Chapter Twenty

Enivid; fabled place of holiness… not! Dankin snorted, his temper frayed from keeping the truth from Rosie. Emperor's black bones, how did I get myself into this mess? Because I "needed the money". He snorted again. Last time I'll ever use that excuse. Probably the last time you'll use any excuse, a cynical voice in his head informed him coldly. The molted screen of hyperspace stretched on ahead of him – blank, freezing, unforgiving, dead. Just like his future.

It's not like anyone'll miss her! She's only seven and a pirate's daughter at that! I'm doing the galaxy a favor, really. It's not like she'll change her mind and just become an upstanding citizen of the NewRepublic – not that I am either but… He dragged his hands down his craggy face. How do I rationalize it? I need to do it – it's the right thing to do – nobody'll be looking for her – nobody'll be missing her! My conscience has no right to bother me. It doesn't. Really. Besides, even if she did want to become an upstanding citizen of the NewRepublic… The NewRepublic's been disbanded. So it doesn't matter one way or another. Dankin sat back with a Cheshire cat grin, then, after a time, it faded into expressionlessness. There still was something wrong with the whole deal.

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Rosie sat on her bunk cross-legged, small circular discs laying haphazardly around her as she hummed songs in no particular order. "A-hah!" she cried out as she held up one of the small metal albums up triumphantly. "I've got you!" Rosie swung both feet over the side, being careful to avoid those scattered on the floor, and tiptoed her way across to the compact-player. Sliding it into the narrow slot, a series of lights appeared on a small panel and she pumped her arm in the air. "Yes!" She turned a couple dials, then altered the bass and volume of the music as it began to play. Dropping to her knees, Rosie began to shove the music files across the floor, under the bunk, in the corner and just about any other place that they would fit. Her nose wrinkled as the music continued slow and rather sappy. "C'mon… get to the good part already…"

A crash at the door sent her scrambling back, heart pounding, eyes wide, and muscles tense as she waited breathlessly for something to come hurtling through the closed portal. Oh boy… Okay, time to calm down… CALM DOWN dammit!!.... I'll be okay… I think… the door opened and a blonde head poked in.

"Justin?"

Rosie's lower lip curled out into a slight quivering pout and her eyes filled with tears as she watched a half-asleep Carson blink in the light, tears running down her face, hunting for her oldest brother.

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Callis lay curled up on a large, high-backed chair half-asleep in front of a roaring fire. Qol paced up and down the length of the hearth as doctors labored away at the small form of Cait'ar C'baoth. They couldn't understand it – never mind explaining it. Cait's body was reacting to the bacta; only, the bacta was actually eating away at her skin. A large portion of the skin on her back now resembled a second degree chemical burn where it had been only bruises before. When Qol had seen it he had almost ripped the doctor's head off. His brilliant leaf-colored eyes were fairly throwing off sparks as his hands clenched and unclenched spasmodically with rage. Callis almost felt sorry for the doctors until she saw the full extent of the damage. Then her Noghri had had to restrain her from reaching for her blaster and literally blasting them into tiny little bits.

Now, almost seven standard hours later, they were still working on her. Both brother and sister felt that if something didn't happen soon, they'd go insane. The fire crackled away inanely, the large clock set to one side ticked on callously, the soft murmuring voices prattled on unendingly. It was driving them mad.

"What's taking them so long?" Qol finally groaned, running his slim hands through his medium-length jet-colored hair. Callis shrugged one slim shoulder.

"Dunno…"

"She could be dead and they wouldn't notice!"

"Uh-huh…"

"Dying, Callis!! Dying!!"

Callis yawned and nodded her head.

Qol stared at the door like it held the answer for the mystery known as woman. Apparently it did for he fairly leapt into the air with an exultant shout. "Yes!"

Callis bolted upright and banged her knee on the chair arm. "Ow!" She rubbed it with one hand as she looked at her brother suspiciously. "Qol?... What is it?..."

Qol fairly danced over to her side, then swooped her up into his arms and waltzed her around and around the room. "I know what to do… I know what to do… I know what to do…"

"What?" She gasped, trying to un-cross her eyes and to keep her breakfast down.

"Kill off the doctors and take her to Coruscant." He said smugly.

Oh boy...

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Mara tilted her head back as the driving wind whipped her hair back and pressed her clothes to her lithe form. Her mind was strong, but the barriers were frail and ineffectual. She felt as if she had lost most of the control over her life and didn't know how to regain it. Something had wiped almost a year and a half of her memories away. She couldn't count how many she wished she didn't have but something told her that they were precious memories and mourned for their loss with a passion that sent her into a strange depression. It had something to do with someone from her past… But only the Emperor and Vader had seen her then – and none of her victims were allowed to get that close, even when she had been playing a role. And it was infinitely more dear to her then the Emperor…

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Azune smeared bacta gel over another bruise on his arm, muttering darkly. "I can't believe I let her do that… But I couldn't help it! I couldn't move! She must've cheated… Done something so I couldn't fight back… That's the only solution… Well, I'll show her… I'll get her back for that… Just she wait…"

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Garik walked out of the room cautiously, then held up the tiny comlink to his face. "Ziaen, am I clear?"

