Private The Restless Pull, A Welcomed Push

[Cynthia Solus]

Bare feet sunken into sand, ripples cast in the water as the breeze washed over its surface. Light glistening, reflecting. Sounds of yelped roars as dragon hatchlings pounced around at the body of water. Eyes closed tight as a deep breath inflated lungs. A step forward then another and another till submerged into the warmth of the water heated by the High sun. Cynthia opened her eyes as she looked down at the clouds of sand caused by her movement in the crystal clear water. Another step and another till the water came to waist height. Lowering into the water she let it take her as she floated on the surface.

All sounds around her became muffled as the water surrounded her head. She opened her eyes looking up to the sky. These days had been filled with either so much silence or the wrong kind of noise. She missed her wife and she often said that holocalls was enough but that was a brave face she put on display. She could not stop Stardust from doing what she needed. The next battle, the next challenge called to her as much as it did Cynthia. Though back then the civilians of Vanquo needed Cynthia needed a leader who could lead them.

Still in order to leave again she needed someone to take over her position. Someone she trusted still, she did not know what star would think anymore. Cynthia had been out the fights for what seemed a long time. Training only does so much and experience is like a muscle. It still did not change something though. "I wish I could see your face again. Hold you in my arms feel your warmth against my skin." She said closing her eyes remaining to float close to the shore of the lake.


Stardust Solus Skirae

 

[Stardust Solus Skirae]

Battle, it always called stardust in the end, no matter how much she resisted or fought agaisnt the urge she would be on the fields flying he colors once more another army another war justified by someone else. Though now however after her passing and revival stardust found it much easier to resist it unlike before.

Vanquo, it called to he once more, someone there that stardust needed to be with

A shuttle soared right overhead the water, slowly it came to land and touch on a duracrete base before it shut down. The ramp lowered as the tall twilek emerged and looked over the land before her with a content smile and sigh. Soon she started down to the lake slowly with each step as stardust watched the young hatchlings play and then gaze upon the twilek slowly approaching, coming to the waters she stardust spotted her wife and let a happy sigh out as she used the force to start slowly pulling her back

 

[Cynthia Solus]

She heard the muffled sounds of a shuttle fly over head, her eyes tracking it for a moment till it was out of her vision without tilting her head back. Cynthia breathed in deep and held it for a moment feeling her body raise just that bit. As she let go she felt her body sink in a little. Though it was relaxing for her it was also deafening from her own thoughts racing about so many things good, bad, boring and fun.

The moment she felt herself moving, feeling the water raising just a little around her head she smiled. There was only one person who would use the force on her like this. There was a gentleness to the pull, a care. Moving her arms out to the side as she felt herself nearing the shore Cynthia pushed her feet down and turned. "Star." She said with a softness and longing to her tone. She moved through the remaining water at her fastest till finally, Cynthia leaped. Her legs wrapped around the Twi'leks waist and arms around her wifes shoulders. Her face showed such joy. "I did not know you was coming home. I've missed you." She said putting her forehead against stars. "I've missed you so much."


Stardust Solus Skirae

 

[Stardust Solus Skirae]

Star watched her wife run for her and extended her arms to catch her as she laughed and rubbed her forehead agaisnt Cynthia's and sighed

wanted to surprise you riduur, knew youd greatly enjoy it

Stardust kept her hands tight around her wife, smiling as she started back towards the house gently stepping over the baby dragons that came to swarm her, smiling down at them as she looked back up to her wife in her arms and kissed her lips gently

I missed you too, so so so very much

Stardust would gently set cynthia down on her feet and look down with a serious look upon her face

ive... got some things I need to tell you, important things you may or may not of heard

 

[Cynthia Solus]

Cynthia felt giddy in the embrace of her wife. "You know I am not one for surprises. Though I will let you off this time." She said with a soft laugh. She moved her head to the side feeling that star was going to carry her. Cynthia watched as star looked down at the baby dragons with a smile, that was followed by the kiss from her wife. Still even after all these years It made Cynthia blush.

Being set down she noticed the serious expression on the twi'leks face. She did not know if she'd like what she was about to be told. "I suppose I have too." She said softly and patted her right leg. "You wanna tell me inside? So I can cuddle up to my riduur." She said taking stars hand leading her inside to the living room. It was a bit of a mess inside. There where pillows on the floor and blankets crumpled up.

It was an easy enough assumption she had been sleeping downstairs. She would move the blankets off to one side before dropping down and waited for star to do the same before leaning against her. "So you first."


Stardust Solus Skirae

 

[Stardust Solus Skirae]

By manda this woman could make her melt, letting a breath out stardust followed right beside her as she began to undo her armor, as they entered she began to set her armor down in a pile, soon now she was dressed in the undersuit as she turned to the blanket and pillows as she chuckled and laughed a little before she faded off and let a breath out heavily and roughly sat down as she felt her body relax and felt cynthia lean agaisnt her

Stardust broke then, right there in the middle of the room tears began to fall from her face as she wrapped her arms tightly around cynthia and shook as she tried to center herself

cynthia, cynthia there is too much to tell you, I pray what I tell you will not break you. Where to start feth WHERE fo I start!

She began to chuckle and shake her head before she took a deep breath

let's start at the beginning...we saw yasha die in that video yeah? The damned australis had killed her! We saw the palace collapse....we think we found our yasha alive yes? We were wrong... oh so wrong

She looked away with a dark look and frowned and clenched a fist

the yasha we know is but a vong biot...puppeteering as our sister...her soul was whisked away and tortured by priests...but darth carnifex found her soul and slayed them...cynthia manda was belive me when I say this, take my words seriously...he took he raoul and gave her a new body, a new life free from the scars and hell of her past life...at the cost she doesnt remember being yasha

She paused and took a shaky breath and would let cynthia take that in

 

[Cynthia Solus]

Misguided Ghosts - Paramore

Cynthia, she felt the warm embrace of her wife, it was not hard to miss that star was crying feeling a drop fall onto her head. As it all began to be laid out, even star would feel the change of emotion. Anger, pain, deep sorrow and rage that burned to her inner core. "I..." Cynthia's arms lowered and loosened from around her wife as she moved away. Her face did not convey any of the emotions her expression was just blank, the glossy look in her red eyes seemed dull. Even Cynthia knew that there was a limit she could suppress and they where bubbling ready to erupt in a tidal of emotion.

