TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH

Where were we? Right, Marlon's just fine and the rebels have one Dxun of a mess to clean up in Iziz. - LS

...

Marlon Blackwell has his priorities straight. After he reassures Sal the nurse that he indeed knows who Dalla is, his second question is about the siege's status.

His first, for the record, is "Where are my pants?"

"Your pants are probably in a biohazard bin," Dalla informs him. "As for the siege, it's over. We took the palace, Father. We won."

Marlon grins, his euphoria probably assisted by the morphine. "Thank the salt gods. Where's Rash?"

"The Separatists turned on him when they realized the war was lost. I found him. I was there when he died."

Marlon sobers up. "You stayed with him?"

"I couldn't let him die alone. He wasn't dangerous anymore; he was just broken, and I had to let him die with some dignity."

Her father reaches for her with the hand not connected to an IV drip.

"You did right," he says. "Some men forget their honor when they come face to face with someone who's hurt them like he hurt you. You didn't. You kept it. What about the others in the Highlands?"

"They won too. Saw and Lux are bringing Ahsoka here; that's where we're going to meet up. Steela -," she swallows hard and doesn't entirely succeed in keeping her grief out of her voice. "Steela didn't make it."

Marlon closes his eyes in respect. "In the light of the salt gods."

Dalla's struck that she never said the words for Steela. "In the light of the salt gods."

"When are they due to get here?"

"Soon. I can stay here though; they're just dropping Ahsoka off at the emergency bay and then they can come up here."

"I can manage. If I need anything all I have to do is press this button and the nurse will come. You should be with your friends."

"Are you sure?" She only just got back and she wouldn't want to be left alone if she was hurt. "It's really okay. I can stay."

Marlon smiles at the ceiling. "For a second there you looked just like your mother, worrying over me. Knocking some sense into me when I stepped out of line. Always looking out for everyone. She would have been so proud of you today." He turns back to her. "I know I am."

Dalla's heart swells at the rare praise. "Thank you, Father."

"The only thanks I need is to see you wearing bright pink scrubs with cartoon cognines." He grins.

"Father!"

He laughs, a deep booming laugh Dalla hasn't heard in far too long.

"I really am proud of you, Dalla," he says to her mock scowl between laughs. "But go be with your friends. I'll still be here, laughing about those damn cognines."

…

She hears Saw Gerrera before she sees him. He sits on a bench along the wall between Lux and King Dendup, alternately shouting something without words and sobbing into his hands.

They don't seem to recognize her at first, seeing the scrubs and thinking she's a nurse. But then the confusion clears from Lux's eyes and he waves her over.

"Dalla," he hugs her sitting down and one-armed, the other arm busy rubbing Saw's back.

"Thank gods you're alright." She hugs him back. "Where's Ahsoka?"

"They took her back a few minutes ago." He takes a deep breath, clearly worried about Ahsoka but thankful she's alive. "And your father?"

"He's fine." She lets go of him and focuses on the more pressing concern. "Saw?"

Saw sobs acknowledgement. Dalla sits on the floor in front of the bench since there's no more room on it and whispers "Saw, I'm sorry."

Instead of saying anything, Saw leans forward and uses her as a human elbow rest. She reaches over her shoulder and places a hand on his while Lux continues to rub his back.

"We're here for you, Saw," he says. "Both of us. We're not going anywhere." How he manages to keep his voice even is a wonder in itself.

Saw falls silent and no one says anything else for almost a full standard minute until King Dendup breaks the silence. "Young lady," he says, sounding very uncomfortable. "That's not Saw's shoulder you're holding. It's my leg."

Dalla immediately lets go. "My apologies, Your Highness."

Dendup shrugs it off. "You said your men have taken the palace?"

"We have, sire. But it's not ready to move in yet. We still have to clean up and -" she doesn't want to say the last bit aloud in front of Saw. She mouths we don't know what to do with the body.

"We'll take care of it," he says and nods to make sure she knows he's also talking about the body. "There's no hurry; it's not as if I'm homeless. Lux has graciously offered his hospitality."

"And that offer extends to you and your family too," Lux says. "Saw's already agreed to stay with us and I thought it would be good to have everyone together when Ahsoka and your father are discharged."

