Private Lord Dystra's Last Laugh

[Eloise Dinn]

Outside the window of the playroom, the sun was setting. Her parents had been gone for hours, and Eloise was fed up with waiting. It hadn’t taken this long for Star to be born—although this time, her mother was giving birth to more than one baby. Still, it was taking forever!

The puzzle she had been working on lay finished in front of her. She had finished it twice, taking it apart afterwards and mixing up the pieces to start again. The other games and toys she and her brother had been provided with to keep them occupied had already been used and discarded. She didn’t want to play with them anymore. She was confused, she was worried—more than that, she was bored.

“I’m going in there,” she whispered to Marcus, climbing down from her chair.

Marcus stirred. He had been staring off into space again, lost in his visions. “You shouldn’t do that,” he said gravely. “Mom and Daddy told us to stay here.”

Eloise was already putting on her shoes. “I don’t care. I want to know what’s going on. Why won’t they let us see our new siblings?” She and Marcus had been there to witness the birth of Star, yet this time they weren’t even allowed on the ship. They had been made to sit in their rooms at the Sky Temple, with servants to wait on them, toys to amuse them, and guards to keep them safe. Their father had promised he would send them a message when it was time for them to come, but so far he had been completely silent.

Marcus said nothing. She glared at him. “You know something, don’t you? Tell me.”

He stayed quiet as she continued to get dressed, until finally he spoke. “Something is wrong with one of the babies.”

Her eyes widened. “Are they sick?” Lowering her voice, she asked, “Are they going to die?”

“I don’t know. I can’t see it.” He shook his head. “We should stay here. Let Mom and Dad handle this.”

Like hell she would. If her new baby brother might die, she at least wanted to meet him first. As soon as she was ready, she bolted out the door, running down the corridor and out to the landing pad where her father’s spherecraft, the Beholder, lay. She ascended the ramp, finding it unnervingly quiet…

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

One baby was hard enough to birth, it took a lot of strain and toil on both babe and mother, and anything could happen throughout. Three? No, three they had not wanted to risk by delivering with conventional means. Onboard the Beholder, Rhiannon had been delicately set within the healing waters which lay around its core, amidst beautiful jellyfish who calmed and soothed with each pulse of their gelatinous bodies.​

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Arcturus was in the water with her. It was a strange substance, to be honest, for it was not actually water, once could breathe through it, talk through it, yet they were engulfed all the same.​

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"You're doing so good" he whispered, as he held one of her hands in his and lightly stroked her hair. So far they had yet to meet any of the trio, but the first was crowning and close to coming into the world. He'd heard that it was easier once the first came, but truth be told what did he actually know about childbirth? He would not claim as much to Rhiannon, his thoughts and opinions in this matter were not relevant.​

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Instead he focused on the woman herself, giving as much support as he could, ensuring she had whatever it was that she needed. He'd tried to keep the space calm, quiet. "Remember to keep breathing, love... Come on, breathe..." He did the breathing exercises too in hopes that it would help her to keep pace.​

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Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“Arc, you goof,” Rhi gasped through her smile, finding humor even in the throes of childbirth. “Stop breathing like that. You’re not the one giving birth…”

This wasn’t her first rodeo. She knew what to do. Or so she kept telling herself through the agony and anxiety. She’d had a single and twins, but never triplets before. At least this time the circumstances were a lot more relaxed. She wasn’t alone on a cold, clinical hospital ship or a dank, dirty cave while Arcturus fought an elder god for their children’s lives. She was in the warm, clean waters aboard Beholder, where it was quiet and peaceful and—

The silence was broken by her cursing. Her knuckles went white as she gripped Arc's hand and the edge of the pool, bearing down until she felt the pressure temporarily release. For a few moments she lay slumped, dully watching blood and Force knew what other bodily fluids spread through the water as she caught her breath. Then, as Arcturus scooped the child she had just delivered out of the murk, her eyes widened. The baby boy was alarmingly underweight, and his ashen skin was mottled with patches of dark decay, as if he were afflicted with some wasting disease. He didn't even cry when he surfaced.

“Oh shit,” she whispered hoarsely, panic spreading through her. “Is he breathing?”

He was, though he seemed half-dead. She reached out with the Force, trying to discern what could have caused this, and realized that she couldn’t feel him at all. He wasn’t a void, however—there was something to be felt, just not her child. He had been overtaken by a more malicious presence, the sort which would enact a curse borne of Sith sorcery.

A presence which also felt a lot like Pharus Dystra. Amateurish as his skills were, the young lord had left behind a distinct signature in the Force, marking his handiwork.