She began to walk towards the door, though she would wobble and collapse to her knees with a metallic thud then sat back onto her legs. The room was filled with silence as she looked at her own reflection into a glass pane. Tears began to fall, vision blurred to the point where it was hard to tell what she looked at. "How... how long have you known this star?" Cynthia asked in a tone that sounded defeated. "'cause all it sounds like to me... all it sounds like." There was a feeling in her gut that felt as if it was sinking the feeling in her throat of wanting to throw up. "What happened to my sister is something far worse than death. The only leader I looked up to and would die for, because even you knew that I would have."

She did not face Star as she spoke, just gazed with a million parsec stare. "He had no right to tamper with her soul. No right to change who she was... No right to take away my sister." Her body slumped forward as the sounds of her cries finally came. "I still morn her star. Every day. I've had to deal with this alone." Cynthia's hands came up to her face coving it. "No one told me any of this. To be left in the dark."

"Fuck." The portable holoprojector moved into the room as the image of ca came to life. The Ai did not say a word, but gestured to star to do something. "To be in the dark like this make me feel like it was me who was impaled and thrown aside."

Stardust Solus Skirae Aditya Fitz Kierke

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

Funny thing, the Force. Sometimes its' inspirations hit with a series of intangible, chaotic connections. At other times, the Force smacks me upside the face like a training partner annoyed at one too many cheap shots.

The moment I sense Stardust's growing panic, I know the time's past for a few hours of wandering in the local port for the right ship to call. No, it takes little more than seconds to collect young Adara and Raya and launch toward the sensation itself. Space shimmers, a fold or two and the three of us are rushing in a place Adara knows.

Loss, the breath of agony slicing through two pairs of lungs. Normally such things occupy none of me anymore, but this I feel has a particular weight. Yasha. While Adara and Raya stay further back, I pad in sandals and grey linen trousers, a simple white shirt. Hands in my pockets and silver hair tucked behind my ears. My sigh purges the air, these two are owed the truth.

"Not long, a few weeks all in. Understand now, Cynthia, we are quite protective of our wife, and we needed to ensure she healed. Kaine was not want to allow any to get in her way as she acclimated to her body and the Force." Maybe the shock of an Echani walking into the room being familial might cause enough of a non-sequitur, hopefully the emotions will swell or they'll have a target. "Intriguing philosophy, where death goes I can certainly say Yasha's was one for the holocrons. Her resurrection? I can still taste the honey sweetness of it."

So this is Cynthia Solus Alor and wife of Stardust. The body clings to a thread worn by her griefs, I almost pity her, maybe I will in time. Grief in the young being something so heady I haven't sipped from its' cup in… time.

"What did you think Kaine said to her, as she impaled him with her spear, as she choked on what was left of her ragged lungs? Destroyed as collateral damage by the Mandalorian's pistol." I pace the room in a semi-circle, keeping my distance for now, but within a lunge if I need to step further in, take hold of my student. "Everything will be alright my love, trust me. My husband is destruction, Cynthia. Not all destruction is unwarranted, nor is it bad. Is he? ….. mmmmmyyyep! But that doesn't mean he was without love. What he did to Yasha's soul, was a cure. Not a plague."

 

[Cynthia Solus]

Sudden Urge - Rise Against

Her breathing became heavy, almost growling on each exhale as she listened to this new voice. She did not care who but the woman was provoking her ire. Cynthia wiped away the tears from her eyes then pushed herself up. "Your... wife?" She growled in such passionate anger behind the two words. Her body language was a threatening stance resembling a Farghul ready to pounce. Her eyes did not move to look at Ahani. No, they looked elsewhere.

Ca would pick up on this quickly. "Not a good idea Cynthia. Please calm down, before you do something you might regret." The AI spoke cautiously, it was unaffected by the emotions swelling in the mandalorian woman. It was a warning that when unheard as she waited for the path to be clear, both metal feet clacked against the floor as she walked briskly over to the pile of weapons thrown onto the table she once ate at. The more the woman spoke the more the other two would feel that rage etching its marks.

Her hand hovered over the weapons on the table till selecting the one. "Cynthia, Stop!" Ca said with authority and a look of worry scared to see what was becoming of the woman she had been with every existing minute of her life. "The moment that bastard pointed his weapon at Yasha. He gave up his right as a mandalorian, and what carnifex did was not love. It was greed, selfishly grasping at something he had wanted for a long time. If what you both tell me is true about her soul, then you are wrong it was not a cure. He took away her choice, infected who she was."

Cynthia turned with a red and golden spear in hand. "SHE WAS NOT HIS TO DIG HIS GRIMY CLAWS INTO, TWISTING HIS PERVERTED FANTASIES!" With a small hop forward and her arm extended all the way behind she threw the spear with all her strength as she screamed her lungs out. The spear was intended to hit, it almost did, coming down to millimetres from the woman's head. Instead it plunged deep into the wall forming cracks to splinter in three directions. Now the room was filled with ringing, filling in the silence.

Her chest rose and fell as she panted, her chest felt tight having let out more emotion in a couple of minutes than she had for the past couple of years. "Yasha was someone I would have died for in less than a heartbeat. I loved her as much as I love Star." She looked up, moving her gaze onto her wife with tears resuming to fall down her cheeks. "If not more so... because she was my sister. One of the few people I trusted and had complete blind faith in. Even I wished she had not driven herself so much for us."

