Chapter Two – Kill Garik Loran
The Afyon 'children' sat in a loose circle, talking quietly. All of the siblings now knew what had happened in the mission to Kessel. After all, how could they not? Ty sighed angrily at himself. After he'd left Kai with his mother and aunt, he'd taken some of Meli's explosives and gone out to the demolitions range. He wasn't the only one out there either. Uncle Face was there already, as was Koyi. He'd thrown what explosives he'd had and at the same time told Koyi the problem. That's not saying that his twin didn't already know. By the time he was done, Koyi had disappeared. It was not twenty standard minutes later, and Ty was sitting with all his sisters and their respective boyfriends, namely Rane Fel and Garik Loran. Lis and Rane were watching him, not saying anything. Garik was seated next to Koyi and in spite of himself, Ty could sense Garik's reluctance to be present. Somehow, he thought, Garik knew more than he claimed to. And Tynian had every intention of finding out what it was.
Garik, seated across from him, shifted as Ty looked at him. Ty raised an eyebrow, almost as if her were waiting for Kai's twin to speak. Which he was.
"So it's true, isn't it," Meli said, looking between the Junior Wraiths- and friend- present.
About to reply, Ty saw Rane open his mouth to speak. "What's true?" he asked. "Sorry to pry, but who and what are we talking about?"
Liselle looked over at Ty with an apology, then turned to the younger of the Fel twins. Ty sighed to himself as he heard, for the second time today, the results of the Kessel mission.
"Kai and Garik got into more than a bit of trouble, and, well, Kai ended up...er...well," Ty saw his older sister glance at him, a questioning look evident. With a sigh, Lis went on in a quieter tone, "Kai was raped." She finished, her tone dry, and nearly everyone in the room was watching her. Ty wasn't, however.
His attention was drawn to Garik instead. The navigation expert was staring at his hands, stone-faced. Ty's eyes narrowed; he quickly probed Garik in the Force.
What? What do you know that you're not telling us? he asked, almost forcefully.
Garik looked over at him, his green eyes distant. His mouth opened to reply, and another voice supplied the words.
"He knows more than I'd like him to, at any rate."
The entirety of the group looked up to see the dark-haired, dark-eyed Jedi pilot standing in the open doorway of the lounge. Ty quickly followed her gaze to her twin. Garik's shoulders were slumped and was cringing visibly. Ty looked back at Kai as she began speaking again.
"He knows more than he should because he just had to go and get inside my head," she said, glaring at him. Then her gaze turned to Ty's and she smiled slightly. Of course, it's not like you wouldn't have done the same thing eventually.
Ty offered a smile, unsure if that's what Kai wanted, but nonetheless willing to offer it. He watched as she crossed over to where the rest of the group was sitting and took a spot next to him.
Ty grinned to himself, glad to that he, at least, wasn't going to lose her over what had happened. Even so, he was almost at a lost for words when Kai leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. Sure, it was a little thing, but still. He saw his sisters roll their eyes at him when Kai put her head on his shoulder, but immediately stifled any reply he might've made when he felt Kai open herself to him in the Force, all barriers gone.
The rest of the beings in the room suddenly didn't matter anymore, were of no consequence whatsoever; all that mattered was making sense of what Kai was 'showing' him. All her memories and experiences of the Kessel mission were flashing in front of him. Everything. In something like a fast-forwarded holodrama, he saw the twins landing, them following their contact, following the man assumed to be an Imp; everything.
Including what had happened to her at the hands of some kriffing Kessel jerk. Immediately, thoughts about stealing Jori Daragon's Death Star came into his head. Not only thoughts of stealing it, but taking it to go and blow up Kessel. And then he'd pound Garik to pulp.
At this point, he realized that he could see the rest of the room again, the memory overload now at a halt. Kai's head was still on his shoulder, only now he was staring at her. Abruptly, he realized the sleeve of his shirt was wet, as though moistened by tears. Ty turned ever-so-slightly and wrapped his arms around Kai in a tight hug, having no doubt in his mind that while he had seen those memories, so had she.
Around the room, he could sense everyone had stopped thinking about the fact that they were being less-than-discrete about their relationship. No, now they were wondering what Kai had done or said to cause him to make that sharp a reaction. Only Garik seemed to know otherwise.
Releasing her after a moment, Ty stood abruptly and looked hard at Garik. Kai's brother met his gaze, then quickly looked away. Behind him, he felt Kai's presence pick itself up and move towards the exit. Ty merely stared at Garik a few more seconds. Then he said, very clearly, "You are dead, Garik Loran. You're dead." And before anyone could reply, he exited after Kai.