“Pharus did this?” she spat in disbelief. “After all that you did for him?” White hot rage seethed through Rhi, though it was soon replaced by searing grief at the thought of losing a child. She was not so conceited that she didn’t realize this was, in a way, her fault. It must have been. But to exact revenge for what she had done upon her child? That was truly heinous.

“Take him,” she pleaded with Arc. “Help him, please!”

Rhi sensed Eloise boarding the ship. If Arc showed any resistance to the idea of leaving her side, the child was a godsend. “I’ll be alright. Eloise can stay with me. Send her in here. You help Caspian.”

Caspian was the name Arc had wanted for their son. They thought they were having a boy and two girls, and had chosen names for each of them: Caspian, Altrea, and Persephone. But Rhi could still feel three more babies waiting to be born, the two girls and another boy whom they would have to find a new name for.

They weren’t having triplets, they were having quadruplets.

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

It was supposed to be a joyous moment; so quickly, it all turned to chit.​

​

The first babe born was not one they were even anticipating. He had no real presence in the Force, he barely had a heartbeat, and he did not cry or gasp his first breath. More than that, Arcturus could feel the triplets still in his wife's womb. Quadruplets then... He could feel a heavy hum setting into his ears as the nearly dead boy was held, as Rhiannon panicked and pleaded for him to do something, anything, to save their son.​

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It was the spat name of their former ward which truly kicked Arcturus into motion. His mind whirled a mile a minute, hatred bubbling to the surface, but as he took the babe, and cut the umbilical cord in order to be able to remove him from the waters, priorities were put in place.​

​

"I've got him, I promise he'll make it" Arcturus swore. He kissed his wife on the forehead and hurried out of the tank, just in time for Eloise to appear. "Your mother needs you" he stated, voice calm - too calm, to anyone versed in empathy it was clear he was in fact freaking out, in shock, but somehow keeping it together. "Go to her now."​

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Hastening through the ship, he brought Caspian into the meditation chamber, where most of the walls were glass with a prominent view of the starjellies, and therein he sank to his knees and cradled the babe.​

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The Force thrummed through Arcturus as he moved to clear the babes airways, though he knew full well it was not ingested fluid or similar which was causing the blue tint to the boys skin. He brought just two fingertips over the babe's breast in an attempt at resuscitating, to no real end, attempting at the very least to do things the proper way, the established way, before he said, quite literally, "Kark it."​

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Arcturus drew blood from his own palm, and marked the floor with hastily strewn together runes and symbols. Within the center of it the babe, breathing but with a still flickering life force, was set, and then the Force flowed around them quite keenly, lighting up the bloody marks. Arcturus sank into it, a deep meditative state soon weaving between Father and Son. All that Arcturus could sense on the boy was the Traitor, Pharus, one who would so readily commit infanticide yet be so cowardly that he could not cause it by his own hand.​

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He funneled the hatred he now felt toward that ungrateful bastard into the Force, a darkness permeating the ship, as he sought to sever the connection between brat and babe, sought to sever the ties which bound him to the curse.​

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Death. Arcturus wanted Pharus' head served up on a platter, and it seemed the darkside needed it. A life for a life, was that not the way of it? Give him enough to be stable the Father thought, pleading with the metaphysical entity flowing through his veins, and I will give you as many lives as you could ever want to have.​

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A vow, a binding oath he soon found himself beholden to. For a moment the air stilled, as though time itself paused, and then Caspian began to cry. It was a sweet sound, in truth, as life seeped into the babe and gave him a presence of his own. A sweet sound which would herald much misery... By Arcturus' hand.​

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Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Eloise Dinn]

Eloise crept through the corridors of the Beholder, hearing panicked voices break the silence. She approached the door from whence they came and saw her father climbing out of the pool. The look on his face was unlike any she had ever seen from him. His blue eyes were like ice, cold with fury and hatred.

"Your mother needs you. Go to her now."

Eloise had been frozen in place by fear of Arcturus' wrath. She glanced down to the bundle of wheezing flesh in his arms, her eyes widening. But then her father was gone, disappearing into the meditation room.

"Ellie," her mother called, holding out her arms. "Come here, sweetheart."

The child took off her shoes, her bare feet padding across the tiles. She hopped down into the water which was not truly water and swam over to her mother's side. "What happened to that baby Daddy was holding?" she asked.

"He's taking him... to help him breathe," Rhi said, her reassuring tone not very convincing. "This is just like when Star was born, only there's three babies this time. I need you to help me catch them, and... and you may need to help reposition them. Your hands are small enough..." She clenched her teeth in pain, the rest of her words coming out in a gasp. "...And I'll show you how to cut the cord, okay?"

