Burn the Sky

[Zandra Tal'verda]

Nal Hutta

'Have you seen this man?'
Zandra had asked that so many times that she was starting to say it in the start of conversations. "Hey there, how ya been? Have you seen this man?" It was pathetic. She carried an image of Calico with her at all times. On missions, on jobs, when she was attacking ships in the dead of space. Sometimes she'd let her prisoners go, on the condition that they keep that face in mind. On the condition that, if they ever find him before she did, they tell him 'Z is looking for you.'

It was all she could do. Every lead she'd encountered had dried up, led to nowhere. Now she was here, in some filthy back alley behind a cantina on arguably one of the worst planets in the Galaxy. Nal Hutta was absolute trash. And yet, she found herself here of all places, recovering from one doozy of a high. She lay, back up against the wall, staring ahead at nothing. And that was how it was for a good while.
She'd used too much this time. Let it get out of control.

Still reeling and wondering what had happened, she eventually forced herself to her feet. And then she cursed. Her credit card was gone, as well as the rest of her stash. And she had absolutely no idea where her ship, or her crew had gotten off to. Great. What time was it, anyway? It was still dark. Probably the middle of the night. And with no credits and no spice to trade for credits...

Ugh... and she really wished she could remember what had happened. At least she still had Calico's jacket. And his picture. As she walked, she pulled it out, biting her lip as she ran her hand across the bent corners. Would she still be doing this, years down the line? When her kids got old enough to go out on their own, would she still be out looking for their dad? Or would she wake up one day and just... stop?

She put the picture back in her pocket as she crossed the street. Damn. Someone stole her cigarettes too...

 

[Mr. OOC]

"You know, you're difficult to find."

A woman was walking directly behind Zandra after she crossed the street. Said was woman was fully garbed to where all you could see was her eyes. She might as well have been a desert traveler and not an Echani on a world full of filth and disgusting that would make her white skin stand out from space. Janira felt dirty just being on the planet. If she wasn't there for a reason she would have never landed on the planet and requested that it be glassed from orbit by the nearest fleet capable of such a thing. It wouldn't be a big loss to the galaxy.

But of course she was there for a reason. A reason given to her by Niamh's directives, not by herself, but it was still a reason.

"This place is filthy."

She shook herself and looked at her little sister. If I can even call her that, all things considered. I am an exact replica of the sister that was born before her, but at the same time I'm not her. A conundrum if ever there was one. And physically, Zandra was older now. Hmm, that was odd. Shroud Protocol required that she go in search of the woman who would be her sister, however. So here she was, on this craptastic world, right behind her sister.

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

"Damn. I'm still hallucinatin'..."

The Echani ran a hand through her tangled white hair, glancing at the ghost over her shoulder. Yup. Ghost. She hadn't seen her sister is years. More than ten years for sure. If her sister was still alive, no way she'd still look that young. Just her memory playing tricks on her. Of course, Janira was a big ol' bundle of perfection, so for all Zandra knew, yeah, the Galaxy was really that unfair and her sister still looked as young as she day she left. Nothing in this Galaxy would surprise her anymore.

"Hey, hallucination, ya got a smoke?" she asked over her shoulder as she kept walking, "If not, beat it. I've got a man to see about a batch of bad spice..."

This was a bad trip. A really bad trip, and she was gunna absolutely kill her dealer.

[member="Janira Fenni"]

 

[Mr. OOC]

Of course she wouldn't believe her eyes. The woman was tripping on spice. From what little she knew about her sister, she was kind of the black sheep and had taken up drugs, alcohol and pirating rather than enduring the regular life of an Echani. What Janira, the original one, had written down about her sister made it seem like Zandra resented her for being older and a more skilled tactician. That wasn't surprising given the lifestyle that was led on Eshan. She'd only been around for the last two years but she did understand enough to know that their parents would likely have pushed her, and lauded her older sister who succeeded more.

That didn't excuse her new lifestyle, but it was still not truly her fault that she'd succumbed to the search for pleasures. Regardless, she could just leave now, as her confirmation was made, but she chose not to.

"I'm not a hallucination, Zandra."