"Feth, I say that and every day I hear the same words everyone told her. Yet every breath I take is for them, because it's what she would have done. The more I do, the less burden on a people who have already suffered. The more I do, the better I can keep them safe. The more I do... the less I have to think about the part of me that died. Now that hole feels like it's being stretched wider for more of me to fall out." Cynthia pulled a chair out dropping down onto it and placing her head into her hands.

Stardust Solus Skirae
Aditya Fitz Kierke

 

[Stardust Solus Skirae]

Star felt truely afraid, facing the dark lord never brought this, but she could feel cyntbia emotions change. She let cynthia move away as she stood and that once strong woman became meek and looked away from cynthia as she sighed heavily, it hadn't been long and stardust struggled when she learned at first hell she couldn't remember who told her but until that faithful day...

She had been captured defending mandalore once again from some damned failed attempt, tortured and interrogated for weeks before she was transferred to the dark lords place....she heard it from his lips and it confirmed it all that she had heard. Looking to ca, star swallowed and started to gently approach her when someone entered the house that stardust knew all to well, ahani, her master, her lover, wife to gunnr. Blinking she stepped back and started circling a little as she glanced to cynthia moving for a pile of weapons and put her finger on the ring ready to flick it off if need be, spear flying made stardust cool up but stopped as it landed just shy of ahanis head, swallowing again stardust felt like she was weighted down as she slowly started to cynthia looking upon her with a sad look

cynthia, my riduur

Stardust felling to her knees before cynthia being just a little shorter still as she bowed her head trying to keep herself together to be able to speak

cynthia, I went through this same path, after her death I just kept throwing myself to help anyone mandalorian I could! I tried...I tried to do what I think she would've wanted even going so far to allow myself captured by sith mandalorians so others could escape

Apollyon The Betrayer had did a number on stardust that day and stardust hoped they were out there so she could get her vengeance and put that ghost to rest

cynthia I ask you, I ask you please my riduur when I ask you this understand it's for YOU, give up the path yasha took, just...live with me. Her time was done and shes been given her heaven, we must forge our own path now my dear

She reached for a hand to grab it and cupped it as tears streamed down her face

let's us heal fully, tasha would want this so, she would want us to live on happy that wer knew her and would want us to continue and not follow her same steps

Stars voice was shaky as she looked up to he twice desperate to help her find understanding

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

"Did you not know her well?" My eyebrows quirk, so anathema that those closest to Yasha's life would be ignorant of important matters. Of course these armoured ones would miss the social cues, the glances and shrugs. How Yasha's body responded, when he walked into a room, or before she came to his space. Cynthia's spear whizzes by me, I neither flinch nor move, I rather think the Force has more for me than dying ignobly in a Mandalorian's… gosh, what is this place? "I wonder, would you believe as you do if you'd seen her face on a daily basis? If you watched her sleep in her armour? A process of safety for an unpopular ruler, who felt no fear but the Netherworld's caution? I assume not. Mandalorians. In protecting your bodies, you ignore the emotional lives of those within your shells, expecting everyone to what, play charades?

Were you there, when she'd come to conduct business, so exhausted we could see her shoulders droop in that ridiculous armour, you would have witnessed how Kaine set her to bed. First in grand manipulations befitting the Ruler of the Sith. Impressionable young Epicanthix woman as she was, and a Netherworld survivor like him, to boot. How could he not want to manipulate her?"

The spear made a satisfying 'patwing' as it reverberated in the crack on the wall, I get the feeling it would have taken my head off if I'd let it… hah! Score one for fate!

"But in that manipulation, he learned they shared something. More than mutual parentage from Panatha, or their relative size, their ferocity in battle. Kaine found a combined desperation, a kindred, who knew too well the horrors of the Netherworld. They were both lonely souls surrounded, and I, his wife, watched him swerve from mere manipulation to an adoration which removed him from my bed the moment she came to be in his." My lungs expand and contract, an act which used to be all I had centuries ago on the cold Kashyyk floor. My hands still in my pocket, I keep the rest of my body language calm. All but a smile on my face. "She flinched, the first time I met her. Kaine knew she'd balk at being offered a bed and night gown, some hours of recuperation after Adara was born, so he called for me. It took every form of effort to get her willing to remove her helm, so I could brush her hair. Not because Yasha was incapable, but to teach her contact between another person was not a danger. She was like a skittering vornskyr. I'll never forget…"

My voice grows distant, the images of Yasha and her raven hair, "She hugged her knees, didn't know how to breathe without the armour or her recently deceased spouse. Tamar had little Adara in our nursery, mere days old and on a transfusion of blood. That first night, all Yasha did was shake. I held her while she quaked in her dreams. Kaine would not entertain business until after she'd eaten and slept. I tell you the amount of times those gurlanin Ambrose and Tuulu snarled was worth it. Kaine and Yasha whispered like children in Epicant, so Yasha didn't require the translation protocols in her helm, they bantered and brawled and over years I watched my husband fall in love."

Another breath, I hold and contain it, let the feel of it bathe the room in Cynthia and Stardust's terror and grief.

"Were you there, when not a single soul on any planet could disarm her, except for his steady hand? Bit him once, maybe twice, left a scar until he got a new body. Gosh, she slapped the living daylights out of him many a time, and he took it. No person in any history I've known has been able to strike that man and not be condemned to a horrific fate." How strange, the images still as fresh in my mind as breakfast. I lean against the wall, bat the spear with a palm. "… No, of course you'd never see it. Why would you? You were her family, but she hid her truth between that dashed armour and her skin.

Yasha dreamed of a childhood on Panatha. While the Mandalorians owned her, the desires of her soul did not include beskar'kandar and Vong-flesh. When he proposed marriage, she told him not until her duty to the Mandalorians was done." I let the knowledge soak the room, timelines and secrets the abysmally angry Mandalorian (with hair my daughter Raya would adore) needs like Stardust needed decorporation.

