Chapter 4: The First Vision
Cloud paced along one of the corridors of Wraith Squadron angrily. It had been a month and a half since Tyria had been captured and they were no closer to rescuing his wife than they had been a month and a half ago. Force, it was hurting him on the inside. It had been six weeks, forty-two days, 1008 hours, however you wanted to put it since he had held her in his arms, since Kavin and Cerise had seen their mother. It hurt to be around his kids. He kept on seeing Tyria's face. When he looked at Cerise and even with Kavin, he could see some of her features on their faces.
But that really wasn't the worst part. Every night when he came home, Cerise would ask him if 'Mommy was coming home yet' and the four year old Kavin would simply be sitting there silently, staring at the mechanical gadget in his hands. It had been almost a relief when his sister-in-law Tyria had offered to take Kavin and Cerise until Tyria returned.
He glanced down at his chrono; 2349. Force, he hadn't realized how late it was. Not feeling like taking the turbolift up to his quarters, he simply walked down the hall towards the lounge.
He opened the lounge door and cautiously looked inside to make sure that no one else was in there. He couldn't put up with the rest of the squad's sympathetic glances and stray thoughts that always seemed to float his way when he was around any of the other pilots.
Upon seeing no one else in the room, he pushed the door the rest of the way open and walked in, carefree shutting it behind him.
Making his way over towards the miniature kitchen that was in the lounge, he grabbed a bottle of lomin ale from the fridge and quickly gulped down half of its contents. Taking the now half empty bottle with him, he sat down on the nearest couch, taking another swig from the bottle. Hi kicked his boots off and leaned back so that he was lying belly-up on the sofa, legs swinging up to rest on the couch as well.
The mechanic finished the bottle of ale as his thoughts turned towards Tyria once more. He wished that she was here right now because he needed her. Her steady, reassuring, and loving presence had always been there for the last nine or ten years, until now. Maybe this was the Force's way of trying to tell him something. Maybe he really hadn't deserved Tyria and that this had all been a mistake.
That was his last conscious thought before he drifted off into a restless sleep.
He was in the lower levels of Coruscaunt, in a swirling mist. As he peered through the fog, a tall and slender figure emerged. It was Tyria. "'Ria! Tyria!" he yelled as she ran towards her. As he reached out to embrace her, she held up a hand, stopping him.
"Tyria, what's wrong?" he asked, confused.
Her features contorted in anger. 'What's wrong? Is that all you can ask me, Ritril? 'What the hell is wrong?'" She took a step forward and her face came fully into the light. Cloud gasped in shock as many a cut and bruise were revealed.
She laughed hoarsely. "What, don't like what you see?" She pulled off her black pilot jacket, leaving her in a black shirt and pants. Her arms were just as cut up and bruised as her face and several of her fingers looked like they were broken. "You used me."
He held up a hand and tried to stutter out, "No, no! Tyria, you're wrong!"
The hacker slapped him across the face. "You never loved me Cloud. I was just your ticket for redemption. And for you, it worked. You're a Jedi Knight, a Captain in Starfighter Command, and married with kids. Now you can just toss me aside."
He tried to speak, but it was if some other force prevented it.
"You lied to me Cloud, you kriffin' lied!"
He managed to find his voice again. "No! I'd never lie to you Tyria, I love you!"
She scoffed with disbelief. "I've heard that one before. You told me I didn't need to be afraid. You told me that you wouldn't let Daala get me. You vapin' lied Cloud, because where the hell do you think I am?"
Cloud's heart felt like it was being torn in two. He took another step forward and once more failed to take her in his arms. "We're going to get you out of there."
Her tone turned sarcastic. "Oh, I'm sure you will, Ritril. I should've let Kell shoot you when I had the chance. I got sloppy because of you. I was more worried about getting home than getting the job done correctly. And now that my sloppiness gave me to Daala, you're not even worried."
Another, much taller figure appeared beside her. It was Kell Tainer. "I should've shot you when I had the chance, Cloud. You didn't deserve my sister, she was too good for you and she still is. She'd be better off right now if I'd never met you on Kashyyyk."
The big man spun on his heel and stalked off. Cloud turned back to face his wife. "Tyria, please-"
She glared at him and slapped him again. "Don't please me, Captain. I'm in hell while you comfortably sit at HQ. Now, if you'll excuse me, I get to go back to being tortured by Daala." With that, she disappeared.
"NO!" Cloud yelled after her, she he ran around looking frantically for her, he faintly began to hear another voice say, "Cloud, Cloud! Snap out of it buddy."
