My Empire of Dirt, Part Two
Chapter 49 / My Empire of Dirt Part Two
Gwenarius blamed herself. All this talk about honor, about ceremony, about blooding… and she had somehow failed to teach her daughter the importance of practicality, of cutting your enemies off at their roots. The importance of knowing when honor lay in a quick blaster bolt to the chest, rather than the extraction of information.
In front of her by the Aleema's weapons array, Aemelie was pacing, still obsessed with the past. "Did the Deathbringer explain the mechanics of the mass shadow generator? Did she mention its design?"
"No," Millifar said, face sullen, eyes still downcast from her shame. "But I asked. From the vagueness of her response, Kex and I both assumed that she did not know."
"He is being questioned by men," Aemelie muttered. "You are being questioned by Clan."
"The Deathbringer Meetra Surik's ship is gone." Jokasta cleared her throat, simpering from her station on the Aleema's sensors. "It left orbit and went to hyperspace almost immediately."
"Obviously frightened," Gwenarius observed. "Map the possible routes."
"We'll never know how that weapon was created now," Aemelie muttered, half under her breath.
Gwenarius shot Second Wife a silencing look. "When your father gets back, Milli, you must tell him everything you told us. And more."
"You think there's more?" Aemelie, quite obviously, did not. "Surik left the Dar'Jett before Revan harnessed the Star Forge, so I assume her knowledge of Rakatan technology would be-"
"Aemelie!" Gwenarius put her hand warningly on the hilt of her sword, before turning back to her daughter.
"There is more… isn't there?" she asked the girl.
"Yes." Her firstborn's downcast eyes and dejected expression spoke armadas. "Kex isn't compatible as a mate. And… Revan commed for Father. Weeks ago. I… I neglected to log the call."
"Shabuir! Ne shab'rud'ni!" Inexcusable. Rage choked her throat. "Daughter, if your girl's pride has cost us an alliance with D'Reev assets, I will make you Dar before the next rotation of this planet!"
"Gwen-" Aemelie put a warning hand on her arm. Easy enough for her, her son wasn't old enough to betray Clan in a time of need. Aemelie looked at Millifar. "What did Revan say?"
"That she wanted to talk to Father." Millifar shrugged. "Nothing more."
"Out of my sight!" Her fury wasn't helped by the expression on Aemelie's face. Second Wife had never liked Revan either, but she should have the sense to realize they needed the advantage of the alliance. Gwenarius had discounted the rumors that Revan was dead as more barbarian propaganda… but now… what if the woman had died from their lack of aid?
At the very least, Canderous would not be pleased. Even if the marriage had been unconsummated, he cared for the woman. And practically speaking, she was of more use to Ordo alive than dead, and there was also the matter of her claim to Lin-not to mention her son….
"I will send for your father," Gwen told the daughter. "He will decide your punishment when he returns to our system."
"His ship's arrival should take less than a day," Jokasta added, unnecessarily.
Milli swallowed hard, her features pale. But she did not offer further protest. At least, Gwenarius thought blackly, she could find a small pride in her daughter's courage.
Xxx
When they had been married for a month, the father of Lena's child told her the story of how his people had taken their Prince of the Infinite and tricked him into the mind trap.
Looking back later, Lena realized that was when their honeymoon had ended.
"That's where the old Nico is now?" Lena had asked, kneading his t'chin just the way he liked. "You got out and he got trapped? In a box?"
"A mind trap," the father of her child murmured. "Diabolical device."
"Did it kill him?" Nico Senvi had been dumb as dishplates, but it had made Lena sad to think of him dead.
"Of course not!" Her husband chuckled. "The former occupant of my body is not dead: merely trapped within an interdimensional fold of reality. He must be there still? As dim a challenger as he was, who could lose against him?"
XXX
"Lena?" Now, Nico blinked muzzily. "Are you coming to bed?"
"It's already dawning." She gave him an embarrassed smile. "I kept needing to pee in the middle of the night. Made it hard to sleep."
"I don't believe drinking more fluid will help." He eyed the tray she held, the two steaming mugs on its surface. "Is that-?"
"Sleep tea for me, caff for you." She made her lashes flutter. "I know you like to get up early."
"You are truly a mother of gods," the father of her child said. His lekku gestured to her to come closer. "Come here with your offering!"
"Mmmm…." She balanced the tray carefully, using her belly as a shelf, and easing herself down. "Here-can you take the tray?"
"Of course." He nodded enthusiastically. "Anything for you, my queen."
"Yes," said Lena Wee. "Anything."
Xxx
The interior of the Tatooine cantina was dimly lit, but there was no mistaking the Twi'lek in the corner. Zoriis Bafka's holo was plastered all over Anchorhead. She'd won the Swoop Racing Championships for the second year in a row.
"The hell?" The woman was still dressed in her racing silks, leather straps twisted around her lekku, cheeks flushed a darker green from the exertions of her win. Her brow ridges drew together. "Motta set up this meet like it was life or death, and all I see is a knocked-up pink in front of me? Aren't you that joygirl of Motta's? Used to hang the track with Jin?"
There was no point in being insulted. They'd run in different orbits. "How is dear Motta?" Lena asked. "Does he still have that problem with his swim bladder? Can't be easy, stabilizing two tons of weight, with half your organs rearranged."
"Little dancer?" Zoriis Bafka's brow ridges were now raised higher than a Zeltron's tip for extras. "It is you!"
"I'm looking for information," Lena told her. "I'll pay well. I'll pay you. This doesn't have to be unpleasant."
The green laughed incredulously. "Are you threatening me?" She gestured towards Lena's belly. "What did you think you'd do? Smother me with your womb?"
"Of course not. Seems you weren't always a swoop jockey, Lieutenant Baffaraka-Feris. Or Padawan Feris? Or, is it Seven of Ten? Zennai'cha'hi Division?"