"Lux, are you sure? I have a big family." It won't be a quiet place for Saw to catch his breath and process.

"I have a big house. There's plenty of room for everyone. Anyway, Thi-" he stops just in time, remembering not to mention siblings in front of Saw. "I'd like to have you all there."

"You'll need the space. Your aunt just commed me about getting a planethopper to bring the rest of your family down to Iziz," General Tandin says and then gently brushes her and Lux aside so he can get to Saw.

"Saw, come with me. We're going to take a walk," he says and lifts Saw to his feet like a bag of wet duracrete. They go down the hallway in the general direction of the cafeteria, Tandin's arm around the younger man.

Dendup scoots over to make room for Dalla on the bench. "Have the body transported to the Rash Estate. We can keep him there until we decide what to do with him."

"That sounds as good a plan as any," Dalla joins them. "Once we do that we can work on cleaning it out so you can move back in."

"About that. Your men can clean out the public areas of the palace and the throne room, but I'd like you two to handle Rash's personal quarters."

"Us?" Lux echoes.

"Rash was the last of his House," Dendup explains. "And with no blood relatives left who aren't mourning the loss of their immediate family member, Dalla as Rash's fiancée is technically the next of kin."

"The betrothal document in question is a forgery."

"It's not ideal," the king admits. "General Tandin will need to lead your men cleaning out the Rash Estate. And Saw is in no shape. I've no right to ask you this but I trust you two. I know you won't get carried away. And the king's quarters aren't massive, either. There's a sitting room, a smaller room off to the side, a refresher, and then ..."

"His bedroom." Dalla says it when the silence grows awkward.

"Yes. The bedroom."

"Sire, I can do it alone," Lux volunteers. "Dalla can manage the cleanup at the estate, or -"

"I'll be fine, Lux. It's only a room." She forces a reassuring smile. "I'll ask Lord Kira to drop off the boys at your place. They can stay there with Saw and Ahsoka and everyone else."

Dendup gently squeezes their shoulders. From afar, he must look like a doting grandfather with his grandchildren. Nevermind he's given them an incredible task.

"Thank you," he says first to her, and then to Lux. "Thank you. I'll do everything I can from the estate."

…

The night between then and Lux and Dalla dragging themselves through the palace doors passes in a blur of medcenter discharge papers for Marlon and for Ahsoka, wrangling a speeder to take them all to Bonteri Estate since Marlon can't walk that far, running to the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions, sudden brother acquisition during which Bremon Kira barely even nodded to Dalla's, Jamos', and Marlon's profuse thank yous and condolences, and Marlon's roar of "THIAS MODON BLACKWELL!" which kicked off a nightlong shouting-down that left Thias blubbering apologies like there was no tomorrow. Between that, the equally loud lecture Jamos was giving Kason, and Saw's distress they all barely got a wink of sleep.

"I can't believe Saw's going to the Rash Estate," Lux sighs. "He's in no condition to do it."

Dalla can't believe it either. "We tried to get him to stay. Salt gods, Dendup couldn't even stop him when he got it in his head. Tandin physically blocked the door. And still he got past him."

"The booze had to have something to do with it."

Not knowing how full the Bonteris' liquor cabinet was to begin with Dalla can't be sure, but she's willing to bet Saw hit the sauce pretty hard. "Aye."

Lux checks his pocket to make sure he still has the key to the liquor cabinet. "We have to keep an eye on him. We're all mourning, but him? She was so much…" He swallows hard. "But she wasn't my sister. I don't have any siblings. I can't imagine what he's going through."

Dalla can't bring herself to imagine how she'd feel if something happened to Thias or Cade, but she got a taste when Thias was in line for the guillotine. "I don't think he feels anything right now. But when he starts feeling …"

Lux nods and they walk through the palace's entrance hall and up the grand staircase to the king's chambers. "You don't have to do this," he says. "I can handle it myself and I won't tell Dendup if you want to sit this one out."

Dalla stops at the top of the stairs to enter the security code and grant them entrance to the king's quarters. "Nothing happened in there. I've never even been there."

"It's still his bedroom," Lux jogs to catch up with her. "You can't ignore that."

