Private A Murder of Crows

[Ginnie Dib]

“Did you have to mention it before I got a chance to tell your Daddy? Kad…” Ginnie shook her head and leaned against the side of the house, hands on the scarf keeping her tight natural curls from becoming a puff. Fingers slid down her forehead, over her mouth. Breathe, Gin’ika… breathe. “I don’t see why he would… Rhae-Rhae… your cousins William and Jia, they… William is dead. Jia is some form of spiritual Kad I don’t know. Dib-thing punishing the unworthy, spitting in soup I don’t know… but William, he… Derek’ll take that hard. He fulfilled his promise to get your Dad back, but it cost him his son… aaand Rhae-Rhae ran off… right. Hungry son, eat a planet if he’s not fed bacon…”

Off Rhae-Rhae went toward the bacon and their catastrophic kitchen. Ginnie sighed and shook her head, a slight smile coming back. He was such a happy kid. Yet, like all things Dib, there was guilt there, too.

“Coming! Can’t live without the bacon!” She trotted off after Rhae-Rhae, entering the smouldering kitchen in time to see Rhaegar help Amma up from the floor. The table again… dang if she hadn’t alchemized glass for that table there were years she’d never see her daughter but for Amma being under it.

Ginnie’s lungs twisted in a knot. The only person capable of getting Amma out from under that table prior to today wasn’t there. Derek…

“Breakfast time!” Ginnie pulled the heat from a still smouldering chair until it was safe to sit down, and dove into the refridge for drinks. “C’mon, c’mon, c’mon we’re hungry!”

Her eyes trailed Rhaegar’s arm up to the stranger’s face he inhabited. Lips curled up in a smirk. She walked to Rhaegar, and shoved him onto the chair, hand firm on his chest. Without a care as to what the kids would think, Ginnie sat across Rhaegar’s lap, and tucked her head onto his shoulder. Two bacon muffins floated to them, with a twist from Ginnie’s fingers.

Rhaegar Dib II Rhaegar Nemesis Dib

 

[Amma Dib]

Did… did her father… cry? The table steamed, and Amma cuddled into her father’s back, still coming down from the frustrations and emotions which destroyed their kitchen.

Again.

“Then… I have a lot of something that’s not necessarily a bad thing. And I really really want to see RhaeRhae and ba’vodu Muad get their comeuppance once in a while.” Amma rubbed her eyes, holding tight to her father’s arm. He was as warm as she wanted to remember from her lacking childhood, a link to life she didn’t see prior.

“Daddy? I’ve never really seen her smile. Not really.” The way he spoke made Amma hopeful that maybe there was a link of truth. “I don’t feel very powerful.”

Amma’s eyes clamped shut as he kissed her forehead, a moment of paternal affection all their own. And despite how bad it sounded in her perfectly prepared head, Amma was glad RhaeRhae missed it. Glad her twin didn’t share in this one moment between her progenitor and her. Like making stim-caf in the early morning before the rest of the household got up.

“Good, ‘cause otherwise I’d’ve tried anyway and probably confused myself until deciding emotions suck and ought to be destroyed… or something. You know, steady.” Rhaegar’s laugh originally made his daughter wince, hugging into his arm as a cascade of green sparks flung harmlessly around the underside of the table.

The wince, and attempt at controlled calm faded for a nervous giggle, then full grinning laughter as she took her father’s hand. She popped up from under the table as Ginnie walked in, tossing her arms around her father’s chest one more time to look up at his scruffy chin.

“Yeah. Sounds bang on the whole Dibaliciousness thing… or whatever.” Blinking a few times, Amma startled.

“Wait… remodel ideas!?” She skittered away from her father and staggered into the middle of the charred kitchen. “I’ll get my binder! It’s colour coded by material, cost and design style!”

Off she ran, halfway down the hall to her bedroom before Amma skittered to a halt, turned back around, and rushed back into the kitchen.

“Breakfast! Breakfast, we… we need breakfast and… and…. awwwwww my parents look adorable and it’s… wow. Buir can… since when does Buir ever look cute, RhaeRhae? Has Buir been body snatched?” Amma flumped down into a chair, and reached for the muffins. At least she could eat.