To prove it, and because she was a bit peeved at having to come to Nal Hutta and then finding her on a Spice Walk, she stepped swiftly forward and snapped her leg up and around, meant to catch her younger, but older, sister in the stomach. Zandra, even the clone of her, could be utterly ridiculously cruel when she wanted to be, or needed to be.

"I assure you I'm real, though perhaps not what you would expect."

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

Even strung out, Zandra wasn't stupid, and she wasn't blind. Okay, so she wasn't exactly on her A game here, but at the very least she had enough sense of mind to put her arm down to catch her sisters foot. She was far from the skinny little nobody that Janira knew back on Eshan. She was a pirate. She'd made a name for herself! The Pirate Queen, they called her. Z the Terrible! Stories of her misadventures were told all around the outter rim!
...Greatly exaggerated stories. Stories that said the dreaded Pirate was seven feet tall with fists the size of wampa paws and razer sharp teeth. Annoying, actually. She always got that... 'look' when her victims found out that she was a tiny little Echani woman with normal sized hands and normal teeth. Sweet stars above, she hated that look.

"Janira, ya kriffin' Psycho!" she snarled, "Ya wanna fight me? Come on then!"

She shoved her sisters leg away from her, put her fists up as if she expected the elder Fenni sister to come at her fists flying. It would be a short fight, of course. Zandra was an expert at fighting drunk. But this? A little bit different.

"What. Do. You. Want? Why are you here?"
Yeah, it was like coming home. Truth be told, she was kind of enjoying this. Sibling rivalry. Ah, it had been too long.

[member="Janira Fenni"]

 

[Mr. OOC]

She didn't really want to fight. What was the point in fighting her sister? It would only serve to alienate her as her donor, or first, or whatever, had said it did for her. They were rivals, as twins would be. If they were only a year apart things might have ended up different between Janira and Zandra, but they hadn't been. Until now, at least. Things were different now. Zandra could have her sister as a sister rather than a rival. Would she want that, though? That was the question.

Slowly, she reached up and removed the garb from around her head. Now that she'd found her target she didn't care if she stuck out like a sore thumb. Besides, she could probably kill everyone on the planet if she wanted to.

"I'm not exactly your sister," she said as her face was fully revealed, showing a much younger Janira. "Well, I am, but I'm not."

The thought to explain further popped into her head, but she didn't want to overburden her drug-addled sisters brain right off the bat. It might take the woman a moment, but she was certain that Zandra was smart enough to take a guess at what Janira was. She'd explain eventually.

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

Oh?
"You're a clone," she stated, voice flat.
Yeah. She got it instantly. After being married to a clone, she knew a thing or two about them. A young clone, this one. So that meant...
"My twin sister is dead, isn't she?"

This one being a clone she could take easily. But the death of her sister... That was complicated. On one hand, their life long competition had come to an end. Zandra had outlived her sibling. Victory was hers at last. Hurrah. On the other hand... she didn't even get the chance to... anything, really. Just sit down and talk it out. Or just beat it out of each other. Zandra wasn't really one to talk out her feelings. Too much fire in her for that. But she at least liked having the option to do it. Now though, she'd kinda missed her chance.

...Huh.

[member="Janira Fenni"]

 

[Mr. OOC]

"The woman who was born just before you is dead, yes."

Janira was a little surprised that Zandra took it as well as she did. She expected anger. She expected a speech about how dare someone clone her sister! The two may not have been close, but there was always a special bond between twins, as they said. Even though she wasn't the actual twin, she still felt a form of that bond with Zandra, in part due to the fact that her DNA exactly matched the DNA of the original Janira. There were no changes or modifications made to her DNA structure. That was the exact reason that 001 had the same heart defect as her predecessor. It was unfortunate, but it insured the most authentic experience that could be created from a clone.

"Her heart gave out the same way I expect mine will some day. She died several years ago, unable to contact you before she did. It was one of her last regrets."

Zandra seemed lost in her own world so Janira let her hands move behind her back and clasp index fingers while she waited. No need to interrupt the woman and her train of thought. Besides, this was a better reaction than she expected. Only after she was certain Zandra had enough time to process did she speak again.

