Brothers

Posted on Thu May 14th, 2020 @ 2:26pm by Thane & Amare

2,370 words; about a 12 minute read

Chapter: Chapter VI: The Last Bastion
Location: Cockpit, Red Raptor (At Hyperspeed)
Timeline: End of Week Four, after "Commitment"

OLD

"I am in your debt, thank you so much," Amare said with her deepest gratitude and a low respectful bow of her head, now feeling even more sorry for treating Bomoor as unfairly as she did recently. "I promise this will not take long, masters. My brother is a good maintenance tech. He can earn his keep here until we have time to bring him home to Glee Anselm."

"There is no debt," Thane assured his apprentice, deactivating the central display, appearing satisfied with the unexpected progression of their informal crew meeting. He withdrew a datacard from the terminal and concealed it within his grey robes, along with removing other paraphernalia regarding their original plan, awaiting Amare's further explanations.

...

"I will set the navicomp for Quesh," Amare said to Thane and Bomoor with a gentle smile as she left for the door. When it opened, G2 was there. "Oh, G2! I almost stepped on you," Amare said to the little droid. "Please excuse me, my friend." She stepped around the droid and strolled to the cockpit, a great emotional weight already starting to lift itself from her shoulders.

NEW

After the conclusion of his and Bomoor's transmission, Thane made his way to the cockpit, where Amare was still sat in the pilot's chair. The Raptor was in hyperspace, the miasmic cerulean swirls of the mysterious dimensional plane of interstellar travel dominating the view beyond the windows, leaving Alba and the Alliance far behind them.

Thane settled himself into the co-pilot's chair but did not regard any of the instruments. He and Bomoor had developed a firm faith in the Nautolan's talents for piloting in their time together, as proven by both her time away on Lorrd and during their excursions together since, but rarely did they sit together during their flights between worlds in the cockpit.

"What do you expect to happen when we get there?" He asked his apprentice, although not as her master. Considering what she had asked, and the objective they now had, it was hard to not regard the young woman as Zaracoda, dedicated in her search for her prodigal brother - a culmination of many dreams, should she be successful.

"If they are open to talking, then we will negotiate," Amare answered, her eyes turning from the control console to her master who, much to her delight, was approaching her like a close friend rather than a powerful Lord. "If not, then we'll punish them and collect the bounties. If they hurt my brother in any way, I will spare them no mercy. And regardless of what they choose, I will not leave without their captain's head."

"I don't mean with the pirates," Thane replied, waving his hand a little dismissively. "They are immaterial; negotiations will be unnecessary, I suspect, and we can dispense with their lives." He looked at her a little more intently, with emotional meaning. "I mean with your brother. It has been a long time. People change." He shifted a little in his chair, leaning a little closer. "You've changed."

The apprentice nodded solemnly and let her forlorn gaze fall to the floor for a second. "Yes..." her voice trailed off a bit as she slowly rose from the pilot's seat. "...much has changed, and yet..." She stepped around her chair and leaned against its back with arms crossed on her chest, lost in thought with an emotional sigh. "...Every day; every trial I've faced; every moment I came close to death; I often thought of him; where he was; wondering if he could ever forgive me for shooting father to save mother, only to lose her anyway."

Tears began to slip from Amare's eyes as she fought a hard emotional battle within to hold back her childish need to express her most pathetic feelings. "To know that he has been with those rotten pirates all this time...it shatters me to think how he could still be suffering as their slave for nearly six years, but I saw it...I saw the pictures. Contrarian's contact had a probe droid that caught images of the building, and my brother was there in the hangar along with a few of the kids we were captured with, now all adults..." She shook her head as the silence started to hang over them accented with the ambient hum of the ship's hyperdrive. "Haa...here I go again, prattling on again about me, me, me. I'm sorry. My emotional filter gets a bit thin sometimes."

Thane had sat back in the chair as Amare laid bare her feelings on the matter, which were apparent both physically and through the esoteric power of the Force. He, conversely, had retreated in the Force, allowing only his expressions and words to be detectable by his apprentice. Whilst he had crossed his arms briefly, they came apart, and he looked to almost be ready to reach out to her. He stopped before closing any real distance.

"You are young," he said softly, leaning forward again, ensuring eye contact was made, "and the dark side is a tempestuous mistress, forcing emotions to the fore. More and besides, the loss of one's own family, to slavery and suffering even more than death, is the kind of grim phantom that will stalk you ceaselessly, until it can be killed or brought to heel. We have a long road to perfection ahead of us, Amare. Me as much as you. And..."

Her master paused for a second, mouth slightly agape as whatever he was going to say was caught or lost. His eyes appeared more naturally blue than she often glimpsed them, and they were narrowing in contemplation, searching the aquatic lense of Amare's for some unknown purpose. Finally, Thane spoke again.

"And I understand. When Axion attacked my home as a child, he killed nearly everyone I knew, and many even went missing." The Human paused, but did not break eye contact with Amare. "I was hiding, watching as Axion murdered my father's closest friend. I was cowering as they maimed my father and they dragged my mother and Ventul from the keep." Although his voice did not quite break, Thane's throat could be seen to be clenching, his jaw shifting as he contained some deep emotion. "My little brother," he added, now casting his gaze sideways just briefly, "and I did nothing as they took him."

The profound revelation of Thane's innermost truth struck Amare, her lips parted, her soft whispered gasp audible enough for the human's ears to draw sensation from. Her head tilted slightly to the left and her smooth brows arched up with parallel creases of deep concern running down to her button nose. This was her first reward that transcended the realm of the material and of the Force itself: the unblemished truth of a great man with a good soul mantled with the dark phantom of vengeance poisoning his heart.

