Chapter Nine: Changes of Plans, Changes of Hearts
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By the end of the week, Sanar, Kyp, Jaina and Zekk had been joined by Braun and a reluctant Veras, Miko Reglia, and Cerasy and Tiran (newly returned from their honeymoon, but appreciative of a good fight and no small amount of anarchy). Leia and Han Solo had both expressed a fervent desire to go as well. Unfortunately, with the galaxy in its current tumultuous state, and a four-year-old son of whom they were (rightfully, considering the fates of his older brothers) overprotective, they had no choice but to stay behind.
The plan was to leave the next day, with Braun flying them all in the Prize. Beyond that, and once on Na'Lein'yhpaon, they had little more than their broad mission statement of "Overthrow the Jir dynasty, and subsequently Pucijir's Order, and install equality for women."
Jaina mused that the whole thing sounded rather grandiose, if one was unaware of how serious the problems caused by Pucijir's Order were.
"Don't pack so many bright clothes," Sanar rebuked her roommate.
Jaina blinked out of her thoughts, and then at the offending red top in her hands. "Right. Colour. Is disrespectful. And women…aren't worthy of red?"
Sanar nodded tightly. "It's Pucijir's colour. Fitting, don't you think?"
"I'm a fourth you—on a good, I'm me day—and you have to ask?"
"Good point. Don't you have any more dark brown or blue?"
Both women looked up at the faint knock. "Zekk?" Jaina called. "Could you…?"
When the knocking continued unanswered, Jaina shrugged and stood. "Look in the back of my closet," she told her sister while backing out of the room. "Maybe there'll be some more 'fitting' clothes back there."
"If there are any, I'll hide them. And then we can go shopping," Sanar said impishly, well aware of Jaina's impatience with clothes hunting.
"You have a death wish," Jaina retorted in exasperation. As far into the living room as she now was, her reply was heard more in Sanar's head than with her ears.
Sanar tuned out the voices at the front of the apartment, and set to work ravaging Jaina's closet of all its blue, brown, green, black and grey. All clothes "decent" enough for Na'Lein'yhpaon were tossed onto Jaina's unmade bed, while the rest were stuffed back into the closet without a thought to their previous organization.
When Jaina still hadn't returned, Sanar gave the clothes a disgruntled look. "Solo!" she yelled peevishly. "I don't care how many times you say you've 'saved' my life—I am not doing your packing. Get your lazy butt back here before I tell Zekk about your Perdita problem!"
"What Perdita problem?" Zekk's voice called back curiously as Sanar walked through the hallway.
"Nothing," Jaina said in exasperation, eliciting a smirk from her sister.
When she reached the front room, Sanar was met with Jaina's glare—which, naturally, she ignored. "It isn't 'nothing' if you try to leave me with your packing," she taunted smugly. Pausing to take in the new arrival, she added, "Hey, Krista."
"Hi, Sanar," Krista returned with her customary sparkle, and her beaming smile. "How are you? Seen any hot guys we can go ogle together?"
Although she inwardly winced at the still slightly flat look in Krista's eyes, Sanar didn't remark on it. "'Fraid I've been spending too much time with Durron to spot any."
"Oh, Kyp," Krista sighed. "Oldie, but goodie. Some guys just never lose it, you know? Even when they're as love-whipped as him."
"Durron's in love?" Sanar repeated, stunned. After a moment, she smirked and barely restrained herself from cackling. "With who?"
Krista rolled her eyes. "Sorry. He made me swear—in front of my brothers—not to tell."
Sanar cast a suspicious look at Jaina, who appeared to know the answer, but she decided to leave the interrogation until they were flying to Na'Lein'yhpaon. "So, Kris, I assume you didn't come just to talk about hot guys and Durron."
"Why not?" Krista protested. "I could so have come just for that. That's just like me—boys, boys, boys. Do you want to talk about boys? I like them."
Sanar groaned. "Kris?"
"Fine," the blonde pouted. "I got wind of the date for Zekk's sentencing through some drunken contacts. I didn't realize you were all going on a trip."
"It isn't exactly a vacation," Jaina started wryly.
"'Isn't exactly a vacation'?" Sanar repeated contemptuously. "Could you make up a bigger understatement?"
