I originally had this chapter split up when I was posting it on the JCF, because it's so long, but I decided to just rejoin the parts for ff.n—you might be able to tell where it split :P
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Chapter Twelve: Don't Forget Your Safety Net
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"We'll be breaching the atmosphere soon," Braun's voice said over the lounge speakers. "Strap in well," he added a half-second later, right after Sanar had scrambled for her crash webbing.
"He means it," Sanar growled at anyone who had been too slow to buckle up. "NLY's atmosphere is as hard as rock at the best of times."
Krista looked up from her spot by the holo-com. She had been reassuring her unhappy brothers (who hadn't known until now what their baby sister was getting herself into; it was easier to ask forgiveness than permission, after all). "Just a minute; I have to finish my call…"
Miko, having caught the seriousness on Sanar's face, crossed the room quickly. "She'll have to call you back later," he told the blonde girl's brothers. "Don't worry; I won't let her do anything stupid." Before Gryq, Cel, or Bull could argue, Miko deactivated the holo-station. "Minute's up, Kris; better get into your webbing."
She stared at him, gape-mouthed. "You—you hung up on my brothers! Do you have any idea what they'll—"
"They'll get over it," he interrupted brusquely. "In any case, your life is a little more important than what they want. Now get into you webbing, Krista."
She complied, albeit slowly. "You are so dead," she said in an awed whisper.
"I'll worry about that later," he replied more moderately now that she was safe.
"If you're done showing off, Miko, how about you get strapped in?" Tiran suggested, smirking.
Miko rolled his eyes. "Cerasy, can't you keep your lesser half in check?"
The currently black-haired bounty hunter grinned. "Did he say something?"
Sanar snorted while muttering something cynical under her breath.
The first hard jolt of their ship's descent kept either Miko or Cerasy from speaking further. "Hold on," Sanar told them, looking tense. This time, even Krista listened to her.
The atmosphere continued battering the Prize with increasing intensity as time passed. After ten minutes, the ship was shuddering consistently and so hard that Miko could taste his own blood from where he had bit his tongue.
"Is it usually this bad?" the blonde at his side cried. Somewhat nervous himself, Miko grabbed her head reassuringly.
"I can't—remember, but—nothing about this—Sith-spawned planet—is friendly," Sanar answered as best she could through the heavy tremors.
"We've hit a storm," Veras called from the cockpit. "Forget landing outside Quatroc. We're landing wherever we can. Brace yourselves!"
Miko glanced across at Krista. Her face was expressionless, but her blue eyes wide. His heart clenched, and he took her hand. It will be okay, he mouthed. She gave him a short, tense smile.
"I cannot believe how much I hate this lafit planet!" Sanar spat, gripping her seat's arm rests. "Why am I so eager to save it, again?"
"Because it's the right thing to do," Kyp replied calmly. "And the part you hate is the part we're going to fight."
Sanar gaped at him. "So I'm about to die because I'm on a heroic mission of mercy? Hell, no! Braun, turn this ship around right now!"
Their pilot didn't even bother to reply. When the Prize's holochess board flew up and smacked the ceiling, everyone's tongue was silenced. More objects were yanked from their moorings, and a flying music box knocked Tiran out. Miko flinched as a cupboard—probably an "antique" to Krista's mind, and one not well-attached to the ship—narrowly Krista. Or so he thought, until he heard her gasp. He tried to lean forward to see where she had been hit, but the ship's momentum pinned him to his seat.
"Get a shield up!" Sanar's voice clamoured to be heard over the cacophony. Miko would have bet a senator's yearly salary that Kyp would have heard her even if she hadn't yelled. "Now, Durron!"
The Prize must have clipped something, because it suddenly spiralled. The normal lights disappeared before being replaced by the green emergency lights.
"Kyp, get some sort of—"
In the panicked, dim lighting, Miko couldn't tell what happened to Sanar to silence her then. From the woman herself he felt only stunned pain, then unconsciousness. Kyp Durron, however, flared brightly in panic, and his fear for Sanar speeded the creation of his shield. Noticing that it was spread just a little more strongly over Sanar than over the rest of them, Miko struggled to help his former master maintain the protective Force.
But a second later— "Everyone, hold—"
Everything went black.
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As soon as the Prize had shuddered to a stop, Veras was scrambling out of her chair and pushing away the built-in emergency safety projection. Beside her, Braun was shifting, testing his limbs before standing. "I'm going to check on the others," she told him. Her throat was so tight that the words sounded nothing like her.
Her husband nodded. "I'll be along shortly."
She hesitated only another minute before carefully making her way through the wrecked cockpit. Braun had avoided a nosedive crash, which would have killed the two of them instantly, but the process had caused him to overcompensate. The back, left side of the Prize had taken the most damage. Veras had deactivated the engines just before they crashed, lest they be caught in an electrical fire, but who knew if that had worked?
I really, really hate this planet.
She had to put all her weight into opening the dented lounge door, and when it finally gave she fell past the threshold. "Lafit." The manual glow-lights switch didn't work, and Veras pulled herself up gingerly. "Anyone awake?" Someone coughed, and she looked in their general direction. "Who's that?"
