Work Text:
Chapter 1: Chaos on a Beautiful World
Maul watches the scene unfold through the macrobinoculars. His yellow eyes narrow in anger as he sees his hiking companion surrounded by the four thugs, their blasters pointed at her.
The smallest of the four, and most probably the brains, snatches the blaster from the hiker’s belt. Maul’s anger dissipate a tiny bit as a smile flows to his features. Perhaps he isn’t the brains. His smile grows even wider as he sees the expression on his companion’s crimson features. A devilish expression that he is already familiar with, although in a different context. He knows that the expression is for him, as much as for the thugs. It says only one thing to him.
Do your worst. I am ready.
Maul shifts the binocs around, searching for what form his worst might take. He can see the other ‘lumber workers’ milling about on the other side of a slight draw. Like the four now working to place binders on the young woman, they look about as home in flannel and canvas work trousers as a full-grown anooba in a a dowager’s lap, are checking their weapons. He lifts the eyepieces higher, focusing on a small enclosure. He grins as he sees the true workers, the ones who had cut the trees currently waiting to be loaded into a transport, sitting dejectedly in the enclosure.
Their work clothing bearing the insignia of House Panteer—the holders of the permit for the meager harvest allowed of these old growth burlwood trees. A House who would probably never be allowed anywhere near the forest after this debacle.
As the four thugs lay hands on the woman, and start to drag her to a small prefab building. His eyes focus on something else that the thugs have dropped in their search.
A small leather case with a code cylinder attached. He zooms the macrobinoculars in on the case. His eyes narrow at the object opposite code cylinder and scan doc. A gold representation of an ancient projectile. A silver four-pointed star in the center, with another, smaller star in the center of the larger. A tiny star representing one of her worlds.
He purses his lips, giving a quick look up at the pile of logs. He grins as he sees his objective.
That should bring a little chaos. Or least serve as a catalyst for her own particular brand, he thinks.
He closes his eyes, remembering the dry Coruscanti accent in his mind.
Focus on the object, Maul. Then calm and let the Force through you. Let it bind you to the object.
Lord Maul, adopted son of House Organa works his own chaos.
~=~=~=~=~=
Unknown to Lord Maul, the owner of that dry voice is sitting in the co-pilot’s seat of a small ship, wondering why the hell that he allowed the pilot to take control. He looks over at his companion, his emotions reeling at both the headlong descent into atmosphere, as well as the strange feeling engendered by the pilot.
For the first time in months, Obi-wan Kenobi is joined on a mission by a fellow Jedi. His eyes lock on the green gaze of the pilot. A gaze nearly hidden in a mass of dark and gold hair and thick beard that puts even his to shame.
The younger Jedi nods at him. Obi-wan can feel the Corellian’s own emotions tumbling, as they move closer to their objective.
Chapter 2: Zeltron Chaos -
Dani Faygan spits blood, as she grins at the thug clutching himself. Another of the charmers is probably wondering why his wrist is at an odd angle.
A third mournfully looks at the teeth on the floor of the prefab hut. She turns her attention on the fourth on her dance card. She smiles challengingly as he draws a large blade. Her eyes widen slightly as she recognizes a Crowneshield shoreline mollusk-dagger. She tries not to think of the young man who now waits in that fortress-city on her father’s world and his. He waits to see if an experiment will allow him to leave the Covenant’s seat.
She shakes her head, attempting to focus on the problem at hand. She hopes that Maul was able to figure out some type of chaos before too long. She falls into a stance. She doesn’t make a move towards her hiking boot. She purses her lips as she feels more blood fill her mouth. Dani spits again, this time aiming rather than merely clearing the blood.
The thug bellows in rage as the expectoration strikes him.
Dead center between his eyes. He starts towards Dani, holding his knife tight in his fist. Yep. Just how I want you to hold it. Tells me you don’t know shit from apple butter about true knife fighting. She centers her weight on her feet, allowing some give, but keeping her center of gravity steady.
She prepares herself for the grappling. Their cursory search had left her with many options.
“Stop,” comes a quiet voice. The thug and Dani both draw up short. Dani curses to herself as she recognizes the voice.
