•'´)
¸.•´¸.•´¨) ¸.•)
(¸.•´ (¸.•´ ¸.•´
¸.•´¸.••-» Chapter Eighteen
(¸.•"
A tall young man took a deep, supposedly calming, breath and held it for a moment. Then let it out explosively and ran his hands through his perfectly trimmed hair. "I can do this… I can do this…" He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and groaned. "Oh I can't do this..."
The pale streams of light traced the angular lines of his room and furniture. His back was to the window, and his face was heavily shadowed. His lean frame of six foot one was clad in a pristine outfit that consciously emulated Han Solo, former leader of the now-fallen New Republic. The blaster was missing, and rather then red Corellian bloodstripes, he had twin gleaming bars of silver running down the side of his pants. The black shoes were glossed to a reflective state and his white shirt gleamed like a star in the early morning. The vest lay over the back of a chair and showed no promise of being moved any time soon. His burnt-sienna colored locks glowed softly as the sun rose ever-so-surely. His warm summer tan seemed to trap the fiery rays under his skin that were then released carefully through his cool grey eyes that smoldered with tightly controlled power. In short, he looked as close to a god as any mortal can get.
Garik Klamath looked over at a holo picture on his wall; it showed a dark haired woman holding a small ginger-haired boy on her lap, and a man with hair a few shades lighter then Garik's own. They were laughing. They were happy. They were a family. It was his family. Then… Then came the Divorce.
Garik's mind shuttered away, locking the memories of the wedge that had driven his family apart away in some dark recess. It had been a long and messy divorce between his mother Vhivianne Trisst, a member of the Senate, and his father, Garen Muln Jr. a successful lawyer. It had ended with his father getting next to nothing while Vhivianne got the bulk of their money, close to four million credits in all, their Coruscant high-rise living arrangements, the family starship and sole custody of their son. Garen was granted forty thousand credits and an office in Borsk Fey'lya's hometown. Garik had seriously contemplated killing his mother after that. After his father had wrung a promise to spare his mother's life out of him, Garik had gone home to find his mother re-married. She had apologized, she hadn't planned on getting married… but she was pregnant. And she would not tolerate his last name; he would go by his stage name, Garik Klamath.
Garik's heart had died then.
His world crashed and burned that mild summer, leaving his life lying about on the ground in fragments tiny beyond comprehension. All that was left was a burning hunger for his parents' love and approval coupled with a desperate desire to be able to experience living again. All of his attempts to contact his father outside of their every other monthly meetings were rebuffed – Vhivianne had threatened to move Garik to Tatooine if Garen allowed it. A towering resentment towards his mother had grown, then toppled as he found he could not in all justice hate her. She was his mother. On second thought, he hated her.
In retaliation he threw himself into his work, cooking up close to 7.5 million credits in a little less then eight months. Four of his holos were up for awards this year; one for Best Romantic Drama of the Year and another was for Best Action Drama of the Year. He was also up for Best Leading Actor. Even still, he still felt lost; his family was shattered, though his work life was great. Was it a worthy trade? Not by a long shot, he thought grimly.
Garik stared unseeingly out his window as the sun rose inexorably, seemingly in stasis as his mind stumbled and reeled, trying to escape the burning pain the past year had wrought.
And so the dawn came, shining its brilliant rays onto the shattered man-child who cried softly for his broken family.
"Master Garik?" A nasal voice intruded on his tears. "Was there something you needed?" the pompous man trussed up in a serving outfit asked from an open archway in the wall.
"A different life?" The teenaged holo star muttered darkly under his breath. Then, with a sigh, Garik shook off his emotions and slid seamlessly into his role as dutiful son. Turning his head slightly, he shot one of his million-credit smiles at the major domo. "Not from you, Ab-duk-rah-man." He shook his head. "Sakes alive, can't you get a name change??"
"You wish for me to change my name, sir?" Abdukrahman asked in a rather puzzled tone of voice.
"Oh never mind, Abduct…"
The man stiffened visibly, "Abduct, sir?"
"My new nickname for you," Garik waved one hand negligently at his servant while pinching the bridge of his nose with the other. "Man… Life hates me…" Garik grumbled, sounding very much like the teenager he was, keeping the despair that threatened to engulf him under tight control.