"I wasn't afraid of the room itself. I was afraid of what he would do in it." The codes clear and she picks a door at random. "Here, this one doesn't look like the bedroom. We can start here if that makes you feel better."

"It's not myself I'm worried about."

"Lux, it's just a room." The door's slightly open so she doesn't have to guess the access code. "What could possibly be in here? It's probably just a storage closet or a - oh my gods!"

The door opens to reveal a painter's studio. There's an easel and a box of supplies off to the side. A few props lie cast off in the corner. And the walls are covered with portraits.

Portraits all depicting a young Shara.

Dalla's jaw hits the floor. Maybe she shouldn't be surprised after seeing the Shara statue, but this is beyond just creepy.

Lux's eyes are like saucers. "Stalker…"

"Oh. My. Gods." Dalla repeats and tentatively enters the room half-expecting something to jump out from behind the paintings. "I knew he never stopped wanting her, but this is … obsession."

"I'll say," Lux follows her and approaches one of the paintings. "These are all of your aunt."

"Makes you wonder if he wanted me just to be related to her again," Dalla tries to joke, but the humor dies in the air. "Aunt Shara always said he never really loved her, but he sure thought he did." She comes to a stop in front of a painting depicting Sanjay and her aunt in a tender embrace. "He lived an entire fantasy life with her. There must be scores here."

"More," Lux corrects her and holds up a sketchbook. He opens the cover and his eyes widen even more. "Woah!"

"Hey, that's my aunt!" Dalla snatches the sketchbook and shuts it, unwilling to let herself see those pictures. She tosses it into a waste receptacle by the easel. Salt gods, please let there not be any like that of me.

The easel catches her attention and she looks closer. It's a painting of Shara sitting on a bed, a fair-haired little girl in her lap.

Lux comes over to see what she's looking at and stops once he sees the painting.

"Kason too?"

Dalla carefully touches the painting and examines her fingertip. The paint's still wet. "It looks like my little cousin Lana. But he's never seen her before."

"Maybe he found an image on the net," Lux suggests and gestures to the paintings. "What are we going to do with these? We can't sell them, we can't give them away. I can't imagine you all want them."

"Burn them." She doesn't know what else to do. "Just burn them."

"I thought so." He examines another painting, this one of Shara sleeping on a couch. "It's almost a shame. If he wasn't a king, he could have been a professional painter."

Dalla leaves the easel and makes her way to where he is, at a pedestal in the center of the room. To her absolute horror, there's a holoprojector sitting on top of it.

"Do I even want to know what that is?" Maybe Lux previewed it without her noticing.

"I don't know," he shrugs. "But there's only one way to find out." And with that he presses the activation button and the projection pops up. It's of a young Sanjay and Shara sitting at a meal, engaged in polite if slightly awkward conversation. She looks like she just wants the meal to be over, while he's absolutely absorbed.

"He must watch this on endless repeat," she says, examining the worn-out buttons on the holodisk. "Aunt Shara once told me she had dinner with him right before their annulment and a droid recorded it. This must be the holo."

Lux kills the projection.

"I feel like I'm in a slasher holo," he says. "And if I'm creeped out then you definitely are. Let's stack up these paintings and we can find a fireplace to burn them in."

Dalla nods. "Aye, that sounds like a good idea."

…

Dalla doesn't know what to expect in Sanjay Rash's bedroom. A hundred more paintings? A shrine to Shara? A fruit orchard? An adjoining dungeon with a "Welcome, Dalla!" sign on the door?

But there's none of that; for all intents and purposes it's just a bedroom. Still, Dalla's gut clenches. She's spent the last month actively avoiding this place - salt gods, she had nightmares about this place - and now here she is.

In her nightmares the room is dark and windowless, with gargoyles sticking out from the walls. In reality it's warmly lit and painted red and gold, the canopied bed the focal point. Dalla's trying very hard not to look at it. She can almost feel the scene from her nightmares taking shape: her standing frozen in the doorway staring at the bed and Rash placing a hand on her back to push her inside. Oh gods, she can actually feel his hand...

"Dalla?"

She snaps back to reality and Lux withdraws his hand from her back. "You don't look so good."