In spite of the mechanical noise being made as an undertone of the voice. Dani unconsciously touches a deep knife scar on her left bicep. The voice calls back memories she thought she had quashed.
Memories of a young newly minted apprentice Deputy Constable facing the owner of that same voice. Facing him with his knife at her throat.
Only the intervention of another—another who was the catalyst of the now-mechanical sounding voice had saved her young life.
She had hesitated. Something she had never done since.
Jad Antol, the leader of the Corellian version of a far-travelled crime family smiles at her. “Hello Deputy. Looks like I will get another chance to rid the universe of the Dragon’s pet Zeltron.”
“How’d that work out for you last time, Jad?” she manages to ask. “Eating anything other than baby food, yet?”
Her blood chills as he smiles. “You don’t have a Dragon here to pull you out of trouble. I think I will enjoy this.
Dani closes her eyes, as her hand moves to the back of the belt of her hiking shorts. I think that I should’ve stayed in the hot tub with Queen Breha, drinking Toniray cocktails and getting warned to stay away from her Blackbird. Or a better offer. I couldn’t tell which.
Nope. You had to see if you could push the issue with said Blackbird, Daaineran.
Chapter 3 - The Night Before Chaos - The ‘Talk’
Dani watches as Breha lifts the flute of a Toniray cocktail and hands it to the younger woman. Dani smiles as the green and amber layers of a perfect mix shimmer in the low light. She sips it, allowing the warmth to build in her belly, to match the warmth of the steaming water.
She feels her resonance open as she contemplates the warmth that is reflected back to her from the Queen of Alderaan. Her purple eyes glance up and down the royal’s body.
Breha returns the gaze unflinchingly. Dani rests her pinned up hair against the side of the tub as she concentrates on the warmth moving into her strained muscles. She sees Maul’s form in her mind’s eye as they move into stances for their spar. She feels a thumb touch her lip, in the exact place where it had been split in that spar. She opens her eyes, letting her brow rise as Breha holds it on the injury.
“Looks like it seems to be healing nicely, dear. Along with your nose.”
Dani smiles. “Could be the royal touch, your Majesty,” she says archly.
She watches as Breha rolls her eyes. “Yes. That must be it, Daaineran,” she says. Her voice nearly draws the moisture out of the air.
Dani feels a sheepish look come over her face. “You wanted to talk to me, your Majesty?” she asks. She steels herself for the response from this powerful woman.
“Yes, dear. I wanted to ask your intentions with Lord Maul,” Breha says. “By the way. You can call me Breha when we’re sitting naked in a tub drinking good Toniray and Whyren’s from your world.”
Dani smiles, but quickly wilts under Breha’s dark gaze. She takes a deep breath. “Well, it is no secret that he can have a certain affect on people. I am no exception, Breha.”
Breha laughs softly. “That is like the river calling the sea wet, my dear. I think that my husband may still be in the shower from that tango with Maul.”
They both laugh. “Of course, the three of us had a helluva night that night,” Breha says.
Dani raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t voice question on her mind. “I think that Meglann might’ve enjoyed the night, as well,” she says instead. She looks away, as she remembers the original question.
“So what if my intentions are to throw him down on the nearest floor and have my way with him?” she says, her eyes meeting the Queen’s caf-colored windows.
Dark windows that have suddenly narrowed and become harder. “It depends on what you do before and after you do that.”
Dani is quiet as Breha continues. “I will not see him hurt, just for a notch on your goddamned bedpost,” she says.
Dani looks down. “Do you get the idea that I would ever do anything like that?” she whispers.
Breha softens. “No. I don’t. But he has been through a lot in his life. I think that Bail has been good for him, and he for Bail.” She looks down, flushing a bit. “Kinda been good for me, too.”
“Can you tell me some of his story, Breha?” Dani asks shyly. “I just want to know, so I don’t hurt him.”
Breha smiles and reaches over to touch the younger woman’s cheek. “That tells me that you might take care, love, but no. That is his story to tell.” She grins. “I think he trusts you. He did ask for mine and Bail’s permission to go hiking with you.”
Breha’s eyes widen as she looks at Dani’s face. Dani can feel her face grow warm at that casual admission—a rare occurrence, she knows. After a moment she looks back at Bre. “Your Majesty, I know what you have probably heard about my people. That we are frivolous and open our legs for anyone.”
