Chapter Seven: A Storm of Dreams.

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Back on the Starspeeder, Jai was sitting by himself, watching hyperspace flow by as the ship flew back towards Kamino.

Eela approached him with her head tilted, "Jai? A-are you all right?"

He said nothing, still staring off into the swirling blue abyss of hyperspace, his brown eyes empty.

"Jai? What did you see? You haven't said anything since the temple."

"It doesn't matter Eela."

"Why?"

He kept staring off into the abyss, muttering, "You wouldn't believe it if I told you."

"What? What is it?" She pleaded, taking the seat in front of him.

"I saw a plaque." Jai said simply.

"A-a plaque?"

"A plaque." He repeated.

"And what was on this particular plaque?"

"The braids. Of..."

"Of what?"

The boy shook his head, looking off again, before speaking looking away from her, "The stories of Vader. And the children he murdered. They're all true."

Eela sat next to him, taking the small spot given on the window sill in the Starspeeder.

She laid her long jet black haired head on his shoulder, whispering, "So it's true?"

Jai said nothing, still looking off. Even at eight years old, he had enough wisdom to know lying to his sister was wrong, "Yes."

They both said nothing, before the female twin fell asleep on his shoulder, Jai still staring off into hyperspace silently.

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Syl ran around the Tiberius with her little brothers and sisters, giggling as rebels walked past them, dropping boxes of supplies in surprise.

"Hey!" The men exclaimed, turning around.

"Sorry!" Syl said, turning her head backwards to speak to them, as her younger siblings chased her.

"Sylvian Tico!" A voice rumbled, her little brothers stopping in their tracks before turning around slowly.

A Finn in his late twenties grumbled, "Don't run around the ship!" He said with widening eyes, poking his head out of his shared bunk with his wife.

"Yes Pa." She said nodding, along with her younger siblings, their blackish brown haired heads bouncing.

The second Finn sighed and went back inside his room, the children sprinted off laughing, faster this time.

Syl stopped, seeing Rey sit in the old war room, looking at the stars from her seat by the window.

Her younger siblings kept running, but the girl with a similar but somehow prettier face of her mother walked up to her, "General...what's wrong?"

"Er...nothing's wrong Sylvian!" The young woman said, turning towards her with a smile, "Why do you ask?"

The girl swirled a little on this spot, smiling and swishing her skirt, "Mommy said you told her you were kissing the Emperor." Syl said holding her hands together.

"Rose!" Rey cursed under her breath looking aside, she turned smiling towards her, "You are seven years old now, don't believe everything your mother tells you."

"Yes auntie." Syl said smiling and running off.

The commander stood up, walking towards their bunk to have a little chat with her Captain.

"Captain Tico!" She said, tapping the metal door with a fist.

Rose opened it, the door sliding, "Yes?"

"Did you-." The dark brown haired Jedi rolled her eyes, "Can I come in?"

"Of course." The other woman said, letting her walk in.

Rey leaned on the white door that just closed behind her, "Did you tell Sylvian about Ren and I?"

Rose scoffed, "What? No!"

She crossed her arms, "You know the Force tells me if you're lying or not."

"No it doesn't." Rose's husband Finn Tico noted, "She just says that to get people scared."

"Do you use the Force?" The commander asked, extending her head forward.

"Well...not particularly." He drawled, sitting on his bed next to Rose.

"You cannot! Tell the tiniest speck of dust about that. You know that Captain!"

Rose nodded, "I promise."

The woman gripped her husband's hand, before asking, "Uh...commander. I always wanted to ask you. What happened to conversations you had with the Emperor?"

Rey looked downwards, "About our connection. It...died. We haven't spoken in years. I don't know if I don't want to talk to him, or if he doesn't, or even if the Force lets us anymore." She shook her head, "Like I always say, most beings don't understand the Force."

"You preach that way too often..." Finn murmured under his breath, looking aside.

Rey gripped the doorway, "Oh, and one more thing. Your children aren't listening to you, they're still running around the ship."

Finn and Rose looked at each other, before the man stood up hollering for his oldest child, "Syyylll!"

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Lord Kylo Ren sat in his Imperial Palace. A black fortress he had built after appearing to wipe out all semblance of resistance years before.

Now his Head General, Wiras Mylon, and his daughter with long hair, which had the same color of sandy blonde as her father.

The two knelt, Mylon holding his daughter's hand.

Iana rose slowly and met the Emperor's strikingly frightening gaze, the girl gulping.

"I invited you over because I wanted to ensure your loyalty General." The man said, turning his gaze from the girl to her father.

Mylon bowed, "I am eternally bound to serve you my lord."

"I know." Kylo said blinking calmly, "I just want to ensure your loyalty totally." He knelt to the small child half his height, "What is your name girl?"

