Knight-Errantly Chapter Five


In Mon Mothma's personal refresher, dominated by pristine whites and coral pinks, Ben fills the porcelain sink up with cold water. He inhales and then exhales. He plunges his face into the cold. The water shoots up his nostrils like nostrils, but he refuses to pull away. A minute later, his body pulls away so aggressively from the sink that he falls flat on his back and onto the faux-fur bath math.

YOU NEARLY KILLED US!

Ah, there you are. I was afraid our first kiss magicked you out of existence.

I WAS IN SHOCK, YOU IDIOT!

I can certainly hear that now.

WHY DID HE KISS US LIKE THAT!?

Stop screaming! And if I had to hazard a guess, it's because you were going to roast my mom and her idol.

That's because your anger was affecting me.

Are you certain that wasn't your anger?

If it was my anger, do you think I would've let you run your mouth, Prince?

Ben can feel his stomach bubble with familiar anger, the kind of anger he reserved for his family accusing him of doing something that he may or may not have done. He channels that anger into his limbs and gets up from the shag rug. He returns to the sink and pushes down on the lever to drain the water. He looks at himself in the mirror and sees that his circlet has fallen too far forward. He adjusts it with a light hum.

So you're going to ignore me now since I told you the truth?

I admit that I do have some anger issues, but I've been working on them.

Really? You're imagining skinning me alive right now. And why did you imagine me as a head-butting, purple, puny dragon?

You do enjoy tackling your problems head-on rather than thinking.

Unlike you humans, I don't need to waste my time on thinking.

If you took a minute to consider the consequences of your actions, you might have realized that burning and consuming your avowed enemy's grandson may not be the brightest idea. You lost your body, and I've lost half of my mind.

But we're going to get me a body!

Yes, yes, but we're going to need to make sure that this trip will happen. Our Wistie's explanation…might have doomed it.

That was an explanation?

He had to come up with something to explain the kiss…our first kiss.

Ben traces his lips with his pointer finger.

And that's a big deal because?

It was also Armitage's!

I repeat the question.

Because he temporarily married our lips, and one day it will be more!

Like what?

You'll find out when we hit puberty.

Is that like molting?

In a sense.

So how are you going to convince your mom to not cancel the trip?

I have no idea.

Brilliant.


When the Prince slipped into the 'fresher, Armitage is glad that he won't be around to see the brutal interrogation. And he fervently hopes that the 'fresher is somehow soundproof. He feels the spit on his lips dry up in the heat of the maternal fury. Much like his thoughts of escape.

"Is this revenge, Armitage?" Leia's hard brown eyes sear him like he's a criminal on trial. He balls his fists and grits his teeth to keep himself from laughing at his fortune.

"Yes, now you know how I feel." Thank Exar Kun's hot voice! She's still in the dark about her son's mind-mate! Oh shit, but now I have to sell this lie. He straightens his posture and flares his freckled nostrils like he's ready to tussle.

"All for the Commandant, even at the price of your freedom." He inhales and exhales as he remembers the Commandant's words.

"Anger is useful on the battlefield when you haven't slept or eaten in days; it's an energy booster. But it's a mind-killer." Commandant explains as he checkmates him on the holo-table. "Just like fear."

"If I was a citizen, then we would have to be enemies, no?" He tilts his head to the side like a cat. "I don't wish for us to be enemies."

"I understand the Commandant's explanation, but I don't agree with it."

Of course, you wouldn't. You're the paragon of democracy like the woman by you.

"What else could he do? If we stayed and became New Republic citizens, then we would've been marked as traitors. And considering how many higher-ups hate his guts, it's fair to assume that we would've gladly hunted us until our deaths." The truth burns his tongue, but the best lies are the ones with the most truth in them.

"Then, why not become a citizen of the Unknown Regions?" Mothma delivers the sucker punch.

It's not like I didn't wonder about that when I was with Den. Why didn't the Commandant and father didn't do that? The FO would've thought we disappeared, probably got killed like the ships that got lost in the Unknown Regions, and never bothered with us. The same with the New Republic. I would've had both of my parents. Why didn't they consider that option?