Dalla takes a second to collect herself. "I'm fine. Let's just get this cleared out," she says and walks into the room, making a beeline for a filing cabinet. If there's one thing in this room that isn't going to freak her out, it's a filing cabinet. Lux stays by her side and opens the top drawer.

"Looks like he organized everything by date," he mutters and takes out the first stack of flimziwork. "Just some basic records here. Birth certificate, marriage license, death certificate for Melaana Rash Kira, annulment decree, death certificate for Ommin Rash, brochures from Ov Taraba University's art department." He shifts through some more papers. "Skip forward seventeen years, and there's a death certificate for Sanda Rash and a betrothal contract."

Dalla grabs the annulment papers and the betrothal contract from his hands and flips through them. Just as she suspected, Marlon's signature on the betrothal contract is identical to the signature from seventeen years earlier.

"His mother died from Fartrad's disease," Lux says, eyebrows raised. "I'd never have guessed. She hid it extraordinarily well."

"Fartrad's disease?" Dalla repeats, glad to have something to take her mind off the current situation. "My grandfather had that; he died before I was born. Father says it's excruciating. Salt gods, how did she live as long as she did?"

"Sheer force of will, I'd wager. She was very focused on setting up this betrothal." He puts down the flimsi and goes to another. "A receipt for two dozen red roses, to be shipped to Harkon Hall? You'd think he'd want them shipped to Blackhold."

"They aren't for me. He didn't know his men killed Miranda until it was too late. She was his cousin." It's not a good idea to think about Miranda when she's just barely keeping it together, but there's no way around it. "From what Tandin said, Rash was furious when he found out. He was going to kill the men who did it. This must be his way of saying he was sorry."

"I don't think he quite made up for it."

"No, it didn't." She puts the receipt with the other documents and another file catches her eye. "Lux, did you see this?"

"No. What is it?"

"I don't know, but it's labeled 'Aargonaar.' That's where your father and the Gerreras…" Lux stops what he's doing and she takes that as a good enough reason to go ahead. "Do you want me to read it out loud or do you want to do it yourself?"

His hands are shaking. "Read it."

Dalla opens the file, which contains only a single piece of flimsi. "Mission report for base setup on Aargonaar. Commanding officer Major Radan -."

"That's not right. My father was the commanding officer; it should be Lieutenant General Dane Bonteri."

That's not all that's not right. "Mission status … success?"

"What?" Lux snatches the file from her hands and skim-reads it before he sees something that makes him drop the file and stagger backwards.

"Lux!" Dalla races forward and grabs his arm to steady him. "Lux, what is it? Are you alright?"

"It was them."

"It was who?"

"The Separatists," he sputters. "Dooku had his agents dress in stolen clone armor and attack the base. They wanted to push Onderon and my mother to the Separatist cause. My father -" he gulps. "My father was killed by his own men."

"Salt gods, Lux, I…" She trails off because there's nothing to say. What can she say to make him feel better about this? Dalla comes up empty, so instead she dispenses the advice Mina gave her four years ago: give me a hug. You need a hug.

Lux accepts her hug. "They killed my father, and then my mother, and I followed them. I let the man who killed my parents hold control of my planet."

"But you took it back. You took it away from him, and he's never getting it again as long as we're alive."

She gives Lux a few more minutes while he calms down, and then he lets her go and puts the file back into the cabinet with a sigh.

Dalla shuts it. "Do we need anything else from here?"

He shakes his head. "We can throw these into the incinerator along with the paintings. His clothes and personal effects we can donate. It should just be a matter of boxing things up."

"Good." Dalla empties the file cabinet and reaches for a trunk sitting next to it. "I wouldn't bet on documents in this one."

"Some trinkets or a family heirloom, most likely," Lux agrees and pulls the trunk between the two of them, pops the lid so they can see its contents.

Inside are two paintings and a ship in a bottle nestled on a bed of silk. Lux reaches for the bottle while Dalla takes one of the paintings.

"More of your aunt?" He asks, examining the ship in a bottle.

Dalla shakes her head.

"Well then who is it?"

"Me."

Lux puts the bottle down and looks at the painting himself. It's a detailed one, depicting a young woman sitting in a rowboat on a quiet pond. "It might not be you," he reasons. "It's from behind; you can't see her face."