"I-Iana Your Majesty." The daughter of the General muttered.

"Well Iana. How would you like to be a Princess?"

"A princess, m-my lord?" Mylon stuttered out.

"That's right." The black haired man said nodding, "When your daughter comes of age she'll inherit my throne when I die. I will name her my heir. When, and only when I decide you've been loyal enough to me." Kylo stood up, "You and your household will live here in the palace. Iana will be the Empire's Princess. She will be named Iana Ren when I please. In the meantime, you will remain loyal to me."

"Y-yes my lord." Mylon said.

He looked to Iana, "I will ensure your safety. I will make sure you are happy, and I will make sure you inherit my Empire."

"B-But she's only nine years old my lord." The General stuttered, "You can't put this kind of responsibility on her, she's my daughter."

"And why not? I'm the Emperor, I'm ensuring your loyalty. You and your household will be rewarded for this loyalty, when the time comes."

"Yay!" Iana cried, jumping up happily, "I'm a princess! I'm a princess! I'm a princess!" She said bouncing up and down clapping her hands, running off.

Kylo approached him, "Do you think that little farce you played in the war room earlier today fooled me? No. You're going to remain loyal, and don't play the role of a sheep. It angers me."

"Y-yes my lord." He said bowing, leaving and walking after being dismissed.

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At the orphanage, Eela sat next to the glass window sill, imagining what Jai had said to her.

"Yes."

That single word reverberated through her mind, making the girl shiver.

Jai looked at her smiling lightly, "I know you're thinking right now."

"Wh-why?"

"You always look out at Kamino's storm when you think." He said glancing towards what lay beyond the window.

He sat across from his sister, the twins staring into the endless storm, raging, turning, slamming its tears against the glass.

Eela frowned, a blank expression on her face as she spoke with the same accent as her mother, same as always, "I read about Ilias. He created the people of Kamino after himself, to be a model society built on logic, exploration and sea travel. I feel bad for you Jai, and I get why you cried into Nurse Ui's hip."

The twins kept sitting across from each other on the windowsill, their exact brown eyes looking past their reflections and into the storm.

"You had a dream that the Galaxy was this big happy place. Where nothing ever happened. And you came across reality. And you cried, as would I if I were that foolish."

She shook her long straight black haired head, "But the Galaxy, or everything, isn't a happy place Jai. Its like a storm. Raging. Powerful, and strong. And our dreams are like the waves, pounding, fierce, rising...falling."

The male twin stuttered out, "H-h-how do you know all this Eela? You're only my age."

The girl blinked, closing her brown eyes before opening them again onto the storm as calm as her father, "I get up every day and I turn on the Imperial Broadcast. All I hear are the names of units that became casualties in battle. You stare at pictures and illustrations of the Mandalore, a warrior, an idol to you."

He gasped, but Eela nodded, "I saw you. I saw you doing that in class. How do you think I felt, seeing my only family that I have, stare off into a picture of a savage, someone- no. Something revered as a god of blood and the king of an animalistic planet? And dream of becoming that?"

She shook her head, "Nurse Ui always wanted to be a singer. Teacher Li wanted to design star cruisers. I'm hoping your dream of becoming a savage monster like that thing you stared off into falls too." Eela turned her head into the storm, still speaking in the same light tone as her mother.

"And that it becomes like those rising waves. A dream that rises, churns upwards...and falls. Or becomes a thunderbolt." The girl noted, seeing one crackle in the distance, "Only fleeting. Sudden, driving. And then disappearing."

"This wisdom is cruel." Jai sniffled, tears in his sad brown eyes, "How could you say all this Eela? You weren't like this before we went to Coruscant..."

"Because it's logical." She said blinking again, reaching outwards and cupping his tear struck cheek, "I love you. And I don't want you to pursue something that's wrong. So if you keep dreaming of this Mandalore, this monster. You can become it, an animal. Like Vader."

He stood up sniffling, leaving the white windowsill, "So you'd rather I become like you? Shut in your room all day doing nothing, ignoring an entire Galaxy to explore?"

"Yes. Because its safe." Eela stood up too, comforting her brother by placing her hands on his shoulders and looking at him, "Jai. We were put in this orphanage for a reason. Whoever it is that are our parents, want us safe. They didn't want us in a Galaxy full of war so they hid us here. Its only logical, why else would they give us up?"

"M-m-maybe they were too poor, or didn't care about us."

Eela pulled him in and hugged him, whispering as he cried, "But I care. Don't dream about those things." She hugged him tightly, "Let that dream fall. Stay with me Jai. Don't leave me. Don't become one of those braids. Don't leave, stay with me."

The boy said nothing, crying into her right shoulder next to which long black locks existed, the twins hugging while standing in front of the storm, window sill at their side.

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