"Kriff, Yd. Please tell me your insurance company will get us out of here, on top of paying for this."
Cerasy. "I wouldn't count on it. Can you move?"
"Yeah, just—just let get me out of this webbing." There was a pause, riddled with the sound of the bounty hunter fiddling with her crash straps, then, "Hey, Durron, you can take that shield of yours down now."
"Save a girl one minute, and the next she'll tell you to stop without so much as a thank you. Really, Cerasy." Despite his sarcasm, Kyp's voice was tense.
"Thanks." Veras could just make out Cerasy's form as she stood and patted herself down quickly. "Don't suppose you have any kind of light?"
"Just a moment." Kyp groaned softly, then began unstrapping himself.
When Veras heard him hiss in pain, she asked, "What is it?"
"Too much Force output," he replied self-deprecatingly. "I put up a shield around us as fast as I could, but my body's protesting. I just have to walk…or crawl…it off.
"But light…where did I put my lightsaber… Ah, here." The violet glow of the Jedi weapon lit the room dimly. "Sanar."
Veras wasn't sure if she had heard Kyp say the woman's name or not, but a second later he was holding his lit blade over Sanar appraisingly, the worry obvious in his expression. What the lafit? she thought. Why is Kyp Durron all moony over Sanar?
She was distracted from the scene by Braun's hand on her elbow. "I brought the emergency lights," he told her, his face upset. "One of them was smashed."
She gave him a sympathetic look. The Prize was Braun's pride, joy, and home, but the wreck had done irreparable damage. They would have to buy a new ship, and start all over. "We'll make do," she told him with a soft smile. "We always do, you know?" She took one of the portable torches from him, and flicked it on briskly.
The lounge was a mess; objects had flown about far more successfully than the Prize. At the back, where Kyp was trying to wake and (Veras assumed) heal Sanar, the metal was twisted and torn. Veras had a headache just looking at the corridor to the sleeping chambers and engine room. She rubbed her neck, pushed away her weariness and crossed the lounge. Time to see what was salvageable.
At least Veras was good at that.
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My brothers are going to kill me, was Krista's first thought upon consciousness. Fortunately, though, her brothers weren't there at the moment. So the blonde girl opened her eyes and looked around quietly. She had been in plenty of crashes before, and this wasn't the worst of them. Still, she winced when she saw Tiran's head injury. She hoped it wasn't as serious as it looked… Of course, if it had been, Cerasy would not be nearly so calm. Kyp wasn't in his seat, but Krista reflexively looked toward the back of the lounge to where she had last seen Sanar. Sure enough, Kyp was checking Jaina's sister, overly carefully, for any serious injury.
Krista turned away, wincing. Twisting her neck, even to the small degree she had, hurt like the hells. Whiplash, maybe? Other than that, her left shoulder was bleeding around the shrapnel that had gotten her before Kyp had erected his shield. Her legs were sore; a sharp turn might have sprained a knee joint. But she had had worse, particularly in Imperial prison.
Careful to not jar her injured shoulder, the former Intelligence agent unbuckled her crash webbing relatively easily. Getting out of it was something else entirely. "Um, help?" she asked, looking around and biting her lip. Cerasy, Braun, Veras, and Kyp were busy, though, and if they heard her, they didn't show it. Which reminded her, where was…
"That looks nasty. Other than your shoulder, how are you?"
Krista relaxed a little more as she looked up at Miko. "My neck's pretty sore, and I might have sprained my knee, but otherwise I'm fine. How are you?" Squinting in the moving light, she almost gasped. "Miko, your head—"
"I've already started healing it," he reassured her. "Don't even have a concussion anymore."
She frowned at the blood over his eyes, but since it was already clotting, she let it go—for now. "Handy trick, that healing stuff."
Gently, he began pulling the webbing away from her bleeding shoulder. "I take it you didn't train long enough to learn some basic healing?"
"No, I—" She gasped as something pulled at her damaged skin. Just don't think about it. "You know me. I never stick around long. My brothers tried to get me to learn, but with the war…people were too busy to train me."
"This metal really can't be in your shoulder much longer," Miko said, not bothering to coddle her. When her eyes widened, he shook his head. "It can wait until we're outside, with some decent light. But I can't speed your healing until it's gone."
"And, of course, no painkillers," Krista finished. She tightened her jaw in preparation. "Alright, then, get me out of this chair."
It hurt more sharply than she had expected, and when they pulled her arm out quickly, a cry escaped her. Seconds later, she cursed weakly. "Well." She released a heavy, shuddering breath. "G-Good thing I—I didn't pack any tanktops, h-huh?" She giggled, too loudly. "I'd n-never get away with it, w-with this arm. Um, got any alcohol?"
"Alright, time to go outside."
"Kriff," she almost whimpered. "Seriously, you got anything?"
"Sorry. I prefer sobriety."
"Oh, right. Kriff."
