CarminaxBuranax: -internal screaming intensifies- I'm so glad my plot twists make a bit of sense, lol.
The hangar that the shuttles had crashed on was multi-tiered, making escaping much more difficult than it needed to be. Tyler struggled the most, his agility not at the level that the two girls were at, but he was able to make some difficult jumps quite easily. Stealth was an acquired skill, one that all of them possessed after spending so long in hiding.
The lower part of the hanger held a light freighter ship, modelled just like a certain ship she had flown in with an ex-smuggler and a former princess. It was the same make, not doubt, a YT-1300. Modifications had been done to it, and it was a little bit beat up, but that was the price that came with fighting a war that had lasted decades.
"Reminds you of the Falcon, doesn't she?" Fable asked, glancing back to see Anna staring at the ship. "This is the Prodigal. I used her a lot during missions for the Rebellion with my co-pilot, who you'll meet later. For now, I think I have some explaining to do, to both of you."
"That sums it up well," Tyler muttered, and Anna turned to face him.
"What the hell did Adam do to you?" she asked suddenly, and Tyler gave her a sharp look.
"Now's not the time," he said, reaching up to touch the side of his head where a trail of blood ran down the side. "I'm fine now, it's done. I think you should have more questions for your sister."
"Endless," she admitted, and follow Fable as she walked into the freighter.
Unlike the Falcon, the Prodigal had the passenger design, whereas the Falcon was set up for cargo. The central system was the same, a circular build in the centre of the ship, the circuitry bay to the right, and the refresher to the left. The large engineering bay was located on the far wall to the right, the door wide open.
"Come inside, I'll show you around," Fable said. "This ship is built for passengers, unlike the Falcon."
"The Falcon was also really heavily modified," Anna commented. "It was more of a mix between the 1300p and the 1300f builds."
Fable smiled to herself. "Yes, Han Solo is quite the guy when it comes to his baby," she said. "Everything must be perfect."
"No kidding," Anna said.
"There are two rooms on this wall," Fable said, point to the wall behind her. "Another is on the opposite side of the central system here, but that's where Deke and I usually stay. There are also two beds in the engineering bay."
She began to walk down the hallway, Tyler and Anna following at a slower pace, taking the entire ship in.
"The lounge is straight through that door," Fable continued. "That's where I want to talk to you once you get your cloak off. The refresher is there if you need it."
Anna nodded her thanks, then turned to Tyler as Fable continued around the main corridor, presumably to her chambers. "Are you sure you don't need that cut looked at?" she asked.
"Yes," Tyler said, slightly annoyed, and Anna was taken aback at his attitude. He was never one to use any sort of tone with her, not in the time she had known him. Still, it didn't stop her from approaching him and placing her fingertips on the side of his face, trying to get a better look at the cut.
"You should at least get it bandaged," she said.
"I'm fine," Tyler said coldly. "Worry about yourself."
Anna pulled her hand away and gave him a surprised look. He didn't seem to notice, or he didn't care.
"I'll go take my cloak off then," she said, and turned on her heel, pushing the door to the passenger quarters open. The room was small, but that was expected. The walls were purely beds, which were more like cots, but Anna wasn't too fussed about it. She had been sleeping on the ground for the past six months, and anything that was raised, with a blanket and a pillow, was almost luxurious to her. She shrugged her clock off, beating it slightly with the hilt of her saberstaff, dust flying up from it. She turned her head in disgust. Living out in the woods did not offer a ton of time for laundry, but she had been used to living a family privileged lifestyle in the year before Luke's fall. Even her career as a smuggler had paid her enough to live comfortably, even though she didn't have a permanent residence.
Still, she couldn't help but feel at ease with everything. She had expected herself to be beside herself with excitement when she had finally stood face to face with her sister, but instead, everything felt right. The Prodigal felt as though it was a longtime home that she had been away from, and Fable was such a calming presence to have around. She was very skilled in the Force, and more than anything Anna wanted to know who her true parents were. Fable's light had been almost blinding when Anna had sensed it, but she hadn't shied away. It felt as though that Light had been torn from her long ago, and having it back made her feel whole for the first time since Luke had fallen.
She lay her cloak on the bed opposite of the door, and tightened her grip on her saberstaff. The clothing she wore underneath was a cream-coloured tunic and tight pants that reached her ankles, not leaving much room to hold a lightsaber. She had always depended on her cloak to hold it for her, but she decided that carrying it wouldn't be too much of a bother. After all, she only had it because she loved the weapon, and treated it as if it were her source of life and strength. Sure Fable would understand. Tyler wouldn't, but she expected that. He was probably still bitter about the lies she had told him for six months.