"Who better to heal her? You? Yasha shattered in a trillion pieces the moment she put her armour back on, Mand'alor no longer, and died for people who either adored or despised her. She broke clinging to the arms of the man who gave her Girak-Kaine and Magnus. Little Viggo. And when he rescued her soul, he gave her the memories she'd whispered in the dreams he inhabited those years she despised him. He took away the wounds to her soul, her beloved Mandalorians, and gave her rest…. course part of it is definitely an eff-you to the Mandos, but for the most part, he did the best he could.

Don't condemn the man this choice, he's got plenty other ones to condemn six times over. But don't condemn him where Yasha was concerned, when Stardust is a step away from trying to save you from living in Yasha's ill-fated shadow. Be angry, let that anger feed you but see it for what it is.

Grief. So grieve. You endured enough tragedy to fill planets with oceanic tears. Let the grief out. Until you do, you can never transmute the energy into the growth Yasha never saw. Cry on your wife's shoulder, beat your shield until the war drums are gone and when your grieving is done, I may entertain the idea of you seeing what Yasha became."

Cynthia Solus Stardust Solus Skirae

 

[Cynthia Solus]

​

Cynthia looked at her wife who was knelt before her. "Her time was stolen Star and how can someone call being shacked up to a monster in a world built on lies and illusions a heaven? That's a hell, as bad as being trapped in the netherworld." Her blured eyes shifted to watch the green hand taking one of her own. "How could we know what she wanted anymore? How can you expect me to hear this news and be happy about it?"

Cynthia's hand tightened around Stars, her thumb moving back and forth over the soft skin. "My sister who I thought dead all this time, not only is she alive in a sense, has been changed... how am I to heal from this? I've still not gotten past the fact she was dead, my heart feels like its shattered into fine powder."

"You ask me to give up a path I have dedicated myself to, to give up the very think that gave me purpose after I tried to kill myself so long ago. When I stood by my sisters side vowing to do everything I could for our people it was not an issue, even when I was broken and recovering what happened to me a couple of years ago I still put our people first and that was not an issue, when you left to run around the galaxy leaving me here knowing that I would never stop day and night for our people... it was not an issue. So why is it an issue now. Why is it wrong to try fill the void? Why is following in her footsteps so wrong!?"

She took several deep breaths leaning forward to place her head against stars for a moment. "You ask me to live with you Star, but we have a home here. A home where we planned to start a family. I never left because I wanted to be somewhere you knew where to find me. Somewhere you knew I would be safe but it took you so long to come home. This place is our darasuum yaim."

The words spewing from the pale woman's mouth was nothing but fuel. Fuel that was being dumped in heaps on an already raging inferno of emotion. Her ruby red eyes lifted away from the slight comfort of her wife's hand. "You're damn right I condemn him. DAMN RIGHT that... monster, deserved nothing than damnation in eternal hell."

"Don't think for one fething minuet that I could not see the hurt she felt, the pain she carried with her. I hated seeing her like it. The funny thing is, I understand it, because those moments alone are the ones that are the most deafening. Allowing one single thought that was not about my people makes me feel like I will brake under the pressure of those so called planets of oceanic tears. I push and claw forward so that I do not fall backwards. So my people do not have to suffer the fate of your so called emperor wished for us in the first place."

Unintentionally her grip on stars hand tightened, she would feel the the shaking that quacked through her body, enough to effect her speech and breath. "Did he make her watch, as he tore down everything she helped build? Did his illusions make her enjoy being told about the death of the millions that she once protected? The very people I swore to protect also." Each word filled with bitterness, and hate not just for the woman but of all sith kind too. "How can a being who only destroys heal? Twisting someone into the thing he wants is not what I call healing. Had he any faith in what you claimed she had said, he would not have needed to. That's the thing with you sith, you cannot trust. You plot and scheme against each other when one can no longer use the other."

"So yeah if I knew how, I would have healed her, I would trade my soul if that was the price. I would embrace the netherworld, rid her of her pain and give her freedom without having to manipulate, if that's what it took." Even though she spoke with rage and sadness, there was also conveyed confidence and belief in what she said. "You want to know why? Its because I am mandalorian. I am a proud mandalorian woman who has always put those she loved first. It's something etched so deep to my core, no one would be able to take away." Cynthia huffed with a tremble knowing that if she stood up now it would end with her charging the sith. Cynthia took a moment to steady her breathing, to try and stop shaking that was there to stay for the time being.


Stardust Solus Skirae
Aditya Fitz Kierke

 

[Stardust Solus Skirae]

I never expected you to be happy about it, what I've seen and what your hearing conflict because the whole picture isnt painted for you

Her voice came soft, a change from her usual powerful voice that commanded attention like a roaring fire. Right now she was but a mere candle softly burning

the truth is cynthia, weve been blind to what was going on we never realized what the dark lord was doing to help yasha. Yes hes a being of destruction, pain, a murderer in cold blood....but I've witnessed him show a emotion I never knew could exist in a being of darkness...something I witnessed it right before my eyes when I first saw her so full of life and happiness without worry...he was caring hahaha..hahahahahah imagine that cynthia he looked upon he life she was the best gem in the world and I saw in him the human he had buried deep below

She knew cynthia would not take that either, it actively frustrated star, brows furrowed as cynthia spoke feverishly about her purpose in following in her footsteps and star gripped her hands a bit then loosened her grip as she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply before exhaling and looking up into thos lovely eyes. Damnit this woman could make her fall in love again while broken she was now, leaning forward she put he forehead to cynthia and kept her eyes closed

I dont want to lose you like I did her I don't want obligation to get in the way of you living cynthia, I want to see you laugh, I want to see you make greater things then my hands of destruction could ever forge, i want to see you live beyond the role of a leader to our clan....I wanna make a family with you here, by this shore, I wanna see our future go for decades beyond...I'm afraid...I'm afraid to lose you like her...I'm scared to lose you and once again I'm roaming alone

Words turned towards ahani, stars hands gripped Cynthia's hoping to keep her from charging the powerful woman, swallowing star shook as well and opened her eyes as she looked between the two and let a heavy breath out. Cynthia was everything she wanted and wa spacing it on display now, a powerful woman star had married a woman of confidence and power yet reserved. Looking to he revenge through the sadness and anger star feel in love deeper letting a huff put and moved to hug her gently

and no one can change that, I wont even change it, it's why I love you so much, you dont take anything at face value and take nothing anyone gives because YOU are a mandalorian....I believe it's easier to show you by action then with words

She looked to ahani

would that be possible? Would she be able to go back and see thos every moments?