She could limp on her hurt knee, and Miko supported her as well as he could. Together, they hobbled out of the slanted, wrecked ship into the morning desert. "How much you wanna bet," Krista said as they stumbled down to the warm sand, "that this wouldn't have happened if Jay and Zekk were here?"
"Even heroes get bad luck sometimes, Kris. Just look at Han and Jaina—if they aren't in trouble, they get bored and start picking fights with anything that moves."
"Oh, like getting enslaved to a Sith Lord, and not seriously trying to escape? If that happened to me, I'd be tortured to death." She refused to think about how normal Imperials had treated her. "But Jaina? Look how she came out: with the love of her life, her freedom, and a nearly-dead Emperor out of the way."
"She also died," Miko pointed out.
Shifting his hold on her, he said, "Lie down here, and I'll get started on that arm."
Krista looked like she was seriously considering pulling away from him, like a pouting child from her nurse, but she acquiesced reluctantly. "For dying for three seconds, she got even more interesting, and found her…her platonic, weird-relationship soul mate. Literally.
"Ow!" She did pull away this time, and sulked petulantly. "It hurts, okay? Stop poking it."
"I'm trying to help," he snapped. His nerves were already on edge from their close call, and dealing with Krista's shoulder wasn't helping. "Sorry if I'm trying to avoid just ripping shrapnel out of your shoulder, and razing your nerves!"
"Don't be such a baby, Miko. I'm the one who has to live with passing out, and I've done so in worse circumstances. On my own. Now, is it just one big piece?"
"I think so, but—"
"Then just yank it."
"Kris, parts of it could get left behind and—"
"I don't like metal in me, but it was too late for that even before this crash. I really don't like big chunks of metal being left in my shoulder, and me with no painkillers or alcohol. Just. Pull. It. Out. No—oww…" Tears sprung when she got over the immediate shock of Miko's sudden compliance, and Krista swallowed thickly, her face blanching. "All right," she whispered tremulously. "Now…would be a good time…to uncover y-your secret stash of—of alcohol."
"Sorry." He smoothed his hand along her face gently, offering what comfort he could. "I just have this." He used the Force to encourage her shoulder to knit itself together again. Concentrating on ridding her of pain, he nearly forgot to check for any remaining metal shards. "I think that's it," he told her. He ran his hand along her spine as she trembled past the worst of the pain.
"You're going to be okay."
She tightened her jaw in what he assumed was her attempt to smile. "Been through worse," she muttered, grimacing.
He flinched. "So you said. I'd…rather hoped you hadn't."
"Imperial prison. Torture. Fool's hope—mean anything—to you?"
"I know; I'm sorry."
She fought with her breath and the pain for several minutes before she spoke again. "Did they—did they get you?"
Any other time he would have played dumb, but she could barely gather herself to talk, let alone repeat herself. "Almost did, a couple of times, but what's life without a few close calls?"
"Sorry," she whispered, biting her lip viciously.
He blinked, taken aback. "What do you mean? What for?"
"I—I might have—Jaina says I didn't tell them anything, but—but I think I might have told them…"
"You don't believe it was your fault that the Imperials found out about me, do you?" When she only looked at him miserably, he cursed in disbelief. "Kris—" He brought her face level with his. "It was not your fault, okay?"
Her eyes became glassy. "But they started looking for you right after—after they released me, and I'm one of the few people who knew, and I didn't recognize anyone in the prison."
"Were you ever out of your cell?" he asked gently.
"Yes," she replied, a little defiantly. "Well," she amended at his look, "sometimes."
He chuckled a little, and shook his head before saying, "No one spilled on my betrayal except me, Kris. I made a last, big move on my own, knowing the consequences. My actions brought attention to me. It was only a matter of time until they found out, and I prioritized."
"I just can't…help but think I did or said…something…"
She had made him fall in love with her, true enough. But that was hardly her fault, and certainly wasn't what she was worried about. "You didn't say anything about my role in the Rebellion." When she still looked doubtful, he added, "I know you didn't. I saw the interrogation recordings." He grimaced at the memories; he could still hear her cries, and see the dead look in her eyes.
Krista blinked at him fuzzily. "What do you— Why'd they show them to you?"
"I ended up in that area. Thought I'd check on the prison," he replied vaguely.
"Oh," she breathed. At first he thought she had connected his presence with her release, but Krista only closed her eyes in weariness. The talk about her imprisonment, on top of her current injuries, couldn't have been recovery-friendly, or intellectually encouraging.
"Did you get hit in the head at all?" he asked. He didn't sense a concussion, but he might have missed it in staving off his own head trauma.
"Nah, just got yanked around like a ball on elasti-string. Promise not to tell my brothers?"
He grinned. "Do you know how to set up a healing trance?" When she shook her head, he said, "I'll lead you through it, then."
Ten minutes later, Krista lay back on the black sand, completely given over to the trance and her body's recuperation. Only then did he relax, and let his façade of friendly concern fade. Stars, that had been far too close. If he could go the rest of his life without seeing Krista come so close to harm, and realize she had been badly hurt in the process, it would be too late. He felt like he had aged a decade. Sighing, he kissed her forehead, and stood. Her healing was well on its way, now, and he had to believe that eventually his fear would quiet into the background.