"Dah-ling..." A low drawling voice preceded Vhivianne Klamath, Garik's nine-month-pregnant mother. "Ah wanted to see if yuh needed inathin' bafo' the conference…"
Garik rolled his eyes, "Mother, there are no politicians around… You don't have to keep up with the 'southern drawl' thing – I promise not to tell anyone," he added mockingly.
"Gahrik," she said formally, "Yuh will leahn with time that one should nevea, evea drop one's act. It could prove deadly." Her dark brown eyes sparkled as she dropped the act and once again returned to her casual way of speech that betrayed her Tatooine origins.
"Mom-"
"…Mother," she corrected with an iron note.
"Fine. Mother. I don't need anything that couldn't be fixed by skipping this meeting. And I don't think you should be walking around – the doctor doesn't know why your child hasn't come yet and that's starting to make me nervous."
She sniffed, "Ah see. Au revoir, mah son." And with that she swept from the large, sunlit room.
----
Rosie sat in the copilot seat, watching the controls with fixated fascination. "Dankin, what that steady red LED for?" she asked, her brow furrowing in confusion.
He bit off a harsh-sounding word and she jerked her head around to look at him, "It's nothing. Ignore it." The words more then anything else tipped her off.
"Dankin… What. Is. It. For."
"Nothing you need to concern yourself with."
Rosie sighed and looked down at her shoes. "Well ex-cuse me… I just wanted to know!" She tried her hardest to make lil' ewok eyes at him. "Pretty pretty please?"
"No."
She glared. "Tell me now!"
He glared back. "No. Now sit down before you hurt yourself," Dankin muttered in frustration.
"I'm not standing up!!" Rosie almost yelled as she jumped to her feet.
Dankin speared her with a look that plainly said "I'm-not-amused-now-do-whatever-it-is-I-said-you-have-to-do-and-nobody-will-be-hurt". "Tyrael, I gave you an order."
"It's my ship. I sit down when I want and I don't want to sit down."
"Oh? You don't?"
"Not until you tell me." Rosie stuck her chin out stubbornly.
"Sit."
"No."
Dankin suddenly spun to face her, his hands flying to her shoulders. "SIT. DOWN."
Rosie's legs almost collapsed and she fell backwards into her chair, eyes wide with fright.
"That's better."
"Dankin… Why won't you tell me?"
"You really don't need to know."
"Why?"
"You'll die if I tell you."
"Die? No I won't."
"Yes you will."
"I say I won't."
"I say you won't have an option. I'm not going to tell you."
"And I'm not giving up until you do."
"Then it appears we are at an impasse."
"I guess so." What the heck is an 'impasse'? she asked herself in confusion.
----
"Anadell? What in the name of the Jedi are you doing here?" Justin's voice was blurry and muted. Carson squinted; she could just make out his tall frame. In his hands he held a small blonde girl – her.
"Runnin' away." The other Carson gasped, her face turning a pale crimson. She watched with growing anxiety as the blonde struggled, then planted her steel-tipped boot squarely between her brother's legs. His cry of pain and outrage was muffled as he let his sister fall to the floor. The scene slowed. Justin's form slowly curled into itself and Carson was pulled to the floor by gravity, her head whiplashing back. A vein in Justin's forehead popped out as his face turned the color of blood. An incandescent beam of red several shades lighter then his face arced toward the base of his skull.
Contact.
The skin bubbled up like hot water, turning pitch black. It peeled away from his spine, blood and scorched flesh covering what was once a pristine suit. His entire neck turned the color of charred blood as the destructive laser cut a hole in his skull… He was dead before he hit the floor……
"JUSTIN!!" Carson seamed. Her face drawn and pinched, her body drenched in sweat. "Justin…" She whimpered, hugging her large pillow desperately. "Oh Justin…"
She cried.
----
Grey eyes solemnly regarded the two fighters. Ja'en?it wasn't so much as the word that she sent to the former Solo, it was more of a picture as well as the impression and feelings behind the image that gave it meaning. In this case she sent out an image of his face.
Yes?Jacen sent feelings of agreement.
I hope Dad wins,she told him softly, using an image of Isolder and his trainer fighting, and then one where Isolder is standing proudly while his trainer is laying on the ground.