"Citizenship is hard to come by for humans in most parts of the Unknown Region. Most citizenships are based heavily on whether that person is a native or part of the dominant species of the system, and most humans fit neither. The Chiss Ascendancy allows for humans to be citizens, particularly the useful ones; they did take in the few thousand humans that saw no future in the FO or New Republic. But those humans don't exactly enjoy the full rights of citizenship and experience intense pressure to conform to Chiss ways. Considering my family, I don't think we could've lasted in the Chiss Ascendancy." Armitage admits after a minute of contemplation.

"Are there no worlds inhabited mostly by humans?" She further probes. The light from the expansive windows dominate the space, but it acts as background dressing for Mothma and Leia. Armitage muses that they look like malformed angels.

"Actually, there are, but most have adopt a rather hostile stance on outsiders, even if they're fellow humans. Like Parnassos." Armitage trails off for a second, nearly dragged back to an old fear of losing the Commandant, but he steels himself. "Then there are some that don't give a poodoo about the rest of the universe and refuse to be caught up in the Galactic Cold War. Like Rhand. Although, I'm not certain if the Rhandites are actually humans, since I've never met a human with natural red eyes."

"If citizenry was not an option, then why not just travel around the Unknown Regions? It wouldn't be a stable upbringing, but you wouldn't have known that, and I doubt the First Order would hunt your family down since the Commandant, at the time, wasn't part of the upper echelons of the former Empire. They would've presumed you lost like the ships that didn't make it to the Unknown Regions."

And how many of those ships did your Rebellion captured and "convinced" the Imperial refugees that the New Republic was their only hope? He could've countered with, and burned with the desire to do so, but he would rather not accuse without proof.

"Maybe, maybe not, but we'll never find out, now will we?" He tries to tease but sarcasm cuts through his intended playfulness. His blue eyes catches the white 'fresher door opening, and the Prince leaves it in pristine condition. Though his face is wetter than before.

"Mother, I would like to go to the beach now." The Prince announces as though there's not water dripping down his nose like runny snot.

"There are fresh towels hanging in the 'fresher and even more in the closet." Mothma informs the Prince in a matronly sigh.

"I didn't see the point since I'll be getting wet soon." The Prince counters with cheek.

"Um, but our clothes aren't suited for the beach." Unless he said so at some point during the shopping trip from the Seven Sith Hells.

"We'll go back to Embassy Row to change, unless you feel up for another shop–"

"NO, PLEASE, NO!" Armitage yells automatically and flails his limbs about like he's about to fall into a ravine.

"Well, then, we better get going!" The Prince dazzles him with his diplomatic smile, while Leia shakes her head at the pretense of it all.


When Padmé came over, Anakin made sure that his room became their most favorite place in the galaxy: Varykino. On the balcony that overlooked the sapphire shores, both of them are meditating on a crimson mat without a stitch of clothing; she to her Shiraya and the other lesser gods, while he to the Force. Anakin drifts in and out, mostly out because he enjoys his wife's shameless adherence to the old ways. The Naboo, before they became civilized, would do exactly what they were doing, allow themselves to be at the mercy of their pantheon.

Anakin believes it's just an excuse for public nudity.

I could never get tired of this view. Too bad, she gets so grouchy when I interrupt her meditations. I have to wait like another hour before she's done. And I've meditated enough since the Force isn't as demanding as her Shiraya. What can I do to kill time? I haven't checked up on the kids in a while!

Anakin conjures a datapad into his hands and is greeted with one of the serene beaches on Chandrila. He realizes it must be the private beach reserved for those that lived in Embassy Row because the children and Leia seem to have the beach all to themselves. The blue-green sea laps at the white sandy shores as mildly as it always has. Leia reclines under a sky-blue umbrella on a sapphire mat; she skims through a report on some planet called Nagi, but her angel eyes peer up every other second at the children.