Searching for distraction, he looked around at their surroundings. There wasn't much to see. To the left were mountains, and at their base some trees, but everywhere else was black sand. Here's hoping the sun doesn't cook us while we're on this stuff. The weather was bearable at the moment, but it looked to be the morning, with the sun at a low point.
Miko assumed that Braun and Veras were still somewhere in the ship, perhaps salvaging what they could, because they were the only two he couldn't see on the sand. Cerasy and Tiran were attending each others' various wounds twenty metres from Miko and Krista, but the newlyweds did not seem injured beyond their healing abilities. Next he concentrated on Kyp and Sanar. Miko's former master was crouched over his beloved, whom he had lain out on a blanket.
"Kyp," Miko called. The Kavishka looked up only briefly before returning his anxious gaze to Sanar.
Miko reassured himself that Krista was safe, then walked over to the dark-haired Jedi Master. "How is she?" he asked, nodding at Sanar.
"She'll be fine," Kyp said tightly.
The Force whispered secrets in Miko's mind, intangible, uncatchable. "She will. What happened?"
"I'm not sure. It looks like her head banged against the headrest, but she should have come to by now."
"Well, I really doubt Sanar's going to die from something as senseless as a ship crash," Miko offered. "Besides, even if everything they say about this planet is true, I figure Sanar can hold her own against this place for a while longer."
"I promised Jaina I wouldn't let anything happen to Sanar."
"Sanar isn't likely to find someone who keeps her safer than you."
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Sanar grinned as she walked into her lover's arms. "Am I dead?" she asked curiously. The idea didn't bother her much; through Jaina, she knew what death would be like. Besides, her beloved was here, wasn't he? What could possibly be wrong when he was there?
Her lover laughed in surprise as he trailed his fingers down her hair. "Of course not. Where did you get that idea?"
Sanar smirked, just a little. "Well, the last thing I remember from awake-world is Braun's ship being this close to crashing."
"Oh, the ship crashed alright, but you all survived." He grinned slowly, and an answering shiver danced along her spine.
She leaned into him, smiling when he kissed the top of her head. "Well, not that it isn't wonderful to see you, my love, but what am I doing, sleeping, when I just survived a crash?"
He started to reply, but was cut off.
"You move too quickly, attack ahead of yourself, once-seer."
It was millions of voices—more—all of them speaking at once, drowning out all else. Some she almost thought she recognized; the idea was dragged from her. Confused, she looked up at her lover, but he nudged her into turning around completely. He looked slightly bitter.
"Who are you?" she demanded. "And what the lafit are you doing in my dream?"
"We are Women," they hissed. "We are Vengeance."
"Uh…huh," Sanar replied, raising her eyebrow. "Well, good for you. You can get out of my dream now."
"That which you call the Force has many sides," the voices continued. "We are a part of one."
The nut job part?
Millions of faces glared at her, and Sanar realized that—as part of the Force—they might have heard that last thought. Whoops. "Whatever. Why are you in my dream?"
"For 776 years, we and our sisters have been cut down, abused, degraded—"
"You know, having grown up on NLY, I really don't need this explained."
"But now our time has come. The Kavishka walks to meet his destiny; and you follow, as you must, and always will."
Sanar snorted. "Yeah. Right. Hate to burst your bubble, but as soon as Durron completes the prophecy, I am so leaving. And I will never follow Durron."
"It is your destiny!" the voices boomed, and Sanar took a step back, despite herself.
"You wait for three sevens to attack," they resumed. "Only on their 'holy' anniversary can you destroy Pucijir and his emperor. Consider this crash a warning against attacking prematurely. We will not wait seven thousand years because you made a mess of things."
"You set up our ship crash?" Sanar shrieked. "Oh, I think you can definitely wait seven thousand years, just for that!"
"Already we have set into motion your reward," the voices snapped.
"Oh, goody, so I'm gonna get a gold star?" Sanar's voice had been lathered with sarcasm, and she hoped they drowned in the excess.
"You have the role you coveted in the messenger's 'story.' You will have your lover…. All this, we have assured. But these things are only for your success. To take them away would be…tragic, if necessary upon your failure."
"Are you threatening me? Oh, you are unbelievable! I'm not your little toy; you can't just move me around how you want me. You need me, and I'm gonna do things my way."
The women's hard expressions did not waver at her declaration. "Remember: you must not strike out at the emperor himself until the seven hundred seventy-seventh year exactly. Vengeance is strongest on the birth day of Pucijir's Order."
"I'll think about it," Sanar growled. "Maybe."
"Remember how you have been blessed." With their last, stern command, the faces and voices disappeared.
"Well, they were rude," Sanar remarked, turning back to her beloved with a scowl on her face.
He snorted. "They are Vengeance. I thought they'd have come to you by now."
"They haven't, and I'm not going to put out a welcome mat."