Rhaegar Dib II Rhaegar Nemesis Dib

 

[Rhaegar Nemesis Dib]

Ginnie Dib Amma Dib Rhaegar Dib II

The perfection within an imperfect moment. Soot covered surfaces of the kitchen, charred remains where the flame consumed items, and a smoky scent filled the air. One child stormed away in shameful anger while another skipped off to collect ideas of correcting primal power. And his wife was most likely still in the throes of disbelief at the absurd possibility of having a family made whole. And then there was himself, trapped in a form not his own with limitations that he had yet to ascertain. Amidst the emotional maelstrom of his family.

Yes, he could see the diamond in the rough.

A small smile danced upon his lips, the physical manifestation of the emotional bliss that threatened to overtake him, again that is. Watching Amma skip off reasserted the fact that, even though the twins had completed their Verd'gotten, his children were still in the embrace of childhood. A childhood that was rapidly receding but still their childhood. And because of Ginnie, Muad, and Derek he had this chance to be a tangible part of their lives.

He owed them all more than he could hope to ever repay.

His son entered and slipped into one of the less damaged chairs to stare at the glass top of the table. Rhaegar could feel little Rhae watching him from the reflection in a gaze somewhere betwixt wondering curiosity and thinly veiled frustrated anger. He well understood that he had earned such feelings from both of the twins and he would be whatever they needed him to be. And at this moment what Rhae needed was a father who remained unaware of the scrutiny. Soon they would have time to speak, father to son and man to man, but the timing was not right. Not yet.

Rhaegar turned his head as Gin'ika entered and stalked forward at him. A body still unfamiliar tensed for a fraction of a second before being brought under control. His mind saw the familiar approach of a predator and the new form nearly reacted without thought. He would need to establish the strength and weakness afforded by the form. And then he was shoved back into a chair. Eyes sparked with internal flame as his riduur slipped into his lap curling into his torso to lay her head upon his shoulder.

Mightily he stirred. An ache of wholeness filling the vastness that echoed within for so long now fulfilled casting off the void that death had created. And not just in him. Smiling at Amma's words he looked into his riduur's eyes even as he caught the muffin in the air.

"The Manda has nothing on this moment."

 

[Rhaegar Dib II]

Rhaegar Nemesis Dib Amma Dib Ginnie Dib

The thought of food for once wasn't what initiated his retreat to the kitchen. Course it didn't hurt that his buir assumed it was his ravenous appetite and bottomless stomach that prompted him to flee back to the kitchen. Flopping into the chair he glared at the glass.

In the reflection he watched his father with growing irritation. Of course he comes back now. He didn't have to be around when he and his sister were kids. And now that they were grown he miraculously comes back. And of course Amma is right there shoved up his shebs. Always looking for attention and needing someone to acknowledge her worth. He didn't need anyone to validate his existence. And off runs Amma.

Staring at his father in the reflection of the table wondered how truthful the takes of Nemesis Nemonus truly were. And who cares that he's back, he wasn't the man of the house anymore. He wasn't needed here so why won't he just go.

Rhae clenched his jaw as his mom went and sat on his DNA donor. And not even the same DNA anymore. Whatever this was supposed to be, he wasn't going to be part of it. He didn't need Rhaegar. He pushed away from the table.

"I'll be back, have to hit the head."

Quickly he slipped out ignoring Amma and her bubbly words and emotions. Down the hall he went I to his room and closed the door before grabbing his boots and pulling them on. As he went out his window he shrugged on a jacket and trotted to his swoop bike.

Moments later all that remained was a trail of dust.

From the yard Malek headed out on one of the speeder bikes as Jerek sent a message to Ginnie's comm. "Rhae is out on the swoop. Malek is following at a distance out of range. Out."

 

[Ginnie Dib]

“And we can do this neat… hey!” Amma clasped her design book to her chest, as RhaeRhae pushed by, blinking at his exit. “But… bacon.”