"You have some degree of dislike for your home planet's government and its men and priests," Jaina supplied flatly and without delay.
She faltered. "Oh, point taken."
"I thought so," Jaina said smugly. "And I was just explaining everything to Krista when you stomped in."
"Hm." Sanar shrugged.
"I've never been to Na'Lein'yhpaon," Krista offered. "But if it's as bad as you say, why hasn't the Galactic Federation done anything about it?"
"NLY isn't part of the GFFA," Zekk informed her.
"It isn't part of the conquered Empire, is it?" Krista asked with a queer expression on her face.
"Nah," Jaina denied. "I think things actually would have been better there if it was Imperial. NLY is independent."
"I see." Krista's eyes were surprisingly grim. "And just how long will this non-vacation take?"
"Who knows?" Sanar said with a one-shoulder shrug. "We're overthrowing a religiously fanatical dictatorship; it isn't going to be a quick walk to the park."
Krista snorted, drawing a surprised stare from even Jaina, who had seen, to an uncomfortable extent, how much the young blonde had been changed by recent years.
"Kris?" the Jedi prodded cautiously. "What is it?"
"Zekk's sentencing is in two weeks, Jaina. Even in the best-case scenario, do you really think the Galactic Federation is going to let him out of their sight for a second without repercussions? I'm all for saving a world, really. But frankly, I like Zekk's sexy head where it is—attached to his sexy body."
Jaina and Zekk exchanged a look. "In other words," Zekk said, "if I leave, I can't come back."
Krista shook her head. "No. I mean that if you leave, your wedding will take place within the Force." She levelled her blue eyes on Zekk squarely, saying pointedly, "They'll go after both of you."
Before Jaina could respond, Zekk snapped, "Why would they go after Jaina? They can't…" His face darkened. "If they even try, I'll—"
"Jaina would be helping you escape," Krista answered sardonically. "Everything's so paranoid and bureaucratic right now, they'd make even a Solo a traitor."
Zekk's shoulders slumped wearily. "Then I will stay."
Sanar, already knowing Jaina's response to that, sighed.
"We will stay," Jaina corrected her fiancé, her jaw tight. She'd been separated from Zekk for too long, too many times, in her life. "I'm not leaving you to the dogs."
Remorseful, she slipped an arm around Sanar's waist. "You know I'd come," Jaina said quietly.
The prospect of returning to NLY seemed even scarier than before, now that Jaina wasn't coming. Sanar wondered at that—when had she become so dependant on knowing her sister had her back? "I guess," she replied, trying to sound blasé.
"If there's any chance, I'll be there in an instant," the younger one promised. "And if you really need me…"
Sanar didn't want to talk about what she did or did not need. "You don't seem that surprised," Sanar remarked after a moment, successfully diverting Jaina's attention.
Jaina hesitated. "I'm not," she admitted. "I just…had this feeling…" She exhaled softly, more than a little frustrated. "This isn't my fight."
Some relatively new part of Sanar wanted to protest that if it was her fight, then it was Jaina's fight, too. She stifled that part without further ado, slightly disdainful of her own neediness. "If you say so," she grumbled.
"You won't need me," Jaina told her.
"Of course not," Sanar scoffed. "Need you? Are you insane? I don't need anybody." Without another word, she stomped off to her own room.
"So," Krista said when Sanar's door slammed behind her. "I've got some free time—anyone want to try to sell me on the evilness of these NLY guys?"
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So it was that the "Kavishka retinue" lost two members, and gained another—a blonde Intelligence agent, newly introduced to the situation. Krista had begun to drift from Intel since the war had ended. Besides, she had said, in order to survive more than two minutes on such as world as NLY, they would need someone familiar with sneaking. It went without saying that, having been raised by three overprotective brothers, Krista was no slouch in the "sneaking" department.
Sanar and Jaina might have neglected to inform Krista of Miko's participation in the mission. It was so just hard to remember, though, with everything going on… Besides, it wouldn't do to give Krista and Miko time to run before they actually took off for NLY; it was high time the two of them got their act together.
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"So this is your ship, huh?" Krista asked excitedly, looking around the Prize's lounge.
