Homesick

[Feena]

His mother. She already learned a little bit about Celeste, but she knew almost nothing about his mother. Every little bit she could learn would be treasured. She was a seamstress then? Already they had something in common. It was a shame she would never meet her face to face.
Still, she couldn't help but feel a little glad she wouldn't have to sit and play nice while his Mother decided whether she was a worthy mate for her son. Just the thought of it made her shiver. Mothers never liked her, at least at first. She'd met enough mothers to know how it would go already.

Fathers on the other hand, they always liked her immediately.

"And your Father? Who was he?" she asked, "Try to remember."

@[member="Keter"]

 

[Keter]

Keter folded his arms across his chest, looking around slowly, seeing everything that had been. "He...he was a worker. In one of the factories. Lots of metal and welding. He would talk to me a lot about it, preparing me for when my time would come to work. I never really paid attention back then. I enjoyed the books and stories more than the machines. You could say that after the whole...incident...my focus on engineering was an apology of sorts to myself, for not listening..." the blond said, kneeling down to run a hand over the sand below their feet, mixed with fine metal shavings and parts of metal and stone and other materials ground down and eaten at by the air.

 

[Feena]

She watched her husband kneel down, thought about doing the same but quickly decided that in her condition it was not a good idea. If she knelt down with him, she might never get back up. So she stood and watched him quietly for a few moments until she was sure he had nothing more to add, then she closed the distance and gently put a hand on his back.

"But what was he like? Was he Cheerful? Energetic? Sad? You keep talking about what they did, not who they were. I want to know what sort of people raised you."


@[member="Keter"]

 

[Keter]

He was silent for a while. "I...don't remember. I don't remember. He worked hard, he loved us, he died in silence. I don't remember his face," the blond replied eventually in a monotone. He stood up slowly and dusted himself off. "But I know they would have loved you. And feared you."

 

[Feena]

Feena did not like that silence. She did not like the look on his face. And she really did not like the way he said he did not remember. How was she supposed to comfort him now?

"Feared me?"
That shocked her a little. She was never completely sure how she was supposed to take half of what he said. Was she supposed to be insulted?

@[member="Keter"]

 

[Keter]

He laughed and moved to embrace his wife. "Well of course. We were simple slaves. A Jedi...you would have been as alien to them as royalty, and as unlikely to visit. Jedi were myths here. We knew of their existence, but if any ever came it would be to deal with the Hutts. I think it's still seen as a sign of good fortune to see a Jedi amongst the slaves here..." the blond explained, resting his forehead against hers, the masks not allowing anything more to pass between them.

 

[Feena]

That actually surprised her. She had never been anywhere that considered Jedi to be something of a myth. Honestly, before she left the order, she never really left the core systems except on rare occasions. Most of her time was spent on Coruscant where Jedi were seen as very minor celebrities, not an every day sighting, but common enough that you didn't bother asking for an autograph.

"Well, I'm not a Jedi anymore, so I think they can relax," she awkwardly joked, leaning in to kiss him then pulling away once she remembered the mask on her face. She was starting to hate wearing this thing. How could people do this on a daily basis?
She was about to ask why people didn't just leave, but quickly realized that a stupid question that was. Sometimes she honestly forgot that not everyone in the Galaxy was as fortunate as her. How could she keep forgetting when she worked with so many of the less fortunate?

"What else do you remember? His name?"

@[member="Keter"]

 

[Keter]

Keter chuckled lightly and held his wife's hand tighter. "They would have loved you, after they got over having to treat you like royalty. Habits born of generations are...hard to break," he explained, looking about again. But he had seen all he had had to see. "It was long ago..." the blond replied to Feena's question, "...I cannot even remember his face anymore...I mean...I died that day too after all. A few days later I was taken in by my first teacher."

Now him...him he remembered all too well.

 

[Feena]

"They would have loved you, after they got over having to treat you like royalty. Habits born of generations are...hard to break,"
Feena smiled behind the mask. Honestly, she probably would have been the one expecting to be treated like royalty. He was right. Habits were hard to break.

"So you can't even remember his name..."
That made Feena feel a bit sad for him. Her fingered tightened on his but she gently pulled away, leaving a little space between them.
"But at least you remember who he was. That is just as good, I think. Names and faces don't really matter as long as you remember who they were. So, what else? Tell me more. I want to know everything. You must remember more, right?"
@[member="Keter"]

 

[Keter]

Keter nodded as he looked at his wife. "He worked hard, in a factory. Assembling tools I think. It had to do with metal, since his clothing was often scorched," the blond said, sighing slightly. "Whenever he had time off he would work on our home, making it more secure or stable. I'm sure you can imagine the issues of a leaky roof during acid rain..." he added, before shrugging. "But nothing lasts. My home was here, and now it is not. For all I know, the bones of my family lie beneath our feet even now. But that's alright I think...no one on Hutta receives a burial after all." Keter lapsed into silence after that, staring at the ground for a while.