"The hair's too dark to be Aunt Shara. That's how I know it's me." Without realizing, her hand has gone to her nose. "He didn't want me, not like he wanted her. He turned my face away so he wouldn't have to paint it." She puts the painting down and grabs the other. It's not a painting at all, but a preliminary sketch. "This one just looks like my mother's head stuck on my aunt's body. He didn't know what I looked like."

"You look so sad there."

"He got that part right." She picks up the ship in a bottle. "These must be wedding presents. I can't think of any other reason he'd have this. Aunt Shara says he hated sailing ships."

"I can see why he picked this," Lux taps the bottle. "He knew you like ships. If he connected something you like with himself, he could try to salvage your opinion of him. At least, that's the idea. It doesn't work all the time. He probably just got it because you'd like it and it would remind you of home."

"I'd probably try to hit him over the head with it." She starts heading toward Rash's nightstand when Lux cuts in front of her.

"I know men and their nightstands," he asserts. "I'll take it. You take the closet."

Not knowing men and their nightstands, Dalla's willing to take his word for it. Anyway, like he said the only thing to do in the closet is box up Sanjay's clothes. Easy as pie. She looks around the room for something to put the clothes in while she opens the closet door.

She looks back and her blood freezes.

Sanjay Rash's clothes and shoes are all shoved to one side of the closet. The other is empty except for some pieces of women's clothing. Women's clothing about her size.

Dalla backs up like the clothes will attack her. Lux on the other side of the room sounds very far away. "Is this an actual flimsi book? I haven't seen one of these in years. Looks kind of northern. Do you recognize it?"

She doesn't answer.

"Dalla?" Lux abandons his task and approaches the closet. "What is it? Is something - oh."

"He was prepared," she says idiotically. "He was ready for me to move in." She reaches to touch one of the dresses half-expecting it to blow up in her face. The silk slides through her fingers like water. Now that she looks closer she can see it's two dresses and a nightgown, all of them red and black. They're the softest things she's ever felt in her life.

"Not completely ready. Remember Kason said he needed to get your measurements so he could get clothes for you? These are just temporary." Lux tries to ward off any potential freakouts before they happen while yanking Sanjay's clothes off their hangers and tossing them into a pile without folding them. He goes for the dresses afterward, hell-bent on getting himself and Dalla out of here before she completely loses it.

It's no use. Dalla spots a box on the closet floor and pulls it out in silence. Lux pauses from his closet-cleaning just long enough to notice. "What is that?"

She shrugs and opens the box. Lux abandons the closet to look.

"Hairbrush, toiletries, vitamins, cosmetics-" his eyes go wide when he realizes what it is. "I'll put the clothes in that box," he says and grabs for it.

Dalla won't cough it up. "This was for me. He knew I wasn't going to have anything with me, so he stocked up ahead of time." Something in the box catches her eye. "He got slippers. In case my feet got cold."

Slippers should be the least of her problems here. But the fact that Sanjay Rash worried about her cold feet long enough to buy a pair of slippers and set them neatly in the box while completely ignoring her denial strikes her and she bursts out laughing. Salt gods, of everything to be worried about he picked her feet?

Lux comes up to her side and snakes an arm around her back. It takes all the sanity she has not to jerk away screaming.

"Do you want to go sit out in the hall?" he asks, reaching for the box.

"I don't know what to think," she keeps staring down into the box. "He gets me a present so I won't feel homesick, but he was going to rip me away from my home in the first place? He makes a place for me and thinks about my cold feet, and he might as well be deaf when I scream at him to let me go? What was he thinking? Was he thinking? Was he even sane? What kind of man...what kind of man wanted me in this room with him?"

Lux pries the box from her hands and sets it at their feet before gesturing for her to sit down. Thank the gods, he has the wherewithal not to seat her on the bed but on the floor where they stand.

"I don't know," he admits. "The only time I saw him in the flesh was on the execution stage. But from what I've heard, you all were right. His mother was a monster, and she turned him into one right along with her. She was pulling his puppet strings up until the day she died, but once she was gone he still moved the same way. It was his choice. We'll drive ourselves crazy trying to figure out why he did it, but he did it by his own choice. And men who do things like that are monsters. Dalla, listen to me."

