Carth:
The weary Admiral sank down onto his bed with an exhausted groan ignoring the fact that he was still wearing his uniform.
Admiral Carth Onasi 'Republic war hero', 'praised warrior' 'a public celebrity' Carth had heard all of it time and time again it was all old to him even when it was new.
Carth had been just like any other soldier that is up until nearly five years ago when life was simple, made sense and sure as hell hadn't involved so much paper work. He flexed his fingers which were cramped from pushing pencils all after-noon and let another groan escape his lips. "Things were so much easier" he whispered up to the ceiling "before…"
Before he met that damned smuggler on the Endar Spire so many years ago and his life got turned inside- out upside down and just so complicated, he asked himself angrily and rolled over onto his side.
The bed creaked in response, the bed was too large considering the fact that he was the only one who used it and too cold for that same reason.
"No." He said to himself grimly "Not this again."
He pushed his thoughts aside and sat up to yank off his boots then the rest of his clothes and replaced them with a pair of sleep pants and an over-sized T-shirt.
His attention was brought back once again to the empty bed as he shivered slipping in between the chilled sheets and closed his eyes tightly, hoping sleep would come to him quickly for once but of course, he wasn't that lucky.
That 'smuggler' he mused, going back to his earlier thoughts and shook his head against his pillow "things were easier for the both of us back then, eh?" he said into the darkness.
That 'smuggler' who turned out to be a jedi then turns out that jedi was an ex-dark Lord of the Sith brainwashed into believing all this garbage the jedi council had rammed down her throat and made her their 'puppet' as some would put it.
He sighed, and who also turned out to be the other half of my broken soul he finished then looked over to the opposite side of the bed right where Scarrlet Veil belonged.
He never thought of her as 'Revan' anymore since she left the title behind her on the Star Forge when they destroyed it with her old apprentice Darth Malak already dead within.
Even then things were easier he admitted to himself, no matter how bad things would get he could always just reach out for Scarrlet and they would hold each other until things seemed better. But he let her go (physically, he doubted he would ever let her go emotionally ) to regions un-known to 'right' what had been wronged he guessed, he never got a real answer out of her as to why she had to go.
He remembered the last day they had together and from what he recalled he knew that something was not right as she acted more and more distant than usual, from the place she was, she was always distant, but that day felt so different. He remembered the next morning most of all, he woke up with a data-pad on her pillow the wedding ring he had given to her on their wedding day.
"Couldn't even say good-bye to my face?" he asked as if she were there and he felt the scab over the wound begin to peel again and he felt the same hurt he did as he scrolled through Scarrlet's message holding her ring in between his fingers and tears stinging his eyes.
He rolled over his hand resting on Scarrlet's pillow and his eyes shimmered as they fought off more tears.
He was close to sleep until her heard his door open he sat up and rubbed his face then yawned "hmm?" he asked into the darkness.
"Daddy?" the sweet little voice responded and Carth leaned over to turn on the lamp on his side table, wincing at the bright light "I'm right here, Princess." He assured and gave her a sweet smile.
There standing in his door-way holding a doll in her little hand was a tiny four-year-old girl with jet black, shoulder length hair and deep brown eyes, his eyes.
"I thought I just put you to bed, Adalia." He looked at his daughter she looks so much like her mother that it hurts, he thought to himself.
The child shuffled over to his bed-side and touched her soft, little hand to his large rough one and gently stroked his skin with her thumb. It amazed him how easily she picked up on things and he smiled at the fact that she was like Scarrlet in more than just one way.
"You forgot to tell me my good-night story." She said quietly.
"Oh, did I?" He asked and lifted his hand to pat the empty space in the middle of the bed, motioning for her to come up by him. She scooted up onto the bed and climbed over him then finally settled down underneath the blankets and Carth leaned over to turn the light off then snuggled up next to his her.
"Tell me the one about the King and Queen, Daddy." Adalia demanded tucking her head under his chin.
"Hmm. My favorite story." Carth whispered as Adalia poked absently at a hole in his T-shirt.
"Once upon a time" he began the story, he was never good at bed time stories, this one he made up on the spot, and turned out she loved it. Even though it was the corniest thing he ever heard himself say, "there was a king who had a beautiful wife and a precious son and he loved them very dearly. But one day it was time for the king to go to war against the bad people who were trying to destroy his world and all of the people in it, including his family so he fought for all of them proudly."
Adalia looked up at him and yawned he smiled then leaned down to kiss the top of her head.
"The king had fought long and hard for his people" Carth continued "and he and his soldiers were close to winning the battle. But the king was betrayed by his friend and they paid greatly for the man's betrayal. The palace had been attacked and the king wasn't there in time to rescue the Queen and the Prince… The Prince was taken and held as a hostage and the Queen had passed away from the enemy's fire..."
