A.N.
Now we move on to the last member of the Immortal Emperor's family, not counting Valkorion himself, his only daughter Vaylin. That's right, the crazy powerful and just plain crazy future Empress of Zakuul. Will that happen again or will things be different? Read and find out, let's go!
Chapter 4: The Daughter, Vaylin 1
At the moment, Vaylin, only daughter of the Immortal Emperor and twin sister to Kayden, was currently in a dueling ring practicing against several elite skytroopers armed with electrostaffs. She would have preferred to be fighting against living opponents but her brother insisted on the skytroopers and she'd reluctantly agreed. 'Kayden can be so dull sometimes.'
Despite her thoughts, Vaylin knew she cared about her twin quite a bit, she'd even go so far as to say she trusted Kayden above all others. After all, he was the only one that hadn't abandoned her.
Using a powerful force push, Vaylin knocked back and destroyed all the droids in the area before extinguishing her lightsaber and leaving the ring. She always ended her training sessions whenever thoughts about what happened started appearing in the front of her mind. It always distracted her enough so that one or more of the droids would actually hit her with their staffs if she didn't scrap them immediately.
Vaylin had changed after being taken to Nathema. Before she'd left, she had blue eyes and golden hair but when she'd returned her hair had turned brown and her eyes were a mix of yellow and red. But her outward appearance was nothing compared to how much her personality and mind had been affected.
She was much colder and more cruel now. She enjoyed inflicting pain on others and she couldn't care less who she hurt by doing this. She'd learned to hate just about everyone and everything for some reason or another, even her older brother Arcann, though that was much less compared to others.
Kayden was the sole exception.
Her twin was perhaps the only person in the entire galaxy that Vaylin felt no hatred towards. Not that she hadn't hated him at one time, in fact, she'd been planning to end her twin's life that day they finally saw each other again for the first time in years after she'd returned from Nathema.
She'd finally been taken off that cursed world when Arcann arrived to take her home. Vaylin remembered her rage for Kayden growing stronger since she'd fully expected her twin to be sent to bring her home and felt a shred of betrayal that she'd quickly buried under her anger and hate.
When they returned to Zakuul, Vaylin had been sent to the throne room immediately to see father. She felt another wave of betrayal that was quickly crushed again when neither Kayden nor mother were present. She'd told father that he should have left her on Nathema, but he'd responded that she was his daughter and Zakuul was where she'd belonged. Vaylin had barely resisted the urge to laugh. 'If Zakuul was were I belonged, why did you cage me on Nathema?'
She was still surprised when father gave her the lightsaber she now carried, she'd even activated it and found the blade was yellow like her siblings. She would have thought her father was mocking her if she didn't already know that the old monster felt nothing for anyone but himself.
She'd been tempted, she'd been very tempted to use her new lightsaber to cut her father down then and there. Instead, she decided she'd bide her time and dropped to a knee to seemingly pledge her loyalty to her father and Emperor. In reality, she'd just wait until Arcann or Thexan tried to take the throne. She knew eventually they'd see father for the monster that he was and when they did, she'd help them take him down however she could.
Before any of that, Vaylin decided it was time to finally give her twin a memorable reunion. She cloaked herself in the force so Kayden wouldn't sense her approaching until she was right outside his chambers. She then dropped the force cloak so Kayden would sense her and she couldn't help but smile when she sensed her brother's confusion and surprise.
Her smile quickly dropped when Kayden's chamber doors flew open and Kayden himself was rushing at her faster than she could react. She didn't know how her brother sensed her intentions so quickly but she wouldn't be taken down that easily!
What really surprised her though was that Kayden didn't attack her, as soon as he was close enough, he engulfed his sister in a strong hug that she was completely unprepared for and not expecting in the slightest. She was completely stunned, she didn't even move an inch.
"You're back… you're finally back." He'd said in a whisper that Vaylin barely heard, still too stunned by the hug to react or say anything.
When he released her from the hug and pulled back, she finally got a good look at her twin. He looked older than she remembered, but it was still without a doubt Kayden since he was still a mirror image of Arcann and Thexan except for his slightly lighter hair. Vaylin was surprised to see tears in his eyes and a huge smile on his face. "You really couldn't sense I was back on Zakuul?" She said in a bitter and disbelieving tone.
Kayden stepped back like he'd been punched. "No, I-" He cut himself off when he got a good look at her and his face turned to one of sadness. "You've changed." He said in a tone she couldn't identify.