The Twi'lek froze. "Who sent you?"
"No one." Lena Wee shrugged. "I'm a free agent now, Zoriis. Same as you."
"Nothing's free." The green bitch yawned, like a manka trying not to show fear. "Motta didn't tell me your boss. Hope it's not Suvam Tan. That little Rodian got hit. His whole station went dark. Entire Exchange is talking."
Lena would pity the Rodian later. She smiled and shrugged. "Motta's records said you ran goods for Revan Starfire. I have lists of jobs a kilometer long. What I want to know is, what she had you running here."
"Where did-who are you really working for?" Bafka's t'chun wrapped around her neck, as if the air was freezing. "I told Arca's people before, I'm out of the game now. I don't want anything to do with that old woman and her crazy fracking Sith-"
"I work for myself," Lena repeated. "I have a smart computer. Your orders routed through Motta's system. That's how I found you." She smiled her sweetest and pushed a credchip across the table.
"We are never told who gives the order." The green's eyes narrowed, then widened as she noted the amount flashing on the chip's screen. "Maybe it was Revan who sent me here. Maybe not. I was supposed to retrieve a package, but it never came." She knocked back her drink. "Funds ran out, so I started racing for credits."
"A package?" Lena asked. She tried to sound casual like it was no big deal.
"A box." Bafta nodded. "A stone box. Some kind of artifact. An… organization was supposed to bring it here from an undisclosed location."
Lena nodded. "And...?"
"They didn't. I won the championships. The Star Forge went boom." Bafta smiled. "You know, I didn't even recognize Lord Revan when she came back? I only met her once… her hair was different, and she wore those goggles. Humans all look alike, don't you think?"
"Some of them," Lena admitted. "So you… you never even saw this mystery box?"
"No." One lekku twitched. "What's your angle, Lena Wee?"
"I'm just trying to figure things out." She drummed her fingers on the table, trying to seem careless. "What did they tell you this box looked like? What did it do?"
"Said it'd be a white obelisk, not to touch it, and what it did was beyond my pay grade." The woman shrugged, eyes narrowing. "Not that they paid beyond expenses. I used to be a 'cause' kind of girl, back then, when I was a Sith shadow. Why do you care?"
"Just curious." Lena smiled with both dimples, thinking. Sounded on the level, actually. Which was more than she'd expected. "Remember Nico Senvi?"
"Crazy swoop jockey who put Motta in traction?" Bafta snorted, and sipped her drink. "Sure."
"Well… Nico asked me to pick some things up for him. Know where his stuff is now? I can ask Motta, but…."
"I have no idea." The swoop jockey rolled her eyes. "Why don't you check his old room? Don't think Motta ever cleared it out. That Hutt's pretty jumpy now." She laughed. "I mean, for a Hutt."
"Jumpy Hutt." Lena laughed with her. "That's funny."
Xxx
"Delicious caff." Her husband smiled at her over the rim of his cup. "You seemed distant before."
"Did you… finish? Making Mission into… a body again?"
"Both of them!" He clapped his hands. "Truly marvelous creations!"
"They looked like they were sleeping when your droids stopped the surgery." Two faces, almost identical except for their coloration. Eye movement under the lids, twitches of their lips. White had even mumbled something in her sleep.
Lena had watched them for a long time before coming to bed.
"Like suns before the dawning." The father of Lena's child embraced her, and her resolution nearly wavered. His enthusiasm was almost childlike, like he didn't-or couldn't-understand what he did was wrong. "In a way, they will be daughters in the new golden age to come."
Daughters. Yes. I have a responsibility to them too.
"Yes, Nico." The blaster was a duracrete weight in her pocket.
"Thank you for the caff." He beamed and took another sip. "I missed you making me caff. I can never remember. Is it one scoop or two?"
"Two," she said. "Two in the machine, with one cup of water."
Six packets of sleepspice.
"So clever!" he chuckled. "We'll have to keep caff in our new order."
Xxx
Sometimes things were right under your t'chun.
Lena had thought that the new Nico would have hidden the prison he'd been trapped in for thirty thousand years once he got free. Hidden or destroyed it. She would have thought that Motta or one of his bullyboys would've moved someone else into Nico's old coneff when they left.
But nobody had. The door wasn't even locked.
Nico Senvi's old room was full of neatly-stacked speeder parts, plimsi tabloids, and ancient boxes that had once held pizzar. Everything-even the trash-was stacked, arranged by size, and placed in what had to be a deliberate order.
Next to the window, like everything else in the room, covered with a fine coat of sand, sat a small stone obelisk, surrounded by packing materials.
Lena took a deep breath, and touched her stomach for luck.
XXX
They were following a raised path through the swamp, a winding trail made of flagstones that looked as ancient and rotten as everything else on this muddy rock.
The Tee-Three had burned a hole in the wall, extracted cables that sparked and smoked until it zapped them with an appendage to cut the power. With Zaalbar's help, the droid had used the cables to create a rough rappelling line down the side of the ancient castle. While it-or she-hovered behind on some kind of jetpack, Polla, Dustil Onasi, and Zaalbar the Wookiee had used the line to slide down into this muck-filled, disgusting swamp.
They had followed the insane droid as she led them away from the building, deeper into the wilderness, all the while chirping at them like she really was some teenaged Twi'lek.
"Shake a lekku," she barked. "We need to quit this blasted poo doo stand before they send more Sith assholes after us!"
The air smelled horrible, like rotting eggs. It was too warm and too humid. Biting insects seemed to swarm around every centimeter of Polla's exposed skin. She wished she hadn't left the damn mask back at the palace.
Behind, there was the sound of explosions. Shouts. Presumably the guards were looking for them all. She hoped Carth was okay. And Takan and Zepth.