"Many years had passed and the king had kept on fighting for the people not only of his planet but many other planets alike. One day he had met a powerful woman who was the strongest of fighters and the bravest of the brave she and the king had become very good friends as they fought together in the war and over time they had fallen in love even though they were not meant to love each other. The woman was strong enough to destroy the evil across the galaxy helping people along the way and acquiring a few very good friends along in their adventures. Once the woman, with the help of her friends, killed the source of the evil the galaxy was a better place."
"The woman had agreed that she would become the King's wife and the king was so happy, he had forgotten how nice it felt to be happy, and he promised to love his new Queen forever and ever and she promised the same in return. After a few months they had lived out that promise and the Queen and King had a Daughter together, the perfect Princess, the King and Queen loved the Princess more than anything in the galaxy but the Queen had to go back to war even though she didn't want to… She did it for her husband and her beloved daughter promising she would one day return."
Adalia was fast asleep and Carth held her sleeping body against his chest, stroking her soft hair. "She did it for you Adalia… For you and me, Princess." He whispered quietly "she will be back here with us one day, she promised…"
He smiled at the ceiling painfully "just waiting for you to keep that promise now." He whispered and held his daughter until he fell asleep himself.
The next morning:
Carth had been jerked awake by a morning chill to see the blankets were stolen from him through the night he looked at Adalia to see the little girl had cocooned herself in the white sheets and her doll resting on his chest. "Cover hog" he chuckled to himself and got up shaking off the doll to go to the refresher.
He caught a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror and just stood there staring at the man who eyed him back as if he was expecting him to flinch away.
The man that stared back at him looked tired, even though he got to sleep in an extra hour on his day off of work and he had a light case of crow's feet and smile lines that decorated his handsome face.
His fingers raked through his hair which had a small hint of gray at his temples that mixed well with his brown hair. Then his fingers brushed over the stuble on his chin which hid the two ugly scars that he had achieved from the bombing on Telos.
He stepped into the shower shaking off the bad thoughts in the process.
Adalia:
Her bright blue eyes shimmered as she laughed, she has a pretty laugh, Adalia thought to herself, everything about this woman was beautiful.
She had dark hair, just like hers, and her skin was almost glowing due to her light skin tone. Adalia could see herself reach out to press her tiny fingers against the woman's chin, the woman smiled at her and held Adalia's hand against her deep red lips, still smiling.
She could hear her Father in the back-ground saying something but she couldn't make much sense out of his words as he stepped into view, but she could only focus on the beautiful woman as she cooed to her sweetly. "Adalia." The woman whispered quietly, even her voice was beautiful "Adalia" she crooned again and stroked her cheek tenderly.
Then as quickly as the dream came to her it was gone, she opened her eyes to her father's empty room with a frown on her face.
She had the same dream every once in a while which had always brought back the same question, who was the beautiful woman who had once held her close?
She was always in her mind and the need to see her again felt unbearable, she didn't know who the woman was, but every time she would see her in her dreams she felt safe and loved in her gentle hold.
"They're just dreams, Addie," she remembered her father telling her once when she had awoken from a very vivid nightmare with a loud scream "they are not real!" He told her firmly, holding her close to him.
"But-it was- REAL, D-daddy!" She wailed in between sobs and buried her head against his chest, she had dreamt of the woman, as she usually would, but she wasn't kind and beautiful like she always was. She was actually the complete opposite, she remembered in her dream that she was hurting people, a lot of people…
She sat up, the sheets tangled around her body, she didn't like the woman when she was so full of anger, she liked the nice dreams about the beautiful woman who had once held her close…
She crawled out of Carths' large bed, taking her doll with her, and walked back to her room wondering what Daddy was going to make for breakfast.
Carth:
Carth stood in his kitchen washing up the dishes from dinner while he watched Adalia talk excitedly with Mission, who came to visit for the day before she left Cidatel again to return to Kashyyk.
She sat on the floor with Adalia in her lap while they flipped through one of her picture books, the one that was full of pictures of how Telos was before it was attacked.
Carth smiled down at them as he walked into the room and sat down in his chair with a cup of juma juice in hand, he had always considered Mission as his daughter even though she sure as hell didn't look like a kid anymore… She was nearly nine-teen now and reached his chin in height but, her smart mouth was never out grown. And she was obviously gorgeous… He remembered having to flash the blaster in his holster a few times at the cantina to scare off the men who would ogle her while they had dinner a few weeks ago.
"Daddy told me that these were his favorite kinds of flowers." Adalia told Mission, pointing to the Telosian lilacs in the book, Mission smiled gently at the scarlet colored plant, knowing why they were Carths' favorite.
He continued to watch them so Mission had decided to just let it go "Mhmm. Very pretty." She mused as Adalia continued through the book.
Carth was stressed, and Mission wasn't oblivious to that fact, her brow furrowed because she knew that there was nothing she could do to help him out. It would be harder to stay in close contact since she was leaving in a few hours to go back to Kashyyk where Zaalabar was, of course she loved Carth and Adalia but she could only take so much of Cidatel station.