"I don't know if you knew her but there was a Rogue Jedi named Niamh Raste who brought together a couple of Echani companies under a single banner, Eshan Industrial Corporation. She created a protocol known as the Shroud Initiative, which was meant to ensure the survival of the greatest Echani minds so as not to allow Eshan to fall to her enemies or become lost among the clutter of the galaxy, as it were. It was logical and well conceived, but the process is still growing.

"I was the first subject of that Initiative. Officially my name is Shroud-001, but as I am Janira's clone, and she is deceased, I prefer to be called Janira as it was her I was taught to be. The reason I came in search of you is that the Initiative's protocols indicate only deceased individuals may have their clones activated. Yes, Niamh included you in her brilliant minds. I believe she thought we couldn't work best without one another's existence."

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

Okay. That was a lot to take in. This clone was just like her sister. No modifications. But she couldn't have her memories. She didn't know of her twins sisters failures. She had no idea just how much Zandra had... disliked competing with Janira. Hate was too strong a word. Zandra had never hated Janira. Hell, maybe there was even a touch of jealousy. Not that Zandra would ever in a million years admit that.
The knowledge that her sister had thought about contacting her was more sobering than a nap and a glass of water. She could almost feel her high evaporate into thin air. But Janira's heart had given out. What if... they were twins after all, what if Zandra encountered the same thing? Nah. No way. If she had heart trouble no doubt with all the crazy nonsense she'd been doing to her body (drugs, tattoos, piercings, heavy drinking, chain smoking, etc etc) she'd have noticed by now. How weird though. She never knew about her sisters condition.
And why was she taking all this so well? Maybe there really was something deeply wrong with her.

"Greatest Echani mind," Zandra echoed with a little laugh, "Yeah. Of course. Janira was always the smart one. And the talented one. But I was the hot one."

She wondered if this Janira had the same sense of humor as her twin. Probably. Meaning, of course, her joke would not land. Ah well. Waste of a twin joke.

"Why would she think I'd be of any use? I ain't exactly the pride of the Echani people here."

[member="Janira Fenni"]

 

[Mr. OOC]

There was a minuscule twitching upward of the corners of Janira's mouth at what Zandra said about her being the hot one. Of course she disagreed with her sister, especially now, but she'd let the woman have her fun delusions. It was a bit amusing, after all, even to her.

"No, that's true. She didn't particularly indicate a reason, either."

Not that Janira didn't have her suspicions. Niamh's tastes were peculiar according to what Janira had been told. Who knew what it was that she planned for the clone that was currently in stasis back on Eshan. Janira had tried to ask around and figure out what the main purpose of the Shroud Initiative was other than the stated one, but nobody had any real answers. They simply told her that she was created because Niamh wanted to preserve their society in a way that only she knew. That was basically jibberish to the clone. She might as well have had ear plugs in.

"I suspect its because we aren't the same without each other in existence. Since we are twins, albeit I'm a cloned version of your twin, she might have believed I'd be unable to function properly. But if you'd known your sister better you might have already known that she wasn't as great without you."

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

Zandra studied the clone. Yeah. She remembered Janira at this age. So perfect it made her want to be sick! Zandra had run away shortly after, actually. Spent some time living on the streets too. Met some interesting people. Did some things she was certainly not proud of. Now it all made sense.

"'Wasn't as great'?" Zandra laughed, "Yeah, guess she did need her loser sister to make her look better by comparison."

There was no bitterness in her voice. Zandra had gotten over it a long time ago. Sometimes she still felt a little pang of jealousy, but she could quickly distract herself from that. It was just how life was. Sisters, even twins, were not copies of each other. They could be as different as day and night.

[member="Janira Fenni"]

 

[Mr. OOC]

"I don't think you realize how brilliant you are."

Janira tilted her head and then offered her hand to her sister. The more they stood in the street, the more people saw them. She did not want to be associated with this world. As the CEO of a major galactic corporation that was focused on galactic good, she really shouldn't even be associating with Zandra. But Zandra was her sister, and where her donor, the first, had failed, she was determined to succeed in being as close to her sister as she could be.