The Queen says nothing. “We are more than that. We have to have a connection with those that we share our bodies with. The body is only one part of the Zeltron soul—the least important. The heart and the mind are paramount.”
“I would never hurt anyone, or trifle with anyone that I kriff.” Breha’s eyes widen at the word. Dani notices and grins. “We don’t use euphemisms for acts of the body. We say what we mean.”
Dani allows her eyes to grow fierce. “I say that, but I would hurt anyone or even trifle with anyone that poses a danger to me and mine.”
Breha nods. “Then maybe I don’t have to threaten you, my dear, with grievous bodily harm.”
Their laughter rises together. As it fades, Breha reaches out and takes Dani’s hand in an easy grip, rubbing her the fingers between her own thumb and forefinger. Her eyes crinkle with merriment as a tremendous warmth starts around her belly and spreads. She rolls her eyes.
“Okay, my girl. You can turn it down. You’ve made your point. Plus, I am confident that I could resist your hoodoo. This ain’t my first bubble bath.”
The feeling of warmth recedes. A tiny bit.
Breha looks into Dani’s now-black eyes, transitioned from their usual dark purple. She continues to stroke the warm hand. “So. These connections. Do you think you might want to build some others? Maybe with other members of the House?”
Dani grins. “Just might, your Majesty.” She grins. “With the Viceroy?”
“Oh hell no. I don’t think I will share him with too many others.”
Breha stands in the bath. Dani scrambles to her feet. “Go. Hike with my Blackbird. Enjoy yourself, but remember what I said. Don’t hurt him and remember that he will always come back to his family.”
Dani turns to climb of the tub. She squeaks as Breha slaps her on the ass. “Have a nice hike. You can tell Maul that you have received the shovel talk. That you survived it.”
Dani’s eyebrows knit together. “The shovel talk?”
“Refers to what he thinks I might use to bury the body with, if you hurt him.” She reaches over and kisses the officer, allowing her lips to linger. “We both know we won’t need it, right?”
Dani is unable to reply.
~=~=~=~=~=
Maul waits in the morning air. He looks out over the lush green beauty of his world, sipping his tea. He breathes in the air, noting that there is a slightly crisp feel to it. He looks up at the rising sun. The air will warm by the time that they reach the Wood. He turns at the slight twist in his stomach of a mild harbinger of his hiking partner.
Maul allows a warm smile to flow over his features. Dani stands at the end of the trail from the lodge. A dark blue flannel shirt is tied, over a black tank top. A pair of hiking shorts reveal a length of crimson skin—a length that ends in a pair of well-used hiking boots. Her brown and blue hair is tied back, the first time that he has ever seen it not flowing over her shoulders.
He takes a sip of his tea and promptly coughs when the liquid flows down the wrong pipe as she removes the overshirt and starts to tie it around her waist, over a small belt pack and canteen.
The scion of House Organa manages to still the coughing, as she touches the skin of his arm. “It’s okay. I won’t bite.” Her eyes manage to stay in the purple. “Unless you want me to,” she finishes.
This may be a long hike.
Her smile grows wider. “Show me your world, Lord Maul. I want to see it through your eyes. Show me that love that I saw in your eyes just now when you were looking at its beauty.”
Maul’s body and mind relaxes at her words. He watches as she falls in beside him.
“Let’s go, Inspector,” is all that he says.
Chapter 4: A Good Walk Spoiled -
Maul realizes that he is laughing as he hasn’t in a while as he and Dani walk deeper into the wilderness, their feet moving easily on the primitive trail. The morning sun had burned off the chill, the day is warm, but not unpleasantly so. Both of them are sweating from the exertion, but neither are breathing heavy. He concentrates on Dani’s story of someone called ‘the Dragon,’ who apparently is her boss. As she tells the story, he watches the wistful expression in her purple eyes grow.
Apparently the Dragon is a bit more than just a boss. He finds himself envious of the Corellian for the time spent in her company. His eyes widen as he realizes he feels no other emotion from listening to the stories. None of what Bail and Breha have described, when lounging in the bed on summer mornings—teaching him about different emotions. Including the negative ones. Especially the one called jealousy. Something he is not sure that he has ever felt.
