Bloodlines

[Randyl Lancaster]

Sunglasses protecting his eyes from most of the sunlight, Randyl stared at the yellow circle in the sky. So beautiful, so strong, giving life to most species in the galaxy, yet so dangerous. Stars were powerful things and he had heard stories of people flying right into them via accidents. Of course, these were the stories he had heard in the orphanage, so he couldn't be sure how true they were.

Alderaan was a nice planet under the Republic's control. And to be honest, he even liked the world. There was nothing bad about it besides the fact that it was ruled by a faction he had a slight discomfort hearing or knowing about.

He thought it ran in the blood. His parents had hated the faction with their hearts, his own cousin -- who had so far been his greatest influence and inspiration -- had left it. He seemed to be one of the few who hadn't joined the Sith yet still didn't want to associate themselves with the Jedi Order.

In fact, he had heard even his own cousin - the second one - had left Jedi to become an independent soul just traveling around and doing what her heart wished. The feeling of freedom was something Randyl understood. He didn't judge the cousin at all.

But loyalty was a huge matter to him in general. One reason why he didn't want to associate him with any huge governments was the fear that one day he'd want to leave the faction and be free again. But most would have thought it was disloyal and something that was not to be tolerated.

Yet... what was the one thing that kept Lancasters from staying isolated or wanting to destroy the Republic? Why were they all so full of hatred?

And who were his parents at all?

 

[Randyl Lancaster]

And suddenly a dark figure blocked the sun's comforting warmth and shine. The man had to remove his glasses; they were just too dark to let him see anything other than the sun itself. And the fact that the person's long hair was rather dark didn't make seeing her any easier, either.

"Randyl," the woman spoke, to which the man replied, "Jasmine."

"What a nice day it is, am I right, my dear cousin?" Jasmine asked as she walked next to the Dark Jedi and sat down on the warm grassy ground right on his right side. She was positive, which the man quite liked about him.

"I think nice is not enough to be said about this beauty. But I shall not fall into deep details and just get to the point," Randyl replied, nearly breaking the girl's hopes of having a really pleasant conversation.

"Right," she continued, looking down at the grass and fearing what was about to come. She had never seen the man before so she had no idea of what to expect from him. She had already started to hate her sister -- who was already dead -- and didn't want to lose another relative after having just found him.

"What do you know about your parents?"

 

[Randyl Lancaster]

Randyl heard his cousin taking a deep breath before answering.

"I would give everything to know anything about them. I have heard numerous theories and I actually thought who were my biological parents until my sister told me the truth that we had been raised by a couple who had no idea who we were. They were drunkards so that they didn't even care," Jasmine talked with a sad tone to her voice. It hurt the man a little bit to hear something like that happening to his own relative.

"Looks like we're quite even," Randyl took over. "I have been left with a few ideas of who my parents were -- they were Sith, that's the only thing I know for sure -- but not much else."

"Why would people conspire against their own children? What were they up do? Do they even live anymore?"

Randyl didn't know how to answer to any of the questions. There seemed to be a wall built between two generations of Lancasters. Older ones didn't let their kids know anything about them, leaving the children to wander alone in the dark and do what they could. It felt like their parents had not even wanted to raise them.

It was actually quite a logical explanation had not the whole generation of children -- not only Randyl or his cousins -- had been abandoned, which made the situation a lot more suspicious.

 

[Randyl Lancaster]

"I don't know how much I can trust what my sister told me," Jasmine spoke, noticeably holding tears back, "but she once said she met our mother one day. She said the woman was incredible, at least by her looks. But as soon as Lilith went to talk to her, she ran away."

The woman sighed.

"Like a game of hide and seek," she continued before bursting into tears.

Randyl didn't know what else to do than to set his right arm around the woman's shoulders and comfort her. He had a feeling like he had had a whole lot better life by so far than his cousins. At least his parents left clues about who they were. It looked like Lilith's and Jasmine's mother and father tried their best not to show themselves to their kids.

"Like a game of hide and seek," the man repeated.

 

[Randyl Lancaster]

After minutes of Jasmine's sobbing and depression, Randyl finally took the courage to continue the discussion.

