Chapter 190: Twisted Ways
Faban Sunrunner sat silently at his home on Alraxia, far from the Palace, thankfully. He was still very annoyed with what had occurred, but they were larger and more important matters to tend to. It had taken much talking with the Dark Council, such a stupid name, but for some reason they wouldn’t change it, but he finally gave in and had worked out a way for a landing to occur. It should have already happened by now, but he was still nervous about it. Nervous despite everything he knew. But risks had to be taken if he was to keep the Empire out of that child’s hands. She would do no good for any of them.
And that should have been the hard work.
But, typically, more mundane matters were the ones making everything complicated. And, as usual in the last few days, it was Kato. Yes, she would make a good, strong Empress, but it seemed like the simplest and most foolish things were affecting her better judgement lately. At first, she’d just screamed at him about Marix’s returning. Faban just let her scream and scream until she finally realized that, in the end, it didn’t effect anything.
And then came the topic that he’d been waiting for. Kato asked about her link with the young man. Faban assured her that everything had been completed, and after convincing her to calm down and just allow herself to feel, Kato smiled and finally stopped babbling on with the complaints.
So the boy would live. He had to. If not for Kato’s selfishness, than for the small piece of information that Faban had uncovered. It was something he had not told Kato, however, and something he didn’t plan to tell anyone until it was confirmed. He needed to check a few more records, and then report it to the Empress. Such a cool irony to have her give the final comfirmation.
* * * *
Neither Shadow nor Akan spoke at all on the way back to the palace or even for hours after they arrived. Though night had fallen, it was still far too early to sleep, which would have been an easy escape. So instead, they both sat in their room. Akan on the bed, idly fidgeting and thinking to himself and Shadow in a chair on the other side of the room, sharpening a small, metal dagger. She had pulled it from a miniature ‘armory’ hidden in her closet. Despite everything, they refused to go anywhere without the other. It was too dangerous. With both of them together, there was someone else there to agree that what might have happened had not actually happened...but if only one of them was there...the possibilities were dangerous.
Of course, the silence was doing no good but making Akan think more. His mind hadn’t stopped racing and, from the look on Shadow’s face, neither had her’s. At least it was even. But it was getting late, and ever since they’d gotten back they’d just been sitting in the room like this. Taking a deep breath, he attempted yet again to voice a simple thing that probably didn’t even need to be mentioned in the first place.
This time, though, his voice actually worked, even if it was barely above a croaked whisper, “Um...I...I’m...um...hungry...shouldn’t we go eat or something?”
Distantly hearing him mention something about hunger, Shadow stopped what she was doing and said calmly, “Food is good.”
She then got to her feet, carefully examining the dagger before sheathing it and placing it on her belt. It was time to prove she could wear a weapon openly...especially around her family. Looking over to Akan as he also stood up, she added, “I think we’ve missed the actual meal, but if we beg at the kitchen I think we can get something.”
As one, they hurried to the door. Somehow, though, Akan was there faster, and in her haste, Shadow nearly slammed into him. She quickly backed up to avoid it, but instead tripped over the chair behind her. She yelped involuntarily, and Akan instinctively spun around to catch her. Of course, Shadow batted his arms away and hit the floor hard.
Grumbling a curse, she got to her feet, dusted herself off, then led the way out of the room and off to the kitchen. Their walk down the hallways was not without incident, though. They passed an Alraxian woman who, upon seeing them, smiled and said something in Alraxian that Akan didn’t understand. But Shadow’s scowl showed that she knew what had been said, as did the fact that she reached back and grabbed Akan’s arm. She then swiftly dragged him along as fast as she could.
But of course, that was still the easy part. The hard part was very literally hard, as Shadow rounded a corner too tightly and dragged him straight into a wall. He yelped, whimpered, and that got them even more attention and grins. Grumbling something about him being useless, Shadow slowed down but finally got them to the kitchen. After a few more minutes, they convinced the cooks to make them some food, and it wasn’t long before they were sitting next to each other, silently eating.
The silence didn’t last long, though, especially considering that there was a question begging to be asked. Akan waited until he’d finished one of the very good tasting pieces of meat before asking it, “...what were they saying?”
When she coughed and nearly choked on some vegetable, it was really all the answer Akan needed, not to mention all that Shadow was going to give before slowly and calmly going back to her food. Akan sighed and just went back to his own plate. But there was something else. Something in a familiar place that did not in any way feel familiar. It had been there since Shadow had first disappeared when they’d arrived at the Palace. It was the link. It had to be...he could only describe it as a certain spot in his mind dedicated to the link itself.
It had faded away for a time, and then was slowly growing...yet he felt nothing from Shadow. He was sure of that now...after...after...after nothing had happened. But there was something. Something different and odd and...altogether wrong. He had gotten so very used to Shadow’s mind being almost literally half of his, that anything else felt like a sickening attachment. And the feeling was growing.
And then the Force had its fun with the universe, because at that moment, Kato strode in. She looked to Akan and smiled as she passed, and then returned a few moments later with food of her own. Calmly, she had a seat on the other side of Akan, sitting close enough that she was shoulder to shoulder with him. With a smile on her face, she said softly, “Good evening, Jedi Boy.”
After the last two words, a low growl could be heard on the other side of Akan from Shadow. But Kato just ignored her, raising an eyebrow at Akan’s lack of noticeable reaction, “You are alright? You seem...unhappy.”
Akan felt something odd, which caused him to hesitate. The hesitation lasted long enough that Shadow had frozen, wondering why he wasn’t saying anything and just sitting there blankly. She was as relieved as Akan was when he managed to find his voice and firmly state, “I’m fine.”