Veras rubbed her temples; it was far too early for anyone to be this bouncy, especially when they'd be leaving for Na'Lein'yhpaon the next day. "Yeah, it's Braun's."
"I haven't seen a SpaceScraper59 in this good condition in years—do you do all the repairs yourself?" Krista laughed. "Well, duh, of course you do, this thing is practically an antique, and probably as cantankerous as—Miko?" She stopped and stared at the equally surprised former Dark Jedi, who had appeared in a doorway off the lounge.
"Actually, Miko has been pretty agreeable," Braun replied with a shrug, as if he hadn't noticed the tension in the air. "'Course, he's only been onboard for a day—seeing as you know him better, maybe we should look out."
Krista didn't even hear him—strange for her, because the careless, dumb blonde "thing" was mostly an act, particularly since her imprisonment. She needed only seconds to take in Miko's still-sleep-mussed red hair, his casual demeanour, and his shirtless chest (which led to some particularly yummy thoughts…). Once her mind had found the data, and had gotten over the whole bare-chest factor, she put two and two together. "Miko? You're—uh—you're coming, too?"
As if suddenly realizing that he had come out of his room half-dressed, Miko finished pulling his shirt over his head, still looking rather dazed. "Well, yes… I helped Sanar get out of some trouble with the Holy Brothers a few years back—told them she was dead, that sort of thing; I thought I'd see it through, since I was already involved. No one mentioned you, though."
Krista stiffened, blue eyes flashing with hurt. "Sorry my presence is such a pain," she said, hearing an insult where Miko had not meant one.
Miko recognized the warning signs too well. "Kris, I didn't mean—"
"They didn't tell me you were going to be here, either, Miko," she continued sullenly. "Don't get all insult-y with me."
He concealed a wince. Just great, he thought ironically. A save-a-world mission with a ticked-off Krista I'm still all-too-pathetically in love with… I should have known I got off too easy when I got no jail time for my Dark actions… "Kris…" He sighed in gentle exasperation. "Hey, hey," he soothed, placing his hands on her slim shoulders when she started to speak again. "Start over?" he tried, a tad wryly.
She watched him warily, candy pink lips set in an exaggerated pout.
"I missed you," he offered, understanding her well enough to know that not all of her quarrelsome attitude stemmed from perceived slight.
"Yeah…well…" She paused to consider the worthiness of that apology. After a moment, she shrugged, and then poked him sharply in the chest. "Give a girl some notice next time! I mean, geez, left in the lurch much? Not to mention, Cel and Gryq interrogated like, three billion new potential partners before anyone even half-met their standards. And, um, a six foot Gliq'schot might be a good bodyguard, but they smell. Like, it's called personal hygiene, buddy!"
"How horrible," Miko sympathized as he dropped his hands from her shoulders. He struggled to smother his amusement. "But now you can rest easy without the smell, eh?"
"What?" Krista asked, frowning.
"You quit Intel, didn't you? After…"
"I handed in my official resignation last week," she agreed, looking a little wary now. "I didn't—I mean, before—it was just a break. To recuperate, and stuff. My brothers, you know." She laughed, and it sounded all too artificial. "They went ultra-overprotective for a while there. I couldn't even go out dancing without them blowing up into a sticky, 'lock-the-little-sister-up-where-she's-safe mess.'"
Miko's expression softened even more. "Did you really mind this time, Kris?"
She grimaced. "I—" She stopped.
"Are you alright?" he asked compassionately, reaching out as if to caress her cheek before he pulled back again.
After a too-long pause, Krista pasted an almost gaudy smile on her face. "Of course! You know me." Unconsciously rubbing the vein in her left forearm, she turned to Veras and Braun. "Well, great ship. But I have just twenty-eight more hours of guaranteed boys, dancing, boys, and annoying my brothers, and I plan to take advantage of every minute. See you later, kiddos!"
With a last laugh and sparkle, Krista exited through the cockpit, the picture of a happy, normal girl, despite it all.
"So, that's her?" Veras asked when Krista had disappeared completely.
"'Her'?" Miko repeated, startled out of his thoughts.
"The girl who's got you all in a twist."
The red-haired man sighed. "That was Krista," he agreed.
