Private He Said Nothing.

[Ordo]

Whirling dervishes of dust and scree fled the hard metallic feet of the ship's landing struts as it settled down. The alternating jets of steam and venting gases from the hull of the venerable YT-2000 the only sounds around the unused landing site. The sky was pale today. A blue so light it was as if even the color was not fully ready for the day that still sat in its infancy. Dew still rested on the plethora of leaves that crowded together in the overgrown fields around a dust covered yaim. The once vibrant greens of the bustling farm now seemed dull as if the lives that fed its vibrancy had taken it with them when they had left.

The hydro-electric whine of the boarding ramp filled the air before even that, at the end of its discourse, had no more words to describe the place it had rested many times before. Armored boots appeared after a pregnant pause and the figure slowly descended the ramp. The tentative steps of a long lost warrior unsure if he remembered the way home.

He stood.

The hard ground beneath him his only welcome as he took in the scene. The tree where he had hung the swing, hole where the well he had dug with his own hands, the world where he had secured his love....gone.

Mia Monroe

 

[Mia Monroe]

Mia was silent, withdrawn almost.

Her last memory here had not been a good one. Jasper's family tolerated her for his sake in the last days. she had come to ask him to join her and he had, without hesitation, but she remembered the hatred in Ginnie's eyes.

Win, or don't come back.

She swallowed the lump in her throat and shoved her own feelings aside as she stepped up next him. This wasn't about her, this was about him and what he needed. Mia had never set roots like him, even now Ijaat had difficulty getting her to stay in one place, to commit to anywhere being her home. She was, and always had been at home on the move.

She said nothing, there was nothing she could say to offer him comfort in this. She could only hope that she was here was enough.

Ordo

 

[Ordo]

The unadorned grey of his beskar'gam seemed to fit here as he finally took a step toward the Yaim.

She could only hope that she was here was enough.

For all his strength before he couldn't fight time. For all his power now he couldn't repair what was lost...and his control finally cracked...

He saw Maeve come running out, arms wide as she collided with him. He tossed aside his fragstorm as Rianna and Aden stood in the entrance. Maeve's azur eyes so like her mother's turned up to him and became pleading as the color began to fade from her face. His massive arms collapsed around her as she became ash in his arms.

He stummbled forward and looked up toward his wife and son as they sent disapproving looks before they to turned to dust and blew away on the wind. He couldn't catch himself. He could carry the weight of a people on his shoulders. He could crush worlds under his heel. He couldn't carry the weight of how he had failed the people that he had sworn to always be there for. His buy'ce simply vanished as a pulse of power exploded from him like thunder without sound. His shoulders shook as he fell to his knees and for the first time in a century tears came from a stone.

He pressed his heavy shaking hand to his face and fell forward. His scared forehead pressed into the dust of his once sanctuary as he watered the parched soil with his tears. His hands battered and raw gripped the dust and lifted handfuls to toss over his short brown hair as another explosion of silent power pulsed out of him. He tried to scream in anguished grief but his throat failed him as it constricted. His muscles tensed and the beskar'gam shell around him cracked in a thousand places at once as ages of pain and regret tore power from him and released it into the cool morning air.

His silent scream flattened thee yaim. His choked sob tore the ground around him as he felt unable to full express his pain. He had come back for his people, but the people that had needed him most were already long gone.

Mia Monroe

 

[Mia Monroe]

"Jasper?"

Her words were lost on him, she knew that as she felt the tidal wave of grief rise in him as he stumbled forward, falling deeper into it, the force rising in him a quiet build of power before he went off like a silent seismic charge. Mia dropped to her knee anchoring herself as the first wave hit her, like taking a freighter to her chest, the visor of her buy'ce cracked, triggering various alarms in her ears. She blinked them into silence pushing forward to his side as he tipped to all fours.

Reaching to place a hand on him, she was not quick enough to react the the second blast that turned his armour to dust. She was kicked back, beskar'gam crumpling beneath the power breaking through shock absorbers as she hit the dirt hard several feet from him Blood burst from her nose, she could taste it in her mouth, bruising rapidly forming throughout.

"Kark."

She pulled her helmet off, spat blood out of her mouth and rolled onto her knees, pulling her armour free. She really didn't want to have to ask Ijaat Mereel to make her another. Coughing, she got up stumbling back to him, collapsing to her knees beside him, pulling his huge form into embrace.

"Ni ceta, ori'vod." she choked on her own sob.

Cin vhetin everytime.

Cin vhetin didn't bring his family back.

She should never have come to him on that day.