"Yes, I've changed. You would have seen that if you'd actually bothered to visit." Vaylin said in a bitter tone.
"I tried to visit, several times actually, but father forbid it and I was dragged back by the knights each time. I'm surprised Thexan didn't tell you that, the one time I came close was when he helped me." Kayden said with his words making Vaylin's eyes go wide. 'He was telling the truth.'
Thexan had in fact told her of Kayden's many attempts to visit and the harsh punishment he'd received from father after his first attempt but Vaylin hadn't believed a word of it, thinking her older brother was just trying to make her feel better. 'Not that anything could make me feel better in that place, except that strange feeling that happened about a month into the torture.'
She still wasn't sure exactly what the reason for that had been. One day the pain just felt easier to deal with then it had been, lesser. She thought that maybe the keepers were finally showing some form of mercy, but they did everything the same and still moved onto what were supposed to be even worse tortures, but nothing was ever unbearable after that strange feeling washed over her. 'I still played along to their little games so they wouldn't catch on and it was still miserable, but it was still far easier than what I'd experienced during the first month.'
"Vaylin…" Kayden's words broke her out of her thoughts and she could see the shame clearly on her twin's face. "… I'm sorry for what you went through on Nathema. I don't need to know exactly what happened there to know that you suffered greatly. I tried to stop it, I went to mother and begged her to try and talk father out of whatever he had planned, but she refused."
That was something Vaylin believed. She remembered mother telling father that she was dangerous and how she'd actually tried to save Vaylin from Nathema once she finally realized what she'd done. By that point though, Vaylin didn't want anything from her mother, not even her help to be free of that place. "She was weak. She abandoned me."
"Yes, you're right." Kayden said to which Vaylin raised an eyebrow in surprise. Of all her siblings, Vaylin knew the closest one of them to mother was Kayden. But the way he'd spoken in that bitter tone suggested that their loving relationship was now dead and buried. "I would give her credit for trying to save you, but she was more interested in fixing her own mistake than she was in saving you."
Vaylin scoffed. "It didn't matter anyway. She failed me, just like you did." Vaylin could see her words had hurt her brother just then and felt a small smile about to appear, but then Kayden spoke again.
"I did fail you… but I hope the technique was at least able to help you somewhat while you were on that cursed world." He said in a sad but hopeful tone.
Vaylin blinked. 'Technique? What technique?' "What are you talking about?" She asked out loud with a look of confusion.
Now it was Kayden's turn to look confused. "The force technique I used to shield your mind and body from pain. Didn't you feel it? I performed the ritual for it about a month after you'd been taken."
Vaylin's eyes went as wide as dinner plates. 'That was Kayden? He did that? For me?' She'd been convinced that her twin had forgotten her and left her to her fate on Nathema. Now, she felt conflicted knowing that her twin had apparently risked his own life to help her. "You're lying." Vaylin said, though she couldn't help but doubt her own words.
Kayden didn't reply and instead, simply raised a hand. Vaylin then felt the strange feeling wash over her again. Only this time, with better control of her force senses, she had no doubt what was causing it as she clearly felt the force energy coming from her twin brother. 'It's true. He… he really did help me.'
Vaylin felt more confused and conflicted then ever. She'd come looking to kill her twin for abandoning her, only to find out that he was the one who'd been shielding her from the pain for so long. "Why?" She asked, she had to know the reason.
"Why what Vaylin?" Kayden asked, not understanding the question.
"Why would you help me?!" She shouted. No one had ever truly helped her, father locked her in a cage, mother abandoned her, her older brothers ignored her, the keepers tortured her. Everyone else had turned their backs on her, so why was Kayden the only one who was seemingly going out of his way to help her?
Kayden's expression softened considerably and a small smile appeared on his face. "You're my sister, my twin, and I love you very much. What other reason do I need?" He said calmly.
Vaylin froze at the words. She didn't know how to react or respond to the kind words. She opened her mouth to speak, but then shut it again when she couldn't think of any words to say. She made two more attempts to speak but with the same result.
Kayden seemed to understand her position and walked forward and wrapped her in a hug again, but much gentler than the first one. "You don't need to say anything Vaylin. You don't even need to love me if you don't want to, but I'll always be there to help you no matter what. I promise you, I'll never leave you ever again."
Vaylin reached up and, hesitantly, returned his hug with one of her own. She still wasn't sure exactly what to think, but nothing in Kayden's face, voice, or presence in the force suggested he was lying or trying to deceive her in any way.