Eloise nodded, wide-eyed and pale as a ghost. She was terrified. But she knew she had to help.

The second baby, a boy, was born not long after. Eloise carefully cut the cord, cleaned him off, and bundled him up in a towel. She took a little too long, for Rhi was soon impatiently urging her to hurry. The next, a girl, came easily, as if she were merely awaiting her turn. Her tiny body was brimming with power absorbed from the slain sea monster, though Eloise couldn't recognize it as such.

"Altrea," Rhi named her.

"What's the boy's name?" Eloise asked.

"I don't know. We didn't think we would be having... this many... Ah, Ellie, come back over here!"

Ellie sloshed through the water, arriving just in time to catch the fourth child, another girl. Two new sisters for Eloise! But there was little time to celebrate as she cut the cord and quickly dried off the baby girl.

"Persephone," Rhi whispered her name, her blonde hair slicked back with sweat. "Are they all breathing? Do they all look good?"

"Yes," Eloise answered, wrapping Persephone up and setting her next to the others. They were small, but all three were either whimpering, sucking their fingers, or looking around with wide, attentive eyes. Not at all like the silent, still child Daddy had spirited away.

The ship suddenly began to shake as some great and terrible power gathered around the vessel. The babies began to wail. Frightened, Eloise clung to her mother, splashing the water in her haste. But then she heard Rhi laughing, her head thrown back in ecstatic relief. "That's it, Arc. Save him. Save our son, and make Pharus suffer..."

Eloise watched in a horrified fascination as her mother fed from the Dark energy swirling around the ritual, recuperating her strength until she was able to leave the pool as if she hadn't just given birth to quadruplets. She bent down to pick up two of the crying newborns, then gestured for Eloise to take the remaining one, Persephone. Eloise was careful with her baby sister, supporting her head in the crook of her elbow as she followed her mother out of the room...

Arcturus Dinn​

 

[Arcturus Dinn]

Arcturus was sweating by the time that the door to the meditation chamber next opened.​

​

Caspian was in his arms, shivering even as his Father removed his shirt to bundle him up in it, his shrill cries had ceased and were now replaced with tiny snuffles and the occasional whimper. As much as a relief it had been to hear him cry, it was not so strong an act as he'd heard from Starlin. Even now, with his life no longer stuck so blatantly in the balance, baby Caspian seemed weaker, frailer, than he ought to have been.​

​

When his wife and daughter approached, with a trio of fresh faced babies, Arcturus did not turn toward them, did not look upon them, he just stared at the blood sigil he'd drawn upon the floor and seethed. One hand gently cradled Caspian's head, the babe in turn supported along the length of his arm, while the other delicately brushed the too-dark hair clinging to his head. Neither redhead nor blonde, this babe had jet black hair that seemed rather out of place.​

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"They are strong," he finally stated, though his voice remained just as cold as it had when he'd ordered Eloise to her mother's side. "Caspian needs his mother." Rising up, he turned to face his precious wife and daughter - nay, daughters now, for there were three of them present - before eyeing the trio they bore. Arcturus' chest rose and fell as he drew heavy breaths, then stepped forward to kiss each of their foreheads. Rhiannon's, Eloise's, then each of the babies.​

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"Take him, please," he requested, voice finally cracking. "Eloise, take the other boy from your mother." Once done, he slipped Caspian into Rhiannon's arms then turned from them both. "Leave me now, I need to think."​

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Mentally, he called upon Wax. There would be no joviality in their exchange this time, where usually there was, this wasn't to be a normal request, a normal non-time sensitive task, no... He wanted the matter dealt with now. Immediately.​

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Ishani Dinn ​

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Rhi’s eyes were glued to Caspian the moment the door opened. The child looked better, but he was still frighteningly small and sickly. She passed the unnamed boy to Eloise—but not before pausing to glance at Arc. “This other boy needs a name,” she said. “We could name him Julian, after my grandfather. Unless you would prefer something different.”

Then she took Caspian in her arms, and lifted her face to kiss her husband. She already knew what he intended to do. “I wish I could go with you,” she whispered. “This is my fault. I should be the one avenging our child. But so long as you promise to make him suffer, I will stay here. Take whatever power or resources of mine you need, Arc.”

With that, she left Beholder. Eloise lingered a bit longer, looking as if she wanted to say something, ask a question perhaps, before abruptly hurrying after her mother.

Arcturus Dinn​