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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3535970" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 460: Flashback...FlashforwardIt was terrifying to watch him twisting and turning next to her. He was mumbling things that weren’t words, as far as she could tell, but sometimes real words would slip through and they were worse than the incoherent ones. But then, after nearly an hour of it, he took in a sudden, sharp breath and his blue eyes shot wide open.    Marix slowly reached over and put a hand on his chest, trying to help to slow his breathing as best she could and calm him down. Of course, she didn’t say anything, but that was far from unusual for her.    There were a few long moments as he calmed down, before turning and looking up to where she sat next to him. Somewhat confused at seeing her, from the look on his face at least, Jyren asked, “Shouldn’t you...be asleep?”    An odd smile crossed Marix’s face and she patted his chest gently, “Shouldn’t you?”    At first he just nodded but then sap up a bit, himself. His eyes shifted down from her face a bit and he mumbled, “Yes...but...you...”    Marix rolled her eyes and placed a hand where his eyes had gone, “I am pregnant, Jyren...not stupid. However it is hard to sleep at all when you are panicking...”    A few more deep breaths from Jyren and his breathing finally returned to normal. She was proud of him for that. Maybe he had been listening all these years after all. He then managed to look apologetic, and despite knowing she wouldn’t like it, said, “I’m sorry. Just...just dreams.”    “Usually your dreams don’t last that long,” Marix responded carefully, “And I haven’t seen or felt you that panicked from a dream since Arranis.”    “You still remember that?” he actually looked surprised.    She nodded, “I remember you clung to me like Toby does to you when you woke up.”    “And you said it was just a dream,” Jyren said quietly, more to himself really.    Again, she nodded, then her hand moved up to his shoulder. Through their link, she could feel that while his breathing had calmed, his mind was still racing, “What did you see?”    Jyren lowered his head, his hair clouding his face from her, and did his best to remember without really experiencing it again, “War. I...I think it was Mrrakesh. I don’t know though...something...they were...” he trailed off a moment, then looked her in the eyes while resting a hand on her belly, “They killed our children. I...I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t move. It felt so far away and...and...I couldn’t do anything.”    As he was explaining, some of the images he could remember were slipping through the link to Marix. The images were vague and hard to understand, as dreams normally were, but she could sense the feeling of being unable to get close. It like being trapped and she realized that he couldn’t actually see them...instead, he felt it. Very carefully, she rested her hand on his and squeezed it gently. Sadly, the best thing she could think to say was, “It was a dream, Jyren...just a dream.”    He managed a nod, wanting to believe that and doing his best to agree, then leaned his head back to rest it against the wall behind their bed. Technically, the wall and the bed were connected...but that was how most all of Alraxian furniture was. After watching him sit like that for a few minutes, Marix patted his hand and nudged him slightly through the Force, “C’mon...back to sleep with you. Alyx is going to need your help tommorrow.”    Jyren slid back down to rest his head on the pillow but mumbled, “Yes, mother.”    That got him a not-so-gently kick in the side, but an actual laugh from Marix accompanied that, “Keep that kind of talk up and you can have the floor like you wanted years ago.”    “Awww...” he grinned and then used this opportunity to slide close and rest his head on her shoulder, “I thought you said the floor was for bad little jai like Toby.”    “I did...” she grinned and scratched his ear gently, “And you agreed, so be a good one and get some sleep.”    He didn’t argue. Finally. And, in a few moments, he’d fallen back asleep. Marix didn’t get any sleep that night. She sat awake with Jyren resting against her, keeping an eye on him the rest of the night. She hadn’t been tired anyway. So as he slept, she made sure he didn’t have any more dreams like the one from before, trying to keep as many calming thoughts flowing through the link to help. But in another corner of her mind, well protected from the link, Marix found herself worrying about his dream. Worrying about their unborn twins....and deciding to keep a close eye on the Mrrakesh.    Marix blinked.    