Last time: Sasha and Cien became more than friends, they became sisters.

Now: The night comes to a perfect end.

Chapter 21- Cyar'ika

The house was dark and quiet. It was late into the night and everyone had stayed up late celebrating the events of the day and had retired to their rooms, finally, hours before. But she couldn't sleep, she had wandered out from her room and she found herself going to the dining room again. The light of the full moons shone brightly and painted the room in familiar light and dark blues, and played off the cloud banks that Kyr had mentioned probably meant the first snow storm after the brief warm season that would soon cover the forest and mountains that stretched out before her in a soft blanket of white powder.

Cien hadn't known what to expect when she had arrived. As they had landed, and the others had approached through the forest, she had to take a moment to collect herself. That was why Kyr had gone out before her, she had still been inside trying to work up the courage to step out and face them because she had suddenly feared the worst, despite Kyr's assurances.

She certainly hadn't expected Viran to have forgiven her, and to give her such a warm embrace. That had overwhelmed her, and it still shocked her how friendly he was to her, a side of Viran she had never glimpsed, except maybe from an impression of him in Sasha's memories.

She wasn't surprised when Sasha pulled her aside after dinner, to ask more about their adventures, to simply talk, and ask about her relationship with Kyr. She had been surprised by how much it had meant, and the strength of their bond though. Even if they had rekindled their friendship, their conversation ended with her having a sister, as though they had simply skipped past years of friendship and immediately moved on to something deeper.

Not to mention how excited Tac was, he had come over and actually hugged her leg, and she had stood there awkwardly having no idea what to do as the little grasper arm wrapped around her calf.

And she had been shocked to talk to Kitsu, with whom she had only exchanged a few words, if that, when they had gone to attack Dracul. When the other Mandalorian had pulled her aside, she had been so warmly welcomed to clan Xiv that she had been left speechless. And when she had hugged her, thanking Cien with such a depth of feeling for making her cousin so happy, she had had to go recover for a moment someplace private to collect herself.

She remembered what Oppie had said, about how in some other time, a version of herself had killed him on Vestora. And she remembered going there, racing Kopesh to retrieve her assigned fragment so she could return and have Dracul glower at him instead of her. She had gone to Vestora with no particular thought about who she might encounter, simply assuming it might be some Jedi and she would easily dispatch them. And she apparently had, in some way. And that Cien, whoever she was, had never known this. She had never known them.

The years since that time ran through her mind. Her battle with Sasha, which had apparently laid a foundation for such a deep bond between them. When Dracul had gone missing and she had gone to that cave to kill her and Viran, and ultimately worked with them to keep him trapped. And her escape to this very house after his eventual return, this very place, leaning against the same chair just as she was now. Where she had first truly met Kyr, and in this very spot he had quietly and meaningfully told her she was not alone. And she had started falling for him that night, in this very spot, even if she hadn't known it until Sasha revealed it to her years later, only a few months ago.

Such a long journey, to get somewhere she had never pictured herself, and could never have pictured herself. The Sith Acolyte from Korriban, that had gone to Vestora, even the Empress she had been six months ago, could not possibly have imagined this. Standing in this house, so deeply steeped in the light. And it was her home now, and that light was such an overwhelmingly comforting presence. Surrounded by a family that had accepted her so warmly.

She heard soft footsteps behind her, and she looked downward towards the rich carpet over the floorboards. A tenuous bond had formed between her and Kyr over the last few months, his presence shone a little brighter than the rest of those around her, and was in the back of her mind always. They would never have the kind of bond two Force users had, like Sasha and Viran had, but they did have something that was their own.

He stepped to her side, leaning back on his chair, where it had been moved next to hers. He was in comfortable sleeping clothes. He had worn his armor almost constantly for the last four months, and even he had relished a shower and changing into something that was made of soft cloth instead of woven armor and hard beskar, at least for a little while.

After her own shower her hair had settled into soft, feathery sheets, almost like how she had appeared in the mindspace when she had asked him to stay with her. She was in a comfortable, long sleeved sleeping gown made from a soft, dark grey cloth.

"I thought you might be here, cyar'ika," he said quietly. When she didn't respond he looked down at her, and he saw she was crying, tears rolled down her cheeks, and it looked like she had been for a while.

A small part of her noted this was another first for her in this room, the first time she actually cried.

"Cienestra, what's wrong?" He asked, worriedly, as he put a comforting arm across her shoulders.

He was surprised when she turned and pulled herself up to him for a deep kiss. They melted together in a tight embrace before she pulled away only slightly.

"Nothing." She whispered, resting her head on his shoulder and he rested his cheek on her soft hair. "Absolutely nothing is wrong, my beloved." She whispered through a completely untroubled smile as she continued to weep into his shoulder, and they held each other tightly, rocking back and forth slowly in the bright light of the two moons.

Far, far away a conference was taking place in the early evening of another planet. Around the table was a mixture of people, from different origins, but working for the same organization, and all the leaders of their factions unified under one cartel. The Maldesto Cartel, named for a founding figurehead who had died many, many years ago by a Mandalorian who had stood over his burned corpse with satisfaction. His child was shrouded in a shadowed hologram at the head of the table, their identity unknown as he spoke with a deep voice, when he rarely spoke, so distorted that no one in this room would recognize it if they ever encountered it in real life.

The humid air from the evening rains made everything in the room sticky, and the dozen or so men and women around the table, as well as their lieutenants who sat around the edge of the room behind their bosses, enjoyed the slight breeze that blew in through the bank of open doors. One of the more vociferous characters at the table, slammed his fist down on the table.

"They have already disrupted my shipments, we need to stop them!" He yelled. No one around the room was impressed by his theatrics, and most suppressed a want to roll their eyes at his minor complaint.

"Or you could bother to secure your shipments, and not leave it to untrained thugs." A woman spoke up, drumming her fingers upon the exquisite wood the conference table was made of. She glanced past him, enjoying the expansive view from the palatial estate at the mist shrouded desertscape beyond. "They sound like hobbyists at best from what you've said. A single Mandalorian and a couple of people claiming to be Jedi?" She sneered. "How much damage can four people do? Are you so weak you can't deal with such a minor disruption?"

"They come, and then the New Republic comes." The other man growled. "Their disrup-"

"A Mandalorian?" The child spoke from the head of the table. All eyes looked up at that modified voice as it drummed through the room, and they paid it their full attention.

"Yes." The loud man said. "His armor is copper colored, and the rest are supposedly Jedi. They're apparently 'problem solvers'." He sneered, finally having a chance to report it to the top of the chain, and not merely grouse at his supposed equals around the table. "People hire them to come arbitrate negotiations, to drive bandits off, that kind of thing. Unfortunately they have started biting at the edges of the organization." He said.

The shrouded hologram looked at him for an overly long moment, and he shrunk from its gaze, as he feared the judgement that may lay behind that shadow.

"They solve problems?" The child said in his deeply modified voice. "Very well. Let's give them a problem to solve."

All eyes in the room stayed on their leader as the murder in that tone rolled through the room like a peel of thunder.

The End?

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