another little trip into Korkie's mind, with the return of one of my favorite OCs from the Duchess Diaries. This one takes place during the chapter "a mentor".

The safe house turned out to be the house where he was born and it didn't feel terribly safe. Korkie had known that his mother had a relationship with Pre Viszla but it had been a shock to learn that Viszla's mother was the first person to hold him even before she handed him over to his mother. The way the old woman looked at him now, like since she had lost her son she wanted to start over with him, it gave him the creeps.

He thought he might have finally found a place to be alone and think when Gran Viszla finally cornered him. "There you are, ad'ika."

"I'm not a child," he pouted with his arms crossed over his chest.

"No, no. Of course you're not and I'm not as young as I used to be either, so come and sit because I'm tired of trying to chase you down. I want to show you something."

With a sigh of resignation he went to sit beside her. "What is it?"

She activated an old holo and said, "Now watch."

"Who's that supposed to be?" he asked as the image of a beautiful woman materialized. She looked a little like Bo-Katan but had more of regal air about her.

"That's your grandmother. She was my best friend. And would you care to guess who that is sitting on her lap?" There was a toddler scribbling on a sheet of flimsy with a colored pencil.

"I don't know." He shrugged, interested now but not wanting to show it. "My mom?"

"Nope. That's Bo. Keep watching."

The beautiful woman, his grandmother, looked at the holocam and smiled, embarrassed. She waved the cam away and the image fell upon a little girl who couldn't have been more than 7 or 8 but she was tall for her age. She was wearing a long cloak that was several sizes too big for her, and she had an incredibly bossy look on her face.

"That is my mother." Korkie couldn't help but laugh.

Young Satine was shaking her finger at someone not in the image and obviously giving them a piece of her mind. Then instantly she dropped into the character of whatever she was playacting and laid the back of her hand against her forehead in a pretend swoon.

Into the image marched a young boy. He was wearing armor that was much to big and waving a wooden sword. He was obviously doing something wrong because Satine broke character, stomped her foot, and sent him back to do it over again. He turned obediently but rolled his eyes as he walked back out of the holo image.

"And that's your son?"

Gran nodded. "When she could still boss him around and before he started listening to his uncles' osik."

Young Satine struck her pose again and young Pre Viszla entered, this time to her satisfaction. They traded a few silent lines of dialogue and then he thrust with his wooden sword. Korkie tensed as he watched but this young version of his mother just took the sword, stuck it under her arm, stumbled a couple of steps, spun around and wilted gracefully to the floor.

Young Pre knelt down to look at her and she opened her eyes smiling, then she hopped up and curtsied toward the holocam. She elbowed Pre and must have told him to bow because he did and then Gran deactivated the holo.

"Always had a flair for the dramatic, your mother." Gran wiped away a tear and Korkie realized that she was mourning them both. "Nu kyr'adyc, shi taab'echaaj'la," Not gone, merely marching far away, she whispered.

Korkie repeated the phrase. He didn't quite know what else to say.

"When your grandparents were killed, I tried to do my best for the girls. I couldn't officially adopt them because your mother had to inherit her title but I tried to be there for them when they needed me. I hope you can see why I would have liked to have her as my daughter-in-law. I knew there was no chance of that after she met your father, that look she'd get in her eyes when she was thinking about him off who knows where in the galaxy. You get that look in your eye too."

Korkie had listened to her speech silently but instead of thinking of his parents his mind had drifted to Soniee. "What? Me?" he asked.

"Yes. You've got someone special out there who you're worried about too, don't you, ad'ika?"

He didn't correct her this time for calling him 'child'. "Yes," he admitted. "Soniee. She's amazing! She's beautiful and she can fix anything and she's patient and considerate and I think she's on Coruscant. She flew my father there. And she was at the temple but I don't think she was there when it was bombed. I felt her, Gran. She can use the force and I think she must have reached out to me. We have this sort of connection. So I'm sure she's alive or she was a few hours ago..." He had gotten up and was pacing. He stopped just short of telling the old woman about how he had proposed to Soniee and how he still didn't have an answer. It bothered him more than he could say that the question was left hanging.

"Korkie," Gran broke the silence that he didn't realize had fallen. "I would like to do something for you. And you of course are welcome to say no."

"What is it?" he asked.

"You know that I've worked as a seamstress. I made dresses for your mother and her mother before her, but my passion was, and always will be, forging armor. It is a tradition and a privilege for a Mando'ad to wear his beskar'gam and I would like to assist you in constructing something that you can wear with pride into the battles that are surely coming. I know your mother was a pacifist and your father a Jedi and you can say no if you don't feel comfortable with the idea..."

"Gran, yes!" Korkie interrupted her excited at the prospect. "My father is a general now. He would understand. And I'm sure you're right that the war will be coming here to Mandalore. I want to wear the armor and stand up with my people when the time comes!" He didn't add that he also wanted to prove to Soniee when she returned that he could protect her.

Gran stood. "Well then, we'll get started on it in the morning." She patted Korkie's cheek. "Get some sleep now, Ad'ika."

"I'll try, and thank you."

That night as he slept Korkie had a very interesting dream. It started out with Soniee in the shower. It felt so real and she looked amazing. She was just standing there under the water and he was just thinking how much he wanted to join her there, to hold her and feel her skin against his, when she spoke, "Where are you? I miss you so much. They moved up the time and I think I'm prepared as I can be to speak to the senate but I still wish you were here."

The senate, he wondered vaguely, hadn't she been going to speak to the Jedi Council? Isn't that what she had said in her comm? But he hadn't managed to hear the whole comm before Bo dragged him away and he didn't want to think about that now. He only wanted to comfort her and tell her that everything was going to be alright and if she had prepared a speech it would go wonderfully. That anyone who listened to her couldn't help but believe her and be turned to her point of view. But then just as suddenly as his last contact with her had been broken, this window into her consciousness was closed and cold evil seemed to wash over him.

Korkie sat up in bed panting. It was only a dream but it wasn't. She had been there. She had spoken to him. She missed him. But she was in some kind of danger. Someone or something was threatening her.