There were many times that she hated the Force. It had a habit of stepping in right in the middle of something important and showing you something completely the opposite. Or at least, something important but not really relevant to the immediate situation which was usually quite important in its own right. It didn’t help when it returned you to the current moment to a pair of large, bulbous eyes on an oversized slug that was in the process of what could very well have been sizing her up.    She had never liked Hutts. The slug part was bad enough. Smell came with that, and Alraxians having a good sense of smell made it even worse for her. But, beyond that, they reminded her of the Mrrakesh. Greedy, selfish, and downright untrustworthy. The fact that many seemed to have a thing for slaves never made her very much of a friend to them, either. She had a problem with slavery on the whole, anyway, but as many were dancing girls and other such females it was never easy to face a Hutt like that without wondering if the damned slug would try to capture her in the process.    In fact, it had been tried before.    That Hutt had been killed.    But from the way Gorla was currently eyeing both Marix and the human woman next to her, Venda, she detected that he was seeing something different. Money, perhaps. Then again, Marix couldn’t really tell. Hutts were naturally resilient against the Force and hard to read with more normal methods.    “You have been wandering in places you should not be, little ones,” as Gorla was a younger Hutt, he was actually not that large at all and still able to move with ease under his own power. Also, his voice was not as deep and booming as many of the older members of his species. What surprised Marix the most, however, was that he was speaking in Basic. Many Hutts considered their own language a thing of beauty and wouldn’t think of conversing in anything else, especially Basic.    “You are in a place you should not be,” Marix said with her arms crossed over her chest. She kept her self aware of the room around her. It was a large chamber with Gorla ‘throne’, as it were, at one wall and tables along the others. The center was an open area for speakers, dancers, or whatever there was. All of the walls, the floors, and the ceiling, were well carved stone straight from the cave it was built from. Around them were various members of so many species that Marix didn’t even bother to count...maybe of which were aiming blasters at the two newcomers.    Her comment got a slow laugh from the Hutt. He waved a stubby hand at her and smiled broadly, “Bold statement, Cathar...” Marix ignored this insult, and just decided it wasn’t important that he had no idea what species she was, “...tell me. What are a Jedi and an animal doing down in these tunnels so far from where they should be?”    Marix’s eyes narrowed and she didn’t give Venda a chance to answer, “You made a deal with the Vong, Gorla. I want to know what you’re getting out of that deal.”    Again, Gorla laughed...but this time, most of the spectators did, too. Once he recovered, the Hutt’s smile remained, “Why should I tell you anything?”    This time, Marix smiled. Now she had a plan. Gorla obviously was asking her, in a subtle way, what she had to offer. She then nodded to Venda, “You can have this Jedi in exchange for telling me what I want to know.”    “What?!” Venda yelped when she said this, and to stop her from doing anything else, Marix’s arm shot out and grabbed the smaller human by the back of the neck. Her hand wrapped around and was left in a position to dig her claws right in should the need arise.    As Marix pushed the human woman down to the ground like this, the Hutt laughed yet again, “Jedi are very capable...they do not keep well. And I have no reason to trust that you are not lying to me.”    “She tried to kill me before your men put blasters on both of us,” Marix growled, adding to this by squeezing Venda’s neck tightly and getting a cry out of the woman. With her free hand, Marix pointed to the group that had brought them in, “Ask them.”    Gorla did.    And, somewhat slowly, the six that had caught them acknowledged that it had looked like the Jedi was going to attack Marix.    There was a long few moments where the only sound in the room was Venda’s laboured breathing. Then, finally, Gorla looked Marix in the eye, “I like you, Cathar,” he made a hand motion to the side then two of the larger Trandoshan stepped over to take Venda.    Marix, however, beared her fangs and growled angrily at the both of them, causing the two large lizards to stop and turn to Gorla in surprise. Before anything else could be said, Marix also looked back to the Hutt, “You may like me, Hutt, but I don’t trust you. Answer my questions, then I give you the Jedi.”    When she said ‘Jedi’, Marix gave a good kick to Venda’s spine to make sure she didn’t try anything to make this difficult. It seemed like the kick was perfect, though, as Gorla’s expression changed from angry to that damned smile again.    “I do not trust you, either,” he said in a deeper voice this time, “But you may ask your questions.”</blockquote>

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