As if Thane's words had summoned the very tides of time itself, the Nautolan's mind found itself engulfed for just a second by the currents of recent history, although the feeling seemed to last much longer. She felt that moment again from Darth Cabal's lair on Vaa...the moment the Force flowed through her and used her to save her friend's life.

She moved a bit closer to him, not as Coda or Amare, but simply as one of two luminous beings in the room molded by the Force with purpose and destiny, momentarily devoid of the pretense of identity or the burden of ancient titles. She knelt to one knee beside him, her natural empathy reminding her of how she felt for him on Vaa, how she would always feel for the one called Thane. It wasn't mere compassion or a fleeting moment of love, but something far greater and eternal...it was time...the right time...the right place...she was where she needed to be then just as she was now.

"I can see now what I felt in that cave on Vaa," she gently spoke to him. "The scars within. I see yours deep within your eyes, a testament drifting through them like the eyes of a Nautolan. The pain in them...it makes you strong. It pushes you to go further than you ever thought you could...for the brother you lost...for the one you gained...for what's right and decent." Her left hand slowly reached up to touch the right half of Thane's face, but stopped short and drew away, an impulse within holding her back, reminding her that she was above such meager gestures of affection. "I will never forget this face," she promised, "this moment, this truth. It's the greatest gift you've ever given me."

Thane returned her focus gaze back to her, silent as his eyes remained trained on hers, searching and curious. They only deviated as he turned his attention just briefly to her withdrawing hand, which he took in the cup of his and placed it against the side of his face, the warmth of his skin palpable through her palm. As the contact was made, the young Sith Lord let a little air escape his mouth, and a depth of swelling emotion could be felt radiating through his person; pain, rage and pride, both aged and fresh, flurried within him, laid bare for the younger Force user to observe.

It was a revelation of pure truth; it was Thane's feelings made manifest and tangible, as much as was possible without words, as he allowed himself to be more plainly seen within the ethereal realm, enhanced by the physical connection between them. A thinly-veiled rage that had haunted Thane since his youngest years with the Jedi, even now barely-restrained through his training and dedication, bubbled ever louder, as images and moments flashed between them. The last memory of the lost brother, the glimpse of an older sister betrayed, flashes of a golden saber, and the lie told to his true brother, still being lived - and a confused medley of emotions felt for the young Nautolan herself, ambivalent and twisted, mired in the troubled psyche of a man raised by Jedi and latterly turned to Sith, barely older than Amare.

"I know it is not the way of the Sith to feel like this," she said softly to him, nervousness causing the outer protective membranes of her aquatic eyes to quiver ever so subtly as she gazed up longingly at him, "but...I want to help you. It's not about kindness, but strength. Our religion says that 'through victory our chains are broken'. I believe so much in those words. When I wake each morning, I recite the Code before I open my eyes. Yet, I cannot help fearing to be chained again by the ways of the ones that came before. Tell me, master, is there anything that forbids me from swearing my undying loyalty to you? Is there anything about being Sith that forbids us from... from..." she exhaled in exasperation and turned away.

She was unable to allow herself to say what she felt, embarrassed and afraid of drawing his wrath again from another display of weakness and pretentiousness. She cursed herself inwardly for allowing her pitiful words to travel so far as they did. She mentally braced herself for the anticipated rebuke of her conduct unbecoming a Sith.

Thane had looked at Amare expectantly, waiting on whatever the next words were going to be from the woman. When they did not come, there was a slight hint of disappointment, which was still evident through the Force connection, and he opened his mouth to speak. As before, though, he closed it again. Instead, he raised his other hand and placed it on her cheek, and very gently ran his thumb over the contour of her face.

"I... we..." He tried to begin, examining her face, regarding it in a way she had not really seen from him before. Eventually, the image of confusion that had begun to take shape, a reflection of the warring and unfamiliar feelings she could sense from him, was replaced with a soft smile. And he leaned in and gently, quickly kissed her forehead.

And, just as quickly, he withdrew from her, both physically and through the Force.

The former Jedi Knight rose from his chair and began to pace towards the door, pausing just briefly at the threshold. "We will find you closure on your brother," he said, looking back just briefly. "I can swear that to you, at least." And he walked away into the ship.

Not watching him leave, Amare remained motionless beside the co-pilot's chair. She could still perceive his scent, and her head tresses could pick up on his trace pheromones left behind fading from the air, teasing her senses and filling her with the torment of wanting someone she could not have. Once, Thane had been a man who would have been willing to fulfill her desires, but Thane had been reduced to a mere shell of a thing, a mask for whom there was no room for love in the ruthless pursuit of power.

Amare slowly rose up to her feet and stared heavily through the cockpit window into the swirling blue and white maelstrom of hyperspace, the vortex ahead reflecting from her alien eyes as if the infinite mystery and power of hyperspace were surging through her. Each time she gazed at the faster-than-light tunnel, she was reminded of what she really was: a killer, not a lover. Somewhere out there were the remains of a Rift Jedi Master, the first warrior of the light she ever slew, his body fed into the void.

Somewhere deep inside, she could hear the heartbroken cries of her withering embodiment of compassion, that twit called Zaracoda.

"Shhh..." Amare gently said quietly to herself. "Shelve your sorrow, Zara. Soon, we will pluck Capo from his misery, and there will be boundless joy and relief for us. We've come this far and survived the impossible more than once. Hold on just a bit longer. When it's done, there will be a reason for us to smile again. You'll see..."

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