"All's green, sir, next flight over."

"Right!"

Garik dashed across the hall, then ducked into a room, his heart pounding wildly as he prayed he had escaped detection.

"Give me about forty-five seconds to get the loop set up, sir," his security agent instructed him from the other end of the comm.

"You're a good man, Neviyn."

"Not that good, sir. Dreamer could do this job seven times better at least. He's quite the techno geek." Garik's face strained when it tried to smile as he envisioned a tall, pale, seventeen-year-old boy with constantly mussed hair who lived with his computers and naught much else. "Ready, sir."

"Tell me more about your children," Garik ordered as he spun out of the room and sprinted for the far end.

"As you wish, sir. Eighty-three seconds left sir; my son is thirteen and the elder of my two children. I have a sneaking suspicion that his younger sister is involved with several illegal operations so I have asked him to watch out for her. I have the firmest confidence in him. Seventy seconds left."

"What do the girls say?" Garik gasped as his shoulder slammed into a door frame, but still he kept running.

"'He is a fine looking young lad', actually. He's almost one hundred and seventy-nine centimeters tall already, and our girl keeps muttering about a hair cut and one girl called it 'horribly sexy' but I'm afraid that all it really does is make him look like he's just rolled out of bed and forgot to brush his hair."

Garik grinned wolfishly, laughing silently at his Chief of Personal Safety and Sanity. "Remind me to get you a copy of the book 'She Won't Wear A Mood Ring: A Comprehensive Guide to the Female Mind'. My public relations agent gave me a copy of one and it has saved my neck more often then I really even care to remember."

"Thank you for the consideration, sir. Thirty-eight seconds more, sir."

Garik reached the open window and looked down, immediately feeling sick. Oh Force… swallowing the large lump in his throat, the actor tried not to remember how many hundreds of meters it was to the ground far, far below… Carefully attaching the grappling hooks firmly to the wall, he clambered out the casement, cautiously making his way to the ground. The thought of the transparisteel walkways that were liberally scattered over the planet almost sent him back up the building side and to horizontal standing, rather then vertical. Then he remembered why he was running in the first place and he scrambled twice as fast. Please help me escape those fan girls……

"Sir, I think you have some red lipstick on your shoes and on your cheek."

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Laedala left chaos in her wake as she continued her frenzied pace to get to her daughter. At the center of the destruction was Kyp Durron, whom she had left to the uncaring hands of the med droids. Two of them rushed after her, almost three tried to deactivate, one exploded, and several tried to take him out of the bacta tank. None of them did anything correctly, though.

After almost ten minutes of this, an absolutely petrified boy broke the bacta tank with his hands, his body shaking as he fairly leapt to the ceiling to escape the terrors they were inflicting on him. Electricity flowing through the bacta… oxygen supply turned off… oxygen supply tripled… tank pressure raised… tank pressure lowered… He shuddered in memory.

"Master Durron – Master Durron – Master Durron – Master Durron – " they called out, trying to locate him.

I'll be damned if I let them catch me, he thought darkly, climbing spider-like across the top of the room.

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Jaina whimpered mindlessly, the aftermath of the pain tainting her awareness. Lost… so lost… Jacen, want Jacen. Her month-old mind refused any rational argument or thought. Her mother didn't feel right, the green eyed boy was asleep, the lady with pheonix hair and jaded eyes was in pain, and her father was gone. Jacen. Her twin. He was there. He was here. He just… wasn't.

The thing that used to be Leia approached, Jaina's eyes fluttered in panic, her chocolate eyes flaming with pain and fear, illuminated by tears. No…

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The door closed behind Choen and Jer narrowed his eyes and pointed his finger at his youngest sister. "You'd better not try anything, Taz. It took me forever to repair my computer after you hacked up the wires. I mean it this time."

"Aw Jer…" Tazmania fluttered her eyelashes outrageously, holding the scissors behind her back and clicking on her holographic halo. "Don't yuh trust me?"

"Only about as far as I can throw you."

The short girl began adding up numbers on her fingers. "You usually throw me from your bed, out of the room into the hall almost to the…" she continued muttering as she walked over to the door and looked out, sized up the floor, down at his bunk, then back and forth a few times and then… "you usually throw me about a meter and a half. But what does that have to do with anathin'?"

"It's a figure of speech, Taz, and it means 'absolutely not'."

"Oh. So that's a no on the re-decorating, huh?"