"Come. Let's go somewhere and have a drink and talk. You look like you could use it anyway."

Not a slight against her, just a comment on the obvious. Zandra didn't look that good.

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

Hearing those words in her sisters voice was more than a little jarring. That was something she never thought she'd hear, especially from Janira. Did her sister feel this way when she was alive? Zandra would never know, and that was... a very bitter feeling.

"Drink. Right, right," she murmured, "I know a place, right around the corner here."

She reluctantly reached out and took the clones hand. She couldn't remember ever holding Janira's hand. Sweet Force, this was weird.

[member="Janira Fenni"]

 

[Mr. OOC]

Janira nodded. She had to trust that Zandra wasn't going to lead her somewhere she'd end up killing everyone.

"Lead the way."

Somehow she felt that Zandra was even more lost now that she'd told her the truth. But it was the truth. Zandra was a very brilliant individual, she just didn't act like it all the time. Janira blamed it on their parents and the favoritism they, and everyone else, had shown her donor. Had they ever once shown Zandra the kindness that she deserved, everything might have ended up very differently. But that was just the nature of the society that they grew up in. She let her sister lead her along. Zandra was the older one now, which was certainly strange, but Janira was alright with it. Better to have an older sister than no sister.

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

She led her clone sister to a rundown cantina just around the corner. Zandra wasn't exactly a regular here, but she was recognized by the bartender with a stiff nod and a grunt of greeting. Zandra nodded back and led her sister the the bar.

"So, ya payin? Someone stole all my credits this mornin'," she admitted with an easy laugh.

[member="Janira Fenni"]

 

[Mr. OOC]

Janira had figured she'd be paying. She was the one now running a multi-planet spanning corporation now, which meant she had the money. And her sister was, well, still her sister. She really wished she could drag her away from the life that she'd settled herself into.

"Two of whatever she usually drinks," she said to the barkeep. Yeah, she'd caught the acknowledgment. She plopped some coins on the counter. "That should cover us for the night." It was a considerable amount of money. More than even they could drink together.

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

Oh good. So the bartender remembered her. That was a comforting thought. She took the bright blue liquid and chugged it down with a single tip of her head. She slammed the empty glass back down with a sigh.

"Damn, I needed that. Coming down from a good high is a terrible feeling."

Was it ever. Felt like life was being sucked out of you. Everything felt too crisp, too clear. It was frightening.

[member="Janira Fenni"]

 

[Mr. OOC]

"Why do you get high?"

It was a curiosity. This Janira was making an effort to be better to her sister, and to get to know her and understand her. It was a tough task, but it was something that she needed to do. She didn't want to be the way her predecessor was. She wanted Zandra to care about her. Grabbing her glass of the drink, she knocked it back and set it down again. This might be a long night, and she might end up smashed. But it was worth it.

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]

 

[Zandra Tal'verda]

Another drink was set in front of her, but Zandra didn't touch it yet. She gentle lay her head down right on the bar, closing her eyes. Not asleep, but her head was just killing her.

"Why?"

Zandra thought about it. Really thought about it. She supposed the simple answer was because she had nothing else. It was how she was able to see Cal. When she hallucinated, he was there with her. Not dead. Alive, smiling, laughing, loving. When she was high, she could smile too. Nothing mattered.

"I lost my husband a while back," she answered simply, opening her eyes again, "Never realize how much ya love somewhat 'til they're gone, I guess. But I knew Cal was my everythin' from the moment I met 'im. Now he ain't here."

[member="Janira Fenni"]

 

[Mr. OOC]

Janira nodded. That made sense. She was using the drug as a crutch instead of coping with the loss. She didn't want to accept the loss, she wanted to continue to be with her husband even in death. For Janira that made sense, but was strange, because she had no feelings one way or the other for anyone other than her family. Sure, she cared about her people from a benefactorial standpoint, but if someone died, that was life. Zandra was the exception.

"Is this what he would want for you?"

She reached a hand over and placed it gently upon her sister's back. Somehow she felt it was needed.

[member="Zandra Tal'verda"]