Carth's son (if that's who he was and not the ghost of Darth Malak), seemed to be completely recovered from the carbonite freezing, and was going along like this was totally normal. Or-almost. Every once in a while, he glanced back at her and frowned.
The twentieth time he did it, Polla glared back at him, with her best Revan imitation, stopped walking, and crossed her arms. "What?"
"Nothing," he said, after another long pause. "I was merely wondering what the Council was thinking, selecting a null's memories for Revan's mindwipe."
"Frack you too," she snapped. "I was wondering why a Jedi Knight hero became a war criminal and possessed an innocent kid."
"Dustil is no innocent." He cocked his head, staring at her. "But you are, Polla Organa. I regret your inclusion in these events."
"He's a kid," she told him. "You were supposed to be a man, the best the galaxy had. Isn't that the story?"
"One of them." He turned away from her, holding up his hand to call a halt. "This way," he announced, out of nowhere, turning towards a path that was little more than a muddy track along a creek bed.
"Why?" She stopped walking, even though Zaalbar and the Tee kept going, only pausing a few meters down the hill when they realized she wasn't following. "That looks like it goes nowhere."
"We need to get off the main roads. I… believe we are only a few kilometers from Kaas City. If we can reach it by tomorrow, we may find it easier to lose ourselves in the press of sentients, than in this hunting preserve."
"Hunting preserve?" The Tee whirred.
"Nexu spoor." Instead of answering, Dustil Onasi bent over something on the ground that looked like animal shit.
"Poo doo," the droid chirped, next to him. "It's old. I think we're good. Grab one of the sabers from Polla Polla, if you're like, freaked."
Ghost Malak snorted. "I am perfectly calm."
"You want one?" Polla had offered before, only to have him mutter something under his breath in a language she didn't know. Unlike his father, Dustil Onasi or Malak's Ghost was a fracking snob.
He looked her up and down, his expression strangely blank and cold. "The Ilian blade."
"Huh?"
The kid's hand extended and with a snap, the one with the plainest and heaviest hilt flew into his grip. Snap hiss and it ignited with a pale, blue light. "It needs to be recalibrated," he muttered, deactivating it somehow.
"I'm sorry," Polla offered. "I would have gotten the Sith minions to do that for you… except I didn't know you were actually gonna get kidnapped and frozen in carbonite."
He frowned, almost as if she wasn't there. "It's nothing."
"Right." She took another step forward, trying to pass him, when his hand caught her arm.
"Wait," he murmured. "Let me flush it out first."
"Flush what-what?"
But Carth's kid or Darth Malak or whoever he was, was already advancing on the bushes in front of them, one hand outstretched, almost beckoning-
With a brutal roar, a spined beast shot out of bushes-all claws and teeth, practically landing on the place where Dustil had been standing.
The kid had moved, faster than it, faster than anything Polla had ever seen. His blade was lit now again.
Zaalbar the Wookiee whined something. The kid didn't even turn his head. "No," he muttered. "Blasters only piss them off. He says."
"Who says?" Polla had her own pistol out, just in case, but before she could shoot, he… jumped over the thing and cut its head off.
Jedi. Sure, she'd seen the vids, and her arm still hurt from where Tenny-bro had scorched her with Force-induced lightning, but this was something else. Did all Jedi do that? Could the Zabrak kids she'd been insulting halfway across the galaxy on a daily basis when Tenebrae possessed them do it too?
You'd think if they can all fight like that, they'd have taken down these fracking Sith already.
"Drag the body off the trail," the Jedi ordered Zaalbar. "We'll go to ground here for the night. They'll be searching, but Jin believes he can keep our strength concealed, and in the morning, we will lose ourselves in Kaas."
"Jin? Jin who?"
"Mekel," he turned and looked at her, and damned if that cold expression didn't slip for a second, making him look the years younger and more scared-at least. "Me… I'm here too. This is all fracked,' he added.
"Mekel?" The droid rolled closer, as Zaalbar started dragging the nexu body into the bushes. "It's you again?"
"Kind of, Blue." He smiled at her. "Telos and I-sometimes it's a little confused."
"Not that confused," he added a millisecond later, as if he was talking to himself.
Then his eyes unfocused, as if he wasn't even there at all.
"The bomb thing…" the Tee's voice trailed off. "Are you still mad about it? It was already in the collar-I modded for broadcast, but I wouldn't have just blown your head off. Error: not without a good reason."
Dustil or Mekel or Malak's Ghost snorted. "I've got bigger problems now. That Sith Emperor is standing over my body on Coru like he's guarding it, and he fracking shot me and I almost died-"
The Tee gave an alarmed beep. "Sith Emperor? On Coruscant?"
"Master Klee." He made a face that made him actually look like a kid. "The asshole's in his body."
"Klee was an asshole anyway," he added a millisecond later.
"That's where Klee went?" Why the frack hadn't Polla just gone with him? Oh, yeah. Right. Because the crazy droid offered to pay her, or have her killed. "But your body's okay, right? Now?"
"Yeah. I think." The kid grimaced. "It hurts."
"Force bonds are very unusual," the Tee noted. "Kinda weird that you and Dustil have one, plus the whole Malak thing."
"It's a long story-" the kid started to launch into it. Sith rituals. Bonds. Polla would have thought he was nuts, except so was everything else.
Zaalbar growled. Carth had been trying to teach Polla Shyriiwook, but all she caught were the words for roots and food.
Xxx
Early on Kashyyyk, as the child within grew, Lena's handsome husband had spun endless tales of an infinite empire. Sometimes Lena had wondered if his entire story was nothing more than a giant con.
Sometimes she'd wished that were true.
"How does it work again? This mind prison?"
"A dozen times already I explained this!" He chuckled, cupping her belly underneath the blankets. "We can't build more of them, wife. Not with the technologies of these primitives."
"I know. I'm still saying we should patent the idea."