He closed his eyes, tear leaking out. When he reopened them again, he was in the Wraith lounge once more and Nicola and Kell were standing over him, concerned expressions on their faces.
He pushed himself into a sitting position and looked down at his trembling hands. Kell shoved a cup at him of what appeared to be caf but upon drinking it, definitely was not straight car. Good, the alcohol would help him.
Nicola frowned slightly as she studied his face and he felt a gentle mind probe through the Force from her. "You saw Tyria didn't you?"
With a jolt, Cloud remembered his dream. His mind quickly became a whirling mess of memories flowed through at top speed. The memories now back, he started to collapse inwardly into himself, his breath coming in short, ragged gasps. The cup of caf he was holding was swiftly taken from him and another vessel was pressed into his hands.
"Drink," Nicola's commanding voice said to him. Not daring to disobey, he complied, draining the entire thing with one gulp. Bringing the empty shot glass down on the table in front of him, he felt something he could only describe as fire going down his throat and he started to cough. When he could talk at last somewhat coherently, he gasped out, "What the hell was that?"
"You probably don't want to know," Nicola said tersely watching him rather carefully.
"Well whatever the hell it was," Cloud gasped, "I don't want to ever go near it again."
"That does tend to be what most people say about good old smuggler remedies," Nicola said with a quick grin before her expression became sober once more. "Now then, what exactly did you see?"
Unable to yet look Kell in the eye, Cloud turned slightly away from his best friend as he replied softly, "It was Tyria, like you said."
Nicola nodded as apparently her earlier suspicions were confirmed. "Was it a dream or a vision or what?"
Cloud shook his head. "I don't know, but I hope it wasn't a vision."
"What did you see Cloud?" Nicola repeated her question of before for a third time.
"Is my sister alright?" Kell broke in, voice strained by emotion.
Cloud brushed their questions off as he stood up and headed towards the door, not yet ready to talk about this, leaving a slightly confused Nicola and Kell behind. While he knew that that dream had been merely that; a dream, deep down inside, he couldn't help wondering if the dream-Tyria had been right, maybe he didn't deserve her.
For the first time since he had met Kell, he found himself unable to look his best friend in the eye and his power of speech seemed also to have been robbed from him. He merely stared at his feet, at his hands, at the floor, at the door, anywhere but at Kell and Nicola.
He heard Nicola sigh softly and say to Kell in a calm and
quiet tone, "Kell , could you please go find Adra and
tell her that I'm going to be ten minutes late to that sim
we have scheduled?"
It wasn't a question really, he and Kell both could plainly see that. No, it was more like an order for Kell to leave.
Kell stood up and replied quickly yet quietly, "Yeah, sure thing Nicola." A few seconds later, the door closed shut behind the tall man and Cloud ventured a look over at Nicola as he returned back to his seat on the couch. There was a steely look in the red head's silver eyes as she crossed her arms in front of her chest and raised an eyebrow at him.
"Well? Spit it out already, Ritril," she said calmly as ever.
Looking back down at his hands, he replied a bit sullenly, "I saw Tyria, we were here, on Coruscaunt, in the lower levels. She was bruised all over; like she'd gone a couple rounds with a rancor." He halted his telling, hesitant to continue. Nicola pulled a chair over and sat down in it, still facing him and her expression urging him to continue.
"We talked, I think I asked her what had happened to her and then she started talking, it didn't sound like her at all. She slapped me a few times and-" His voice choked up and it was several moments before he could continue and when he did, his voice was just barely a hoarse whisper. "She said that I had lied to her and that I had used her as my ticket to redemption, that I hadn't deserved her."
To his shock, Cloud felt a tear roll down his cheek and he quickly wiped his face on his sleeve.
"Listen to me Cloud," Nicola finally said. "Tyria loves you, the two of you deserve each other and you were meant to be together. She wouldn't have gone through two pregnancies if she hadn't. Trust me, I've gone through two- no two and a half pregnancies and no woman would willingly go through that nine month hell unless she really loved a man."
Nicola's little speech helping him a bit, Cloud nodded at last and looked up as the door to the lounge opened and Tyria Tainer and his little Cerise came in, the toddler running straight into Cloud's open arms.
As he hugged his daughter tightly, gently running his fingers through her blonde hair, he couldn't beat back this insistent little nagging that maybe Nicola was wrong and that the Tyria from his dream had been right. Maybe he didn't deserve all this; his second chance that had turned out near perfect.
The rest of the day passed by as normal for the rest of the Wraiths, but Cloud still carried that annoying and nagging though about his relationship and whether it was all just a Force-damned sham.