A/N: This chapter was much harder to write than I anticipated it to be and I'm afraid parts of it are much rougher than I meant for it to be... I also have the feeling that I'm going to regret what I'm doing with Mical... but... I swear, I had no choice. He made me do it!
Alevia wiped the moisture away from her eyes with her sleeve as she slipped away from the Hawk. Night had begun to settle on the grasslands surrounding Khoonda, but she welcomed the darkness – welcomed the sanction it gave her from the questioning eyes of her companions.
The day had been a difficult one. The five of them had set out at dawn for the crystal cave and the hike had been rougher than she remembered. The heat had been almost unbearable as the planet's hot sun beat down upon them. She decided that the last time she had made this trek it must have been winter. Either that or she had been a lot younger.
It hadn't helped her mood any when they found the mercenaries' hideout in a cavern deep inside the caves. It was not the mercenaries that soured Alevia's mood so quickly, but rather the sight of Vrook standing in a Force cage, his arms crossed over his chest and letting no look of recognition cross his sharp features.
The mercenaries were immediately hostile and told her to leave. She glanced at Vrook, then back her foe, and she suddenly felt like she was a youngling again, going through her lessons, knowing that any answer she gave would be the wrong one. Quickly she combed through her memories of her lessons on diplomacy, hostile negotiations and diffusing tricky situations.
Had it not been Vrook standing here observing her, she would have simply asked for the prisoner's release and if they hadn't cooperated she would have been happy to make them. But now she was second guessing herself. What was worse was that she was very aware that her students were standing behind her with lightsabers at the ready, and if a fight broke out there was very little doubt that Vrook would not approve of her training them. Hell, Vrook wouldn't have approved of her taking a padawan even if she hadn't left the order, she was sure. He'd never been warm and fuzzy, but he seemed to have it in for her especially.
It hadn't always been that way. When she had been very young he had been warmer, kinder and much less rigid when it came to the code. But something had changed that. It had seemed to Alevia that the change had come at the same time that the council first became aware of the bonds she was forming with her fellow students. He tried to advise her against it and when she had reached out to him through the Force he had rejected the bond she offered as soon as he became aware of it.
This had frustrated her six year old mind to no end. She had taken comfort in the bond that Kavar allowed her to form, but Vrook's rejection had always hung in the back of her mind, reinforcing her fears that she would never be good enough.
And standing in that cave she knew without a doubt that she whatever choice she made in dealing with this situation, he would find fault with it. So she decided that she would get the least grief if she managed to get through this without killing anyone and tried a nice subtle Force persuade.
But, of course, they caught on to the trick and immediately decided she would make a good bounty as well. The next thing she knew the cavern had erupted with light of sabers and blaster fire and she was rushing towards the captain of the band. A few moments later, the mercenaries were all dead and Alevia pressed the button to deactivate the Force cage with a great sense of dread.
"Always the rushing into action without thinking of the consequences," he began to berate her as soon as the field was down. "What? You were expecting thanks? Khoonda is in danger and you've ruined the best chance of averting a full scale conflict."
For some reason, even though she had expected it, his disapproval cut through her chest and she sighed.
"No, Master Vrook, the last thing I would ever expect from you is thanks." His sharp features became even more unfriendly and she immediately regretted her biting words. "I apologize for interfering. I was trying to help."
As he threw disapproving looks at her students he went on to lecture her about the consequences of her actions and the delicate position Khoonda was now in because of her. She had still been reeling from his rebuke when she heard herself ask how she could help. He'd told her that if she wished to prove herself that she should help Khoonda as he rushed off to warn Administrator Adare, leaving her there in the cave.
Alevia stood silently, staring at the now empty Force cage for a moment before turning and heading toward the entrance in a bewildered wobble. She avoided her companion's gazes, but felt all of their eyes mercilessly penetrating her back, searching for some sort of clue as to what they had just witnessed. She tried to shake off the emotion that was pressing down upon her, but she had little luck.
When she exited the cave and had been confronted by some of the mercenaries who had threatened Khoonda she was grateful for the excuse to unleash some of the frustration and turmoil that threatened to crush her. She had let into the mercenaries relentlessly, unleashing Force powers and saber strokes and leaving her companions with little to do but watch.
The trek back to the ship had been silent and Alevia hadn't acknowledged her friends' worries and questions. She knew they wanted some explanation of her behavior, but how could she explain what she did not understand herself?
Now, in the encroaching darkness she slipped along the river bank and tried to escape the frustration of the day. When she reached her favorite spot, she began to shed her robes and boots and slid into the cool water of the river, hoping that the emotions that hung on her would wash away as easily as the sweat and grime of the day's journey.
She floated on her back in the river, keeping herself from floating downstream by a gentle use of the Force. It had been a trick taught to her by one of the older padawan here when she first arrived and it had always been a relaxing exercise and one that allowed her to clear her mind and focus on nothing but the Force.