On a whim, hoping that he is not intruding, he allows his own version of an empathic resonance—albeit a passive one—to open. The emotion that he receives from her is so rich, yet so unfamiliar. He has to close it off again. He cannot describe the feeling. He has only felt something similar to it before. A feeling denied from Bail, when Bre had suffered her first miscarriage. His sharp scientist’s mind tries to analyze the emotion. He stops as the sensation of another word seeps into his mind through her resonance. A word in another language.
Abeeyah. He stops walking and closes his eyes as a vision comes into his mind, of a very tall man, taller even than Bail looks down at a sleeping child with crimson skin and brown and blue curls. Looking down at her with sadness in his piercing blue eyes. He shakes his head, dispelling the vision. This is not mine. He realizes that she has stopped walking, as well.
He realizes that they have reached the first section of the Wood. She looks up in awe at the trees stretching to the heavens. His own version of empathy swells with her spillover. The sensation is rich as he looks and sees her eyes transitioning to the black—the emotions not the same as the night of the dance and other times.
He sees her eyes tear as she stretches her neck back to try and see the tops of the trees.
“Maul,” she whispers, “this is beautiful.”
Maul smiles as the pure joy swells around him as her own resonance moves from ‘standby’ mode. The joy at the untrammeled beauty. The same joy that he had felt the first time that he had walked in these trees with Bail Organa, hand-in-hand.
It seems only natural for him to take her hand in his. He is surprised at the warmth. She turns and looks at him. He moves his other hand to her hair, to the crown of twisted vines and purple flowers he had fashioned for her on a brief rest stop. A stop in which she had inhaled several small bars of a sugary brown substance.
Okay. Many bars. In fact a whole bag. She had rolled her eyes at his smirk. “You try living with a metabolism like mine. You’d be eating your weight as well, bud,” she had said, as she tossed him another strip of the jerky that she had brought. A spicy, unfamiliar meat that he had never had before, but had caused him to make a note to find it again.
He smiles in the present as he watches her straighten the crown. She had rested against him while he had twisted the vines together, explaining how the purple nightstar with its gold center was a symbiote with what they would see when they reached their destination. She had never seemed bored as she listened to his explanation, occasionally asking insightful questions.
They had dozed for a few minutes. He had awoken with his arms about her middle. He had jumped up, causing her to awaken. She had said nothing at his discomfort.
His eyes widen as he realizes that there is a rhythmic tapping sound. Not just a sound, but a sensation in the center of his forehead. He realizes that Dani is rapping her knuckles gently on him.
“Alderaan to Maul,” she says.
“Sorry,” he mutters. “What did you say?”
“Just asked what this was,” she replies.
“Only one of my favorite spots on Alderaan. It is simply called The Wood,” he says. Several hundred thousand acres of old growth forest. The last remaining stand of this type of wood on the planet.”
She reaches out and touches the nearest tree. “Is this burlwood?” she asks.
He smiles. “You’re familiar with it?” he asks, his curiosity piqued.
“Yep. Or at least the Corellian version.” She grins cheekily. “Not very rare. Used in furniture. Plus it makes a damned good nightstick.”
He raises an eyebrow.
“It is a type of defensive club used by law enforcement and security forces. Or at least it used to be. CorSec is full of traditionalists. They don’t use police droids much and they don’t like stun staves.” She looks away. “One in the hands of a master once saved my life, when I first started out.” She shakes her head at the memory. “The Drall security forces—those that aren’t affiliated with CorSec, use a small version almost exclusively. They are tiny, but whenever they pull that club out, everybody stands down.”
Maul listens, fascinated. She realizes she has been doing most of the talking. “Like I said. Not too rare. Actually one of the few trees that grows on all the Five Brothers.”
He smiles. “This is very rare. Very regulated. Only a few permits a year are granted to harvest—mostly the ones that are the ones that are close to the end of their lifespan. It is a much superior wood than Corellian varieties. Much harder.”
He winces at the pedantic pronouncement. His eyes widen as a grin spreads across her crimson features.
