searching for Andronikos as soon as she could. And luckily she had found her way to find him not too long ago. For perhaps the only time, she had to thank the mission to destroy all the Star Fortresses for giving her a chance to find her husband.
Thinking back, she had to smile at how surprised and genuinely happy Talos had been when she had reached his little camp on Yavin 4, and how quickly he had pledged himself back into her service. The hug that he had spontaneous given her had been a surprise, but had been so wholly welcome at the same time. She had missed the quirky little archaeologist after she had been freed, so to see him again had truly felt like been reunitied with an old friend. She could only hope this reunion with her husband went just as well. Taking a breath for strength, and to gather her courage, she entered the cave.
It took her eyes a moment to acclimate to the dark interior, but when they did, she immediately spotted the two figures standing guard, their blaster rifles held securely in their arms. She knew that they probably would not hesitate to use them if pressed, so she stepped forward, her hands raised, before her.
"I am looking for Andronikos Revel." She told them. She saw the glance shared between the two men, and then was unsurprised when one gestured back to the other one, and he ran back into the depths of the cave.
"Just wait there and no funny business." The remaining one told her in Huttese, and Kali nodded in acknowledgement, the thumb of her left hand rubbing soothingly along the band of her wedding ring adorning her ring finger. It was short seconds later when she heard movement along the path, and the other guard returned with another person following. It only took Kali a moment to recognize Casey Rix. Besides having longer hair, the other woman had not changed. Kali waited patiently as the other woman stepped over to her, and she could read the distrust in Casey's eyes.
"I don't know who you are or how you know about Andronikos, but I'm not letting you anywhere near him!" Kali could read the determined protectiveness in her eyes that Casey held for Andronikos, and it made her smile. "Now leave before we have to force you!" She said with a point of her hand back towards the mouth of the cave.
"Please Casey." She said after a minute, reaching up to lower her hood, showing Casey her face. "Let me see Andronikos, please." She waited for the other woman to recognize her, and she didn't have to wait too long. After only a few short moments, she heard Casey curse under her breath and grip Kali's arm.
"How? I was told you were dead." She asked. Kali shook her head. "Andronikos." She told Casey.
Casey nodded finally.
"Okay, I will take you to see him, but I warn you, he is bad off. The past five years, ever since he came here, have been bad. Real bad. He sits in a room and drinks himself into oblivion. If anyone goes in there, he throws them out quite violently. My people avoid him as much as possible when he comes out, which isn't very often, mind you. When he first got here, I would find him passed out drunk, mumbling the name 'Kali' in his sleep. That you, I take it?" Kali nodded.
Casey nodded. "Alright then." She turned to the two men standing behind them. "Let us through boys." They stepped aside and Kali followed Casey into the shadows.
As Kali followed Casey down into the cave, her bright green eyes took in the people hiding in the dark depths. 'Hiding from Arcann', she realized. Finally Casey led her to a makeshift door in the back of the cave.
"He's in here." She told Kali. "Remember what I told you about his attitude." Casey rapped on the door before entering. "Andronikos, I'm coming in." She called.
"Leave me alone." Kali heard from inside the room, and moved quickly into the room as an alcohol bottle crashed into the door frame and shattered mere inches from where she had been standing.
"There is someone here to see you, Andronikos." Casey began, but stopped when he lumbered to his feet and charged over to her.
"Get out!" He ordered her, pointing towards the door. Kali held in a gasp, as she was shocked and dismayed to see exactly how much weight Andronikos had lost, looking at his gaunt face and body, the overwhelming odor of alcohol covering him like a blanket. He almost didn't look like the man that she loved. "Don't want to see anyone!"
Finally Kali stepped forward, an ingenious idea coming to mind.
"Andronikos Revel, I believe you have the artifact I'm looking for." She stated, using her words from so long ago when they had first met. After a moment, Andronikos turned to look at her, and she was stunned to see the look of fury in his eyes as he glared at her.
"Don't know what you're trying to do lady, using her words against me, but it's not going to work. You have the nerve to bring her up against me. She was my WIFE! I loved her." He added quietly after a moment. Andronikos looked at her. "She was better than you'll ever be." Kali watched Andronikos stumble back over to the bed, the only piece of furniture in the room, and pick up another bottle and begin to drink. Kali dimly felt Casey place a hand on her arm and murmur something, but she could not react to it. She could not take her eyes off the broken man in front of her, mourning the woman he loved. There had to be some way to get across to him; to tell him something that only the two of them knew. Once again, she found herself rubbing the inside of her wedding ring with her thumb to soothe herself. Wait that was it! Kaliesa thought quickly as to what Andronikos had said to her on the most important day of their lives.
"Until the stars go cold." Kali told him softly.
At her words, she saw Andronikos' head come shooting up in shock and fix on her. "What did you say?" He demanded. He lumbered to his feet once again and stomped over to her. He stood so close to her she could feel the heat coming off his body, and the smell of the alcohol on his breath.