With her eyes on the sky and her ears filled with water, Alevia felt the surprise of her youngest companion as he came around the bend in the river. She didn't acknowledge his presence at first, but gently explored his consciousness as he froze in his tracks and drank in the sight of her. She had the distinct impression that what he saw was skewed significantly by his memories from their mutual past, but it had been a long time since anyone had looked at her and seen Via.
She'd almost forgotten what it was like to be Via, but here on this planet, with Vrook and the disciple she could almost feel that part of her again, slowly struggling to break free of the weight of the war and all those years without the Force.
He started to back away from the bank slowly, creeping back around the bend.
"Where are you going, Disciple?" she asked without changing her position in the water. Through the Force she felt his blush at being caught and she stood suddenly with a grin on her face as her eyes met his.
"The others… they were worried about you. I just came to make sure you were all right."
"You didn't tell them about this place, did you?"
He shook his head. "No, they probably think I'm still in the medbay. I snuck away when I got a chance."
"Thanks," she said with a slight smile. "Having somewhere to escape to doesn't work very well when everyone knows where it is."
"I'm sorry I disturbed you, I'll be going."
A low chuckle welled up in her chest. "You weren't. I expected you."
"You did?"
She nodded. "Yeah, why do you think I decided not to go skinny dipping?" A blush crept over his features and she laughed as she fell back into the water and let herself float again. "Vrook is such an ass. I don't know why I let him get to me the way I do."
"Many years of habit, perhaps," he suggested as he leaned on the rock where her robes were draped.
"He used to put me through hell. I don't know if I was imagining it, but it always seemed like he held me to a higher standard than everyone else."
Disciple chuckled. "How is that even possible? His standards were impossibly high."
"I know. Maybe he was just more vocal about his disappointment when I would fail."
"That's possible. You were obviously talented from a young age. He probably expected a lot from you."
"Yeah. Guess so. I started disappointing him early though. You'd think I'd have gotten used to it after so many years."
He seemed to think for a moment and then replied sympathetically, "It took me a long time to be able to face my father's disappointment. He was so proud that he was going to have a Jedi in the family and then I came home."
"Ouch."
"He didn't know what to do with me then. All of my brothers and sisters fell neatly into the roles he designated for them."
"How many brothers and sisters did you have?"
"Seven. Four brothers, three sisters. I was the youngest."
"What sort of jobs did he give them?"
The disciple shifted uncomfortably for a moment. "They all joined the family business."
She stood in the water again and tilted her head as she considered his answer. "You don't want to tell me."
He smiled slightly and shook his head. "No, Mistress Via."
She scowled playfully as she swam up to the rock he was sitting on. "You shouldn't call me that. You're not a youngling anymore. And I'm certainly no Jedi." Something about the way he looked at her in that moment triggered a memory of his young face and his name leapt into her mind.
"Mical!" she exclaimed as she slapped the rock exuberantly.
His grin was large as he nodded.
"See?" she said reflecting his grin. "It's no use trying to keep secrets from me. I will find out eventually. So, what's the rest of your name, Mical? Tell me about your family."
"My family is a touchy subject. I was supposed to have given them up, remember?"
"But you went back home."
"Yes."
She narrowed her eyes at him for his stubbornness and tried a different tactic. "So where is home?"
"I believe the name of your ship is the Ebon Hawk."
She ignored his answer and thought aloud, "From your accent, I'd guess coreward."
His eyes twinkled mischievously. "What accent? I don't have an accent."
In playful frustration she reached up and thumped his knee with a dripping hand that soaked his pant leg and the rock beneath it. "Right, and I don't have brown hair."
He calmly shook the excess water off his leg and shifted out of the puddle she'd created. "Well, in this light, it does look almost black. I guess like all things it is simply a matter of perspective."
She shook her head at him and pushed off the rock, lazily backstroking to the center of the stream again. "You're impossible."
"That's quite probable," he said with an amused chuckle.
"You know I could just go into your mind and dig out all your secrets."
"I'm sure you could. But you won't."
She sighed. "No, I won't." She resumed floating in the middle of the river as the silence settled over them.
"How are you doing that?" He asked eventually.
"Hmm? Oh, it's a meditation technique of a sorts… it's sort of like meditating while floating above the ground, except it's a little easier since you don't have to have the muscle control to stay seated."
"That's not anything I remember being taught."
She smiled. "No, I learned it from another older padawan when we used to sneak out here to swim at night."
"Ah, I see."
"What?"
"Did you sneak out often?"
"Yeah, actually. How about you?"
"I was a youngling. They watched us very closely."
"You didn't answer the question."
"A few times, yes."
She laughed. "I thought so. How did you find this place?"