Smiling coyly, she stepped closer to her lover and slipped her arms around his waist. "But I'd much rather forget them, now."
"Sanar…"
She kissed him, gently, longingly. "When will you come for me?" she murmured, her lips brushing his as she spoke.
"Soon. Very soon." He smiled faintly. "You could almost say I'm…already there."
She leaned back to consider him. "Knowing my luck, the Prize crashed in the middle of nowhere—and that would mean you're…where, exactly?"
He grinned mischievously.
She huffed in annoyance. "The only guys around are Tiran, Miko, Braun and Durron, for Sith's sake! So, unless you're already married, or in love with someone else, I'm not seeing how—"
He chuckled, his eyes dancing. "Maybe you just don't recognize me, love."
"Of course I—" She paused, and squinted at him. Well, she couldn't really see and remember his face—that was true. And, although his voice was the only one that could always comfort her, the exact tones never stayed with her. Tall, short, beefy, thin, handsome, ugly… Sanar could not label him any of these things. All she could see was his heart and soul.
"After all," he continued, "you mixed me up with Lord Onyx for a while."
"Oh, Larifx. I don't even know why," she said in exasperation. "But at least it got me off of— Wait, you weren't on Na'Lein'yhpaon this whole time, were you?" she asked suddenly. Her eyes were wide.
"No, hardly. You needed to meet Jaina. Though…I have to admit…I didn't expect the two of you to get so close."
"We aren't that close," Sanar grumbled. Because she hated lying to him, however, she added, "Well, I didn't see it coming, either."
"I'm glad for you."
"So you've said more than once. You like her, don't you?"
He smirked, but only said, "She's a good person, and she's helped you every time I couldn't. What's not to like?"
"I…I kind of miss her," Sanar confessed. "I didn't expect to, but I do. I keep wondering if she's almost gotten herself killed again."
"It's only been two weeks."
"My point exactly. Do you know what she's done, before, in two weeks?"
"I might know of a few scrapes she's gotten herself into," he conceded. "But Jaina usually lands on her feet."
"Not always."
"You worry so much about your loved ones," he said. He touched her cheek, first with his fingers, then with his lips. "Worry a little more about yourself."
She scoffed. "Me? I'm fine. And even if I wasn't, I've survived this long, haven't I?"
"But I want you to thrive, love. Will you do that for me?"
"If you wanted me to, I could fly."
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It was extremely rare that Kyp saw Sanar so peaceful. Rarer still did she smile at him. Yet, when he woke her, he was gifted with both occasions. "Welcome back to the land of the living."
Her smile faded slowly as she seemed to realize who, exactly, she was looking at. "What happened?" she asked. She sat up slowly.
"Your head slammed against the headrest during the crash," he said, trying to keep the concern out of his voice. "You've been out for nearly twenty hours."
"Blasted, nosy, controlling voices," she muttered peevishly.
"What?"
She looked at him briefly before irritably saying, "Never mind. How is everyone?"
"Braun managed to pull the ship up, so mostly it's only a little more serious than bumps and bruises. Part of the ship got in Krista's shoulder, but Miko's taking care of her." Having finished his brief summary, he bit the inside of his cheek. "But how are you feeling? I didn't expect you to be out so long."
She smirked, and her attention was diverted from him. "I'm great. I don't suppose our group has, uh, grown?" she inquired, hardly daring to hope.
Durron shook his head. "No, we haven't seen anything or anyone. We'll be heading out soon, if you're strong enough to walk."
Her foolish hopes dashed, Sanar stood abruptly. She was far too anxious to find her beloved to lie around any longer. "Well, then, let's go."
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"Judging by the black sand, and dryness, I'd guess we're somewhere in the Plasa region," Braun told his audience. "What do you think, Ver?" The dark-haired woman scanned the landscape moodily before nodding.
"How far do you think we are from Quatroc?" Tiran asked.
"Not far enough," Veras muttered.
Braun squeezed his wife's hand reassuringly. "Hard to say," he answered. "It depends which mountains those are over there, and how far north we are."
"If you catch her in a good mood, ask Sanar," Veras suggested. "I think she grew up close to the desert/mountain region. I always lived in Quatroc."
"So, what is Na'Lein'ipaynee like?"
Veras shot Tiran a withering look. "It's Na'Lein'yhpaon. If you want, just call it NLY. And you actually came here knowing nothing about the planet? Cerasy, your husband's IQ is noticeably lower than yours."
"Oh, hush, woman," Tiran mocked, making a face. "Isn't this planet all…men-are-superior?"
"Tir!" Cerasy admonished. She scowled at him properly for perhaps the first time in Veras' presence.
"I'm just teasing," he defended. "If I had made a joke about Dathomir, you would have laughed."
"Emperor Rafintair, as all those before him, orders the massacre of thousands of innocent women on a whim," Veras all but snarled at Tiran. "Priests and even some normal men rape and abuse, if they aren't reminding us that our only use is to bear the sons of which we are so unworthy. A decent man, who respects his wife and daughters as well as he can within the Order, is rare. Loving relationships between a man and a woman, no matter the connection or age, is sneered at and eventually punished. And you think the Pucijir indoctrinate is amusing?"