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

"…. oh, you're asking me? Well!" I smack my lips, this frought Mandalorian has enough emotion for a 12 course meal. As Cynthia rages and wails I see what Stardust Solus Skirae loves and Yasha adored, she is a powerhouse without knowing it, a fountain for the Dark. "Honestly, Cynthia? Your mission to aide the Mandalorians does you credit. It's what Yasha would do. But if you try to aide Mandalorians the way Yasha did? You'll suffer the same tragic fate, and be a worn out, frantic ruler who eats herself alive to help one more person. If you're looking for reasons to stop being an… gosh, what do you call it, Chieftain-person. The A-word… I won't give it to you because it proves you're a loyal and valuable force of nature. Don't… don't let it eat you alive. Not a good look… wait, maybe… maybe you weren't asking me."

Can't help the snort which echoes through my lips, "I mean you're not wrong, he is s monster. Can't be the Dark Lord of the Sith if all you're famous for is a good cuddle." I shrug and look to Stardust, "What? Comes a point in every marriage a spouse can talk too honestly about their spouse's faults."

Another deep breath, seeing how intensely Cynthia Solus loved my wife, it… I step forward and to the side, at a diagonal to the pink haired woman. She really is intense and sweet. "I get it, this is complicated and it does not make for easy times. Decisions have to be made, which shock worlds, and tear at families no matter what we do. And if I'd known you, known how much you love my wife? I might've even tried to get over my…. aversion to your armoured lot, and trust your desire to heal her. But… all you Mandalorians hide from Echani. When our language is the body's movements and you cover yourselves in layers, it makes for one-sided conversations, and I can't trust that."

Another step, letting Stardust lead. I might be me, but I'm not necessarily an idiot after Taeli fixed my brain. Star spoke of the moment she met Gunnr, the way Kaine held her as she grunted at her mind's reconstruction. "Even monsters have mates. Think of how dangerous it is for him to love her. To have a weakness. I might be his wife, but I know why he married me and it wasn't affection. Cynthia, I need you to look at me. I love my wife. And watching her self-destruct for a bunch of… Stardust wants you to be safe, she doesn't want you to give up but modify the path. As much as you owe Yasha's memory, and the Mandalorians, you also owe good days to your family. Days you can have, if you carve in the time. But! You need to see the truth for yourself."

A flourish of my hand, pale and freckled as my mother's and foremothers' were. Identical in appearance, but with a ferocity and immortality they never knew.

"I can show you the truth, for all its' ugliness and its' joys. It's a bit of a mind-feth, but I'll return you, I promise. Don't think Gunnr would be pleased if I messed up her sisters, and if Skorvek and Stardust are indications, those people who were important to her become important to Gunnr the moment she lays eyes on them. Come. Come, come! Of course it's possible, Star. I don't know why you haven't trained your wife yourself. Honestly, her potential in the Force only needs a single shove to blossom. That, though, is something else for another moment of clarity... what? Why are you looking at me like that? Come on! Let's go! Star, you've done this before, so heave-ho let's go as my kids say."

 

[Cynthia Solus]

​

Cynthia could not understand why Stardust was defending the actions of Kaine Zambrano. It hurt to think anyone could defend those actions. She knew what ever happiness was forced into Yasha's head where lies and a false truth, yet because a monster showed a moment of humanity, that makes this all okay? The turmoil inside felt like it was ripping at her flesh. Cynthia trusted her wife, just she could not believe the words. "How did they get you to accept this?" She thought as her riduur's forehead pressed against her own. The soft quick squeeze. It was not hard to understand that Star having told her about this in the first place was difficult. Maybe there was a hope at first that star had told her so something could be done, but it did not seem that way.

Then came words that cut deeper than any beskad, deeper than any hook to pull her down. "I'm afraid...I'm afraid to lose you like her...I'm scared to lose you and once again I'm roaming alone." Those very words made her heart sink deep, they made her eyes shut tight pushing out the tears. Cynthia's hand raised up moving around the back of Stardust's head and under her lekku. "Y... you won't loose me, because I have you. I know you are there to catch me if I fall." The words where soft and quiet in hopes the white witch would not overhear.

Her hand slipped down onto the back of Star, neck. "The word you are looking for is Alor, I do not ever intend to stop leading my people nor am I looking for reasons to stop." She lifted her head up to look at the woman, red eyes emerging to look at her properly for the first time. Cynthia watched her closely as she moved. It was easy to see Cynthia did not trust the woman one bit. All she saw was an intruder that was in her home.

"You will never understand how much I loved my sister, even if you had tried. You say you cant read our bodies us because we are in armor, then I say you are blind and ignorant. In our armor we are more expressive to convey our emotions. Like so many you cannot trust what you can't understand, that tells me you are just narrow minded."