Ordo

 

[Ordo]

"Ni ceta, ori'vod." she choked on her own sob.

He leaned against her. Eyes clenched against memories. As if by closing his eyes all the desperate years and all the faded joys he had ended would stop replaying in his mind. His greif was far from spent. His anger at himself, at Mandalorians, at the galaxy for the audacity to exist when his universe was gone, boiled inside him.

He gasped in a breath. Finally able to pass dusty air down his throat. And his body shock again, wracked with silent sobs.

"Soon," a voice said from the nether, "But we still have a job to do, and then we can rest. Do what you do best. They'll be here when you're finished."

He clung to his sister for minutes longer, but it could have been days for all he understood the passage of time. Finally...slowly he let go to press his hands to the dirt and lift some of his own weight.

"Sorry." He said, knowning better than most he was breaking her as much as he was breaking himself. "We need to go. There's nothing left here."

Mia Monroe

 

[Mia Monroe]

Every silent sob that shook him, drove a hot knife into her heart. Each one representing her failure. It hadn't just been his family who had suffered. Thousands of manda blessed vode had been punished after her death. Ra's witch hunt had been ruthless.

No. Not Ra...all of this had been orchestrated by Kaine.

She closed her eyes, resting her head against Ordo's great form, tears spilling silently onto him.

She would not fail him again.

She would not fail any of them again.

It didn't matter how long they were there, she would have stayed for hours...days if it was what he needed.

The blood had dried on her face by the time he moved, her tears had carved tracks through the dust that had settled there.

"You have nothing to apologise for." Her voice was broken...she looked down at her hands. "Jasper, I..."

She took a breath, swallowing hard before looking back at him. "I swear to you, you will see them again. I swear, that I will do everything in my power to see our mission done. To see us returned to where we should be."

Ordo

 

[Ordo]

The blood had dried on her face by the time he moved, her tears had carved tracks through the dust that had settled there.

"You have nothing to apologise for." Her voice was broken...she looked down at her hands. "Jasper, I..."

She took a breath, swallowing hard before looking back at him. "I swear to you, you will see them again. I swear, that I will do everything in my power to see our mission done. To see us returned to where we should be."

Ordo rose to a knee and looked at the woman, the warrior, his soul bound sister...his friend. He reached out a hand and smudged dust and blood acrossed one cheek as he took in the sight of her. He could feel her still, a part of him always, but there was more separation now. He felt less like he was everywhere at once and gained more focus.

He looked deeply into her saphire eyes. Those diamond hard orbs that would soften for him just when he needed it. He scanned the line of her jaw and the full lips that had moved to draw him back to himself more than once. He tucked loose hair behind her ear as his eyes glistened with unshed tears over what they had been through and what was yet to come. If only the Manda could have sent them back numb. Sent them with beskar hearts instead of shells. But that was not the way. He pulled her toward him, his eyes on hers. He loved her, more than he could even find it in him to love himself.

He rested his scarred forehead aginst hers and took a breath.

"Ni kar'tayli gar darasuum, Mi'ika." He said softly, feeling more like himself than he ever had since his return, "You're still fething ugly, though."

Mia Monroe

 

[Mia Monroe]

Mia laughed through her tears, pulling away from him, punching his shoulder. "Still prettier than you, ori'vod."

The tension around them shattered. Mia brushed her tears away, pushing herself to her feet with a groan. "Feth, I forget how much of a punch you pack."

For the breifest of moments, they were simply Mia and Ordo. Siblings that had grown and fought together. There was no war, no heavy duty weighing on their shoulders. She moved to the scattered peices of her armour, piling them into her breast plate for easy transportation. She would pull the dents out while the were flying.

Scooping up the helmet, she heaved a sigh at the cracks that ran through it. At least it was only the helmet this time, she didn't need to ask Ijaat to repair all of it. She dropped it onto the breastplate before making her way back to Ordo.

Her eyes scanning what had been the farm before settling on her brother. "Are you ready, ori'vod?"

Ordo

 

[Ordo]

Still prettier than you, ori'vod."

He shrugged as He tried to gather strength. A small twitch at the corner of his mouth his first attempt at a smile in a century.

"True." He said as he struggled to get back to His feet for a moment. He looked at the flattened torn ground and the destroyed home He had once filled with love. He would have to give that to His people now, The Children of The Manda.

"I'm ready." He said as He lifted a hand and pulled drawing a footlocker from the wreckage and moved it to the ship. "Thank you for coming. It matters."

He followed her onto the ship, ready to do His duty to Their people.

Mia Monroe