Kayden pulled back slightly to look at her. When he did, Vaylin noticed his smile got a little bigger. "You don't need to cry." He said gently.
Vaylin blinked and reached a hand up to her face and felt the tears that proved she really was crying. 'When was the last time I cried? During the first few weeks in that place probably, the keepers forbid me from shedding tears and punished me when I did.' "K-Kayden… I-" She tried to say in a shaky voice.
"Vaylin." Her twin said, cutting her off. "I told you that you don't need to say anything. Please just know that I'm glad you're back and that I will always do everything I can to protect you." Kayden said in a lighthearted tone that finally caused Vaylin to shatter.
All of the pain, suffering, fear, anger, and hate left her heart in that moment and she completely broke down in Kayden's arms with tears and cries of pain and sadness flowing out of her while Kayden just kept repeating 'it's okay' to her over and over, just like he used to before she'd been locked away. This just caused her to cry louder. She'd cried like that for hours, but Kayden never left her.
Vaylin shook her head, trying to push the memory of their reunion to the back of her mind and quickly wiped her eyes to get rid of the tears that were threatening to appear again. She'd never allow herself to show such weakness to anyone, Kayden was the only exception.
After their reunion, their old bond quickly returned and became even stronger than it had been before she'd left. She knew now, without question, that Kayden would never turn his back on her and she'd even admit that she'd never turn her back on him either. The only person she cared about was her twin brother, everyone else could burn for all she cared.
She had, however, made one interesting discovery about her twin since returning.
The day mother left and, once again, showed her weakness, she and her older brothers had laughed and called her what she was, weak. Kayden's reaction was different, never before or after her imprisonment had she so much as seen Kayden get mad, but she could sense that he'd been enraged at mother's words. 'Enraged and greatly empowered.'
When he'd told mother to leave, the voice and the power she'd felt from her twin was unlike anything she'd felt from Kayden before. It felt so similar to their father but Kayden's power was different. Their father's power felt cold, like a frozen wasteland, but Kayden's power felt like a raging inferno and seemed to slowly be getting stronger.
Vaylin had known her twin was powerful, but she'd never felt power like she'd felt that day. Kayden always seemed to keep most of his power locked away unless he needed it, but Vaylin never would have imagined he was keeping so much power buried. 'But why does he keep that power buried?'
"Vaylin."
When she heard her name uttered by a slightly augmented voice, she didn't even need to turn to see who the speaker was. She'd sensed Arcann approaching her, but had still been trying to get her emotions under control before she faced him. Now that she had, she turned and greeted her masked older brother. "Hello big brother. You seem a little happier today." She joked cheerfully.
Arcann never truly seemed happy to her, he was always either grumpy or slightly less grumpy. Right now, he was slightly less grumpy. "Kayden agreed, he'll support my claim."
Vaylin nodded since she'd already known he would. It seemed like, while she hated everyone, the only person Kayden hated was their father and even then his hate didn't seem to truly be hate, he just wanted father gone. 'Even with better control, I still don't feel what Kayden says he feels when it comes to father. At least he agrees that he's a monster that we'd be better off without.' "You were expecting him to say no? He's been against father longer than either of us."
Arcann nodded. "I should have listened to him when he warned me about father so long ago. He even told me that it would probably take something terrible for me to finally get father's attention. If I had known what the cost would be…"
Arcann didn't finish but Vaylin didn't need him to in order to know what her big brother was thinking. He was still mourning Thexan's death, the death Arcann gave him and the death that Kayden didn't truly know about.
Vaylin didn't regret as much as her older brother did, but the one regret she did have was not telling Kayden the truth about Thexan right away. She'd thought that Arcann would tell him the truth like he had for her. She wasn't happy about Thexan's death, he'd been a good brother to her, but she also didn't blame Arcann for his death. 'Like all terrible things, father was the true cause of it.'
She realized Arcann had never told her twin after Kayden commented that Darth Atroxa must have been very very strong to be able to kill someone as strong as Thexan. She realized that he'd just assumed Thexan died on Korriban and had decided to stay silent on the matter.
She trusted her twin more than anyone, but even she didn't know what he would do if he learned that Thexan had died by Arcann's hand. He'd probably be smart enough to realize father was behind it, but she just didn't know.
Even worse, now that she hadn't told him from the start, she was even more worried that Kayden would think she'd betrayed him if he found out. She didn't tell him from the start because she just assumed she wouldn't need to, now she couldn't because she risked destroying his faith in her, and she couldn't risk that.