"How about Lilith? I hear she is dead. How was she?" the man tried to derail the conversation just a little bit to make the cousin feel a little bit better. He had come to acknowledge that the relationship between those two sisters was not the best in the later days of the Sith Lady's life.

"She was a huge sithspit! At least after she left the Jedi Order to perform her fancy magics and whatnot. She lost her faith in peace and didn't care about letting others believe in it, either," Jasmine said. "Of course I loved her, she was the only person I really could rely on in our earlier days, but that was it. We became distant and then finally came to the point where neither of us felt comfortable near each other."

"And don't you feel sad to know she is gone?" Randyl asked as he heard no sign of misery in the woman's voice as she talked about her very sister.

"Well, I do, but... it's just general sadness. It doesn't matter that she was so close to me. It's like just a thing I really liked broke. I got over it quickly."

"Don't you think It's a little bit heartless?"

"Maybe. But it's the Jedi way of action. No loss is worth losing control over your own life."

 

[Randyl Lancaster]

That last statement amazed the man.

"Wow. Jedi are evil," he said, laughing a little bit. "No wonder our family seems to hate them."

But he stopped laughing as he noticed Jasmine's raised eyebrow and his eyes looking at him. It was probably a mistake to say something like that, but he wasn't famous for keeping what he thought inside anyway. It was better to be truthful than really cunning and secretive in her opinion. People tended to get over the truth, but would never apologise had they been lied to.

"Jedi are not evil. All others seem to like personal well-being over the overall greatness. Jedi focus on the good of the galaxy, not on the good of themselves. We don't believe one should focus so much on themselves rather than on people in general."

That was a point the man couldn't argue against. But it still didn't make him change his allegiance.

"And what do you think your sister achieved with changing sides?"

 

[Randyl Lancaster]

Silence.

Randyl couldn't even hear his cousin's breathing anymore, so to ensure she still took air into her lungs, she had to look at her. But her chest seemed to move. Even though her eyes stared into blank nothingness. At least he couldn't tell where they were directed towards. Probably nothing in general -- she seemed to just gaze into the cosmos.

Silence was probably the thing Jasmine needed right then. It was a thoughtful question, one which couldn't be answered so quickly. That's why he didn't rush her to give him the reply.

Although he was getting slightly impatient. Not getting what he wanted was not exactly his thing; never had been.

"She achieved nothing," was the reply Jasmine gave to the man. Nothing else -- no clarifications, explanations, additions. Nothing but that.

"Nothing?" Randyl was shocked.

"When she came to me a little bit before her death, she told me it was all a mistake. She was sorry for what she had done and asked for an apology. I didn't know she was about to die, so I didn't let her have the apology."

She sighed.

"And then she told me she only wanted a better life for me. Always did. And becoming a Sith was just a really bad realization of her ideas."

 

[Randyl Lancaster]

"Sounds like she never stopped caring about you," Randyl spoke after hearing what his cousin said, "unlike you did."

Jasmine looked at the waterfall and bit her lower lip. That was the truth she didn't want to admit. Yes, she had been rather cruel, but it had felt like her own sister had betrayed her. It hurt a lot to know that your own sister could one day fight with you on the battlefield. And that there is no way of making sure she wouldn't kill her.

"I know."

Randyl looked into the distance, right where Jazzy looked. He felt a little bit glad he was the only child to his parents. It meant he didn't have to worry about drama like that. But it also meant he had nobody to rely on.

Which was even a little bit sadder.

 

[Randyl Lancaster]

"I wouldn't actually even imagine a life without her. I mean, she gave me everything she could. Before she succumbed into the evil hand of the mysterious Dark Lord of the One Sith. She was resurrected, but lost all of her memory besides the so-called 'Vision' which all Sith nowadays have to follow," Jasmine continued.

"She turned into a monster?" Randyl asked, trying to get any information about his family he could. Every little detail was valuable in order to find out their family's secret.

Jasmine sighed.

"Yes. Into a mindless soldier. She was married. But after she was resurrected, I hear she felt nothing against her husband. She even hated her own children. It was terrible."

"And then she died again?"

"Well, yeah, after she had come to tell me everything she could. She spoke of having no possibility of returning the memories she had lost -- some kind of Sith magic which didn't let her remember anything about her past, no matter what -- but she had a picture of us two with her. And her sisterly love was stronger than any Sith magic."

