Chapter Four – Reggie Grandar
She walked along the damp, dark passageway, footfalls silent on the ground. Either that or it wasn't necessary for the dream. But in Kai's mind, she could hear them. She knew they were the only echo in the place. But they wouldn't be for long, assuming this was the situation she thought it was.
A sharp click on the duracrete behind her spun her around. The shadowed figure standing there set Kai's heart pounding. The figure, his face still indistinguishable in the darkness even though Kai could remember it vividly in her mind's eye, approached slowly. Kai quickly moved backwards, almost tripping over her own feet, and turned to run towards the end of the passage. The movement behind her quickened as she did and, next second, a strong pair of arms caught her, one around her midsection, the other putting a hand over her mouth.
The familiar fluttering in the pit of her stomach came to her, only this time from fear and nerves as to what was going to happen, even though she already knew. She already knew because it had been Garik who'd suggested she go down and inspect that particular passage, who'd pointed it out to her. And, of course, she'd done it and lived with the aftereffects of that simple scouting job. And her twin? What of him? He had gone to a frelling cantina to 'scout' there.
Not even realizing her attempts to get free of the figure's grip, she only came to the realization when she bit the lower part of the hand that covered her mouth. The figure spat out a curse and pulled her around to face him. Using the hand that had formerly covered her mouth, he drew it back and delivered a well-placed blow to her right cheekbone, purposely avoiding her nose, as that wouldn't look good for her to be found dead with it pushed back into her skull. The world spun abruptly, and then everything was consumed with the endless blackness known as unconsciousness.
Kai jolted awake abruptly, looking around her room. The chrono on her wall read 0857 as Kai quickly rolled out of bed, stumbling across the room towards the closet and a pair of sweats, a clean tank top and her lightsaber on utility belt. Her black hair was quickly tied back after it was combed through, followed by a vigorous face scrubbing. Anything to get the phantom feel of a touch from the shadowed figure from Kessel.
Shrugging her arms into her mother's old Wraith Squadron jacket, the one that was given her when she joined, she went barefoot down the hall to the mess, hoping she might find some kind of hot drink mix. The bottoms of her feet cold on the floor, as it was colder than the floor in her room, she hardly noticed the other small talk coming from one corner of the mess hall as she passed. The chatter stopped as she continued walking at she distinctly felt one presence seated there- that of her twin- grow a bit nervous.
Good boy, Garik, she thought to him. Quickly she filled a mug of caf, warming her hands on it before turning to go back to the table she'd passed earlier. Garik had gotten up rather quickly and was bolting for the door. Smart move, actually. Koyi was looking from her boyfriend to Kai herself, an eyebrow raised. "What?" Kai asked her.
Koyi shook her head at Kai, sighing heavily before she took another sip of her own caf. Instead of sitting down at the table, she walked off out the door Garik had left through, very aware of the worried glances from Ciny, Koyi and Keira. But she didn't go after her brother. Even if she had wanted to, she was stopped by her mother's hand.
She looked up to the face she'd known all her life and sighed inwardly. So she hadn't been dampening her thoughts as well as she thought she had. Either that or it was just some connection her mother had with her. Hopefully it was the latter. It would certainly get very...odd if all the Jedi on the base knew what was going on inside her head.
Kai followed her mother into her parents' quarters, sipping the caf she still had every now and then. Her mother cast the mug a dark look, but said nothing. Kai knew that her mother didn't like her drinking caf when she was 16, but she also knew her mother wouldn't stop her from drinking it. Following her mother's example of sitting down, though without the tired-sounding sigh, Kai put her mug on the caf table between them, gaze resting on the mug itself, trying to look anywhere but her mother's face, in truth.
"Kai," she heard at last, "I'm not going to say anything about your dreams, memories, whatever you want to call them. And before you even ask, no nobody else among the Jedi here have gotten any hint of your dreams. It's just me because of that wonderful little parent/child bond Force-users have. I'm not sure about your brother," Adra said.
Kai merely shrugged. "Alright, then what is this about?"
Her mother sighed and inserted a datacard into the holocube. It obviously held an image file. The holoprojector sprang to life, the holoimage above it showing a young man, maybe 17 at oldest. The image was old, older than Kai herself, but it still looked vaguely familiar. With sharp realization, she understood who it was. Or who she knew this man as. While she wasn't sure how her mother had come across such an image, she didn't really bother to care right now.
Kai glanced down at her hands as she felt her mother's fold over them. Suddenly she realized they were shaking. After a moment, her mother removed her hand and took the datacard from the projector, leaving Kai to cover her face in her hands.
Startling her from her silence was her mother's voice. "So I was right then." A sigh. Kai looked over her fingertips to see her, dark eyes roaming her mother's face. She received an answer to the unasked question immediately.
"I'm assuming that's who you had your 'run in' with. What you just saw was Reggie Grandar as I knew him when he was at the Imperial Academy. He was sixteen at the time I got that image. From what I've been getting in your memory dreams, I took a stab at it that I knew who the still-shadowed figure was. I'm guessing, from your reaction, I was right." She paused, looking at Kai as if for confirmation, and Kai nodded. Adra sighed again and went on. "Well... I guess you can go about and do whatever for the day. I'm going to be figuring out what other information I have on Reggie."
As Kai took her mug and began to leave, she heard her mother say softly, "I'll kill that bastard." Quickly she turned around, staring at her. Adra didn't even look up; her attention was focused solely on the holoprojector in front of her as it once-again showed the image of Reggie Grandar. Suppressing a shudder, Kai walked to the door, again hearing her mother's oath to the image. Before she could hear any more, Kai exited, hitting the control panel after her.