She decided to move things along for both of them. "So what's the plan then, we all march into the throne room and turn father into the headless Emperor?" She joked, even though she knew such an act would be suicide. 'Not that it wouldn't be fun to make father squirm.'
"No." Arcann answered, ignoring her joke. "For now, our best course of action is to wait for an opportunity when father drops his guard, and if any of us spot that opportunity, we must take it."
Vaylin didn't need to be told twice. If a chance to cut their father down showed itself, she'd pounce on it faster than any of them. "Any ideas on when such an opportunity could show itself?"
"Kayden thinks that members of the Republic and Sith Empire me and Thexan attacked will come looking for us and, eventually, will make their way here to Zakuul." Arcann said with that same mechanical augmentation.
If Kayden thought that would happen, Vaylin figured it probably would since Kayden was rarely wrong about such things. She'd even thought for a while that Kayden could see glimpses of the future, but he'd admitted to her that he'd tried and failed to do exactly that and mentioned it was probably for the best since he believed it was better that they forged their own destinies, rather than just follow ones that had already been laid out for them. 'I know he and Arcann agree on that much. Maybe it's why neither of them get along with the scions.'
The Scions of Zakuul were the only other order besides the Knights whose duty was to defend Zakuul, but they did it by seeing visions of the past and future rather than through combat. Arcann hated them because he believed that he was beyond their prophecies. Kayden didn't hate them, but he also didn't like how they believed their visions and fate were the only real truths of the galaxy and that they could never be wrong. 'I think their just annoying with how much they go on about their 'tapestry of fate' nonsense.'
Getting back on topic, Vaylin says, "I hope they do come looking for us. I'd love the chance to hang some new corpses on my wall. Do you think Kayden would mind?" She asks in a slightly serious and slightly joking tone. Arcann just shakes his head.
"They're just a distraction. As long as they take father's attention away from us, what happens with them is irrelevant." Arcann says in that same grumpy tone.
"So is that a yes or a no for the corpses?" Vaylin asks, causing Arcann to grumble before walking away. 'Well, at least he hasn't changed all that much after losing Thexan.'
Vaylin chuckles to herself before continuing towards her destination. Father would fall, she, Kayden, and Arcann would make sure of that. Then they'd finally be able to forge their futures as they saw fit.
Vaylin doesn't need to walk much further before she arrives at her destination, the private library that she and her siblings used for their studies over the years. 'Kayden might as well have his bed moved in here seeing as he spends more time here than the rest of us put together.'
Looking around, Vaylin notices that her twin is actually absent for a change. She's always slightly surprised when her twin isn't in the library because there's only a few other places Kayden tends to be and since she just came from the training ring and it's not even close to dinner yet, she knows there's only one other place he can be.
Pulling out her holo, she activates it for Kayden's frequency and only has to wait a moment before a small, blue, glowing Kayden appears with his usual smile on his face. "Hey Vaylin. How's my favorite sister doing?" He says in that lighthearted tone that Vaylin can't help but smile at.
"I'm your only sister Kayden." She says which just causes Kayden to shrug.
"Well then that obviously makes my choice for 'favorite sister' much easier, don't you think?" He says in a joking tone which Vaylin gives a slight chuckle to. "You still didn't answer my question, how are you?"
"Good." She answered honestly. If anyone else had asked, she would have made some dark joke about not killing enough people yet today to be happy, but she knew Kayden didn't like those jokes so she mostly saved them for Arcann and the servants. "I scrapped several more droids during my last training session."
"Good work." He says before his smile drops and he tilts his head slightly. "Wait, with your lightsaber or the force?"
Uh oh, she'd been hoping he wouldn't ask that. She knew she could just lie and say she'd cut them down, but she didn't for two reasons. The first was that while she could usually lie to anyone else as easily as breathing, she didn't like lying to Kayden. Lying to her twin always made her feel a little sick to her stomach since she knew Kayden never lied to her.
The second reason was even more simple, because of the bond they shared both in the force and in spirit, Kayden always knew when Vaylin was lying. Sometimes he let her get away with it, other times he'd call her out immediately to tell the truth and she'd feel guilty enough to do so.
This time, she decides to just go the honest route. "The force." She says in a slightly annoyed tone since she knows what's coming next.