A tear built up in her eye.

"So she knew where to find me and what to say. Since she couldn't remember anything about her past, she delved deep into her brain to get any piece of information she had about me and write it on the paper."

She sighed.

"And then when she came to me, she didn't even need the paper anymore."

 

[Randyl Lancaster]

"That's so moving to hear such things. I can't even describe what I think about your relationship. It's like... you hated each other, yet are completely understanding and caring towards each other," Randyl started talking, to which his cousin only nodded. Because she couldn't comment that in any way.

"My life has been boring. I am, at least to my knowledge, the only child to my mother and father, and that means I have not had to deal with such problems or... drama. I don't have to be someone I am not to meet the standards a sibling has set for me."

He looked at Jasmine.

"Yet that also means I have always had to fight alone, make my way in the galaxy with nobody's help."

 

[Randyl Lancaster]

Jasmine took Randyl's sunglasses from the grass, put them on and looked a the sun. She was starting to feel slightly better, but still kind of inferior. She thought maybe the nice touch of sun could help her regain happiness. Even just a little bit.

"I was raised in an orphanage. I had people who cared about me there, but it was nothing like living with my own family. I missed the touch of a mother, the words of a father... I felt too lonely there," Randyl spoke. Now it was his time to confess.

"My parents left me little notes everywhere. They were hidden so that nobody else would find them. And just to be sure, they wrote my name on every single clue they left me."

He chuckled.

"They were simple letters like... "Your mother misses you." or "You are a proud Lancaster." And I liked receiving them. They gave me hope," he explained. "But then they suddenly stopped coming after a suspicious letter which described our family."

 

[Randyl Lancaster]

"What did the letter say?" Jasmine asked. She had swiftly turned herself into a position where she held her hands straight behind her back, leaned to them, leaning her head a little back and looking at the sun. Looked like she was sunbathing.

"I don't remember the exact details, but it talked about Lancasters being a strong family of Sith and Dark Jedi who have a huge detestation for Jedi. It also spoke of you two and various other people of the same age as us."

"So we're not the only ones?"

 

[Randyl Lancaster]

"Nah, most likely not. Although I am not sure if we can trust our parents if they do such things to us," Randyl replied to his cousin's question with a tone of thoughtfulness. He didn't quite believe in much his parents told him via the clues, but some part of him told him they were completely true. It was just the matter of understanding which part of him was right.

"I know of a few things in the galaxy. And one of them is the fact that there is only one person everybody can fully trust. And that's the person himself." She spoke about that with relative ease. Like it was something completely understandable or should have been taken for granted. It was the first time the Dark Jedi didn't agree with the woman.

"You're such a pessimist," he finally replied after a moment of silence. "And I thought I was the one who thought so badly about life."

"Sometimes thinking of the worst case scenario can save you from making a fatal mistake."

 

[Randyl Lancaster]

That actually made a lot of sense. Randyl had had to deal with a lot just because he couldn't think about the bad things that could happen, but focused on the hope of success. While the latter was a good thing to do, too much of that could blind one. Like it had done so many times in his case.

"Yah, I get it," the man replied and then turned to look at Jasmine. She still enjoyed the warmth of the sun. Multi-tasking, they say.

"So if there are others out there who are in the same state as we two, should we contact them? Or at least try to find them?" Jasmine asked after a while. She took her cousin's glasses off and put them on the grass again before she would continue, "Do you think they would like to team up with others to find out the truth?"

Randyl sighed.

"To be honest, I don't care about them. The point is, they are not our immediate family. Not even close to us. They're our relatives from many generations and people away. Why would we trust them? Or why would they trust us?"

"And we're back to talking 'bout trust."

 

[Randyl Lancaster]

"Yeah, things like this happen. Trust is essential to us, yet we should be careful with that."

They both looked at the sky and just thought for a few moments. It was too thoughtful of a moment to just talk through all of that. They had to gather their thoughts -- lots of things had already been said during such short time.

"By the way, I also hear your sister had a family of her own?"

"That's true, yes. But I don't quite support it. She was with an exiled Jedi and had a few children. I don't quite think it was the right thing to do, especially because she broke the man's heart."