“Nothing at all, Rhaegar. It’s got nothing on this.” Ginnie nibbled at her muffin, not quite saying how well Amma and Rhaegar did at their baking. Didn’t need to be said, or maybe for Amma’s sake it did, but for the moment Gwyndolyn Dib didn’t care. For the first time since her belly was larger than her ability to climb ladders, Ginnie’s family were all present and alive.

Even if for a second it looked like she’d need to smack the unholy wraith out of Rhaegar to quiet the predatory glimmer in his eyes. The perfect moment slid away, RhaeRhae’s emotions as roiling and pronounced as a Krayt Dragon in a freight elevator.

Theeeere it was. The Dib in RhaeRhae reared up. Couldn’t let a moment stand in peace and joy and cuddles but for the urge to tromp off and keep up the malaise.

And now the boy was gone. Kad, if only they’d had two daughters… wait… nevermind. Two daughters would be far worse than sons.

“Just like his Daddy.” Ginnie shook her head, leaned up and kissed Rhaegar with the hunger of the woefully abstinent. “Stay here, love. And later, I’ve gotta… We’ve… there’s something to catch you up on.”

Dusting off, Ginnie cracked her neck to either side of her shoulders and trotted out to the garden.

“Heard, Marek. I’ll be on your six in about three seconds… whoo make it seven.” Muscles coiled, Ginnie felt the Force of the planet around them, the way the ground undulated between Ginnie and the receding RhaeRhae. Without a few seconds of foresight, what came next was bound toward a much more embarrassing disaster than RhaeRhae running off because Daddy missed sixteen of his birthdays.

The route took her on a collision course with her son. Ginnie burst in supernatural speed, remembering that all important breathing thing as she did so.

She passed Marek in nine seconds, not that Ginnie dared count when it’d been a few dozen moons since she’d been sober enough to force run in any direction but the loo. RhaeRhae’s swoop bike came into her sights, and Ginnie doubled into her run, skidding in front of the bike in time to snatch RhaeRhae by the jacket collar off the damn thing.

It skittered to a spinning halt several hundred metres from their position, mother standing over her son, holding onto the collar of his jacket.

“What… whoo huff okay haven’t done that in a while… what is your malfunction, RhaeRhae!? Your teenaged ‘I don’t need him’ routine couldn’t wait until after bacon? Going out on a bathroom break? Kad Harang, child. We taught you better.” Petite Ginnie Dib began dragging RhaeRhae back toward the house, not giving him an inch to wriggle free. “Git your spiny arse home, young man. You can coward out on the hard emotional family stuff after the hard emotional family stuff. Kad, it’s like you think this is easy for everyone but you. Grow up… put bars on the windows, if it wasn’t the worst parenting idea ever… awwww frak! The walk back’s going to suck, I forgot my muffin.”

Rhaegar Dib II Rhaegar Nemesis Dib

 

[Rhaegar Dib II]

Marek turned his head as the words from Ginnie didn't make sense. Just as his brain put two and two together a flash flew by him causing him to swerve and nearly dump the bike. Leaping off he kicked at a scruff of foliage.

"Motha karking going to give me a heart attack. Jerek I swear by the Manda I'm going to get you for this."

On the other end of the line Jerek howled with laughter, both at his brother and at how Rhae got plucked off the bike like a cub by the scruff of his neck. He lowered the high powered scope from his eye and secured it to the rifle, a whistle on his lips.

Inside Rhaegar watched his wife saunter out, a saying slipping from his lips.

"Hate to see you go. Love to watch you leave."

He still wore the predatory look as Gin'ika left the room. Leaning back in his chair he blinked several times. There was something off. Not just with the body, which was obviously a given, but with him. He was a bit more emotionally unhinged. His instincts warred with calm and careful versus immediate action. The cold and pristine was fractured with emotion and reaction.

There was something wrong.

His eyes closed as he breathed deeply, feeling his pulse slow. And then exhale. Inhale. And exhale. His eyes opened with pulse, emotion, and errant thought once more under control. The knowledge that he needed to find out more about his new circumstances was never more blatantly glaring. But for now there was breakfast.

Turning back to Amma he pushed his chair over next to her and reached out taking a single slice of bacon to crunch with a bite. Arching a brow he nodded to the book his daughter held in her arms as he slowly chewed the food and swallowed.