"Don't we have enough currency already, thanks to the kolto?"
They did-or would soon. But if you could make a prison the size of a sink and stick anyone you wanted in it…. for a time, Lena Wee had seen possibilities.
XXX
Now she saw the practical.
"This is very good," Nico repeated. He patted the bed. "Curl closer beside me. Is our son kicking today?"
"Every hour on the hour." She took a sip of her own tea, and then put the cup down.
XXX
"Humor me. I need a bedtime story."
"The intricacies of interdimensional travel have far too much math. But if you place both-it does require at least two-of your primary appendages on the surface… then, zap!"
"Zap?" Lena shivered. He'd said before that Nico was still alive. He'd said that the real Nico Senvi was in the box. He'd said they'd played a game of riddles and the old Nico had lost.
"Zap. They couldn't kill me, you know. Disobedient slaves! They lacked the power, and I was legion. So they trapped me and hid my prison well. For thirty thousand years, I was solitary. I, who used to contain multitudes." He buried his face in the space between her lekku. "Is something wrong, Lena? You're shaking."
"No." She willed herself to stop. "If someone won the riddles, what do they get?"
"Their body back." He snorted. "It's not like there's a prize."
She should have just cut and run then and there.
She'd thought about it. She'd known… when she admitted the truth to herself, she'd known for a long, long time. Her prince was no prince at all.
Her prince was a murdering slaver.
Xxx
"One, two," muttered Lena Wee on Tatooine. Her hands hovered over the obelisk's surface.
"Then, zap!"
The stone was impossibly warm in the cold room. And then the light seemed to bleed out of the world: light and color, leaving only in their absence, a universe of nothing at all.
Xxx
Revan had forgotten what it felt like: having raw ground under her feet again, smelling clean ozone and jungle, and feeling warm, atmospheric rain on her face. During the wars she'd almost always stayed in stars, shuttled from ship to ship: first for the Republic, and then to avoid Tenebrae and his blasted accord.
I only needed to put him off long enough until the virus took hold or we found the Rakatan mind trap to contain him-
But those plans had failed. One final option remained now.
Their ship had landed in the forest on Kaas. Her feet slipped in the mud. She looked behind her for Seiran, but he was missing. Warm rain washed her face like tears.
Between trees, through the jungle, she could hear the sound of the waves, taste the salt in the air-
Xxx
The red-skinned man on the roof of the ancient temple had a knotted beard made of flesh. He was a minor Voice. Nearly null. They hadn't known what that meant-only sensed his weakness. Deceptive, that weakness. "I have been waiting for you."
"I know." Revan's face was too warm under the mask. Sweat stung her eyes, the corners of her cracked lips. The sun glinted off the waves and the shore. A part of her wanted to laugh-that at the end of all this death, all of this pain, all of this sacrifice and destruction was this idyll-a beautiful planet and it's ruined people.
A group of these people watched, meters away, from the top of a ridge. She could see their triangular heads over the rise, tips of their spears. Taste their fear, like a bouquet of flowers on the wind. She and Mal had cut quite a swathe through their ranks before they gave her the key to this temple: the puzzle contained in the legend of their long-lost rebel prince.
"How do you know?" Malak glanced back towards the shore. Beya was watching the shuttle. The remnants of their Fleet orbited above: crippled ships, containing mad Jedi. Even from here, Revan could feel them, pressing down like gravity.
"The computer," she reminded him of that instead of revealing the truth. "From Kashyyyk."
"You said we would find answers." Malak frowned. The sore on his jaw was worse.
"A way to stop men like your father," she agreed. "A way to stop all conflict. Forever peace."
A way to make what we've done worth it. A way to atone-
Malak's eyes narrowed, his mind close enough to read. A shame Meetra didn't return with the Senate's surrender, as you expected.
It was only one possibility, Mal.
Surik was a broken tool after Malachor, but her gift allowed Revan to share a final message with the Jedi Order: the sound of Malachor, screaming across all the bonds the girl had made. A torpedo, full of Malachor's dark power, driven straight into the heart of the Jedi Order.
Did you really think the Fleet would roll over and attend another armistice? With us? Malak's voice interrupted her thoughts.
Did you? His mind had been as quick as hers he woke with glowing, red eyes. Taunting. Promising her. Bringing them both to this moment. They will back down, if your father commands. And we control him.
I hope you're right, Red. His hand squeezed hers. We can use my father's resources to control this new Empire as well. They'll have population centers. Media. Supply chains. Trade-
Revan frowned. He was right. Sometimes he was still right about things-
Tenebrae's emissary coughed. "My master also wishes a forever peace." His master. The computer had told her about his master. The fabled Sith Emperor that only she could control.
"That's why we are here," she said. "This master of yours is late."
"My master is coming," intoned the emissary. Then his eyes rolled back in his head. And began to glow.
Revan stifled the scream rising in her throat. All the horrors she'd seen, and this still surprised her.
The Sith Emperor isn't just in Malak. He's in this null too. And if he's in two bodies… is he in more? How many more?
"Oh, ho," said Malak's voice beside her. But not his. Not entirely his. The other one chuckled, and then both of them were laughing at her, doubled, every sound exact. Two voices, both Tenebrae's. "My little Sith'ae'rah. I've waited so long for this moment, you have no idea!"
Xxx
"You had some idea," a voice said accusingly. The bushes rustled. "You knew what he was. You knew what he wanted."
Revan shivered, glancing back at their ship. "Seiran? I… realize I was… untoward before, but you must see the necessity."
Silence. She frowned, eyes scanning the leaves for movement. Was he hiding from her? "I would never have harmed the child. I will never harm you, but I knew of no other way to gain your compliance in the time we had. You had every reason to be loyal to the Fragment, and no reason to follow me. I didn't have time to explain-"
"You don't have to explain it now. Mud." The man came up the path from behind the ship, the Republic mask covering his features entirely, marking him as he was. Anonymous. Disposable. "I hate bloody fracking mud."