"It's what you said to me, on our wedding day, just the two of us." She said taking a step forward towards him, brushing against him softly. "You told me we were in each other's orbits, and would be until the stars went cold." Kali watched just the faintest glimmer of hope flare to life in Andronikos' eyes. His dark eyes stared down at her, and Kali held his gaze, wanting to share all of herself with him, to make him believe it was really her.
"What did I say the day I asked you to marry me?" He asked her finally, and Kali smiled.
"You pulled me into your arms, and asked me if we were going to get married." She told him.
"And?" His voice was the quiet low rumble that she loved.
"I asked you if you had a ring, and you told me as long as I didn't ask where you got it." She said, raising her hand to show him the ring that encircled her ring finger. "And I told you what girl doesn't dream of the day her lover proposes with a stolen ring. Of course I'll marry you." Kali closed her eyes and lost herself in the memory of that day, a smile crossing her face.
A smile that disappeared in shock as she felt herself pulled into a pair of strong arms and gasped as a mouth sealed over hers. She wrapped her arms around Andronikos and held him close against her as she poured all her love for him into their kiss. Finally it was a need for air that broke them apart, but Andronikos kept his arms wrapped tightly around her, his head resting against hers as if to keep her from disappearing on him again. She felt him run his lips across her face, her name whispered against her lips in awed shock. She could have sworn that she tasted the salt from his tears in their kiss, but she couldn't be certain.
"How?" He asked finally after a few minutes. "I saw the ship explode."
"Darth Marr." She said, a sad tone entering her voice as she remembered the proud man that she hesitantly had thought of as a friend. She felt Andronikos' arms tighten around her reflexively at the tone of her voice. "Once we put the course in to collide with the eternal fleet, he threw me into an escape pod and we escaped just as the ship exploded. We were taken before Emperor Valkorion and he killed Darth Marr. I was put in carbonite by his son, Arcann after being accused of killing his father. I've only been free a month or so after being held for five years. I nearly died in there. Carbon poisoning." She heard Andronikos curse at her words, and Kali ran her lips over his face to calm him and assure him that she was there and that she was alive. The two lovers lost themselves in each other for long minutes.
"How did you know to come here?" Casey asked. Kaliesa had almost forgotten she was still in the room, and she turned her head to look at the other woman.
"I am the commander of an alliance of people working to take down Arcann, and I was sent to Yavin 4 on the behalf of one of my followers to recruit a new person to our cause. That person was Talos Drellik." Kali felt Andronikos' rumble of amusement against her, and she could not help but smile herself. "He was able to give me these coordinates from an old communication that Nikos here had sent him, so I had to come and hope that I could find him." Kali turned back to looked at Andronikos and raised one of her hands to cup his face. He turned his head and pressed a kiss into her palm. "Come with me, please, Nikos. I need you with me."
"When you put it that way, how can I say no?" He said with a smirk and leaned down to press a kiss to her upturned lips once more.
"Lunk-headed pirate." She said, teasing him playfully, and grinned when she heard him chuckle.
"Crazy sith." He responded.
"So I suppose you'll be taking him with you?" Kali heard Casey say from behind her, and she turned to look at the other woman.
"Thank you Casey." Kali told her. "For looking after him while I couldn't."
Casey waved away her words.
"You and Andronikos are good people. I did what I felt was right." Kali nodded from where she stood, her heart finally at peace, standing in her lover's arms. And from the feeling of contentment and love for her that she could feel radiating off Andronikos, she could tell he felt the same way.
Their feeling of contentment disappeared in the next moment however, as Kaliesa's holocomm began beeping. With a sigh, she pulled away from Andronikos' arms to answer it. Unsurprisingly, it was Lana on the other end.
"What is it?" Kali demanded.
"Where are you? I got word you never met with the contact there for the resistance. Damn it commander!" Kali felt Andronikos step up behind her into his customary spot, and she could not help but do an internal dance of glee.
"I was taking care of something you failed to do, Lana." She said, her voice cool. "Don't worry, I will be heading to meet the contact shortly." She switched off the comm before Lana could remark further, and turned back to look at Casey and Andronikos with a sigh. "I guess that is my hint that I better get going and finish what I came here to do before she gets pissy at me." She stepped back into her husband's embrace and sighed as his arms came up around her. She did not want to leave him now that she had just found him again. She brought her eyes up to his face as if to memorize it, and Andronikos dropped a kiss onto the tip of her nose. "Join me on Odessen when you can." She told him.
"Give me a week, hun, and I will join you and we will kick this Eternal Empire where it hurts." Kali nodded sadly and stepped out of his embrace once more, and made her way over to Casey. The other woman surprised her and took both of Kali's hands in hers.
"Thank you, Casey." She told her in a heartfelt tone. "I am in your debt for being there for the person I love the most in the galaxy."
"You take care of them," Casey nodded her head upwards to motion towards the star fortress orbiting the planet. "And I'll call it even. The exchange will be here whenever you need us." Kali nodded, and with one more glance at the man who held her heart, she made her way back out into the stifling heat of the Tatooine desert, and what she had come to this planet to do.