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Eire jerked away from the gentle hands that touched her shoulders, not caring if she was beaten for it. She was unclean. A murder. Dirty. Killer. A keening cry escaped her lips and the tears came twice as fast.

"Squerrum… Squerr–"

"My name not – Squerrum!..." Eire choked out around her sobs, trying desperately to breath through her tears.

"Then what is it…" continued the soft, gentle voice.

"Eire – Eire Karrde."

"Air?"

"Nooo!" she wailed, "Eire!!"

Shada was practically wringing her hands as she tried to make the small girl stop crying. "E-ire… Please, won't you stop crying?"

So she is a Karrde. Huh. Well, I never would've guessed… well, wait – then who was her mother?... that Jade person didn't join his team until a few years back, maybe like two, and Karrde is never seen with women on his arm… Oh bloody hell… Now I'm giving myself a headache…

"C – c – ca – n – an't…" Eire whimpered, curling into the fetal position and rocking back and forth miserably.

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Booster staggered to his feet as he looked about wildly. Mirax! Wait, his mind told him, She's dead… "Nooo!" he screamed.

A Zenji needle speared the ground only centimeters away from his foot and he glared at the bodyguard sitting next to the small humanoid female that his daughter had died to save. "What?" He called harshly. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No. But I do want an explanation for why that woman, I believe she was your daughter, was here."

"Yes, she was my daughter, her name was Mirax. She saw them beating on a small lump of something, then, realizing that it was human, got the foolish idea that she could save that tiny squirt and ended up getting killed for her efforts."

"So are you going to ignore her wishes?"

"What?"

"Well, if she died trying to save Eire, shouldn't you try to help her?"

"That girl is the reason that my daughter is dead!"

"So you're going to let her death be in vain?"

"How dare you." Booster shook his finger in Shada's face.

Shada faltered, then the look in his blazing eyes forced her to continue. "I dare because I think she needs help."

"I say you need help."

"I'll ignore that for the moment."

"Oh, how gracious of you."

Shada blew a strand of black hair out of her face and then glared at him, then a sly look crossed her face. "I'll give you chocolate…"

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A richly garbed woman stalked down the long, ornamental hall early that morning, her cape flowing away from her like a storm of grey clouds. Her face was hard and her knuckles were white as she clenched them tightly to keep from strangling herself. Everyone took one look at her flashing eyes and twisted lips and swiftly became aware of their mortality and prudently stepped aside. One was unfortunate enough to catch the brunt of her ire as she turned a corner.

"You there!"

"Me, Majesty?"

"Yes, you! What gave you the right to dress in black?"

"Tis just a color…"

"No more of it! I want everything black to be strictly forbidden in this Empire – now!"

"But – but, your grace, the Queen Mother wears black almost exclu–"

"No! None of that! None of that! I don't care I want black eliminated! Now! Now, now, now, now!!"

"Nee!"

"Aie!!"

"Nee! Nee! Nee! Nee! N–"

"Do not say that!"

"–ee! Nee! Nee! Nee! Nee! Nee! Nee!"

"Aiee!!"

"Nee! Nee! Nee! Nee! Nee! Nee! Nee! Nee! Nee! Nee! Nee! Nee! Nee! Nee! Nee!"

"Nooo!"

"Fearest thou the word… Nee!?"

"Yes, yes! I fear it!"

"Then you shall not forbid… BLACK!"

"Yes! Yes!"

"Now go or I shall say… Nee! Nee! Nee!"

Without a word, Ta'a Chume, former ruler of the Hapen Monarchy turned and fled. The tall man couldn't contain his laughter any more and it spilled out over the halls. Well, at least they knew that their experimental drug sure worked… Black Fighter's lips curled up with a hint of resemblance to a smile. The experimental drug – à l'aveuglette irraisonné gérondif – worked… It worked. Her smile turned into one of evil as she thought of the possibilities.

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Teneniel awoke from a Vision, covered in sweat, her heart beating hard enough for it to be seen. She swung her legs out of bed and stood up gingerly, reaching for a robe that was carelessly strewn onto a large chair beside her bed. Pulling it on over her shoulders, she walked slowly out of her room, through the shimmering sheer curtains that separated her bedchambers from her balcony and into the morning sunshine. Looking out over a forest, she could see the world waking up around her, and she was calm – on the outside. On the inside she was berating herself fiercely for having kept Javen. You fool! she accused herself. You could have thought to at least try and see what the Force's Will was before you took him in! Now we're all doomed!

"I am the greatest of fools," Teneniel whispered. "For I have surely brought about my people's destruction. Oh… How could I have been so blind? If only there was some way to undo what I have wrought." Her voice faded away and the air, filled with the cries of songbirds, suddenly seemed lonely.

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Okay, so, this one made me cringe a little. I think it was because I was watching Monty Python too much…