“I’ve heard that Alderaani wood is harder. I might want to try it out,” she says. One of her lids close and open suddenly. “Especially the adopted Alderaani variety.”
He finds that it is suddenly hard to breathe again, as she touches his chest briefly.
Maul realizes that she is suddenly blushing as well. They continue to walk in silence. Maul stops after a few minutes. They have come to a clearing. A clearing that is not supposed to be there. Not supposed to be here and never this large. They stand in silence as they look at the field of stumps.
“Maul,” Dani says, “I thought you said that harvesting was only of the ones about to die. Surely there aren’t this many.”
“There isn’t,” he replies tersely. He calms. “I haven’t seen a permit request in months,” he says.
She looks up at him, a sculpted blue eyebrow raised in a question mark.
“It is one of my jobs. I do the scientific and ecological review of environmental permit requests.” He returns her gaze. “I am not just another pretty face,” he says with a smirk.
“Never thought any different, handsome,” she says. They stop as a loud cacophony splits the peace of the wood. They look at one another, then as one they turn and run towards the noise.
~=~=~=~=~=
Dani can feel the anger rising from Maul as they look towards the operation that is ravaging another part of the Wood. A cutter droid slices into a tree. Dani touches his shoulder as he peers through his macrobinoculars at a large pile of harvested and limbed trees. She tightens her arm around him.
“Maul, dear, let’s call it in,” she says.
“I have to do something,” he says quietly.
Dani shakes her head. “We are outnumbered, love.”
The sound of blasterfire stops their conversation. Dani’s eyes widen as she sees the man holding the smoking blaster.
Holding it over the slumped body of a worker. One who does not appear to be one of the large thugs playing lumberjack dressup. Another is brought forward and forced to his knees. Dani snatches the macrobinoculars from Maul. Her heart sinks as she recognizes the tall man with the blaster. She allows herself to rest her head in her hand.
“I can’t let it go, Maul. I have to do something.”
He looks at her curiously. “Why the change of heart? Why can’t we wait for reinforcements?” he asks.
“Because that murdering asshole is one of the king murdering assholes on my world. He will not stop until he has murdered all of those workers.”
Maul feels his eyes narrow. “There is something else isn’t there?”
She closes her eyes. “He is a reminder. A reminder of the last time that I had to be saved by anyone. Of a time when I hesitated.” She watches his eyes track to where her right hand rubs absently on her left bicep.
A pale scar, from what looks like a knife, can be seen in the crimson skin.
“Dani, this isn’t even your world—it is mine...,” He stops as she places her finger over his lips.
“Yeah, but it is spillover from my world. Plus, I am cop—a peacekeeper on your world. It is what I do.”
She pulls out a holocomm, punches a sequence. “Dammit,” she starts.
“What?”
“Can’t get out,” she replies.
Maul nods. “Yes. There is an anomaly in this area. You can’t make local calls around here.” He grins— a wolfish expression that causes a twitch in certain areas on Dani. “You can get a out-system call out.”
She rolls her eyes, punches a different sequence. She takes a deep breath as a representation of a four-pointed star with one in the center appears above the device. Only for a moment. A craggy-faced, older human with piercing blue eyes replaces the symbol. Dani sees Maul’s eyes widen in what looks like recognition. She ignores it.
A voice comes out of the speaker. A voice that she knows can move heaven and earth on a whim.
“So. How is my newest former Inspector? A former Inspector who was supposed to be on Drall a week ago for a conference.”
“Put a sock in it, Dragon. Jad is on Alderaan.”
His expression darkens. “How do you know?” he asks.
“I’m looking at him being a murdering scumbag at a bunch of innocents.”
She sees him punching buttons. “I don’t have anyone I can get there soon, love,” he says.
“Just let the Alderaani know, Draq’. I have to move.”
“Wait, Daaineran, you can’t go in alone.”
“No choice, Procurator. No time.”
Draq’ starts to speak, then stops. “There are a couple of folks headed back to the Mother that might be useful. One of them has been staying on Alderaan.” His eyes lance her. “They are both survivors.”
Dani looks at Maul. He nods in recognition.
Draq’s voice cuts into her senses again. His voice has a quality that she only rarely hears in it.