"Are you planning on showing me Sparky?"

Meanwhile Rhae was yanked off the bike by an unseen force. The deceleration caused him to gasp momentarily before he realized his mum was dragging him by his jacket back home. As her voice rang out a constant peal of derision he decided that was enough. His left hand rose and slapped the strap across his chest, the beskad on his back in the sheath falling free. At the same time he hollowed his chest and folded his legs while extending his arms up.

Dropping straight down he slipped from the sleeves of the jacket, his left hand spinning behind his back to catch the falling sheath while he pivoted on a foot to spin facing his buir. His opposite foot exploded down into the ground driving him up and backwards away from Ginnie left with only his jacket. He gave her a contemptuous look filled with hurt and pain.

"We taught you better? Rhaegar taught sis and me how to be a giant paperweight. Or maybe he taught us how to get out of a house with an overbearing woman in it. And you? Yeah you taught us how to be a drunk who shoved her responsibility off onto ANYONE ELSE!!! You weren't there! Muad, Derek, Jerek, Marek, Skorvek, they were there for us, but not you mom!"

The last word was spat out like a mouth full of poison. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he let out his pent up rage.

"Yes yeah, you are there for us right? Tjen answer me this, MOM, when was the last time you saw me set something on fire? Or move something with my mind? What about any form of telepathy that doesn't have to do with Amma, cause we are twins, or lightning? Huh? It's because I CAN'T!!! How about that mom, I. Can. Not. But yeah, I wasn't a bottle of booze or a new weapon for the forge! You think I was being stupid at my Verd'gotten a few years ago, but it was because ba'vodu knows. He helped me, just a little. And dad? What does a statue have to do with living our lives? And now, he's back. Yay. Too late. And you think you can tell me or Amma what to do? We are grown. We stick around because we FEEL LIKE WE HAVE TO WATCH OVER YOU!!!"

His shoulders sagged and he turned his back on her to slowly walk in the direction of his parents house. He tossed a question over his shoulder without looking, all emotions drained away.

"What family? Muad and Derek ain't here. Adara, Freddie, Tabby, Taru, even Tuuli … they aren't here. So what family are you talking about Ginnie?"

Ginnie Dib Amma Dib

 

[Ginnie Dib]

“Obviously the we was Muad and Derek, and you know it. Mr. Hurty-Pants. Hey, y’haven’t tried to kill me yet, so I still did better than your grandfather. Pulled his plug myself, when I was 13. One tug and the ventilator stopped beeping. And yeah. He deserved it.” Ginnie crossed her arms, flinging the jacket back in RhaeRhae’s face via telekinesis.

“In case you are as naive as your sister, I’ll spell it. The Force ain’t kind to us, baby boy. It either burns your insides out of your body, or you end up like Amma, so scared of her own sniffles she refuses to emotion in case she loses control. She idolizes a man who is allergic to happiness and believes repression saves the universe! As a child I slept under my bed ‘cause I kept lighting it on fire in my sleep. So your grandfather threw me in a metal box at night, couldn’t keep up a fire watch for his deaf eight year old. Couldn’t clothe and feed me either, it was too much like work. And yeah, maybe I am lacking the mothering instinct. But I sure did better with you and Amma than my birth father did for me. Muad and Derek gave us the Fremens to watch over us because I couldn’t hack it alone. Try as I might. Losing your father shattered me in a way decades of abuse never did. So, instead of being the worst person in the universe, I called in the best. Marek, Jerek, Muad… Skor. Derek. I knew I couldn’t handle you and Amma. I couldn’t even hold you without setting your baby clothes on fire, so yeah. They were there for you in a way I couldn’t be. But I did the good thing of asking for their help. So don’t condemn me for needing them to raise you. They were good to us, and they love us. They gave all three of us what I didn’t have.”

Finally the boy who tried to skip every step to freedom was talking. As Ginnie stood there watching her son burst from his carefree facade, all she felt was relief. While a warning played between her and Rhaegar’s connection, Ginnie merely listened. It felt good to hear what really hurt RhaeRhae the most.