A soft rain began to fall again, pattering the jungle around them with warm, faintly acidic droplets.
"There you are. Seiran?" She tried out a small smile. "I hope all is forgiven?"
"Ask Jox," the Deralian said. He jerked his head to the left. "He's the one who got the blame for triggering the mines. If he'd have used the scanners right in the first place-"
"Do you forgive me?" Lieutenant Jox muttered at her left. He'd crept up so quietly, Revan hadn't realized, hadn't realized the moment when the rest of the troops arrived, all of them, moving in slowly, to take the next few meters of this jungle moon-
"Of course," she said. "Of course, I forgive you, Jox, for making that egregious tactical mistake that almost cost us victory-"
Without waiting for Revan's command, the lieutenant moved forward. A few heartbeats later, a sharp click was their only warning, before the path exploded, and the world cut out in a blaze of fire.
Above, in orbit, she closed her eyes. Pando's unit was encountering similar resistance, as if the Mando'ade had mined every path on Dxun.
Need to press on, send another line forward to trigger the trap. Keep the Jedi in reserve, we can't afford to lose them-
Revan's thoughts were logical, but what came out of her mouth was a scream, as she looked down and saw her gray robes spattered with blood-
"Get down, Sheris!" A Force wave enforced the command, and Sheris rolled over to see Padawan Meetra Surik standing over her, with Knight Vikor Tio close on her heels. Both of them knelt down beside her as cannon-fire sent the trees above them into blaze.
Seiran was nowhere in sight.
Fragment will never forgive me if I lose the smuggler's husband-the thought was disruptive, something out of time.
"I can try and trigger the mines remotely," Vikor whispered, but his voice buzzed in every comset in their squad. "Hold. Everyone hold."
"You're the boss, Vik!" Frost was good-natured, but not one for rank. None of them were, really. This was their second battle together, and already they were a team.
Her heart was in her throat. She was so frightened. Revan never remembered being this frightened-
Meetra flashed Sheris a quick smile. She looked nervous too. It helped somehow, knowing that. Knowing they were all in this. Like a connection.
They were all in this together.
"Troops forward." Flat voice. Ringing through their comms like a bell. "Jedi hold position. Advance troops."
"No!" Padawan Surik, speaking out of turn, glaring angrily at the sky. "Please! Send in droids to trigger the mines! Or let me! I've been disarming mines since I was seven-those are plasma jaggers. Easy. If you give us more time-"
"Press forward," the command came again. From above. From apart. Words cold, encased in ice.
"That's fracking suicide!" Kalora Antilles, next to Frost. Technically she was still a cadet, but she was the best sniper they had. "Who the hell does Revan Starfire think she is?"
"Your General," the voice answered. The voice heard. Sheris realized the voice heard everything. "Knight Tio? Enforce my command."
"You… bitch," Vikor muttered. "No. I won't. Ignore her. We can shield you guys. Go slow, we'll be right behind-"
"Over a minefield?" Corporal Shu was the highest-ranking null they had. He stood up, shaking his head. "No! I'm not sending my men into suicide-"
"Vikor." The way General Starfire said the knight's name seemed to resonate in the air, even over the commlink. "You know what to do."
"No." The Knight shook his head. "That's… I thought you were joking, at the briefing, we can't really-we're Jedi! What you're asking is… no!"
"Your Jedi says no," Shu muttered. He made a rude gesture towards the sky, where the Harbinger waited, safe and snug in orbit with the rest of Fleet.
"Vikor," the voice repeated. "We're out of time."
"No." His lekku were wrapped around his neck. The Force sang with his pain. Sheris patted him on the arm, because she didn't know what else to do. She wasn't even sure what the General was asking them to do.
"Meetra," the voice said. Revan said. I said. "I trust you, Meetra. It is necessary."
"Please." Padawan Surik wiped her eyes. "Don't. There has to be another way."
"There's not."
"Oh." The girl wiped her eyes. She wasn't much older than Sheris, really.
"You can't," hissed Vikor. "Are you insane? You can't compel them-"
Meetra Surik's eyes were a pale amber, almost gold. Right now they were full of tears. "You're right," she said. "I can't, Vikor. I don't have your strength. Or your training. You'll have to do it. Don't you see?"
"See what?" Antilles snapped. She turned her rifle in hand, and for a moment Sheris thought she was going to shoot them.
"No." He shook his head. "Please. Meetra, don't."
She smiled sadly at him. The red star on her cheek was streaked with mud. "It's necessary, Vic. Please. You heard it. Please do it. Do it for me." Her voice was gentle, but it-but it-
Sheris caught her breath. Caught herself. Nodding.
"Forward," Vikor Tio's voice went to the main channel of the comm, cutting through the tension around them abruptly, like synsilk. "You have nothing to fear. There are no mines here. There is no… pain. We Jedi will keep you safe-"
Sheris started to stand, only to have his iron grip pull her back down again.
"Close your eyes this time, Little Red," he whispered. "Look away."
"This time?"
"You almost got yourself killed before."
Explosions, lives cut short. Sheris barely felt them die, staring into his cold, yellow eyes. Like a wall of ice enfolding them.
The rain fell, washing the mud red.
"It doesn't hurt," Vikor told her. "In case you were wondering. At least for me, we were in pieces before made impact. Our fuel tanks ignited with the heat of the sun. I think." His mouth quirked. "Wasn't paying much attention at the time."
The conclusion seemed inevitable. "Did my ship explode too?" Did I fail already? Again?
"Sleeping," he corrected her. "You're sleeping. This is a dream. You remember Beya, I assume? She and I died together in the Cron Cluster."