After Carth had put Adalia to bed and her and Mission said their good-bye's, he sank back down into his chair to face Mission who was sitting on the couch across from him with a concerned expression on her face.
"C'mon, Mish," he gave her a lazy smile "don't you worry about this old geezer."
"Carth," she complained worriedly, her dark, almond shaped eyes glimmered.
She was the only person who called her Carth now-a-days and he loved the sound of it, he was pretty sick of 'Admiral Onasi'.
"I'm worried about her, Carth…" She sighed turning her head towards the freshly dented wall in the kitchen.
At dinner Carth had kept on badgering Adalia to eat her vegetables when that temper of hers set off and collided with his.
A simple child-like act, she never did like the Telosian greens he tried to feed to her.
"Adalia, just eat them" he had demanded "or, no dessert."
"No, no, no, no, nooo!" She cried hitting the table with her tiny fists.
She never got that angry, Carth thought to himself, she had never gotten upset like that before. When Adalia had let go of all of her anger the bowl of vegetables in front of her went soaring off of the table and across the room without any one touching it, to hit the wall with a loud crash.
Mission and Carth froze and stared wide eyed at the four-year-old who's temper tantrum had far exceeded what they could have imagined.
Adalias' hands flew to her mouth as she saw what she had done, she couldn't have possibly understood but nonetheless she began to cry, loudly. "S-s-sorry," she wailed brokenly "D-daddy-y!" Carth immediately rushed over to her and held her trying to soothe her, whispering gently and kissing her face.
""It's okay, Princess" he said rocking her "s'okay." He and Mission had exchanged glances before she got up to go find a broom.
"Look" Mission sighed "I know how rough things are for ya, Carth. Believe me I do but-"
"But, what?" he asked, his head slumped back and his eyes slid to a close "I never claimed that my life was perfect."
"Hey, don't you get grumpy with me, Mister!" She snapped, her head-tails bobbing "All I wanna do is help and I can see that there isn't anything I can do!"
"No," he responded "there isn't."
He looked up to see her arms crossed over her chest as she glared at him, he burst out laughing "I'm joking! Geeze, lighten up, kid."
She rolled her eyes "Ha-ha." She snorted "You've got a pretty grim sense of humor old man."
"Mhmm." He mumbled "Comes with age."
She was quiet for a few minutes until "Maybe-maybe if you talk to Bastila-"
"No." Carth snapped and sat on the edge of his seat, staring Mission in the eye "I am not sending my daughter to a bunch of 'jedi'."
Mission went quiet again.
He had always known that Adalia was a force sensitive he just never wanted to deal with her 'condition' alone (and he would never send her to some enclave with a bunch of jedi attempting to re-build 'order' ). He sneered at himself for his choice of words, talking like the kid has a disease, he thought to himself.
"I'm sorry." He said gently after a few minutes "I-I just- I can't lose her, too…" Carth sighed quietly and sipped at his juma juice, pain decorating his eyes.
"S'okay." She said quietly, her eyes glued to the marble floor.
Then they were both silent for what seemed like an eternity.
"I miss her too, Carth." She said walking over to sit on the arm of his chair and rest her hand on the middle of his back.
He nodded slightly "It's getting late. You don't want to miss your flight, do you?" Carth sat up straight and gave Missions knee a pat.
"Yeah." She mumbled getting up and faced him extending her arms wide apart "Not gonna hug myself, am I?"
Hugs were never needed between them before, but reality had hit them, and they never knew if this visit would be their last.
Carth chuckled and stood up to give Mission a big-Wookie hug, picking her up off the ground "Don't let that mouth of yours get you in trouble… Again."
"Me?" She said sarcastically "Getting my-self in trouble? Oh, please!" She laughed and Carth stood her back up onto her feet. "Don't let that kid give you anymore gray hairs, Buddy." She playfully punched his shoulder.
"Yeah, I'm sure she's the only one giving them to me!" He rolled his eyes and walked with her across the room his arm wrapped around her shoulder.
"I'll see you soon, Carth." Mission said with a smile.
"Soon." He repeated and watched as she walked away from his apartment.
The new TSF officer that guarded his home watched after her too and looked back at Carth as if to say 'nice catch' and Carth glared at him and reflexively reached for his blaster, realizing he didn't have it on him. The officer flinched away and pretended to be busy with his communicator watch.
Carth closed his door behind him, locked it and walked back to his bed-room in silence, he crawled under the chilled covers of his over-sized bed dressed in only his sleep pants.
His mind drifted back to dinner, what was he going to do? He frowned up at the ceiling. Scarrlet would know what to do, he thought, "Dammit, woman." He groaned "Couldn't even leave me an instruction manual?" He rolled over and drifted off to sleep.