“You’re the lucky one, RhaeRhae. The kid I don’t have to fret over every single day. At least with you, I know you’re smart enough and plucky enough to come home, and often in one piece. And I know that you’re good enough at pushing yourself fighting that whatever injuries you do get? I can heal in your sleep so you’re not screaming or your ego isn’t wounded. Yeah. You’re right. I wasn’t the best Mom. I was a drunk who fought so hard with my own demons, only the sound of my forge hammer would drown out the desire to save you by slitting my own throat with my beskad. Lost your father, and bam. Half of me was gone. Other half was calling me home to Manda. Best thing I did do was give you to your uncles, ‘cause I wasn’t here. I wasn’t living in this plane as much as I tried.

I pray. I pray every damn day you don’t get a sudden infilling of Light, or Dark or Dathomiri twisted. All it ever does is burn us until there’s nothing in our lives but ash and dead family. You have a resilience Amma, me, even your uncles will never understand. We need our powers! RhaeRhae, you don’t. You’re such a plucky guy you could run into battle with a toothbrush and conquer ten Sith Lords and their armies of woeful mooks!”

RhaeRhae’s words kept coming, the bottled emotions Ginnie was grateful to survive long enough to hear.

“You think Rhaegar liked being a statue? Locked in one place with no ability to move for a decade? Try it. Thirty seconds, stand straight… like this.” Ginnie raised her hand and used telekinesis to fix RhaeRhae in place, locking his limbs against his trunk. “How easy is it to not go looping nuts, eh? But he kept that up, he stayed locked like that just for the privilege of being able to see your face, Rhae. Your father loves you so much he was ready to be consumed to the pit of Chaos itself for one chance to have breakfast in the same room. And it sucked. You didn’t have an easy upbringing. I’d say I’m sorry, but I did the best I could, by calling in the professionals, when I didn’t have any more strength to struggle with anything more than staying alive. And yeah, you’re right, it wasn’t the best. But when ba’vodu Muad destroyed the statue, he gave me my soul back. That piece which was screaming every second every day to be reunited. It screamed so loud I couldn’t hear you, baby. I worked my backside raw to provide for all of us. To give you those clothes you’re wearing and Amma new furniture every second weekend, because it was the only thing I was capable of doing. Growing up, kids ought to think their parents are indomitable, but you never got to live in that fiction. You were woefully aware we’re all fallen people from the first breath you took. But I’m proud of you. I’m proud of how independent you are, and I know that since the sucky part of your life’s already happened, the rest of it will be the best.

So you can learn to meet us, or you can walk away…. okay so maybe I won’t let you walk away… yeah, no. We’re having breakfast and you are having one serious, and full conversation with your Dad. ‘Cause he’s been dying for sixteen years to meet you, and pissing on him isn’t fair. But punching him for not wearing armour when there’s seventy different suits in every Mando closet is fine too.”

Rhaegar Dib II

 

[Amma Dib]

“Ewwwww. Daaaaaad.” Amma slapped Rhaegar’s shoulder with her sleeve as he mumbled about watching her own alcoholic mother leave. Shaking her head, Amma pulled her heels up on the chair and tugged her arms around them, taking nibbles of her muffin.

Everything was perfect. RhaeRhae had his first meltdown of the day, the kitchen was a wreck, and Uncle Dede wasn’t home, but it was perfectly chaotic in the Dib house. Oh, and Buir wasn’t drunk. The only thing which would make the morning better was Uncle Derek walking in with a crisp slim nod of his head and a sip of his stim-caf.

“Yyyyep! I have a binder for each room in the house, except RhaeRhae’s ‘cause he gets pissy when I redesign his room, and then we usually fight, then his room needs to be redone again and… we go through a lot of building supplies. How’s your carpentry?” Flicking the book open, Amma went to the corresponding tab and pushed to the fourth iteration of this binder’s kitchen designs. “If it’s not great, then Marek can do the dovetailing on the joints, ‘cause he’s gotten really good at it. Marek is awesome, you’ll like him and Jarek. They’ve always been here, since the dawn of time. You know, when you were a soul-statue and Buir was too drunk to remember we were alive… oh… oops.”

Rhaegar Nemesis Dib