She could feel star's hands grip tighter, Cynthia knew what Stardust was trying to do. Even had she wanted to move into attack, there was no energy left. Was this defeat or perhaps a momentary pause to recuperate? "A bunch of what, Mandalorians? and I know Star wants me safe, why do you think I remained here on Vanquo? Why do you think I poured my ever living soul into this place to make sure its defended against the likes of the sith. I stayed here because Star wanted me safe, I stayed here for my wife so she could always find me. So I made this place... safe, and not just safe for me but everyone here. I have been here ready to start the family we planned." She paused to look down at her wife, a soft and loving kiss on the side of her face. "I do not blame you Star, after what happened a few years ago I needed the safety. Then so much time passed, I recovered I felt trapped so I did the only thing I knew how. Follow my Mandalore, followed the example she set."

Ahani spoke again and she had bewildered Cynthia on what she had said. "How can you show me the truth?" She thought for a moment then her brow furrowed from one word, the force. "What do you mean the force?" Cynthia spoke those words under her breath, meant more for herself than anyone else in the room.

All this time there was one who had been silent, one who had been observing as she took in everything that was mentioned. Synthetic emotions was complex, even understanding it to it's fine points it was still a very complex thing. Ca moved closer till reaching the opposite side of Cynthia to that of Ahani. Seeing her carrier had calmed down, even feeling it within the chip that she was housed the AI felt now was a better time than any to ask her own questions. Ones Cynthia neglected to ask because of her emotional outburst. "If I may project for a moment before anything else happens. Who are you, and why are you here?" The questions where ones of curiosity and innocents.


Stardust Solus Skirae
Aditya Fitz Kierke

 

[Stardust Solus Skirae]

because I witnessed it, I hate that I witnessed it, but because I have, my eyes were opened to the truth

Her voice was hushed, eyes shut as she couldn't hold back her tears, yet there wasnt...mmm no no she felt something in the force told her this was the moment she needed to cry. The kiss to the side of her head made her smile as she made her decision and with a deep breath she gently stood looking down into her wife's eyes, her head turned to ahani as she bowed her head in shame

I...was afraid to bring it up to her, but I suppose now is better then never

Looking to ahani she waited for that feeling but...it didnt come...much to stars surprise ahani was telling HER to do it! With a surprised look star looked nervous very nervous as she looked to her hand and closed it tightly as she nodded her head and looked into the eyes of her wife

trust me cynthia, heed my word, don't think of letting go of my hand

Ca spoke, star looked to what was essentially her other wife and gave a grin

your on house duty, well that and my two nieces outside, in any case

Star closed her eyes to focus, holding her other hand out to ahani as she envision that feeling, the feeling of the galaxy moving around her. Slowly and with some effort stardust would seems to just break apart into a cloud of green, the effect seemed to travel to cynthia making her into a cloud of reddish pink, cynthia would feel her senses become both numb and yet at the same time she was aware of time and space around her. Physical sensations were gone but the existence of the self remained, the area shifted around them as star focused more and brought them high above the planet growing smaller as they soared through the atmosphere and away from the planet. Soon the local star system could be seen then soon the cluster and finally star had bought them to the very view of the galaxy star had seen before her months ago.

now...let's see...mmmm...weve seen what kaine the betrayer did...but that very point...ah yes ahani I think I know...i wanna show her when carnifex saved her soul from those bastard priests!

Anger was felt but fade, the galaxy before them shifted planets moving back in time and the view focused on a specific place, a certain planet known as ithor, there stardust slowly began to bring in view where yashas soul had first went

 

[Darth Carnifex]

Darkness gave way to incandescent light, vibrant greens bleeding through their vision like painted dripped into a placid pool. The world of Ithor was a paradise, sacred to the Ithorians who tended its magnificent gardens and meditated at its sylvan shrines. Centuries of concentrated rehabilitation had brought Ithor back from the brink of destruction, the land healed from the devastation wrought by the Yuuzhan Vong hordes. The Ithorians had returned from their diaspora to tend to Ithor's budding jungles, leaving no mark other than that which bloomed and prospered across the planet. High above, Ithorian herdships meandered lazily through the upper atmosphere.

But that fragile tranquility was broken, for the shadow had come to Ithor.

It swept down from space, a sleek black dagger that cut through Ithor's atmosphere like a shooting star. Cruelty and malice radiated from it like infectious radiation, darkening everything in its path as it skimmed the treeline before slowing to a stop above a natural clearing. Sinking down to the ground, the shadow came to a rest before He emerged from within. Black sackcloth moved through the unspoiled forest, a dark power giving unnatural speed.

No beast strayed near the darkness as it passed, even the most ferocious predator taking refuge in the shadow's wake. The wind fell quiet and still, as though the world were holding its breath so that the shadow may not know that the world lived. But the shadow did not come for the world nor its beasts, they did not exist to Him as He moved through them. His mind was fixed on one thing, all of His will bent towards a single purpose. There was no power in the universe that could have stayed Him.

When He came upon the pool, so radiant with the twinkling fractures of the mid-morning sun, He was consumed with anger. The priests that tended to the pool looked up in alarm as the shadow entered their midst. They had no weapons, to carry such violent instruments on Ithor was considered sacrilege. They could not defend themselves as the shadow extended from His hand a beam of amaranth sunlight to cut them down where they stood. His butchery did not cease until all the priests lay dead at His feet, hewn until completely unrecognizable; rendered into little more than carrion for Ithor's scavengers.

The ground beneath the shadow's feet withered as He walked to the edge of the pool, a shimmering light from beneath its placid waters calling out to Him. With both hands, He seized the pool's banks and tore them apart, large fractures ripping open at the base of the pool and all along its edges. The water spilled freely, the basin draining as the water was redirected elsewhere through the channels the shadow had inflicted upon it. The shadow then reached out as a small shimmering wisp of pale blue light emerged from the bottom of the emptied pool, rising up into the air before descending to land in the palm of His hand.