Armitage stands out with his glistening, red hair and smattering of light-brown freckles; Anakin swears that a few more freckles appear on the lanky boy's pale back. Ben's nearly pasty skin, which Anakin entirely attributes to the children's imprisonment in Exar Kun's tomb, soaks up the sun and darkens to a near olive.

Anakin sways with the children as they go against the waves until the water reaches their shoulders; he suspects that they're trying to find the perfect place to really use their aqua breathers.

"Their swim shorts complement each other so well!" His wife, his angel practically squeals like a newborn gualama.

"I thought you were supposed to be meditating for another hour."

"I have all the time in the eternal to make up for my minor blasphemy." He smirks at her adorable hypocrisy and sets his eyes back on the children.

"The shorts are really short and tight. Should they be wearing those?" She raises one fine eyebrow, and he prepares himself for another fashion lecture.

"Anakin, this is really in fashion for boys their age, and the tightness prevents sand from getting in." He pouts at the mention of his most hated word, but mischief glints in his eyes like kyber crystals.

"Angel, they're wearing booty–"

"Dead-Star, you can come out now!" Armitage exclaims under the water. Ben closes his eyes and opens to reveal golden eyes like a serpent's. He latches onto Armitage's arm like a lifeline.

"We are not going any deeper than this!" Ben's voice warps into an animalistic growl, while Armitage shrugs like it's nothing new.

"So you're not mad about the kiss are you?"

A school of little rosy shore fish circle around them like a flower chain, feeding on the microscopic algae in the water.

"You did it to stop the idiot from losing control."

"What?" Armitage's breather turns his disbelief into a static cackle.

"And why do you humans make such a fuss about your lips touching for the first time? It's just spit!"

"Well, my father told me that ideally kissing should be the bridging of two souls. It's ultimately fleeting."

"…How can you make it stay forever?"

Armitage smiles, plants one pallid finger on those thine lips, and winks.

"I'll tell you when you're older!"

"Damn you humans and your puberty!"

Anakin drops the datapad onto the mat and turns to his wife with wide eyes.

"Why is Ben speaking like that?"

"Why are his eyes yellow!?" Her near-hysteria breathes life back into his limbs, and he gets up and sprints out of the room to alert his Line.

"Ani, wait! YOU'RE NAKED!" But he doesn't hear her.


Yoda decides it's time to interact with his Line again. As he leaves his room with his trusty gimer stick, he sees the most contentious of his Line barreling down the hall with all the grace of a drunk Ewok.

And then he comes eye to eye with Anakin's–

He turns back, needing to meditate until he can't remember why he needed to in the first place.


Author's Comments- Here is the link:

This what an aqua breather looks like. However, the aqua breathers in this chapter have been upgraded to allow for speech: a href=" . /starwars/images/7/79/Kenobi_ /revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/180?cb=20130809183220"Link/a

For those wondering how much of Phasma I'll be incorporating to this series, the bit on Parnassos is about it since I haven't read the novel, but I got a copy from my local library. So, hopefully, by the end of the month I'll see if I enjoyed it or not. For now, I don't plan on Phasma being a character in this series or most of my other ones, but Cardinal's a safe bet though. Also, finally read the Fortress Vader comic and….my favorite part was the very end with the dream/nightmare/Force-vision. I'm not going to follow this particular comic series, but the art's neat. I did like that we finally found out what happened to Eeth Koth after Order 66, which was unfortunate for him. If he does show up in this series, it's fair to assume that he would never, ever be friends with Anakin or Desolous.

I'm still trying to figure out how to write Mothma since, to me, she's a foil to Palpatine. She's very calm and controlled like him, but fights for the side of the angels. In the movies and cartoons, I always viewed her as a cold fish who only becomes impassioned when necessary. I'm trying to work through that view like I'm also trying to work through my boredom with Snoke in another series of mine.

Next chapter: Ben, Dead-Star, and Armitage explore the Crystal Canyons after bedtime, while Yoda's (sans Yoda) Line deal with a naked Anakin.