Title: Sisters of the Flame – Book 1 – Convergence
Author: TheBiggerFish
Disclaimer: A long time ago, in a country in the opposite hemisphere to mine, a god among insects conceived the idea for Star Wars. All hail George Lucas, the almighty Bearded One. Resplendent in his flannel, he yet allows us mere mortals to play with his creation. *bows to the Bearded One* Many thanks. The Solo family, the Skywalkers and some other characters I will use are not mine. They belong to He Who Loves Flannel.
The Isis Family, Alexander Helios, Keir Braeden and Silver Liona are MY creations, however. Please do not use them unless you email me and ask permission.
There is a section in Chapter 7 of this Book (loooong way away from here, but hey) that has some sections from Traitor in it. Because Matt Stover worded some things so perfectly I couldn't even attempt to rewrite them. Everything else in this story is my original work unless otherwise specified (I sometimes use song lyrics. I'll let you know if they're not mine)
Author's Note: There are some long posts here. None of them are less than three pages long in word.
This will vaguely fit the NJO timeline until Traitor, where it will be a drastic AU. I'm a fan of the "There Is No Dark Side" Force theory, which is the one I'll be using in here. If that bugs you, don't flame me about it. Just don't read it. I also introduce a new theory of the Force in here, but I don't want to spoil things. :)
This entire story is dedicated to my wonderful beta and the friends from school who I've used as sounding boards for ideas, even if they didn't know what the hell I was talking about. Mainly Catherine Garner, Eleanor Burton and Katherine Douglass. Many thanks to KK for help on the etiquette of fanfiction.net, of which I was ignorant.
Without further ado…
Prologue
It is five years since the Yuuzhan Vong have entered the galaxy. In those
years of fire, many worlds, and heroes, have fallen. Yet out of the ashes of
destruction rise a generation of new heroes. Tested by heat and refined in the
flame of war. They are the ones who refused to be broken.
This is the story of women of courage and strength. Women who will be at war and
peace, who will love and hate, who will grow and live together.
Women who will become Sisters of the Flame.
End Prologue
~*~*~*~*~*~
Chapter 1
Ossus, 10 years before beginning of the Yuuzhan Vong Invasion
A storm ravaged the surface of the planet. Fierce winds uprooted trees and
toppled houses, hail and sleet cut those unfortunate enough to be outside. The
rain poured incessantly, cold and hard. Low-lying areas had already been flooded
while creeks and rivers were overflowing. The wind howled and shrieked,
lightning flashed and burnt the ground it struck while thunder exploded across
the sky. Yet the noise of the storm seemed no match for the screams of the
labouring women in the clean white room.
Wave after wave of pain crashed into the two women as they clung to each others
hands. The two had been friends forever, it seemed, though they were so
different. One was a small and frail human, the other tall and strong, of a
warm-blooded reptilian race native to the planet, the Jekra. The latter, Ssinaa,
had fallen in love with a human and was bearing his child. The former, Evylyna,
was that human's sister, and had welcomed her beloved friend into the family
wholeheartedly. The pair was glad they were together now, as their children were
being born. Sssinaa was bearing it better than her tiny friend, who was quickly
weakening.
The pair yelled and hissed in pain again as a contraction struck both of them
simultaneously, Evylyna felt like she was being ripped in two, and she was
bleeding a lot more than Ssinaa. The contractions seemed to always come
together, lasted the same length and were of the same intensity. For some
reason, these children wanted to come into the world together.
One, last, excruciating contraction ripped through the women's bodies and with a
final, titanic push the babies were born. The mothers fell back against
the beds, still holding hands. Evylyna rolled her head wearily to look into
Ssinaa's black, whiteless eyes. She was so tired, hurt, still bleeding, her pale
skin was ashen and her gray eyes sunk into her face. Ssinaa was worried beyond
belief about her trusted friend, and this worry was mixed with the happy
satisfaction about the birth of her child.
She should not have had the child Ssinaa thought She is not strong
enough for another one. She may not be strong enough to survive this one.
The babies blinked in the sudden light, bewildered for a moment. Then they both
began to cry. The nurses wrapped them in blankets and dried them off. They
approached the mothers and handed them their children. The girl went to Evylyna
and the boy to Ssinaa. The girl looked normal enough, except for the mercurial
silver colour of her eyes. A colour that seemed to slide and move around her
pupils. She looked to have a delicate frame like Evylyna's, and her eyes were
swept up at the corners, a trait of her father, Irin.
The boy, however, was a half-breed, part human and part Jekra. He looked
decidedly strange.
He had lobeless ears that pressed close to his head, the tops of them lined with
scales. He already had a thick head of hair.. No. Evylyna thought Not
hair, something...else His 'hair' was black and shimmering, it rustled and
moved like it was blowing in the wind from the storm, yet there was no breeze in
the room. His little eyes were like tiny pools of
midnight, completely black, with no whites to them, like his mother. The thing
that caught her attention though, was his nails. His tiny little fingernails
were as black as his eyes and hair, and while she watched, they lengthened and
sharpened. Ssinaa quickly held his hands away from her as drops of darkness fell
from his fingers, hitting the sheets and burning through them. He had inherited
the Jekra's trait of poisonous nails. Everything else would come from his
father, and they imagined he would have the broad build of Daray, the strong
hands of Daray, the height of Daray.
The babies continued to wail, little arms flailing, until the girl's hand
brushed against the boy's arm. The contact between small ones stopped their
crying, the boy's nails stopped dripping poison and he reached up the touch the
face of the baby girl next to him. The mother's looked up at each other and
glowed with happiness and pride.
The women were oblivious to what was happening in the tiny, but powerful, world
of their children's minds.
The Force was rushing through the babies, heating them, binding them together
through the physical contact between their tiny bodies. After a time, their
minds also began to bind, and then bleed into one another's head.
The baby girl grinned a toothless smile while the boy blinked his obsidian eyes
in surprise, they were in each other, they were each other, they were separate
and inseparable at the same time. The babies didn't understand yet what had
happened to them. They couldn't have known how extraordinary the immediate
bonding of their hearts and minds was. They would not know for some time that
their bond gave each of them strength in the Force that they would not have had
otherwise. Their families only had a tiny amount of Force in their blood, and
then it seemed to only show up in the males, so their mothers had not felt the
blazing light of their children, how they seemed to only be one person in the
Force, how their one entity was oozing strength and power.
The bonding between the children was so complete and satisfying, that both
newly-born children promptly fell asleep.
The women looked at each other, eyes tearing and faces glowing. Evylyna drew a
shaky breath and asked quietly
"What is his name?" Ssinaa looked down at the tiny, crying boy in her arms and
said
"Keir
Braeden." Evylyna smiled. The name meant 'Black Darkness'; it was a proud name
for the reptilian race, a heroes name.
"Then, I shall name mine Silver Liona." Ssinaa looked up at Evylyna, love
shining in the pools of her eyes. Evylyna had named her daughter 'Silver Light'.
In the legends of the planet, all the people with the names Silver Light and
Black Darkness were bound together, friends, relatives and companions,
inseparable throughout eternity.
Evylyna leant back against the bed and shut her eyes.
"This way you and I will always be together, through our children." She breathed
Ssinaa sat up quickly, worry and fear in her posture.
"Evylyna?"
Evylyna remained still. Still and breathless, her hands fell away from Silver.
"Nurse?" Ssinaa rasped "Give me Silver please."
The nurse complied, tears in her eyes.
Ssinaa cradled the girl on the crook of her arm and whispered to her
"You will be my daughter. I will love you as I loved your mother. Do not worry
little one. Do not worry. Do not cry"