The shadow cradled the light as though it would break if breathed on too strongly, a creature of darkness showing greater compassion than that He levied upon the priests that had kept the light hidden. They had sought to cleanse it of something they had deemed anathema, unnatural. In doing so, they had nearly brought it to destruction. It was something that the shadow could not allow, could never allow. So He destroyed them, all of them, to save the small wisp of light that was now safe and protected in His hands.

And as He brought the light close, the faint aura that it emanated illuminated His face for the first time. Darth Carnifex looked upon the light with wonder in His baleful eyes, His stoic composure fractured by concern. "It will be alright," He assuaged the light's fears through soothing reassurance, "This nightmare will fade, and you will be made whole again." He turned with the light in His hands, walking back the way He came and leaving the grisly site of His slaughter to be consumed by the jungle.

"Trust me, Yasha, trust me."

Cynthia Solus | Stardust Solus Skirae | Ahani Najwa-Zambrano ​

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

"Yes, that's exactly the word. An Echani watching someone enshrouded in layers of armour with a bucket on their head makes us blind. Thank you! I knew you'd get it eventually there, Rage-Magnet. Kinda hard to have an opinion about something we can't see." Can't help but laugh a little, not out of any malice, but the girl is so young. Maybe she's filled with the passions only those on their first lifetime can possess, but my cosmic wow, she's something else.

"What do you mean the force… Star!" I gesticulate at the Twi'lek, a shake of my head and eyes cast up to the sky above. Fear? From a woman, who turns metal into plasma? Oh, I'm definitely going to poke at that fear later, until she's fed up with me about it. "Yeah, this is going to be a trip and a half."

The echo of the voice hits and I shake my head with a hearty guffaw. If this Mandalorian needs further definition of who I am, then they are as ignorant to Echani language as I am apparently to telling the muscle movements and facial twitches of people enshrouded in shiny metal. Star's hand is as warm as her love for the pink haired Mandalorian, and part of me wants to celebrate for the sheer potency of their affections: such intensity is harder to find than fine corusca gems. I feed her the assurance of my support, the knowledge I will not let her fail and she can experiment with my guiding presence.

The universe itself shifts for us, no longer in the mortal flow any corporeality is left as dross in our fires. If her concentration were to deviate for a slip of time, Stardust would scatter herself and Cynthia into an entirely different kind of 'stardust'. Won't let that happen, I'm too amused by the whole twisting mess of passions. A bunch of intertwined family members complaining and biting, clawing at the Dark as if somehow they'll get back worse days they look on without clarity. What we need is a new universe, one canted a few degrees to the other side, and hopefully we see the moments which convict and clarify.

Ithor was a beautiful place. Still is, I suppose. As Kaine's act of violence bespoils the soil before our eyes, the sheer confluence of his anger spills into the cloud. Red and deep umber, the anger carried with it a desperation I never thought Kaine could possess. He clawed at the banks of the lake like a man harrowed by the demonic, the pure radiant Light around him enough to scorch his skin and burn his lungs.

Still, Kaine Zambrano slaughtered and dug. Hands which purged Ithor of priests dedicated to renewal and holiness held the fractured light as if it alone were holy. "She had nightmares of drowning, as if she was drowned over and over, the surface tension of the water too strong to break… it's always so jarring, seeing him like this… pleading for her trust as if she were the only deity with whom he could commune. And yet, look."

I nod to the pale light, its fluctuations of colour strengthened the closer it drifted to his chest. Even the colour of the light shifted, warming purples radiated inward as it began to pulse with a heartbeat at first frenetic, then slow and steady. In the wake of the slaughter, I concentrate our collective energies, "Come, there's more. Earlier, before she died."

Our souls veer beneath Dromund Kaas, to the soaked battles of Yasha Cadera and Kaine Zambrano as they fought back to back for each others' lives. For their own. Cynthia's sister thrashed exhausted and animalistic, fanged teeth gnashed and ripped at the monsters' flesh when the power to her buy'ce failed. When she ran out of ammunition and her arms tired after achingly starved days, she switched to katar and a familiar beskad. Back to back, the Dark Lord: a scion of generations perfected, fought beside a woman unawares of her own family's genetic husbandry over centuries of nobility on Panatha. Two monsters with no choice but relying on mutual ferocity.

As the blood trickled down her throat from the horrific creatures' meat, eaten from desperation, the hallucinogenic effects of dehydration and contaminated flesh scoured her, there the Dark Lord…

"Yasha, hold on." I watch in wonder as he unclasped her armour piece by piece, while she thrashed. Arms with the strength to toss her aside wrapped her in his only cloak and brushed the sweat-laden and matted hair away from her olive toned face. She clawed and spat and bit. Screamed into his neck as her teeth gouged into his throat in an agony unreleased since infancy. The Force made itself known to her in that dismal place, and it was black as the coal-red depths of Kaine's eyes. He held her for her warmth and comfort by a meagre fire, a hand running through her hair as he hummed Panathan lullabies. Yasha sobbed then, embroiled in her own hallucinogenic pain.

Like water to a tree, he pulled her agony into himself, a fuel unending until her thrashes stopped and he washed her feverish body in the deep, black waters. The Dark Lord let her drink of them, she, who's mother hated the Force to the point of nigh killing her only child. Yasha's body released and she collapsed. The path came easier, then. Fed like Adara, on pitch black waters. Still, he rocked her. Carried her body in tireless repetition as they waited for rescue.

She touched his lips as he hummed, her own chapped and raw. He leaned into the fragile beast, a fellow apex predator in a den of lethal prey. Stroked her hair out of her face and looked quizzically down upon her, an understanding grew in their eyes and Yasha finally saw the man in him, the monster who survived as she did. Yasha pushed to her knees before their meagre fire collected from the bric-a-brac of Dromund Kaas' once proud city, and with a compassion Kaine never understood until that precise moment, she pulled him into her arms around his neck, kissed his temple, and held him in the dark.

