A/N - this is the clipped version to preserve the rating. You may e-mail me for the missing chapter.
And Vega Lights My Way
Chapter 5
Let
the mountains talk, let the river run
There's a wisdom here, there
is much to learn
There's much to know, much to understand
In
this healing time all across the land – Healing
Time; John Denver
"We should have told them before, Schurke," Kampher murmured, gazing out of the window toward the ruins of the once grandiose Jedi Temple. "We should have told them everything – the truth…."
Although it was late, Schurke knew he would be unable to sleep for a while. He sighed as he pulled on a robe and slowly made his way into the sitting room.
Sad to think he never knew…
Vader was a Cacodemon
Skywalker…
It couldn't be true. It was impossible…
He would not allow it to be so.
No.
Schurke put his face in his hands and for the first time in many years, wept for his lost friend.
"The lights are still on Bé," Kay'leb murmured to his sister as they approached the apartments. "I wonder who's still up?"
"Probably Papa," Aubé replied, shaking her head. "Probably debating some obscure segment of one treaty or another. You know Papa – that's his idea of an exciting time…"
"I don't know Bé," Kay'leb chuckled as began to enter the security code to grant them access. "Mother said Papa used to be a real hell raiser back in his day."
The door opened suddenly.
"Used to be is a relative term," said their father as he stood in the door way. His expression was as wry as ever, but his voice was dead-pan. "Come in children. We have a lot to talk about."
The art of the politician – that of speaking without really saying anything of substance – was normally a gift at Schurke's finger-tips; but tonight, when it really mattered, he as often as not found himself at a loss for words. The telling of this tale was worse than walking through a Geonosian minefield. How much should he tell? What should he leave for another time?
"Why didn't you tell us, Papa?" Aubé asked, tears glistening in her eyes. "Why did you and Mother hide the truth from us?" Blindly, she reached for her brother's hand. Kay'leb clasped it and held it to his heart, nodding in agreement.
"Why Papa?"
"To protect you." Kampher's lilting voice came softly from the bedroom doorway. "You know what it was like… you have heard the stories…"
Aubé shot out of her seat and crossed the room in three short strides. She virtually towered over her mother.
"STORIES!" she cried angrily. "Yes, STORIES Mother!"
Schurke and Kay'leb each took Aubé by the arm, Kay'leb far more gently than her father. Kampher, however, wasn't fazed in the slightest.
"Aubé…" Kampher said gently, without the slightest inflection of the Force, yet Aubé seemed to calm a little. Aubé shrugged off her father and Kay'leb, and sat back down. Although she sat silently, her arms were crossed firmly about her chest, and tears leaked from her tightly closed eyes as if she were containing a thunderstorm within her heart.
"Stories…" Kay'leb echoed hollowly, picking up the thread of his sister's thought. "Aubé is right though Mother. Why couldn't you tell us the truth?"
It was Schurke who took up the narrative again.
"You have no idea what is was like, my children," he said softly. "To hear that your friends, your… brothers and sisters… everything you knew was being turned upside down and rooted out. Thankfully, your mother and I had left the order over a year before the Purge, perhaps two…"
"Why didn't you fight back?" Aubé whispered. "You always told us that we should stand up for what we believe in."
"But we have, in our own way," Kampher replied gently. "Not perhaps as you have, beloved daughter. You and your brother know the ways of the Force, at least intuitively. There is much more to being a true Jedi than wielding a Lightsaber, after all."
Schurke sighed and ran his hand through his hair, and to Aubé, her father looked suddenly old.
"Perhaps we have been lax in some things," he agreed, with heaviness in his voice. "I was never what you'd call a great Jedi Knight…"
Kampher took his hand and squeezed it, a thousand words of meaning conveyed in that simple gesture of love.
He offered Kam a wry smile. "But I was good enough for some…"
"Perhaps now," Kampher said, turning the subject back to the present. "If young Skywalker is starting anew…" she trailed off, unsure what else to say, or how to say it.
She lowered her head for a moment and closed her eyes, as if listening for something.
"Yes," she murmured softly. "I think it's time…" She cast a look at her husband, as if seeking his blessing, and after a moment, Schurke gave a slight nod as if he were granting it. She rose as Kay'leb and Aubé exchanged puzzled looks.
"Your mother and I always wondered if the day would ever come when she could do this, Aubé." Schurke said, as he watched Kam retreat into their bedroom. "We wondered about a lot of things…"
A heavy silence permeated the air as the trio waited for Kampher's return, but it was a silence tinged with the unmistakable air of anticipation.
When Kampher returned from the room, she carried with her a small box which she held close to her chest.
"What is it Mother?"
"Kay'leb, you are the healer," Kampher said tenderly, touching her son's cheek. "Soon we'll begin your lessons anew where I will teach you how to use your real gifts… Aubé, you are the warrior, and as such, you should have this…"
With trembling hands, Aubé opened the box.
A sad smile broke out on Schurke's face. "Perhaps young Skywalker will teach you some of the basics, but your old man can probably give you a sparring lesson or two."
Aubé jumped a little as the lightsaber sprang to life in her hands, its green glow casting its light on her features.
She couldn't say anything. No one could. For the first time in many years, the only sound in the Canaille house hold was the vibrant hum of a Lightsaber.