Randyl laughed after hearing that.

"So she really was a heartless sithspit," he replied jokingly.

 

[Randyl Lancaster]

Jasmine couldn't continue talking for a moment either -- laughing had taken her over and so together, they had a little bit of a giggle that lasted for a good minute or two.

"But truly, her children, at least to my knowledge, are awesome. They're kids of two strong Force users and I have no doubt they'll be even stronger than the two combined," Jasmine spoke. "They are both lightsided right now and I have trust in them. Their father seems to have guided them a lot on their progress."

"You speak so highly of them. Is there a reason behind that?" Randyl was curious. To him, the two, even though they were his relatives, were nothing more than simple people. But his cousin seemed to have a different opinion about them.

"I met one of them, Lilin, on my travels. She was a nice girl, I sensed a lot of Force in her. She was trying to do good deeds, but her mother's corruption was strong in her. I am seriously afraid they'll end up becoming Sith," the cousin continued. "They are greatly gifted in the way of the Force and I would like to take them as my apprentices. Were I not a Padawan myself."

 

[Randyl Lancaster]

Randyl nodded. He understood. Jasmine, as the sole Jedi member of their family, tried to keep others from going down the road of darkness. Yet only the young kids of Lilith's were still to be manipulated with and put on the right track. Randyl felt slightly ashamed that he was not even trying to go towards the light. But he didn't feel that spark in it which screamed, "I'm the better side of the Force! Come to me!"

The darkness was just more appealing to him. And apparently it was more appealing to the most of the family.

"You said their father is a Jedi? Wouldn't he be able to teach them?" Randyl proposed, to which Jasmine looked at him and shook her head.

"He's an exile. He doesn't belong to the Order, but the point is, he is not experienced enough in the ways of the Force. He... he left as a Padawan and, to my knowledge, stopped learning to use the power after that."

Jasmine had researched a lot of their family. Well, as much as she could. The craziness about the older generations of their family was impossible to study, but she had made it sure that she knew every possible detail about the younger generations -- which practically meant just Lilith and his children, along with the kids' father.

 

[Randyl Lancaster]

--- Months Later ---

Randyl looked at his cousin. They hadn't seen each other for long anymore, it felt like ages. Jasmine was quite likely the only true friend the boy had, plus being the only family he knew and trusted. Jasmine went so well with his personality that at some moments, the boy even wondered was it truly so that the two were not twins.

"I have been doing some more research," Jasmine spoke with a lot more confidence in her voice than the last time. "That means, I took a look at our family lineage, at least as far as I could, and I found out something interesting."

She took a notebook out, read some of it, and then continued, "I have no idea what our ancestors' names were until I found Versateya. I have no clue of who she is to us, but she, unlike the rest of our family, was a Jedi before turning into a Sith."

That was a surprising fact.

"Do you think that's why you're a Jedi as well?" he joked.

The girl looked at him, her left eyebrow raised and head tilted slightly to the right.
"What it means is that our parents, plus our grandparents or whoever else, were all born and adults when she became a Sith. And the rest of the family turned to the Dark Side a little bite after she did it."

"What do you mean with that?"

He felt slightly disturbed that the two had skipped the greetings and went straight on to a deep conversation. Although he loved to learn more of his family, he wanted to have some small talk as well. So that all of their meetings wouldn't be about their family and worries about that.

 

[Randyl Lancaster]

"It means that something had to happen when she turned to the Dark Side. Because according to some old documents, the Lancaster dynasty was once a family of Jedi. After Versateya's turn, the whole family suddenly became Sith."

Randyl could not understand what was going on. Neither did he want to. He wanted to have a pleasant casual conversation, not a deep meaningful one. For once, she just wanted to be friends with Jasmine rather than being relatives who are united by one wish -- to understand who their family was.

"And you're completely sure the whole turn happened because of her?"

He didn't know how to take that in. Was the family all Sith because of one person? Who was this Versateya, after all?

"Perhaps. We can't be sure, though. But a few documents tell me Lancasters had a good name amongst Jedi at one point in history. And that point was rather large, because the period they were Jedi lasted for about seven generations."

She sighed.

"Seven generations before Versateya's turn."