Meetra Surik turned-but she wasn't Meetra now. Instead, Beya Organa's heart-shaped face broke into a cool smile. "Hello again, Revan." She arched an eyebrow. "Don't you think you're trying a little too hard to be Revan?"
"That's who he's expecting. Who is needed."
"We understand why you left the amnesiac back on Deralia." Vikor sighed and sat down in the rapidly-reddening mud. "Just rather less clear on how you plan to stop the deathless."
If Vikor were her subconscious, he should know. If he were real…. "I never used you for your grasp of strategy."
"That was more my game." Beya smiled, a little grimly. "Don't you think he'll notice your weakness?"
"I know how to distract him. And it's a Sith planet. Sith Lords are constantly trying to amass more power. My allies… artifacts… I'll find something. And Malak… is there. Or will be. He-he will help."
"Something," Vikor muttered. "Revan Starfire will find something. Another cure worse than the disease?"
"I held you in confidence, both of you. Perhaps longer than I should." Did one of you betray me to Malak? One of you on the Leviathan, one the Aleema. It could have been either or both of you working in concert-
"Rev!" Beya's voice was as sharp as a blow to the face. "Stop. Enough already. It's just us here. In your dream. Drop the act."
The… act? "Beya." For a moment, weak Sheris overrode her, and wretched sentiment welled up again, like the girl's fear on that demon moon. "I'm sorry."
"I know." Beya leaned over and kissed her. Her lips were soft. "You should be," she whispered in Revan's ear. "But it will take more than that-"
Xxx
"This caff tastes sweet," Lena's husband smiled at her. "Like you, my heart." The father of Lena's child took another sip, his lids already half-closed.
"You're sweet," Lena Wee lied, waiting for him to pass out so she could bring in the maglift holding the (surprisingly heavy) obelisk, and press his hands against it.
XXX
One. Two. Zap.
"Lena?" Nico stood in front of her, wearing a pair of stained coveralls. There was nothing else in the room. If it was a room, it was a white space, with no walls or borders she could see. "How did you get here in my heaven?" He frowned. "Why are you fat now?"
"I'm pregnant," she said. Her hands went to her stomach protectively. "What do you mean, 'heaven?'"
"Look around!" He waved his arm, but Lena saw nothing. "See all my trophies? It took me awhile to get it." He laughed. "First, I thought I was just winning everything cause I am that awesome; but no one wins everything, and the other sents are fuzzy. Around the edges. You're not. Fuzzy." His t'chin twisted with sinuous ease, with a grace she'd forgotten the real Nico had. "And when you're here, you're never fat." He paused. "Are you like Griff?"
"What?" She had forgotten how aggravating real Nico was. "You think I'm like Griff Vao?"
"He was here. Not fuzzy like you. Said he came into my coneff, and touched the box and ended up here." Nico looked genuinely puzzled. "We didn't know how to get him out, but I remembered the other guy, that funny little alien-"
"Saying alien is rude," she chided automatically.
"But he was! I've never seen a sent like him!"
"It's still rude." She folded her arms. "But I… I know. He is… different."
"So we did the same thing, Griff and me-three riddles. His were real hard." His smile was so sweet it disarmed her. "Then he vanished. Poof!" His hand and t'chin waved the air.
"Oh." She sighed, a little relieved. "Nico, I bet three riddles is how you can get out of here."
"You want me to ask you riddles?" His brow knitted. "That's what the guy said too, but I guess I only know dumb ones."
"I know some good ones," she said. "Maybe I can even tell you one." She blinked at him and smiled, even if on the inside she was quaking. Heaven, he'd called it here. Maybe if Lena were trapped here, she'd start to hallucinate too. "Or two. Maybe I can tell you two."
"The alien said it took three to get out. Griff got three right. Right away!"
"What's twenty plus three?" She interrupted him.
"Huh?"
"That's my first riddle."
"Oh! You want to play now? But you just got here."
"I… I don't have a lot of time." Her child, she thought, suddenly panicked, about her body. What would happen while she was in here?
"Okay. If you say so?" He was puzzled. "It's weird, but I… I have to play with you now. It wants me to."
"What's twenty plus three?" She repeated.
"Twenty-three."
"Good!" She nodded, enthusiastically. "What's five times nine?"
"Forty-five." His brow ridge furrowed. "I think if I answer another one right, I get out."
"Someone else is going to come here. They might look like you." Don't make anything a question. Remember that. Above all else! "All you need to do to get out is say those two riddles and then another. But math. All your riddles have to be math. You can do it. I promise."
"Any math problem…?" He looked troubled. "And then what happens next?"
Does that count as a riddle? You don't even know how this works, Lena! If it counts as a riddle, is it his first? When he asked the other questions, did I answer them? What have I done?
"Lena?"
Lena Wee took a deep breath and answered Nico Senvi with another question, one she didn't even know the answer to herself-at least, not entirely. Poor Nico wouldn't have a chance.
"What is the name of my baby's father?"
Xxx
Seiran was getting used to the Bitch's nightmares, but this one was different. This one… for a second he thought he was actually there. Standing in a jungle, while the Bitch called his name.
But then-he jerked awake again and looked across at her. Eyes still closed but moving rapidly back and forth. Muttering something in that language.
The comm on her wrist was flashing.
Help, Seiran imagined whispering to whoever was on the other line. But would anyone calling the Dark Lord of the Sith be someone who would help?
You should have done something at Peragus. Something more than writing "Revan Starfire was here" and the date on the side of the wall.
He should have done something more, but aside from Polla's parents, Seiran didn't know who to call. Polla was the one with Aemelie Ordo's comm, and what would Aemelie Ordo do, anyway? Launch a Mandalorian invasion for one sweet smuggler? Aemelie might like Polla… sometimes he'd wondered about how much the woman liked Polla; but that was insane.
Every option was insane.
No. Now, here they were, deep in Sith space, on their way to a lost planet. Maybe the other Revan would come and rescue them all if this one failed.