Tiran's face was pale with shame. "Veras, I didn't mean—I mean, I— My foot is permanently lodged in my mouth. I just—"
"I don't want to hear it," Veras snapped, her expression tight. "I don't even know why…" She shook her head angrily. "Why do we expect to change this place? We'll never see a difference." Defeated and frustrated, she stalked ahead.
Braun gave Tiran a look, then roughly shouldered past him to comfort his wife.
Cerasy, her face red with humiliated anger, watched as the older couple spoke. Their voices rose and fell before Veras slumped into her husband's arms.
"I can't believe you," Cerasy said, scowling at her own husband.
"Neither can I. I never meant… Me and my big, ignorant mouth," Tiran muttered.
"You really need to learn to put it to better use," she agreed testily.
"Like?" he said miserably.
Seeing how upset he was, the bounty hunter softened. "Look, next time you start to say something, just…kiss me instead, alright?" She winked at him. "You can't get in trouble that way."
"Remember what Veras said about loving relationships?" he pointed out.
Cerasy groaned. "Then maybe just don't talk."
He smirked, pushing away the dark cloud that hovered over his thoughts. "Not even to tell you I love you? Well, alright, if you insist."
She rolled her eyes, and shoved him lightly. "If you ever stop, you'll swallow a blaster."
-x-x-x-x-x-
Krista and Miko were walking several paces behind the married couples, but paying close attention between their own conversation. Krista was still limping because of her knee and her shoulder hurt when she jostled it. Miko, however, had assured her that another healing trance would get rid of the remaining damage.
"Veras was really upset," Krista remarked to her walking companion. Out of habit, she spoke quietly so as not to be heard.
"I talked to her a bit before we arrived," Miko remarked. "Sanar isn't the only one who's been hurt by this planet, but Veras is even more anxious about it."
"Do you think it's worse than Dathomir? I mean, really? Because I haven't heard anything yet about the women being hunted here, on top of everything else."
"On Dathomir, men are ambushed for their hand in marriage," Miko thought out loud. "But, while they are considered inferiors, I don't believe the Dathomir women have reached this planet's level of cruelty. The men don't look…haunted…the way I've seen Sanar and Veras look."
"I guess we'll find out soon, anyway. Unless we die," Krista added, beginning to sound less serious. She didn't notice Miko's flinch. "But then, according to Jaina, we'll still be able to watch everything through the River, if we can remember to look."
"Well, I'd much rather be alive to see it, wouldn't you?" he asked pointedly.
"Of course," she agreed happily. "I'm over the whole…post-capture trauma. There are far too many heart attacks I wanna almost give my brothers. Plus, boys." She gave him a quick, wide-eyed look as she realized what she had said. "I mean, not boys. Not much, at least. Because I don't…talk about that—in front of you. Kriff."
"Kris, I've told you, I'm fine. If I could survive watching you flirt with every guy in a five kilometre radius for two years, I can survive hearing you mention 'boys.'"
"I just—can't you take it back?" she pleaded. "I mean, can't you stop liking me like that? It was way less awkward when we were just friends."
"We're still 'just' friends," he told her. "The only difference is that I've admitted I love you. It isn't a big deal to you unless you want it to be."
"Meaning?"
He grinned faintly. "Don't act like I need to spell it out for you."
She looked up at him, and wiped away some of the sweat on her face. "People leave, Miko," she finally said. She dropped her eyes in her moment of honesty. "And I'd rather leave than be left behind."
"You can't live like that forever, Krista."
"Yeah? Just watch me."
-x-x-x-x-x-
Ahead of the others, Sanar and the Kavishka were having a talk of their own as they navigated the black sand hills.
"This is all your fault," Sanar grumbled.
Kyp raised an eyebrow as he climbed up the sandy hill after her. "This walk in the desert, the crash, or just the galaxy's ills in general?"
"All of them," she snapped, scowling over her shoulder.
"Of course," he replied. Maybe he shouldn't have found Sanar's ire amusing, but Kyp really did. She no longer cursed or attempted to strike him, as she had when he'd first returned to life. Instead, her tantrums seemed more out of habit than real spite, and Kyp appreciated what he had. "Let me guess: I'm to blame for Pucijir's Order, too, aren't I?"
"You're the Kavishka," she told him frostily. "You should have known that we were attacking too early."
"'Too early'?" he repeated in confusion.
"Yeah, and if you had said something, those weird voices wouldn't have gotten angry, and they wouldn't have made us crash, and we wouldn't be walking through the desert right now, and—"
"Wait," he interrupted. When she made a face at him over her shoulder, he grabbed her hand. "Stop a minute. What weird people?"
She freed her hand impatiently. "These…women, mostly," she explained with a roll of her eyes. "They kept saying they're 'Vengeance,' and stuff. I didn't like them. They got all threaten-y in my dream."
"Vengeance?" He frowned. "You mean the Sildar?"
