Chapter Text
When Core woke up, she was in a world of pain. And she was alone. All alone. She could barely remember what happened but at one point she had used The Force. But it had still hurt when she had landed. She quickly fainted.
It was dark when she woke up again and the room smelled weird. She didn’t like it. It smelled like… cleaning things. The kind that Buir told her and Ceres they weren’t supposed to touch. And she hated it. It was giving her a horrible headache. She was in a hospital room on a bed that had scratchy sheets. She wanted to move but she couldn’t. They had handcuffed her down with weird handcuffs. They were blue, and she knew that they were bad.
She couldn’t feel the Force. There had to be something stopping her from feeling the Force. Maybe the weird handcuffs.
“Buir?” Core managed to ask, her voice shaking. But he didn’t come. No one did. She was all alone. She wanted her daddy or auntie or sister or even Grandpa!
Tears came to her eyes. She cried and cried and cried. Because she was in pain, alone, and oh so afraid. And she cried because she just had a feeling that she would never see Buir or Ceres again.
She cried until she fell asleep again in the weird hospital room. When she woke up, she wasn’t alone anymore. There were two weird men. Men she had never seen before. At least she didn’t think so but everything was so confusing.
Core shut her eyes tightly, hoping they would disappear or at least not know she was awake. Maybe it was just a bad dream and she would wake up and be with Buir and her family.
“Lord Vader won’t be pleased when he discovers she’s being kept alive, Gideon. He’s not fond of the former Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi and this is his granddaughter,” the man with a super skinny, sharp face said. He had looked stern and scary.
But Impies always did. Except when they liked her but now they probably all hated her.
Even though she had been trying to be good and do what they wanted even when her sister wouldn’t. Just because she knew that she had to.
Core forced her eyes open a tiny bit so that they wouldn’t know she was awake.
“Lord Vader sometimes doesn’t have the hindsight to think about what might be needed in the future,” the man who must be called Gideon said.
The other one smirked and stayed quiet.
“She’s a Kryze and—“ Gideon tried to say.
“To my understanding they don’t have any real power now,” mean face said. “Just blue blood.”
“That’s true, Tarquin, but you never know what could change.” He paused. “Saxon, he’s… well I’m not confident in his ability to maintain control.”
Tarquin sighed and nodded. “Well, that is something that we can agree on. Mandalorians… they’re…”
“Yes, and Saxon isn’t one of the clever ones,” Gideon said. “He’ll lose control and having a Kryze—“
“Isn’t she the younger of the two?” Tarquin said. He turned to look at her. Core closed her eyes tightly again, hoping they thought that she was sleeping.
“Yes, but it’s irrelevant. Having one is a good plan just in case. Bo-Katan Kryze was also the youngest and now look.”
“I suppose,” Tarquin said. “She can always be terminated if necessary.”
Core didn’t know what that meant. She didn’t want to stay either. She wanted to go back to her family. But did her family want her?
They weren’t here! They should be here but they weren’t. Why didn’t they come and rescue her from the bad people!
“Yes, but I don’t think that will be necessary.”
“She’s Force Sensitive and—“ Tarquin tried to say as Core opened her eyes slightly again
“Not a high enough M count for that, and that project hasn’t been approved yet anyway. It might not be necessary. We need a better subject for that anyway.”
Core had no idea what they were talking about. What was an M count?
Tarquin and Gideon talked for a bit longer, even mentioning Auntie’s time in Death Watch which Core didn’t know much about. Just that it had been very bad and it made both Auntie and Buir sad.
“This child is lucky really. I’ve heard rumors that Vizsla and Kryze—“ Tarquin said.
“Yes, those rumors are disgusting and nothing like that will occur with this one,” Gideon said referencing to Core. Core didn’t understand. “Core Kryze will just be useful to me because of her ties to Mandalore. I’m not the kind of man Vizsla was.” Core didn’t understand. What kind of man had this Vizsla person been? Who was he even? She hadn’t heard of him. She didn’t think so anyway.
Core wondered what they were talking about. After that they talked more and soon she drifted back to sleep.
When she woke up, she was alone again, but only for a few moments, then Gideon came back. She froze and stared at him. She wanted to use the Force, but she couldn’t. She was blocked. She wanted to feel the Force. Its presence was comforting.
Like a friend that was always there.
But now even it was gone. Taken away from her.
And then Gideon walked in. He gave her a smug smile but then came over. “Don’t worry, little Kryze. I’m not going to hurt you.”
“I want my buir. I want my sissy,” Core said, letting out a cry.
Gideon came over and then handed her a stuffed bear. Core paused and then took it. She hugged the bear tightly. Bear was all she had now. She was surprised he gave her it because he was and Impie, but she needed the bear.
It could be her friend.
“It’ll be okay, Core,” Gideon said. “Your family doesn’t want you anymore but—“
“They don’t want me?” Core asked. Was he right? She knew that she had been trying to get people to like her but she maybe she had made her family mad. Ceri was gone after all. She had never been nice to the Impies so maybe her family only wanted her now.
“No,” Gideon said. “But I’ll be there for you.”
Core sniffled. She didn’t want him but what if he was all she had.
He ruffled her hair. “Eventually we’ll have to come up with a new name for you but for now, everything will be okay. It’s much better to be with the Empire. Trust me.”
It was hard but Core did her best to.
And she already knew what her new name would be.
Persephone.
**
Years passed and there were so many changes in Ceres’s life. For many years she had been almost terrified of anything but eventually she had slowly started to recover. And eventually even though it was hard for her buir, she got her own beskar and became a brand-new Nite Owl. Or at least today was the day she would officially be a Nite Owl.
Just what Ceres had always wanted. She was young still but she knew she was doing what her sister would want and what she wanted. She was doing her best to make her sister proud. To make her whole family proud.
“You look so beautiful in beskar, cyar’ika,” Ceres’s girlfriend Andi said. Ceres had crushed on her for years but only recently Andi said she felt the same. Ceres had felt amazing. Amazing that someone as creative and sweet as Andi could like her.
Ceres grinned. “Thank you.” She kissed Andi’s cheek. “But that doesn’t matter. What matters is being there to support my auntie. To be there for Mandalore.”
Ceres’s aunt Bo-Katan had recently gotten the Darksaber and would be trying to take back their world. It was perfect and how things were meant to be. Yes, her aunt had done horrible things as a teen but she had been groomed and abused by Vizsla. But since then, she had fought the Empire nonstop for twenty years. She had done so much for everyone.
Ceres would now fight for her aunt and for her Mandalore. She would do what her family wanted would fight for the people who mattered to her. For her auntie, for her buir, and for her sweet grandfather who had helped train her.
And most of all for her sister Core.
She would always miss her.
She just wished that she could be here with her now.
And had not died that night that Ceres had been rescued.
If only…