Cynthia Solus Stardust Solus Skirae

 

[Cynthia Solus]

Jeff Williams - Until The End

Cynthia watched Star's hand reach out to Ahani's, the motion was enough to cause a scowl. "You know what I mean, you are blind because you choose to not see anything different from how your dear mommy's and daddy's taught you." Ca held up her holographic hand as the AI looked to Star while Cynthia snapped at the woman. "Wait wha─" When Stardust faded then her wife, the connection was cut from the holoprojector, making it fall, clattering to the ground. To the AI, all it felt was an abyss of darkness.

For the beaten and broken mandalorian however, things was different. The numbness she felt inside was now matched with the rest of her corporeal body.

Cynthia looked at her own hand turning it over a couple of times, with fingers moving back and forth. Her body was a hue of torch red and made of a cloud of dust. In a matter of second the ground beneath her feet moved from view. She struggled to understand what was happening, looking up to Stardust to see the cloud of green in the shape of her wife, words began to escape the woman.

Even now watching her riduur it did not seem to phase the twi'lek, In fact she looked in her element. Shifting her sight to gaze at the surrounding of felids and glittering lights, nebula's filled with beautiful colours. Further and further they went, views that would blow minds, yet for the mandalorian woman, it all seemed... empty, without meaning. When Stardust spoke, Cynthia did not accept the phrasing. To her in that moment she had the view he stole Yasha's soul and condemned her.

Star's swirled and rushed passed, Ithor a world of lush green came close, till finally stood on its soil. A world, many viewed as a tranquil and peaceful place... was a peaceful place. She watched as the events began to unfold, the moment she saw Carnifex, a rage built and burned, wishing no more than to lunge at the being. Had it not been for how tight she held onto her wife's hand, she just might have done, not that it would matter.

In the very moment as he descended onto the Itorian's, Cynthia was mentally taking notes. The way he moved, the power he displayed and how he struck the ground to carve a path for the water go. She was studying the enemy closely.

When the blue wisp raised then fell into the mans palms. The voice in her head growled at first quiet and grew to a crescendo. "You never made her whole, YOU TWISTED MY SISTER, TWISTED HER TO YOUR DESIGN!" The free hand balled into a fist, her eyes refusing to see the tenderness the man was showing. Though perhaps she did see it too, hoping it's not as it seemed, hoping for any other expressions.

Ahani's voice broke her thoughts screaming inside. "She is far more than any deity. She's is my sister. Carnifex speaks about trust but everything that falls into his hands become corrupted till seeing things his way." Cynthia closed her eyes tight, wishing a tear or something to fall. The grief felt like it was about to make her heart burst at the seams, her rage ready to set a blaze to the galaxy, to burn more intense than any exploding sun in moments before becoming a void that sucked everything in. There was a darkness growing inside her filling the gaps where parts fell away.

The conflict that was inside her was growing and consuming.

Jeff Williams - Fear

Without time to process the three had been wisped away. A world shrouded in perpetual darkness unrelenting rain and thunderous cracks of light raising from the ground. They would all go beneath the world into ruins that she hand only heard stories about when she was being raised by her buir. Strider knew how to paint a picture, especially when they related to women.

Cynthia for the first time in a long time, saw her sister. Not some statue that stood proud in the halls of alor's. She watched the two fight side by side facing off against dark side twisted beasts. Watching her sister fight tooth and nail was hard to witness especially fighting besides Carnifex. Slaughtering deformed and twisted creatures of this dark sided world. Yet another example of the sith's twisted power.

Still seeing this moment was painful, to witness the desperation for survival of a woman she once thought invincible. Every mandalorian knew how to fight to their dying breath, many wished a warriors death, even then no one of a family wanted to see their loved die. Cynthia knew she should not be inspired by the raw ferocity that her sister showed. All the while trying to take in as much as she could so that Ca could let her play it back later to study the dark lord in depths.

More time passed, and the exhausted expressions was like catching the glimpse of her own reflection. How long had it been since She had properly looked at herself? It quickly became a point where it was so hard to watch. She could not bare to stand seeing Carnifex holding her, trying to tend to her, he took parts of her Beskar'gam off to search for wounds. She tried to chalk it down to his own self preservation, that it was not a tender and loving moment. She hoped that part of her thrashing was to get him to stop.

Well, he was. Just watching it was easy to see Yasha was in no state of mind. Watching her teeth pierce deep into the skin of the mans neck Cynthia wanted it hurt him. She continued to watch him bathe Yasha into the black waters, watching him rock and carry her. Then came the part Cynthia refused to watch, as the pair, looked to each other, her head turned away. Cynthia moved closer to Star hiding her face in the Twi'leks corporal form. This was something she refused to see, she could not accept any affection between them.

Cynthia did not see her sister pull the man close, nor where the kiss landed. She refused to see the intimate moment, the connection the two had. "No more." She softly spoke clutching onto her riduur.


Stardust Solus Skirae
Aditya Fitz Kierke

 

[Stardust Solus Skirae]

Star looked on, her emotions were calm and cool, she had revisited these moments multiple times just to convince herself this was truely a product of the galaxies workings rather then carnifexs' hand. Her wife's emotions bubbled like a brewing thunderstorm off within the distance, similar emotions stardust had upon witnessing what the galaxy had witnessed in it's ever moving theater, sighing softly she felt her wife looking away from it all and stardust made a decision that made stardust shake

no

It was a simple word one that carried much power behind it however

no I will not stop, these are truths that are not touched by the dark lords hand, these are the truths the universe has witnessed and recorded. These are the truths that reveal to us what we have denied, what we have kept in the shadows, what we DONT WANT TO SEE

Her voice grew booming, however her presences surrounded cynthia as she then whispered

but like me, you wont witness it alone, I will be here to make sense of it for you

A gaze turned towards ahani sensing something from her master

there is something you wish to show us I can feel it...please take lead and show us another truth the galaxy has witnessed