Anna walked out of her quarters and turned to her left, where she saw Fable sitting at the round table in the lounge. The other Jedi's back was turned, but looked up as Anna walked into the corridor and turned her head. Anna smiled, feeling herself relax as she walked forward to the table. Tyler was still nowhere in sight.
"You probably have a lot of questions for me," Fable said as Anna approached. "Hopefully the really long story I'm about to tell you will answer most of them."
"I hope so too," Anna said sitting down in the seat next to Fable, and swivelled it to face her.
"First, let's start at the very beginning," Fable said. "Our mother was a Jedi master. Our father was her padawan, with whom she fell in love with. I was born nineteen years before the Battle of Yavin, so I'm the same age as Luke. Father was killed by a rival Jedi when Mother was pregnant with you. It was a great risk she was taking, as she managed to flee the Great Jedi Purge, however she knew that we had to be kept safe. We were the children of two Force-Sensitive parents, and our connection to the Force is very strong. She knew that Palpatine would be after us, so she had to figure a plan to keep both of us safe. She had connections to a couple that lived on Corulag, whom she thought she could trust.
"The Anara's, Tuathal and Maegan, knew our mother from the time they had spent on Coruscant when they were a young couple. They didn't know that we were Force-sensitive, and Mother didn't know that their allegiance to the Alliance was not declared. Mother wanted us to be safe, and didn't want a life on the run as the only life her children would even know. However, she trusted them enough to let you go to them, and she regretted it for years. When you were just an infant, they adopted you, took you in under their name to hide you from the Empire.
"My life was spent on the run for years until I joined the Rebellion just before the Battle of Yavin. I learned how to hide my emotions from my mother, simply because I couldn't afford to tell her what I was thinking or feeling at the time. I was able to block her out completely after a while, which she found very surprising. We could never stay in one place for long, since the Empire was everywhere, and I didn't understand it at first. I always hated living in fear, and when I was a teenager, I picked up a lightsaber for the first time. I felt then like I knew what I could do, and I began to practice with it. It was a well-needed distraction for me, just as finding solace in your moments between grief did for you. I felt as though I could take on anyone when I had that blade in my hand. Shortly after that, Mother started training me with the Force, mostly meditation and getting in touch with my surroundings, that sort of thing.
"I join the Rebellion shortly after I turned eighteen, mostly specializing in missions of sabotage against the Empire. I finally had a place to direct the pent up feelings of anger, sadness and fear, and bringing down the Empire was something I wanted to do in order to feel like I had purpose in my life."
"Why did I never meet you?" Anna asked. It was a question she had wanted to ask for a long time, as she had been with the Rebellion for over a year before Luke had fallen, and she didn't remember Fable.
"Where we were, our paths never crossed," she said. "I know you don't want to hear this, but I wanted to come for you earlier. I heard the reports about Luke on Bespin, and that he was accompanied by a Force-sensitive girl. Once I heard that her name was Anna, I knew that it was the sister I had thought I had lost long ago. Mother had told me at first that I had no sister, and I believed her up until I started doing my own digging. I found you not soon after that, and once I knew that you were now part of the Rebellion, I wanted to come to meet you properly. However, Mon Mothma denied me overtime I asked, saying that she needed me elsewhere. I tried, I really did. I knew Luke well, more than just the pilot who had fired the shot to destroy the first Death Star. He and I always felt drawn to each other, never romantically, but through the Force. I met him when we were stationed on Hoth, and he knew of his Force-sensitivity. I was trained, to a degree, which I'll explain if you want me to."
"Only if it isn't too painful for you," Anna said, and Fable smiled.
"Luke said that you have my fiery attitude, but you were very kind-hearted beneath," she said. "Must be a family trait."
"That, and being a smuggler teaches you to stay neutral to it all," Anna said.
"I have things to ask you about that as well, but that's for a later time," Fable said, and looked up as another presence entered the room. "Are you all right, Tyler?"
"Why must you two ask me that every time you see me?" he growled, and Fable turned to look at him straight on.
"Might I remind you that you are on my ship?" she asked. "Do not take a tone with me, it will not end well for you."
Tyler glanced over to Anna, seeing that she was giving him a disapproving look. "Forgive me," he said. "I think I'm just a bit shaken up from everything that has happened over the past day and half. I think I need to lie down for a while."
Fable nodded to him. "Take as long as you need," she said. "I will wake you once Deke comes back from getting supplies. I'm sure Anna will catch you up on all of the important things."
The younger sister smiled, and looked up at Tyler. "Go rest," she said. "You could also do with a shower."
"That's the plan," he said, and turned to walk into the small room. Fable swivelled her chair back toward Anna.