She was surprised at the sudden change in his presence and she turned her head towards him in time to catch the remnants of a blush.
"To be honest, I followed you here one night."
"Oh my."
He chuckled. "It was fairly innocent. I couldn't sleep, saw you slip out of the enclave and decided to follow you."
Her laughter broke across the water. "I don't know whether to be flattered or creeped out."
"I was ten, you were seventeen. I think it was a harmless infatuation."
"And now? You've followed me here two nights in a row…"
"I had hoped I might find you here last night, but I didn't know you'd come."
She stood in the water and smiled as she headed for the bank. "There you go not answering the question again…"
He considered her for a moment before speaking again. "I find you intriguing, to be honest. You are everything I remember and yet none of those things at the same time. Your story, your following Revan, that you returned to face the Masters and your exile, it is a story that will be added to the histories taught to the future younglings. And I hope that by being here and recording it, that I, too, can become a part of the Jedi histories by preserving them for the future."
Alevia raised an eyebrow at him as she stepped into the shallow water near the bank. The water left her undergarments clinging tightly to her form and even in the moonlight, their translucence seemed to make them almost invisible. She stood there a moment, watching him as his eyes became transfixed upon the rivulets that cascaded from her hair, over her breasts, past her stomach and hips and down her legs.
She stepped toward him slowly as his eyes worked their way back up her body and met her eyes. He gulped and her smile turned into a predatory grin as she took another step closer to the rock.
"Just intriguing?"
He didn't speak, but instead turned his head quickly and looked out over the water in an attempt to regain some composure. She stood staring at him until he finally glanced back at her, his eyes only meeting hers this time as he smiled slightly and nodded.
"Good," she said as she grabbed her robes off the rock and wrapped them around her shoulders. "You're mistaken to think I am anything like the girl you knew here. Via vanished a long time ago and I think you would find the person I have become to be disgusting and morally repugnant.
"And you know what? I like this Alevia. I like the fact that I can't remember the names of most of the men I've slept with and I like the fact that I listen to my body and my emotions and let them be what they are, and not boxed up in neat little repressed package, hidden away from view, but there, lurking under the surface."
She took her other clothes off the rock and balled them up as she watched him closely for some reaction to her speech, his eyes met her steadily, but he did not speak. Instead he merely seemed to appraise her, waiting for her to finish or seek his opinion.
"Believe me, Mical, this is not anything you want to get tangled in."
She turned away from the rock and started heading toward the bend in the river as he finally found his voice. "You're wrong." She paused and looked back over her shoulder at him as he spoke. "You are still that girl I knew. I can see her and she is what she has always been."
"And what's that?"
"Someone who always wanted to do the right thing, but who always had difficulty in distinguishing between right and rules."
"The rules are there for a reason. You can't be a good Jedi without them."
"When the very basis of who you are is against the rules, how can you ever submit yourself to them?"
"I don't know." She glanced back over her shoulder again at the young man and smiled slightly before turning again towards the bend. "Good night, Mical."
"Good night, Via," he called after her. "Oh, and Via?" he said just before she turned the corner.
She stopped again and glanced back at him as he said simply, "Alderaan."
She smiled softly at the young man and nodded, appreciating his show of trust in spite of her little speech. She tilted her head slightly and disappeared around the bend at last.
As she headed up the ramp of the ship, still damp from her swim, wrapped in her outer robes, and carrying the rest of her clothes in her arms, she was met by Atton.
"Where have you been?" he asked suspiciously.
"Swimming," she said as she slid past him on the ramp and threw him a slight smile.
"I can see that," he growled.
"Then why did you ask?" she pressed with a sigh as she dropped her clothes in the dorm and headed toward the communications room.
He followed her sullenly. "The kid's been gone almost as long as you have."
"Are you trying to ask if I was with Mical?"
"Mical? What, he has a name now?"
She chuckled. "Yes, he does. And yes, I was."
"Levy," he growled as she began pressing buttons on a console. "I don't like it. I don't trust him."
"No, Atton, you don't trust me," she said as she glanced up from the console. "While I can certainly understand that, I can assure you that he is completely trustworthy, at least in that respect."
"I still don't like it."
"Your complaint has been registered," she replied with a grim smile. "I had some research I wanted to do before bed. Do you mind?"
He stayed leaning on the doorframe for a moment and she saw his jaw flex as he ground his teeth in thought. Finally, without another word he pushed off the wall and stalked toward the cockpit.
She sighed again as she returned her attention to the holonet story she had pulled up on the screen. There, she studied an image of a large family, all of them exhibiting the same refined bone structure as her newest crew member. Sure enough, in the far right hand side of the picture, Mical's face stared back at her and she glanced down at the caption.
The Sons and Daughters of the House of Antilles attend the Coronation of Viceroy Wilen Antilles, patriarch of the first family of Alderaan