"Vaylin, we've talked about this before." Oh, they definitely had. Enough to make Vaylin roll her eyes whenever they did. 'Ugh, here we go again.'
Vaylin always preferred using the force to solve her problems, both in and out of combat, and Kayden had always said she shouldn't rely on the force to solve all of her problems, something she had argued with her twin about more times than she could count. Rather, she did the arguing while Kayden always spoke in that calm voice with logic that even Vaylin found it hard to argue with.
"Come on brother." She said while making no effort to hide her annoyance. "I don't need to be a lightsaber master like you, what does it matter how I destroy my opponents?" She wasn't kidding either, Kayden was easily the best lightsaber duelist she'd ever seen, even compared to her mother and older brothers, and he didn't even care to fight that much!
"No, you don't need to be a master." Kayden admitted before adding, "But that doesn't mean I'm going to let my twin swing her lightsaber around like a kid playing with a stick either." He said in a teasing tone with a smirk that Vaylin immediately recognized.
She knew she shouldn't do it, she shouldn't take the bait, but she couldn't stay silent. "I'm not that bad!" She did not shriek when she said that and she'd kill anyone who said otherwise.
Kayden raised an eyebrow and Vaylin knew she was screwed. "Is that so? Well then once I get back we can test those words in the ring, I need to practice a little myself." He said, causing Vaylin's head to drop in defeat.
Sparring with Kayden was always miserable. It didn't matter what she did, lightsaber, force powers, it didn't matter since it always ended the same way, with her laying defeated on her back and Kayden looking like he hadn't even broken a sweat.
Yet, she always did it because when they were finished, Kayden would sit next to her and explain what she did wrong while complimenting her strengths in a way that always made Vaylin compare her twin to some legendary master that she couldn't help but respect. 'Which, at this point, he pretty much is.'
"Where are you anyway?" She said, hoping to change the topic and get Kayden to forget about training together.
He frowned at her question before answering. "I went down to the Old World to deal with another bombing incident and I found out the culprits were the Heralds of Zildrog. Those psychos killed two knights and injured another, so I killed two heralds the knights captured and gave the last one the same injuries our knight received."
Vaylin had mixed feelings to the news. She didn't care what the trash in the Old World did, nor did she care what happened to their knights nearly as much as her twin did, but she didn't like that her twin was killing scum without her. "You should have brought me along." She complained, "We'd have the heralds all cut down in no time."
Kayden shook his head at her words. "Cutting them down isn't the problem, it's finding them. I know their leader operates out of Breaktown, but these smaller groups operate on their own and seemingly at random. Until I find out how the Exalted is giving them their orders, any shows of force would just cause them to go underground till things quiet down again."
Vaylin scratches her chin in thought. Kayden rarely had trouble solving any problems he came across with how smart he was, so to hear him struggling with anything was always surprising to her. "It's a shame you can't just bait them out of their holes like the snake the fools claim to serve." Vaylin jokes.
Kayden's eyes go wide and a huge smile appears on his face. "Vaylin, you're a genius!" She smiles at the compliment, despite having absolutely no idea what her twin's talking about.
"Your welcome?" She says while trying to figure out what she'd said to make Kayden so happy.
"I'll talk to you later. I've got a plan I need to start putting into action. When it gets to a certain point, would you care to come down here and help me wipe some of these heralds out?"
Vaylin's grin warps into a dark smile. "Just tell me when." She says eagerly.
"Some time in the next few days, assuming my plan works. I'll let you know when everything's in place." He says while gesturing to someone out of view before turning back to her. "I have to go now but I'll see you later at dinner." She nods and is about to cut the connection before Kayden quickly adds, "Oh, and don't forget to meet me in the training ring when I get back. Now I definitely need to get some more practice in." He says with a smile before his holo disappears.
Vaylin groans as she puts her communicator away. She wonders if she could kill a few of the knights that are around to vent her frustrations, but quickly dismisses the idea since Kayden would just find out and she knew how against killing their knights he was for reasons she didn't understand.
Instead, she heads for the nearest turbolift to take her down to the prisoner section. 'At least he doesn't say anything about me killing the scum down there.'
'Ugh, why did my twin brother have to be so dull?'
A.N.
All right, we've covered everyone in the family but the Immortal Emperor himself, and I am NOT going to be doing a chapter with Valkorion. Why? That's my secret. The story will mostly be focusing on these four members of the Immortal Emperor's family, but I may include more characters in the future depending on how the story goes and if any of you guys offer suggestions that I like.