"Anyway," she said. "As I was saying. I was a captain in the Rebellion, and I commanded the Harrier Infiltration Team. It was made up of myself Deke, my co-pilot, and Arecelis Acosta, a tech officer. After the Battle of Yavin, we were sent on a mission to destroy a communications bunker on Nysza III. It was simple enough, and we were all experienced enough to do it. However, what we didn't know was that there was a Dark Jedi protecting the bunker, one named Vialco. He ended up killing Arecelis and engaging me in a lightsaber duel. However, I was no match for him, and I tempted fate by channeling the Dark side. Deke and I escaped as we destroyed the bunker, but our spirits were low. We had completed the objective, but losing Arecelis was tough. There was a part of me that always thought that I would have been able to save him."
"I feel that way with Luke," Anna said. "Then, I remind myself what the circumstance was that night. I thought he was dead. It's difficult to accept in hindsight, but you eventually me past it and realize that there was nothing that you could've done."
Fable nodded, deep in thought. Luke made up a large part of the common ground the two sisters had between each other, but it seemed to hurt Anna to talk about him. Fable could see it in her sister' eyes, the sadness that had welled up over the months of seeing him on the opposite side of everything, the Force, the war, love.
"Deke and I made it off of Nysza III," Fable continued with her story. "We went back to Iscera, where we were supposed to wait for our next orders from the Rebellion headquarters. He had grabbed tickets to a play, which was good, since I needed to take my mind off of everything that had happened on Nysza III. The lead actor, Jaalib Brandl, had the Force within him, I could sense it. I was mesmerized by a lot of things, but I knew that Force-sensitives were becoming rarer and rarer. I met him briefly before he had to fly out, and I knew that there was something about him that I could really place.
"That night, I was plagued by a nightmare. I saw Vialco playing with my emotions, trying to get me to fear him, and he succeeded. I knew then what his intentions were. He wanted to turn me to the Dark side. He knew that I had the power to become a powerful Force-user, I just needed the training to get to that point. I was terrified and helpless, and that was something I hated. I always wanted to be in control of my own fate, but he had access into my mind and I couldn't block him out. That was probably the part that scared me the most; I had no idea how to stop him. Deke didn't really understand what I was going through, but it was something that only another Jedi could understand. I had Deke run a background check against Jaalib, and came up with some suspicious activity, but I doubt you want to hear about that. I need a ship so that I could go after Adalric Brandl, Jaalib's father, in hopes that he would train me.
"Vialco plagued me with yet another nightmare, right before I reached Trulalis, the planet that housed Adalric. I found Jaalib there as well, rehearsing with his father. Jails was not happy that I had come, and he made that very clear, saying that his father did not wish to train the others that had come. However, when I spoke with Adalric, he was intent on helping me, so we began to train.
"Training was near-impossible with him. He asked great things of me, and got incredibly frustrated when I couldn't perform to the best of my ability. I began to wonder if it was a mistake coming to the planet, but Jaalib made it bearable. He made sure that I had a hot bath and a meal after every training session, which was very much welcome after a hard day of verbal assaults. Aladric humiliated me and made me feel incredibly weak, and I began to doubt myself.
"However, Aladric left for a few days, which meant no training. During that time, Jaalib asked if I'd like to accompany him on a picnic to make up for his behaviour when I had first arrived. He told me the full story of the play Deke and I saw on Iscera. He also told me that he didn't want to become a Jedi because it was his life's goal to be an actor. However, he gave me advice on how to please his father during training, and it was at that moment when I realized that I had fallen in love with Jaalib."
She stopped, looking down at her hands. "I think that's enough for now," she said, looking up as Tyler walked back into the room. "How long have you been standing there?"
"Not long," he admitted. "I only heard the last part of your story."
"If you know love, you know then what I need to ask you," Anna said, and Fable turned. "Luke is being held under the Emperor's control as my life, along with others, are under threat."
Fable nodded. "He did tell me about that," she said.
"Luke can't kill Palpatine on his own," Anna continued. "I know that he wants to come back, I can feel the light in him, but he needs our help."
"You're saying that we need to kill Palpatine?" Tyler cried from across the room. "Are you mad?"
"Tyler…" Anna said, exasperated, but the boy turned, walking out of the lounge in a fit once again. Anna let her head fall into her hand, running her hand up through her hair. Fable just placed a hand on her sister's shoulder.
"He still hasn't come to terms with you being you yet," Fable said. "Just give him time. He'll come around."
"I hope so," Anna said. "I— we need him."
Sorry for missing yesterday, I had a hell of a time planning this chapter out, and it in involved a ton of research on Fable Astin (trying to find the stories she's involved in written in English…a lot easier said than done). I will definitely revise this when Camp is over, just because I want to take the time to actually read the stories and analyze them instead of just skimming them and getting the basics (again, something I should've done in the prep months but noooo).