"Don't know, don't care," she growled. "All I know is, they better stay out of my dreams when I get to see—" She clammed up abruptly, suddenly realizing what she had been about to reveal.
"See what?"
"Who," she corrected shortly. "And like I'm going to tell you."
He rolled his eyes. "You know, Sanar, we're going to be working together for a while. You could at least try to be pleasant."
"You are far too irritating to be pleasant around," she snapped.
"Irritating?" he repeated, as if amazed. "Me?"
"Oh, shut up."
"Sanar, you wound me!" His grin broadened. "I, irritating?"
She stomped faster, nearly sliding back down the sand hill in the process, and shifted her heavy bag back over her shoulder. She grumbled something under her breath before demanding, "What day is it?"
He blinked. "Why?"
"Because I want to figure out how many more days I have to put up with you, that's why."
"It's the twenty-fifth day of the first Coruscanti month."
She was quiet for several minutes, and barely seemed to notice when he caught up with her on the drifts.
When her face suddenly fell, he asked, "So? What's the count?"
"Way too many."
-x-x-x-x-x-
Several hours later, the group stopped for the night. As Braun, Krista and Veras distributed the nutrient bars, the others took sips of their water. "How much more do we have?" Cerasy asked.
Braun measured the bag of food with his eyes. "Three more days' worth of food, if we're careful. A little less water."
"We should reach the mountains the day after tomorrow," Sanar said. Her expression was withdrawn as she fiddled with their glow-light.
"Do you know where we are?" Veras inquired cautiously. Sanar had rarely, if ever, spoken of her childhood home. Although Veras had been the closest thing Sanar had to a friend on Na'Lein'yhpaon, neither had liked to talk about Before Life Changed.
Sanar took a deep breath, and nodded. "Yeah. Those are the Apally mountains. When we reach them, we can get some fruit, and maybe some food from sympathizers… I don't know if anyone still lives there. Probably not. In any case, there will be wild berries and animals. We follow the river for three days, and then we go through Brin."
Veras' eyes widened, but Braun spoke first. "Brin?" he repeated. "I haven't heard of it. Are the people trustworthy?"
"They were, when they were alive," Sanar replied woodenly. "I was born there."
"Really?" Veras said eagerly. She shuffled over to sit next to her once-friend. "Mujir's birthplace was yours?"
Sanar laughed wryly. "Well, my dad created the first version of Mujir's Resistance," she admitted. "But it wasn't Mujir's birthplace, in legend or reality. What gods are born on their own planet, and not in the heavens?" She shook her head. "Brin is probably just a ghost town, now. I haven't been back since…Mujir, in at least two decades."
"Until now," the raven-haired woman at her side finished. She grinned. "I've always wanted to see it, the place Mujir's Resistance was created. I always thought it was just some legend. Were Rafintair's men really oblivious to what the town was becoming?"
"For a while," Sanar conceded, smiling a little. "We lasted at least twenty years of secrecy. By the time I was eleven, Daddy had all these cells organized, and contacts I didn't even know about until the soldiers came…" She shook her head. "No one under seventeen had any idea what the rest of Na'Lein'yhpaon was like. One day things were normal, and the next…
"You saw Gal's destruction, right?" she asked Veras. "It was like that, sort of, but in slow motion. People started disappearing, or leaving, or dying. The soldiers never stopped watching, and if our masks slipped for even a second…" Sanar pulled a finger across her throat, miming decapitation.
"You saw all this?" Kyp asked, horrified.
"Everyone did," Veras replied for Sanar. "I saw my first corpse when I was four—my aunt… They burned my parents before my eyes when I was nine, because my father loved my mother." She glared pointedly at Tiran.
"What can we expect?" Krista queried, unusually subdued. Unconsciously, she leaned into Miko. "When we get there, I mean."
"Shut up, keep your eyes down, get out of the way," Veras recited in clipped tones. "And it would not be overdone if you always looked as if you were about to bow."
"You have got to be kidding me."
"I'm not, and that's to be your role in the presence of any male, even a child. A 'business' man might try to take you and use you in his brothel, since you aren't travelling with a male family member… Unless you can kill him in absolute privacy, and unless no one saw you with him, you'd better find a way to communicate with one of our guys. Preferably Braun; he knows the customs.
"Krista, Miko, you'll need to keep your hair covered somehow. Most people on the main continent have very dark or very fair hair, and we want as little attention as possible.
"Cerasy and Krista…" Veras and Sanar shared a serious look before Veras continued. "We will need to have a very long talk about everything. I, personally, don't want to see any of us dead because some priest realized you aren't at all what you're pretending to be."
Cerasy nodded her acceptance, but Krista (not to mention Miko and Tiran, Veras thought wryly) swallowed hard. "What are our odds?" the blonde girl asked.
Veras snorted. "Krista, dear, if any of us make it off this planet alive, I would tell you to buy a lot of lottery tickets. There will be no question about your luck after this mission."
"Then we'll have to do that," Krista replied, seeming to get over her fear. "All of us. We're going to make it."