Worry.
“I’m serious, Inspector. I need you to wait,” he says.
“No can do, Dragon. Gotta go sow some chaos.”
“Goddamnit, Dani.” She kills the connection and throws the comm over her shoulder.
“He sounds nice,” Maul says dryly.
“Yeah. Sometimes I think that ‘goddamnit’ is my actual first name.”
“He’s not wrong. You can’t go in by yourself.”
“Yeah. It is kind of what I do. Part of my charm.”
She feels Maul touch her cheek. “Is it really? Or are you trying to exorcise something? A demon or two?”
She closes her eyes. “No. I don’t have time for this. You will stay behind. I know you have a lot of skills, but somebody has to stay and wait for your cops to pull their thumbs out and get here.”
She kisses him quickly. “Plus, you are a member of the ruling Elder Family of the planet. If it is one thing I learned in cop-school, it’s you don’t have royals charging in where angels fear to tread.”
She smirks. “Especially if they have a very prominent place in the Queen and Viceroy’s bed.” He matches her smirk.
“I am pretty sure that Queen Breha will make me dig my own grave if I let you come in. I don’t want to do that. My hands blister easy if it involves anything more than using a blaster, a knife, or certain family religious artifacts.” She looks at him. “Or certain adopted Alderaani wood.”
He rolls his eyes. She takes both of his hands in hers. “Plus, you might have to come get me out, if I prove myself a real asshole to these nice people.”
“Imagine that.”
“Yep. I am a Dragon’s daughter,” she says quickly. He doesn’t say anything, but nods once.
Dani opens the small pouch at her waist. She pulls a blaster and checks it. His eyes recognize Mandalorian workmanship. She sees his look. “Name-day gift. From a half-Mandalorian.”
She starts to turn. “I’m giving you ten minutes, Daaineran,” he says evenly. “Not a second more. I don’t hear from you or see you, I am coming in.”
She starts to speak, thinks better of it. She moves her face to him, and places her forehead against his.
Before he can say anything else, she is gone, the outer flannel shirt dropped on the ground in her wake.
Chapter 5: Two Colossal Pains. Maybe Three -
Maul stares at the pile of huge logs at the top of a slight rise. He takes a deep breath, releases it as he considers what he is about to do. Something he has done little of, even with the bit of retraining that Kenobi had started. He is going to intentionally touch a mystical partner that he has had a tenuous relationship with over his twenty-seven years of existence. He shakes his head.
No. Not quite true. He had touched it with Kenobi, using it for small exhibitions under the watchful blue eyes of the Jedi.
Cautiously, he reaches out—to locate Kenobi in his mind. He had heard the old Corellian speak of survivors returning to Alderaan. The plural of the word had given him pause. He shakes his head. Nothing. He can only hope it is the distance or hyperspace that keeps him from touching the Jedi’s mind.
Maul opens another sense. He smiles slightly as he feels the strong resonance coming from somewhere near. The resonance only touches his mind, rather than where it usually does. His mind and a little bit of his remaining heart. His smile widens as he quickly analyzes the emotions from the Corellian officer. Snark, defiance. Controlled chaos—or at least potential chaos. He had felt something else, as well. Only an inkling of something that he had only built up in the last few years in House Organa, with members of his family.
Trust.
Only an inkling. He had startled himself, allowing Dani to sleep next to him, even for a brief few moments on their last break. He is sure that she had recognized his discomfort when he had jumped up. She had only smiled and nodded. He shakes all thoughts of that smile from his head as he clears his mind. He focuses on what he had seen in his macrobinoculars.
His mind focuses, as Kenobi’s voice grows in his head from his few retraining session. He feels the energy growing in his mind, the insistent buzzing that had been with him as long as he could remember, swelling. He clinches his teeth slightly as he hears a thrumming beat of wings at the edge of the energy field. He starts to fight, then unaccountably relaxes, as the defiance from a certain emotional fount grows and explodes into true chaos, rather than potential. He sees a pair of night-black eyes above a broad grin.
The sound of wings recedes. He can only see the improperly secured ringbolts of the pile of dead logs. He fights his anger at the desecration of his world. As the ringbolts slip, he smiles as he transfers his mind’s eye to the logs themselves.