 

[Feena]

Feena did not like that. No one received a burial? No one had a grave? This was his family. These were the people he once loved. The people who loved him well before she did. They deserved... something.

Without a word, Feena (very carefully) knelt down, clasping her hands in front of her. She could not do much, but she could at least offer a prayer. Leaving this place without doing at least that much was just too sad.

@[member="Keter"]

 

[Keter]

He was surprised when his wife knelt down, praying for his family. The blond smiled beneath his mask and stood behind his wife until she finished. "Thank you. I'm sure they're happy that you're so willing to get along," the blond said, resting a hand on her shoulder and helping her up when she stood. "But they're safe, and happy now, I'm sure. They cannot be made to suffer any hardships after all," he added, taking her hand and beginning to head back. "Now...I suppose I should show you one more place..."

 

[Feena]

It wasn't like her to pray. It wasn't like her to really even care about the dead. Nobody died she knew, nobody she had ever been close to, at least. This was new to her. She let him help her back up, surprised to find that her cheeks were wet under the mask.
But he was right. There was no more suffering for the dead.

"Where now?" she asked, squeezing his hand.

@[member="Keter"]

 

[Keter]

The blond held his wife's hand tightly as he led her away, heading south. "We're going to where...well, where I was raised," he revealed. He doubted the residence of the Sith who had trained him still stood, since what had once been the outskirts was now clearly cluttered with trash and homes and debris.

 

[Feena]

Behind the mask, Feena looked completely shocked by this idea. She knew what he meant. How could she not? She'd heard him speak of it only a few times, but she had kept it in her mind. Why was he going to show her that? Wouldn't he wish to put that behind him? Wouldn;t he wish to move on?
She squeezed her husbands hand as he led her away, never once opening her mouth to ask why. He would have his reasons. This was for him. If he needed to see it, if he needed to revisit, then she would stand by him and support him.

@[member="Keter"]

 

[Keter]

He sensed her reaction and chuckled. "Easy now Queen. It is exactly like this place. A set of geographic coordinates and memories, nothing more," the blond assured his wife as they began to walk. It would take them an hour or so, but it was their final stop before heading back home. Keter had had enough of the past. He had enough worries about the future to deal with. "It was a shack, barely better than my actual home," he said. "We had water and vermin for sustenance. It was a harsh life...befitting a Sith, wouldn't you agree? Appreciate strength by coming from a past with none..."

@[member="Feena Mason"]

 

[Feena]

Feena was silent as her husband led her away, glancing behind only once to see her husbands home fade into the distance. It was all so sad. And he was so... cold about it, so distant. She had to wonder, if he had the ability to cry, would he?
"Tell me more," she insisted, "I want to hear everything you are willing to tell me."

@[member="Keter"]

 

[Keter]

The blond continued walking, but slowed his pace, squeezing Feena's hand gently. "I spent about a year blind before he gave me new eyes. Taught me to sense things with the Force. Call it an...accelerated curriculum when you have no choice but to adapt to a new situation. In that year I learned to fear the dark. I did not know what was real and what was a dream...there was always just darkness," he said, looking at the woman by his side, smiling suddenly. "Though I suppose I still don't know what's a dream and what's reality."

They walked on and on, the piles of junk slowly growing smaller as they moved into the less cluttered areas, the outskirts of the junkyard. "He was...strange. He never told me his name. He was just Master. But he made sure I grew healthy and strong, and taught me what he deemed to be enough before sending me out to the Sith Academy," Keter continued, glancing at the sky. "The day I left this world, I was eighteen. The ship he gave me for my journey was a gift for finally meeting his expectations of a student..."

 

[Feena]

Feena nodded slowly as he spoke. He could not see her cringing behind the mask. It all sounded so awful. The life of a Jedi was difficult. She never thought it was easy work, except when it came to her studies at the temple, but at the very least it was not this. She was a spoiled princess amongst the jedi compared to what it must have been like for him.

"What did he teach you? What did you have to do to meet his expectations?"

@[member="Keter"]

 

[Keter]

"A lot of what was required was already in me. Passion, curiosity, determination...scars," the blond idly listed out as they walked, shaking his head. "I'm sorry. It must be quite...disheartening to hear such things. But he was never cruel to me. Failure was punished with being left to fend for myself, whilst success at the various tasks he set me was rewarded with the finer scraps we stole, or some knowledge he would teach me," Keter recalled, before shrugging. "He basically setup my early years to act as a basis for my future behaviour - making me improvise in my own way. He gave me a target, and let me reach it in my own way...something that is rare in Sith, no?"