He shoves the box onto its side, dumping out the contents. "He's dead. He's dead, and he's never going to hurt any of us. We won. We had to pay one hell of a price for it and my gods, I wish we could have paid some other way." His voice breaks. "But we beat him. And if Steela was here, she'd say the same thing."

"Aye, she would. Very loudly, in Onderonian." Dalla cracks a smile.

"Are you done freaking out?" Lux says carefully.

"I think so." She watches while he scoops up the box and stuffs Sanjay's clothes in along with the original contents. "You said something about a flimsi book?"

"Yes, I threw it on the bed next to the nightstand." Lux says. "It's a picture book, and it's in Onderonian. But there are pictures of ships on the cover; it's called The Adventures of…?"

"The Adventures of Sanya Harkon?" Dalla locates the book and scoops it up. "Aye, that's it. My mother would read this to me when I was little. It's a true story: Sanya Harkon wanted to be a ship's captain but her family said she couldn't because she was a girl. So she sailed to Blackhold and asked the lord and lady to make her a sailor. They were so impressed she'd made the journey by herself they gave her a position on the spot and she was always a friend to them. That's how the great friendship between the Harkons and the Blackwells began." She opens the book and flips through the pages.

"He got it for you, then?"

Dalla shakes her head. "I don't think so. It's old, the pages are creased, and somebody doodled in the margins. Everything else he got for me is brand-new; he wouldn't get a book secondhand. Whose is this?"

"My mother would always write my name in the back cover," Lux suggests.

Dalla flips to the back cover. Sure enough, there's a written message: "Melaana, may the wind always be in your sails."

"That's his sister."

But she's more concerned with the last part of the message. "From, Lana Flint."

Lux turns back to her. "Your mother? Why does he have something from your mother?"

"The Rashes took a vacation to Blackhold when my parents' betrothal was announced. Mother said she took Sanjay and his sister out on her boat to look at the Brylks. She must have given this to Melaana as a souvenir before they left." Dalla makes a snap decision and shuts the book's cover. "I'm keeping this. It was my mother's."

Lux doesn't argue with her. Instead he goes back to Sanjay's nightstand and scoops out the contents. "Rash had one thing going for him; he didn't keep creepy things in his nightstand. Just that book, some handkerchiefs, and then this." He lifts out a velvet bag by the drawstrings. "Unless this is just his creepy-things case. I wonder what's -" he reaches into the bag and swallows hard. "Dalla, will you carry the boxes into the hallway?"

She doesn't bite. "What's in the bag, Lux?"

"After that box, I don't think it's such a good idea."

Dalla braces herself for all manners of creepiness. "I won't lose it," she swears, holding her mother's book. "I might have to run into the 'fresher and stick my face under the cold tap, but I will not lose it. I swear. But please, kill the suspense and show me what it is."

Lux sighs like he thinks it's a very bad idea, and upends the bag onto the bed. Out bounces a small gold circlet adorned with red gems.

The two of them stare at it.

"Do I need to stick your head under the tap?" he asks after a minute.

"No." Dalla honestly doesn't know why she's so calm. The thought of Rash putting the crown on her head makes her skin crawl, but lying on the bed it's nothing but a harmless piece of jewelry. "I just wonder. Where's the necklace?"

Lux furrows his brow. He wasn't expecting her to be this calm after the previous freakout. "What necklace?"

"The betrothal necklace. He should have had it; I threw it at him on the steps. He had this crown, he had everything else I might need, but no necklace. Where is it?"

"Maybe deeper in the drawer. I can -" He's cut off by a siren screaming past the palace. "The fire department? What could they be after?"

Dalla doesn't waste time speculating. Instead she runs to the nearest window and throws open the curtains. Sure enough, there's a plume of smoke rising a few blocks away. And it looks like it's coming from… "Salt gods, is that the Rash Estate?"

Lux practically teleports to the window. "It is."

They stare at each other, remembering just who's at the Rash Estate. "Oh gods, Saw!"

But Dalla has other fish to fry. There's one person at the Rash Estate who seems to be attracted to trouble like a moth to the flame: "Thias."

…

Oh no, what could have befallen Saw and Thias now? Especially where fire is concerned.