The Disciples of Exar Kun Chapter Twelve
Suggested Theme:
Main Theme- Shout by Tears for Fears
The Dead-Star Dragon is by the bathing pool and completely naked. The human is also by the pool and completely naked too. As disgusted as the dragon-prince is by human flesh, he knows that he and the human have to bathe or else they will become more disgusting.
"Okay, we're going to start very small because simply tossing you into the deep-end will probably not work." The Dead-Star Dragon narrows his golden eyes at the human's piss-poor attempt at a joke.
The human goes over to the edge of the bathing-pool and sits on the ledge with his knees sticking into his chest. The human then gestures for the dragon-prince to follow.
I'm not some Sith Hound that will do as he commands! But he goes over there anyways.
"Now, sit down with me, please." Why does he continues using manners with a beast such as myself? The Dead-Star Dragon frowns, not certain which parts of the question were his.
The dragon-prince sits down and mimics the human's posture.
"Okay, now watch me." The human then slowly, like a salted snail, pries his legs from his chest and puts his lily-white feet into the bathwater. The Dead-Star Dragon waits with bated breath for the human to do more.
"All I want you to do is to put your feet in the water, nothing else." The human says gently like he's preparing himself for an oncoming tantrum. The dragon-prince rolls his eyes.
How simple of him! Does he really think I'm paralyzed with fear of the water that I won't let my fleshy feet touch the water? Ha! I'll prove him wrong like he always is! With newfound determination, the Dead-Star Dragon sets himself to work.
He pushes his right leg away from his chest and towards the water. It takes nearly a minute of him forcing that leg down and one foot into the water.
Then, he does the same for the other leg.
My feet are in the water. What's the point of this? The dragon-prince flicks his golden eyes to the human for clarity.
"How does the water feel?" The dragon-prince stares blankly at him.
"It's water. It's wet. It's warm." The human nods.
"How do you feel?" The Dead-Star Dragon thinks. Um, confused? I'm not scared. I'm not going to drown in the water like this…the water is non-threatening.
"Safe." The dragon-prince answers. The human smiles and lays back.
The Dead-Star Dragon spends the remainder of the lesson with his feet in the water, feeling safe.
Brendol Hux took another nap when Luke left. He could almost believe that the drugs in his IV are the cause of his drowsiness, but he is a realist when it comes to himself. And the answer was quite obvious: he was getting old.
His stomach than gurgles like a growling dragon.
Pfassk, I'm hungry! But I can't really walk out of here without getting shot! He presumes that the Senator must have guards outside the room. Because no one would let a man who nearly two killed people unattended in a school with younglings.
Force, I hope she has guards! She's not stupid; she's kind of like Sloane, you know if Sloane was a mother. For all the times Grand Admiral Sloane has complained about my treatment of Armitage, she has never once volunteered to take him under her wing. He grimaces at how Armitage would've turned out if raised by her.
Probably would've been a perfect soldier for the Order, inside and out. He would've turned out dull. He prefers Armitage being who he is now. A child that loved to find magic in everything and everyone.
Innocence. He is innocent. He can recall an auld moment from his affair with Jedi Desolous when Desolous claimed that he was innocent. Brendol remembers that his response was a bark of cold laughter that aggravated Desolous's Jedi sensibilities.
I was innocent for a time, and then…I wasn't. Desolous was innocent, even though he was older than me. Well, at least until he Fell. Desolous never said I was the reason for his Fall, but he never said I wasn't. He remembers the butterflies of guilt that would swarm him when Desolous came a-calling in the early years of their relationship.
I've been thinking about him lately. Too much. Then again, he's dead, and it seems so much simpler to think about the dead than the gone. He tries to think about Rama, tries to imagine finding him, but it hurts him. It hurts him more than Rama telling him to take Armitage and go with Mercury Swift.
"The dreams of youth are the regrets of maturity." I am no longer young, but I still dream. But he is a man full of regrets.