As the sense of a cascade begins, he hears bright laughter in his mind.
~=~=~=~=~=
Dani Faygan rolls her eyes at Jad Antol. He has picked up a piece of the ill-gotten wood and looks at it.
“I think that I may keep you alive, Deputy,” he says. “Maybe I will just send you back to the Dragon the way that he sent me to prison.” He hefts the limb. “With your jaw smashed nearly to powder. Of course, you might not be able to do some of the things I have heard tell of. There may be some extra parts missing as well.”
Dani tries to resist the urge to roll her eyes again. Tries and fails. She feels Jad’s anger rise.
“Would you stop goddamned rolling your eyes? That may be one of the first things I take from you.”
Dani’s hand inches closer to her objective. She pauses as she feels a swell in her resonance. One that she has not felt in a long time. She fights down the feelings of loss and love as she thinks of the woman who had demonstrated that power. Daaineran Faygan dispenses with the traditional Corellian smartassed rejoinder. Her hand comes around and whips the hidden blade around. As she does she hears a loud roaring sound accompanied by a deep rumble.
She feels raw terror through her resonance from outside, as her blade strikes the thug with the mollusk dagger in his throat. She sees Jad’s eyes widen the instance before a double-twirl brings her small foot in connection with his jaw. Dani knows that she is not supposed to feel the next emotion, as a good little servant of the law, but his bloodcurdling scream brings intense satisfaction to her heart. Her momentum is not enough to do more than cause intense pain. She rushes him, feels the extra satisfaction of the exiting breath from his lungs.
The rumble grows louder in her mind. She feels exultation from a different place—the exultation of freedom. Added exultation to the now-familiar dry, inquisitive emotions already firmly in her resonance.
~=~=~=~=~=
Maul allows a bit of amazement of his handiwork as he runs to the small prefab hut that he had felt Dani’s mixture of emotions from. He looks up at the ruins of the small enclosure where the workers were kept. The ruins of one side of the fence, at least. He feels his face quirk into his wolfish grin as he sees the workers fighting with the surviving thugs—either fighting or escaping through the forest. He reaches the door of the hut and hits it full force with his shoulder. He stops at the scene before him.
Thugs of various sizes lay on the ground clutching various injuries. One lies bleeding out, a knife in his throat. Three surround Dani, two of them struggling with her as she lays about with an a strangely pointed dagger. The oldest of them sits, trying to adjust his jaw. The two that are struggling seem to be gaining advantage over her.
Maul spots a long piece of the wood that he and Dani were fighting to protect. He feels the solid shape in his hands with a thought. A shape familiar to him from his past, if not with the energy that had flown and sparked from the shape of his past. As an afterthought, he shoves the end into the forehead of the old thug, the one that Dani had called by name. Without a word, the criminal slumps, then slides to the floor. He senses more movement behind him as four more thugs crowd through the door.
He hears a cry in a familiar alto, but he is unable to turn to the source as he is striking and parrying as the four point blasters and slugthrowers at them. For a brief time before the four are clutching their wrists and the weapons are across the room.
Maul feels a warm back against his as its owner continues to fight against more Antols who have entered through the other entrance. He gasps as he feels something dampening his shirt. He pushes the thought from his mind as they continue to fight.
At the edge of his consciousness, he feels another burst in his Force sense. Two bursts, just as another sense is assaulted with the sound of a double hum and crash.
A thrum that he has only heard in practice sessions in his recent history—in the hands of a snarky, ginger-bearded survivor.
Chapter 6: The Airing of Grievances -
Bail Organa watches through the viewport as the transport grows closer to the Wood. He tightens the grip on the handhold as he shifts his gaze to the heavily armed Royal guards holding on around him. His eyes grow thunderous at the fact that he doesn’t have a company of Peacekeepers accompanying him.
The Peacekeeper-General, a political appointee holding over from a deal that Queen Mazi had been forced to make, had cited the Charter of the Wood, forbidding mechanized transport in the pristine wilderness, without a permit from the Environmental Ministry. Bail had reinforced that they were on a rescue mission. The Peacekeeper-General, a lifelong desk cop, had refused to obey what he had termed an ‘unlawful’ order.