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Only when she had bounced off the ship could Krista breathe again.
Hells! If there was a time when she hadn't been expecting to be asked about that time, it was when she was being shown around a stranger's ship! Krista had completely forgotten to put up her guards—not, she thought with a silent curse, that those wouldn't have come crashing down when she saw Miko, anyway.
Krista was blonde—it was an honest fact of her life, and one she usually enjoyed. Her bubbly attitude had gotten her through her parents' deaths, her generally rootless life, and even life's most current (and thus far, most traumatizing) blow to her spirit. Normally, the same thing protected her from being struck speechless when she was reminded of her imprisonment.
But…Miko. Miko Reglia, her only real male friend until he'd left with just thirty minutes' notice, had just walked into the lounge, casually dressed, red hair still mussed from sleep. And just like that, all of Krista's defences had been stripped bare. Seeing Miko, when he had left her with—as far as she could tell—no desire to return, had saddled her with a plethora of emotions.
The years since Miko's departure had been difficult—not because her heart had been greatly damaged, although she had cried on more than one occasion, but because of the death that had followed. The end of the war with the Empire had come at a price for everyone, but especially for the Rebellion's Intelligence. Many agents' luck had simply run out, and Krista had lost several friends.
She hadn't realized how much she relied on Miko's strength until she needed his comfort.
Krista, herself, had been captured by the New Empire a year ago. The experience of prison, torture, and almost her execution, had rocked her to the core, and for months afterwards, she hadn't been even close to herself.
Her three-and-a-half-months-long captivity had seen Krista living in a dark, windowless cell; the social girl's only human contact had been with her interrogators. When they had plied her for all the information she would give (not much that was real or up-to-date, thanks to her Force sensitivity), she had been given a date for her execution. Her food tray (when they bothered to feed her) always had the countdown for her death.
And her dreams always taunted her with everything she had never done, every wrong she had done, all she'd never said…
On her last day of life, however, with a just few hours to spare, Krista had been knocked around one last time, then thrown outside into the roughest Imperial section of Coruscant. Just like that…they had let her go, for no apparent reason. Krista had stumbled away, skeletal and injured, barely caring to shy away from the stormtroopers. Even though no one had tried to stop her, she had barely survived the walk.
But they had let her go.
For weeks she hadn't trusted herself to go to anyone she trusted, terrified as she was that the Empire was tracking her. Instead, beaten and starving, she had huddled in the dark holes of non-civilization until Jaina Solo had found her. It was only after a month of being under her friend's careful watch that Krista had discovered her fear had been groundless. If someone had been watching her at first, they had quickly become distracted by the search for a traitor. Two weeks later, Krista had found out that that traitor was Miko.
The discovery had sent her into a tailspin; had she let Miko's role slip, then forgotten in her terror? With all the drugs they had pumped into her, and with all the torture she had endured, had she lost control of her tongue and betrayed a dear friend? Only hours of frantic soul-searching, and use of the Force by both Krista and Jaina, had reassured her of her silence.
Almost seven months later, Krista began to resemble herself once more. She laughed and smiled; she flirted with, and then quickly forgot, boys with her reputed superficiality. But she had changed, irrevocably, inevitably, forever and always.
One year ago, the "blonde" personality had only been considered an act when she was forced to burble her way out of trouble. Now, it was a garish mask she only felt was her half the time.
A black-and-white war would be good for her. She could reorient herself in the familiar without seeing the ghosts of Imperial prison every-which-way.
And Miko?
Well, Jaina and Sanar were obviously planning something. Had they gotten so bored with peace (already) that they were playing matchmaker? Were they out of their minds? Miko left her. Miko left her—and without even giving her a chance to respond to his declarations! He'd just dumped them on her, then taken off for parts unknown.
But then again, she thought, quickly distracted from what she didn't want to think about, Miko's really cute. And I've always had a thing for 'reformed' bad guys…
No. She couldn't do that; Miko was off limits. Even though he'd left (and that had hurt) she liked him. So no flirting. Or playing around. No matter how hot he was…
Which was hot. Really, really hot.
And, now that she thought of it, really sexy.
But no flirting.
Oh, maybe just a little…
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Please R&R!
.Tjz