"Ha." Everyone turned to look at Sanar, who was slowly starting to chuckle. Moments later, they all watched in something like terrified fascination as she laughed so hard she cried. When she finally calmed down enough to stop, Krista shuddered.
"Krista," Sanar said plainly, "I know at least one person will never leave this planet alive."
And she looked at Miko, and smiled mirthlessly.
-x-x-x-x-x-
"You don't think she meant you, do you?" Krista asked him later that night. "Miko?"
He threw out his sleeping pallet and blanket, more as a way of avoiding Krista's eyes than out of a real desire to sleep. "I don't know, Kris."
"She just—she had this look," the blonde girl cried, wringing her hands. "Like Jaina, when she knows way too much about someone or something."
Sanar had definitely had a 'look', Miko thought with a swallow. He had to fight back shivers just thinking about it. She wouldn't talk about it; by the time everyone was packing in for sleep, she almost seemed to have forgotten about the incident over the campfire.
"Do you think she Saw something?" Krista fretted.
Finally, he looked up at her, and saw the genuine fear in her eyes. "I don't know," he repeated, gently, touching her uninjured arm.
"She can't have," Krista denied, stomping her foot and pulling away from him. "You're not going to die. I won't let you."
"Hey," he soothed. "Kris—"
"No," she snapped. "You aren't allowed to die, okay? That's just—just not good."
Kyp was watching them from a few metres away, and Miko could feel his former master's offer to help. He shook his head; he'd figure out how to calm Krista down on his own somehow.
"She's wrong," Krista muttered. "She had to mean someone else."
"Who?" he asked. "Kyp? On this mission, highly doubtful. Sanar? Not while Kyp has anything to say about it. And let's not forget that there's no way Jaina would let her sister go on a suicidal operation, and I have no doubt she would know if Sanar was in danger."
"Well, what about—"
"Tiran or Cerasy?" he suggested in disbelief. "They just got married. They have everything going for them. Veras and Braun are too important to this task, and they know very well what they're doing—I can't see them getting killed, either. If it has to be anyone, it may as well be me," Miko reasoned. He sounded far more indifferent than he felt.
"No!" she stormed.
"You shouldn't get so upset over this. The future is constantly changing, and…let's face it. Sanar is extremely cynical about this place and anyone's chance of survival."
"But—"
"Everything is going to be fine," he told her firmly.
She hesitated. "You promise?"
He relaxed. Miko doubted that she fully bought his confidence, let alone his promise, but maybe she would shelve her fear for a while, or at least long enough to get some sleep. "I promise I don't plan to die."
"If you die, I am so gonna hurt you," she threatened.
He hoped that, if Sanar was right, Krista wouldn't see his death.
Miko raised an eyebrow as Krista started rolling out her bedroll next to his. "Um, Krista?" he said.
"I'm not sleeping next to the married couples, or the girl who gets nightmares, or the lovesick puppy. And I don't like being alone in the dark, in a strange place, and you're liable to get yourself killed during the night if I'm not around. I'm sleeping here."
"So, basically, you want to keep me safe so your brothers can put me in the hospital when we get back?"
She looked up at him as she lay down. Her blond hair spilled loose over her pillow, and the glowlight in the centre of the camp made her eyes gleam. "I thought you said you could handle my brothers."
"'Can' and 'want to' are two entirely different things."
"Well, as long as you can," she said, with a bright smile he could make out even in the darkness. He told himself that was all he noticed about the young woman lying next to him.
"Goodnight, Kris."
She turned on her side to look at him. "G'night, Miko."
Eventually, despite Sanar's troubling insinuation, Miko's breathing slowed in slumber. Krista, however, couldn't sleep. Her eyes remained on Miko, and they moved only to check on noises.
She had lost too many people—her parents, friends, colleagues…. She just couldn't do it again. When it came to choosing between leaving and being left, Krista would always choose the first. She had gotten very good at having fun times with beings, and then walking away before the relationship had any depth.
There were exceptions, of course. Jaina, for example: the two girls had been friends before the war, and Jaina had refused to let Krista run. Still, she was more of a trusted, favourite acquaintance than a friend. Zekk, through his involvement with Jaina and then GF Intelligence, not to mention Krista's once-crush, could be counted on to know something about Krista as well. Her brothers, of course, were inescapable, and completely resistant to the idea of Krista being an adult.
But Miko…Miko had been an accident. An accident of speeder crash proportions, and one she had barely even noticed, at first. As she always did with guys, she had flirted with him in the beginning. When he hadn't responded, however, Krista had backed off. Now, of course, she realized that without her flirting, she had become a great deal more real with Miko than anyone else. Time spent together in close quarters, alone and on missions, had encouraged a bond between them.
Miko had been a ship crash into her defences, and now she doubted she could stand him leaving her forever, too. Anyone who wanted to hurt Miko would have to come through her.
And if that meant she became the one who didn't leave NLY? Krista could deal with that.
Just as long as she didn't lose Miko.
Krista closed her eyes, and tried to sleep. Eventually, she succeeded.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Please R&R!
.Tjz