That woman could fly. She could probably do anything, but he'd gotten stuck with this one.
He could steal the comm. He could crash the ship into a sun. He could scream… but Seiran Wen did none of those things. Instead, he got up from the nav and walked over to the Bitch. Shook her shoulder gently.
"Someone's calling. Wake up," he said. "Wake up, Revan."
Xxx
However Mission had sealed the door, it took more than a lightsaber to open, although several were trying now, stabbing through the surface like red searchlights, before fizzling and cutting out.
Makes sense, Carth thought. Cortosis-lined building materials. We could probably learn a lot from the sents on this planet, about how not to get skewered by Dark Jedi.
Sith, he corrected himself. Real Sith. The real thing now. What those Dark Jedi were only playing at.
When it finally became clear they weren't going to make it through until some grunt got a plasma torch, Carth touched the comm at his wrist. Even if Tenebrae interrupted, there was nothing they'd betray. Tenebrae needed to know that Revan was real too. And really coming here.
It might buy them more time.
His wife's comm rang several times, and when she finally picked up, he hardly recognized her. Her hair was shorter, freshly shaven on the sides: Deralian again, but loose now, tumbling into her eyes. She wiped those eyes almost angrily, a gesture he remembered like she was scrubbing out sleep.
"I thought we agreed not to use this frequency except for text-oh." She blinked at him, all blue through the commlink, lashes still incredibly long, eyes wide and deceptive as a tu'kata stalking.
"It's… it's me." His mouth was dry. "Beautiful, it's me."
"Oh," she repeated. "… Carth." One line appeared between her brows, as painfully familiar as that lying face.
"In the flesh. If you want, I could show y-" the joke died, in the face of that blank expression, his heart clenching painfully as the truth became evident.
What have you done?
Her frozen expression told him everything, all in one glance. "I don't suppose you remember, but we spoke once before. It was in the Jaxus Cluster. You did an excellent job on your Morgana, the day the Vengeance was lost. I… I told Rear Admiral Karath we needed more pilots like you, men and women willing to risk everything. Sacrifice everything for the cause… but also smart enough to survive the odds."
Even through the comm, that blankness. Like when she came back from that blasted temple. Like she had no idea who he was.
"I named that ship after my wife," he muttered. "My first… wife."
"Is this comm secure?" There was nothing at all in her expression, not even the lines he remembered around her mouth as if taking the memories back from that damned holocron had erased every vestige of the woman he once loved. And when had she done it? After he left?
You wouldn't have done it because of me, would you?
"I don't know."
"You know that you are compromised? My… friend informed me about the Emperor's possession of your mind."
"Do you know how to get him out?" You owe me, sister. You owe me. Even if you aren't her-
"If it were that simple, the galaxy would be an entirely different place." There was a trace of the woman he knew in that dark joke. A glimmer. "Is my... ally safe? My… my servant wishes to know. I believe he's quite fond." She glanced offscreen and muttered something, too fast for him to catch.
Terrifying, not to know how much of this was an act, and how much was the real her.
"Ally?" Did she mean Polla? "She's with… your other husband," he shot back. It probably wasn't smart. Zaalbar would have told him to stop barking at the moon, because it had no face.
Her lips twitched. "Good. I look forward to seeing all of you. Alive."
Was that a threat? Or a promise? "I look forward to seeing you too-"
His temper sparked and then like sparks, the world went white-
When Carth came to his senses, he had a stylus in his hand, the door was blasted open, and a group of brown-clad servants (or slaves, he thought the Sith had slaves) were packing up the bore of a large plasma torch. The Zabrak kids were still unconscious. Carth looked down at the datapad in front of him.
Having the servants put some hunting robes in your new quarters. Do you prefer to ride a speeder or beast? Let Liyo know!
Nothing about Revan. Nothing about the rest of their conversation. Had there been more? Had Tenebrae spoken to her too?
"Ahem," said a voice in front of Carth. A pink-skinned Zeltron, also in brown robes leaned against the wall. "I am Liyo," he said, smiling. "Do you need more time to read? Your writing is quite a scrawl… and I'm usually quite adept at Basic."
"No, I got it."
"Good." The Zeltros collected the datapad and extended his hand.
Carth ignored it and scrambled to his feet himself. "I'm good," he muttered.
"Your new quarters are in the prison wing, I'm afraid. Actions do have consequences, and even servants must be punished when their masters rebel."
"What about… what about them?" The Zabrak kids lay on the ground, like discarded plimsi. From what Carth had seen that was exactly how this damned emperor treated his subjects.
"You want them?" The Zeltron shrugged. "If keeping them alive motivates you, we can bring them along. Separate cells, I think. Force cages for them. You…" he sniffed. The air was too sweet, like the man was trying to frack with him, but after Carth's experience being mind-fracked on the Republic Pearl by D'Reev's minions, a little Zeltron juice was nothing.
"Cut the pheromones," he snapped. "Just keep those kids safe and I'll be motivated enough."
Other slaves had already moved in, stripping him of his blasters, the knife Canderous had given him, even the holdout in his boot. Their hands pawed and plucked. Carth willed his eyes never to leave the Zeltron's face.
One of the last plucked away the comm from his wrist.
The air cleared, and the Zeltron have Carth a slight bow. "I don't know how you nulls can stand being alive, but it takes all sorts, and what the Starfire wants… the Starfire gets." He lowered his voice. "I've always found her a little… overrated myself. Have you seen the version of her life story we show here? She's a man."
"Trust me." Carth glared. "She's not."
"And?" Liyo was tapping his foot now, looking at Carth expectantly. "Beast or speeder? We have yozuk and nexu, although I can't guarantee which you'd be assigned. Our Lord rides a gundark, of course, but I wouldn't recommend that. We need you in one piece!"