He's not my dad,Jacen informed her shortly. Tenel Ka turned her small head to look at him.
He's… not?
No, my dad was killed.Jacen started crying.
Tha is not my twin?Tenel Ka asked worriedly.
My twin lives on the big city.The image of Coruscant made Tenel Ka's eyes bulge slightly.
…Oh.
Both of them fell silent as they watched Isolder, neither one feeling particularly communicative.
----
"We should probably put mind blocks on them both," mused the Queen Mother. "They don't understand it, they're too young, but I don't want them getting memories of this and then asking questions about it."
"Point taken, My Queen." Yaryne Te'eth, the Chief of Security, acknowledged. Her mind carefully compiled the masses of rampant ideas that Teneniel's words had set loose. "Shall I get one of the specialists from Hapes 3?"
"Yes…"
"Is something the matter, Your Majesty?"
"Something will happen to Javen. I know not what and I fear I will not be able to protect the son of my heart. I realize that this probably was one of the tactically worst moves I could have made – I have placed the only hope for the galaxy with my idealistic daughter. I fear that this will only end in ruin…"
Yaryne and Teneniel sat quietly, frustrated agony written all over their faces as they were helpless to do anything.
----
Djai kicked weakly at the thick, misty whiteness that was keeping him imprisoned. Time was of no consequence inside the small room. He might have been there for a year, or perhaps for only a minute. It was all the same. The barrier was malevolence, even to his jaded eyes.
Jade.
Jade eyes.
Zekk.
Mara.
Jade.
Zekk needed him.
Zekk was scared.
Mara didn't need him.
Mara wasn't scared.
Jad…
No.
Don't think about her.
Just… Don't.
She's nothing like what she used to be.
She doesn't love you anymore.
She can't.
She won't.
He had torn out her heart and given her a whetstone in its place.
She doesn't love you.
She can't.
She won't.
But, what if she cares?
She can't care.
Hypothetically speaking, if she cared-
She loves Him.
She… does?
You nitwit! She kissed him!!
So?
It's one of her most precious memories.
How'd you know that?
I saw it.
How?
Our bond.
…It's still open?
Master never found out about it.
Oh.
----
Zekk and Mara were sitting on the roof of the Imperial Palace. The cool night air was empty. There were dense, dark gray clouds that obstructed their side of the planet. The moon would occasionally peek out and the entire area lit up with a dazzling white brilliance. There was one star that was willing to play peek-a-boo with them; Cirius. Freezing gusts of wind swept over them. Mara was simply oblivious to them and Zekk was shivering. Mara smiled gently at him. "You cold?"
"Ye-e-ea-eah…" Zekk tried to keep his teeth from chattering, his face turning the shade of a pomegranate.
Mara laughed softly as she slipped off her coat, wrapped it around the small five-year-old and pulled him onto her lap. They just looked at the ever-shifting clouds for a time, then Mara remarked, "It all seems so surreal…"
Zekk, who was half asleep, curled into Mara's lap a little more, his Master comforting him as best she knew how. Which wasn't much. Mara hadn't shot him as he had thought she might. She had, however. gone berserk when she saw the onyx that held Djai.
……Zekk cowered against a wall, his face hiding as sobs racked his thin frame. "For the Empire…" Mara intoned lifelessly as Palpatine rose in her, trying desperately to counteract what Luke had done.
"You-" Suddenly she broke off, seeing a faint light streaming from Zekk's hands. "That…" she pointed at it with one hand.
Zekk's reaction was to try and hide it from her – last time he'd ever try that. Her fingers were stiff as they slammed into his shoulder, numbing almost the entire left side of his body. She was half-frantic, half-hysterical as she pulled at the stone. The gray mistiness that had shielded Djai from Zekk broke away and Mara screamed….
She brought him back, Zekk realized, but why? And how?...
Jaina.... He had to reach Jaina.... He drifted off to sleep.
---------
Hah! And the plot thickens... faceevil Actually, there's still no plot to this. I mean, I have a plot, but, no plot for how to get to the plot. So this chapter and the next three (I have like 12 more chapters written already) have no plot purpose. Enjoy them! They have probably the last bits of glee and happiness in the whole fic...