"Mother Night! Fold your dark arms about me. Protect me in your black embrace. I sit alone, an impotent exile, whilst this force, this presence, returns to torment me!" He releases his pent-up anguish in one mighty Tim Curry impression.
And Mother Night answers….
In the form of Han Solo standing in the doorway with an expression that says he heard everything.
"Mother Night! Fold your dark arms about me. Protect me in your black embrace. I sit alone, an impotent exile, whilst this force, this presence, returns to torment me!"
"Okay..." Anakin turns to Dooku, expecting a full explanation for this.
"What makes you think I know more than you about this?"
"Well, you're very….erudite. And whatever he just said sounds like Sith poetry, so I thought maybe you knew where it was from." Anakin phrases his messy thoughts as delicately as possible so not to insult Dooku.
"If it is Sith poetry, then I never came across that particularly piece."
"…..Did Palpatine ever say something like that to you?" Dooku shakes his head.
"No, Anakin, neither Palpatine nor Sidious said anything like that in my presence. I should be asking you that since you spent nearly twenty-four years as his Apprentice." Anakin looks away. I never really paid attention whenever he launched into his beloved arts; I was more drawn to the art of his ass!
But Anakin is mature.
"…..Let's just keep watching the ginger weirdo."
Brendol can see a man, older than the Skywalker Twins, with a tray of mouthwatering food. He can see some kind of meat coated with rich brown gravy and caramelized onions and carrots on top of a bed of mashed tubers.
I can smell the garlic in the tubers from here! He really hopes that man is not going to turn around and walk the fuck away with the food.
"Is that grilled meat?" He asks, hoping that the man goes along with it and completely forgets what he heard moments ago.
"No. This is a Shaak pot roast." Shaak pot roast? I think I had that once. Shaaks are some kind of Naboo animal, so Rama probably made it. I need to ask Armitage about it; he remembers every meal that Rama cooked. Rama's spell has yet to be broken. The thought casts a fleeting pall over his appetite.
"It's for me, right?" The man gives him a bored look like the answer is obvious. The man comes over and hands him the tray. He turns away from him with the intention of leaving Brendol alone with his memories.
"What's your name?" He quickly blurts out.
"Solo. Han Solo." Han answers. Han Solo? He's a Captain for the New Republic, even though he could've became General. He pilots the Millennium Falcon and is married to Leia Organa. And his co-pilot is…a Wookie. Oh kark, I think I shot his co-pilot!
"Is your co-pilot nominal?" Han raises an eyebrow that reminds Brendol of Tarkin whenever one of the aides asked something stupid.
"You wouldn't be alive if he wasn't." Han walks out before Brendol can ask any more questions. Brendol looks down at his tray feeling like he should be embarrassed.
It's not like I can do anything about it, might as well eat! Brendol then picks up a forkful of mashed tubers and begins to eat.
Author's Comments- No links this time.
At first, I was going to add one last scene of Dooku and Anakin at the end, but then I cut it out because it just didn't fit with the rest of the story.
I had to think really hard about Han and Brendol interacting with each other. Han, to me, doesn't really strike me as someone who would converse with a complete stranger, especially one that just harmed essentially his best friend, unless he knows he'll get something out of it. Which I got from his initial interactions with Luke and Ben Kenobi. What can he get out of Brendol? Nothing since Brendol doesn't know where the missing children are and he's certainly not going to hire Han for a job in the foreseeable future. So Han doesn't want to waste his time, time that he can be using to find his son and comfort his family, for Brendol.
Also, odd little tibit: Han, according to Legends/EU, is about 10 years older than Luke and Leia, while Brendol is about 19 years older than the Skywalker Twins in my stories. And, apparently from the Wookie, Hand didn't learn about his parents until he was an adult and was descended from King Berethron e Solo of Corellia who introduced democracy to the system. So Ben Solo/Prince Amidala is royal on both sides of his family.
Next time: Dead-Star Dragon and Ben make some real progress, while the Skywalker-Solo-Organa family deal with Brendol.