He then shifted and move to sit closer to Shadow, doing his absolute best not to glance over at Kato. Doing his best not to...not to what?! Why had he even hesitated a moment ago? What was wrong with him?! And what were those...not those, that feeling. That sickeningly close feeling that was wracking through his mind. In a second, his eyes widened as he realized what the source of the problem was.
It hit him in a moment and he was even more disgusted than he had been before. Just when things were working out, one more thing had to go horribly wrong...the galaxy just had to find new ways to collapse in on him. It took every ounce of willpower that Akan had left to not tear Kato apart. But even if he hadn’t fought against that, he was too sickened to move.
Shadow was staring blankly at him, though not able to feel him through their link, the Force gave insight to the pain. His eyes found her’s and she didn’t even have to ask the stupid ‘what’s wrong?’ question. It took a moment for her to get the answer to the question that didn’t need to be asked, and Akan’s voice came out hoarse and sounding as if he’d been punched hard in the stomach, “The link...I know what’s happened to it...Kato...”
He trailed off, unable to continue without feeling even more so like he was going to be sick. But it was all that needed to be said. Immediately, Shadow put the pieces together and knew exactly what he meant. In a second, she was up on her feet, pushing Akan away from Kato and drawing her dagger in the same motion.
As the metal blade hung in the air only centimeters from Kato’s face, Shadow snarled, “You foul, twisted...”
Surprised at her cousin’s sudden reaction, she drew back slightly and snarled back, a glare in her once soft eyes, “You dare call me twisted?!”
“I’m not the one who learned to speak Trade to seduce someone else’s mate!” Shadow yelled at the top of her lungs, taking a full step forward so that the large dagger was once again in front of Kato’s face.
A look of panic washed through Kato’s eyes for a half second, but then she growled an order. And old one that might have worked a day ago. But when Shadow only twitched, Kato went pale. At that, Shadow could only smile a cruel smile, “That will not work on me now, cousin.”
Slowly, Kato got to her feet, with Shadow’s metal blade following her all the way up. They stood eye to eye, and though Kato was still pale coloured, she held Shadow’s glare and said firmly, “Then at least fight me hand to hand.”
“You aren’t worth it!” Shadow snapped, inching the blade just slightly closer, enough to be almost touching the pretty faced Kato’s soft cheek, “I could drive this blade into you and no one could do anything about it now!”
“You would gain your freedom and lose your honour?” Kato asked quickly and angrily, her body tense and ready for anything.
But Shadow only responded by slashing across Kato’s cheek with the blade, slicing a long and deep cut before she jammed the dagger hard into the table. Kato didn’t whimper, but obviously was in pain from the way she winced, though even Shadow was surprised that Kato let the blue blood continue to run down her face. But when the metal was gone, Kato started moving.
She lashed out with a fist to Shadow’s face, which was caught, and Shadow then swiftly broke Kato’s hand with a very loud crack that echoed through the room. Kato cried out in pain, but didn’t give up. She pulled back slightly, just enough to give her room to kick at Shadow. But even though Kato was fast, Shadow was faster. She caught her cousins’ foot, broke that, too, and then pushed Kato off to the ground. The lilac haired Alraxian hit the ground with both a thud and a cry, and in a second more sounds joined.
The guards had come, and with them, Shadow’s brother Gawain, who growled across the room to her, “No fighting here, scum!”
But by now, Akan had gotten himself composed. Seeing Shadow harming Kato helped in a twisted way. And seeing Gawain was moving towards Shadow with a glare in his eyes, Akan got to his feet, ripped the dagger out of the table, and threw it. It didn’t hit Gawain, but it flew past his nose only millimeters away before sticking into the wall behind him. That made him freeze, as with the rest of the guards who were suddenly looking both to Akan and Shadow.
There was a stand off, with the only noise Kato’s whimpering on the floor. And then another person entered the room...Alyx, Marix’s twin. He looked around in horror, and quickly caught onto the situation. Immediately, he called to his sister, “Come on...you know you can’t fight her here!”
Shadow looked past all of the guards to her twin, then back to the squirming Kato. She could fight, but she had not been trained to morph, it seemed. When Shadow nodded, all of the guards and Gawain took a single step forward. At this, she snarled at them all, “You have no reason to detain me. Go about your duties, now!”
She reached out with the Force and the small dagger wrenched itself out of the wall and flew back across the room(nearly hitting Gawain in the head again) before landing easily in Shadow’s grip. For a moment, everyone hesitated, not know what she was going to do. When she sheathed the blade, much of the new tension left the room. Shadow then turned to look to Akan, who was standing behind her still looking stunned and confused.
Ignoring the guards that were now slowly and carefully approaching, Shadow knelt down next to Kato and lifted up her cousin by the throat. Holding her there a moment before asking venomously, “What did you do to my link?! How do I get it back?! Must I kill you? Because I’m going to find a way to kill you one way or another!”
Kato gasped and croaked out a series of non-words, unable to breathe in Shadow’s firm grip. When she passed out, Shadow snarled and let her cousin drop back to the floor. Disgusted, Shadow got back to her feet and growled, “Filth.”
Then she walked over to Akan and carefully helped him to sit down again. The guards were still approaching, but no longer her and Akan...but Kato. That was a first...though it didn’t matter to her. She carefully sat next to him and did the only thing she could think of to help reassure him by resting a hand gently on his shoulder. Shadow didn’t know what to say. Their link was naturally between the two of them...to have it ripped away and given to someone else was something that was simply not done. Yes, it was possible, but it was also painful and wrong. Like attaching the limb of a Wookie to the body of a Human. It was wrong, and the body itself would attempt to reject it...but in the case of rejecting a link, death was the only result.
Shadow silently prayed for a way to make things right.
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