"Speeder," Carth gritted his teeth.
"Pity. With your coloring, I could see you like a Beast-rider of old, astride… something." He raised an eyebrow. "The first hunt will begin tomorrow at dawn… and no, your Zabrak boys cannot come. We have limited costume, and his Magnificent is already possessing a matched set of purebloods."
,"You were… you were serious. About the hunting? What are we… what are we hunting?"
"Your lost friends. Are they friends? The actress seemed… fiery, I saw the recording. And a Wookiee. Quite a challenge. And of course… the prize. We do rather need to collect Lord Malak before Revan's return."
Xxx
"I accept my fate," their daughter said. Millifar's hair hung loose, shining like the rays of a yellow sun down her back. Gwen had stripped the girl of her beskar, and Milli knelt before him, wearing only a pair of faded coveralls that Canderous was pretty sure had started out as his own once, before one of the wives had repurposed them. "I have doubly shamed our clan."
Canderous sighed. Behind Gwen, Aemelie, holding both babes, shrugged. Her lips mouthed a word, but aside from that hidden display of defiance, she was obviously not going to go against the First Wife's wishes.
"I accept your admission of shame, Daughter." That was the formal response. Now if Gwen was serious, Millifar would be sent in exile from Ordo until she found some object or information to prove the worth of her return. Except, maybe Canderous had been away from Clan too long, because they didn't even know for a fact that Revan was dead, and he thought this entire exercise was overkill.
Considering everything he'd seen her survive already, Canderous was pretty sure Revan wasn't dead. He'd considered the fact that maybe she and the pilot had just wanted an out. Hadn't he and Onasi discussed that very thing in the weeks after the Star Forge, while Revan screamed in her drugged sleep in the Hawk's infirmary?
"Let me try a comm," he suggested. "You said she commed? Did you record the code?"
"Of course." His daughter wiped her eyes, sniffling a little, like a much younger child. "And then I erased it-"
"Shame!" Gwenarius interrupted. "More shame!"
"But I memorized the signature," their firstborn added. Her sly smile reminded Canderous of her long-dead brother, although Carefix had known better than to goad the First Wife of Ordo.
"Try the comm," Canderous suggested. "Gwen…?"
"There is still the shame of the Jedi Exile," his wife snapped.
Aemelie shifted young Dxun on her hip, and put Oerina on the floor. She barely hid her smirk.
"One thing at a time." Canderous gestured, and his daughter rose neatly to her feet, crossing the Aleema's bridge to the communications console.
Her fingers slid across the keys, and the comm chimed. Once. Twice."
"Hello?" A man's face, stubbled and nervous. It looked like he was holding the portable commlink Revan had carried in his hands. His eyes kept darting offscreen. "W-who is calling, please?"
"Me," Canderous barked at him. "Where did you get this comm?"
"I-I have it," the man replied, as if he were simple.
"Seiran?" Aemelie interrupted suddenly, crossing the floor to stand in front of Canderous. "What are you doing? Did you kill Revan Starfire?" She sounded impressed.
"No," a female voice snapped in Mandalorian. Revan's face was unmistakable, appearing behind the guy's. There was pause longer than Canderous expected as she stared at him. "Canderous Ordo."
"Third Wife," he said formally because Gwen was still standing next to him glaring. "I see that you're alive. Good."
"Good?" Her laugh sounded high and unfamiliar. "What are you… is that-what in nine hells are you doing on my flagship?"
Xxx
Lena sat there in their bedroom for what seemed like hours, watching Nico Senvi's still-unconscious body breathe. Her son rippled softly in her belly like a Ryloth moon. A boy, her husband had said. What kind of world would he have now? Better or worse, than what might have been?
"Lee-na?" The voice startled her. She turned her head.
The seams along the white's lekku were pink where the droids had made their incisions. The girl teetered on the tips of her toes, and almost fell.
"Mission?" Lena couldn't move very easily now, but she got up as quickly as she could, dancer's training helping her to adjust to the new cant of her weight, and rushed to the white's side. "Are you… okay? Can I get you anything?"
"I… I am small." White lekku flapped limply. "And she… my pink… is she gonna wake up too?"
"I don't know."
"I tried. I shook her. But she didn't…." A white hand buffeted its own face. Violet eyes blinked with tears. "She's breathing, though. I-I think… she's… what's wrong with him?"
"Let me see-" Lena glanced back at Nico's limp body, a spark of fear rising in her chest.
What if… what would the prince do to them if he was the one to wake?
Xxx
"Why?" At the time the reason hadn't been truly important, but she enjoyed the sound of his voice lulling her to sleep, and the pleasant languor their lovemaking left in her limbs. "Why did your people put you in a box for thirty thousand years?"
"For the crime of rebellion." His chuckle rumbled in his chest, against her stomachs. "I told you."
"You rebelled to save your people?" Every good Twi'lek knew the tales-legends really-of those who stood against the tide and broke their chains.
"So many demands they had! Yes. I tried to save them." Her husband chuckled. "All those demands! Differences of opinion! It was chaos, Lena. Sheer chaos." He kissed her brow. "So I tried to save them-yes. From themselves."
"How?"
"Another time, I'll tell you." He kissed her. "Maybe even show you."
Xxx
Lena fingered the blaster in her pocket again. She'd been practicing on targets and sims for weeks. Ever since she'd retrieved the Twi'lek bodies. Ever since Tatooine.
Mission followed her glance. "Hey! What's wrong with T'chhhje-T'chiiimmm… ?" Her face made a strange contortion. One side of it twitched. "Why can't I talk?"
"You're fine. Nico's fine too. But… he… might be gone a while," Lena evaded. "Let's go see to your… sister."
"She's my twin," Mission corrected. "You're my sister, Lena." Those impossible violet eyes blinked. Her smile was sweet and warm. "Thank you for saving me."
XXX