It didn’t help that his first name was ‘Panteer’.
Of course, the Environmental Ministry had not balked at issuing an emergency permit, when they had learned that the prime advocate of the preservation of the Wood had been one of the people in danger. They had issued for three vessels. This one, and one that was already on its way.
An officer catches his attention. “Viceroy, Planetary Defense Command has just registered a large number of unauthorized vessels emerging from hyperspace and taking alderasynchronous orbital positions over the Wood.” The officer’s voice is even. “Corellian signals,” she finishes.
Well, there’s the third. He rolls his eyes, something that he has been doing more lately, since a certain Corellian-Zeltron had come into their sphere. “Send a signal to them. Two words. ‘Overkill, much’? Then allow one, and only one to come down to the surface.”
He looks over at his companion. An amused look is on the Queen’s face, as she checks her blaster. He can’t tell. It is either an amused look or she is calculating which wall to nail General Panteer Held’s hide to in the Palace if their Blackbird is harmed. He grins. She already has the wall picked out for a certain crimson hide if there is harm.
He sees her eyes widen as she stares out of the viewport as the transport flares in for a landing.
Those dark windows narrow at the chaos and the destruction to the small stretch of beauty.
The side hatch opens for rapid egress. Out of the corner of his eye, he spots two brilliant lights, swinging and parrying. One bright azure, the other, brilliant emerald.
Reminders of a time that may have passed in the galaxy.
~=~=~=~=~=
Daaineran feels the broad back against hers as she swings the small blade, keeping the three thugs who have come in behind the three on the floor at bay. She wonders why they all seem to have vibroblades, rather than ranging weapons. Her eyes fall on a slung blaster on one hip. A blaster that seems to be ripped nearly in half by another energy bolt.
She returns her concentration to the fight, as one with a vibrosword nearly slips under her guard. Four missing fingers on the hand that formerly gripped the weapon and he is discouraged. For a brief moment, she focuses on the articulation of the back and shoulder muscles against her head and shoulder. She allows a brief daydream of her hands playing over each of them, cataloging.
The owner of the muscles taps the back of his head, gently against hers. “Do you think you could quit daydreaming about what you are going to do to me when we get out of this? Your resonance is a bit distracting.”
She has the grace to look sheepish for a moment. “Good to know that I can distract you.”
“My dear, you could distract that lumbering droid that you destroyed.”
“I destroyed?” she says, her voice dropping several degrees. “I am not the one who dropped a whole forest’s worth of cut trees onto everything. Still don’t know how you managed to rest that one gently against this building.”
“I used science. I calculated that the slight rise this was on would stop the momentum,” his own dry voice intones. “Besides, I got bored waiting for you to do whatever the hell it is that you do.”
She reaches back and touches the back of the head, between the horns, as she feels him wind up for a full explanation. With footnotes and citations. “Please, hon. I was just a psychology major with a double minor in boloball and redirecting the blood flow of various Corellian boys and girls. With a specialist certificate in the study of the Corellian whisky industry.”
She senses his amusement.
“I doubt that,” he replies, the smile evident in his voice. “I saw the letters after your name.”
She feels herself coloring a bit, as she hears a cry from one of the Antols, brought on by a piece of that beauty they were intent on destroying. She sighs. “I am getting a bit bored with these assholes.” She reaches into her belt pouch. Her hand closes on the perfect sphere resting there.
A loud whine cuts through the air as she brings it out. The motion in the room stops.
She whispers one word.
“What?” Maul asks.
“Run.”
~=~=~=~=~=
Breha jumps from the transport with the rest of her Guard, just before the ship lifts again, taking station above the illegal clearing. Her eyes take in the sight of a small building. Slight cries can be heard coming from it, as well as the impact of wood on flesh. She looks to her right, seeing the two Jedi sheathing their blades, and running towards the building. A partially destroyed prisoner enclosure rests empty, as well as two flattened lumber-droids.
Her eyes widen as two figures burst from the small hut. Running at full tilt.
Time stops as a violent pressure wave draws all noise and light in, then releases it.
~=~=~=~=~=
Maul pulls himself up as the debris finally stops raining down on them. He winces at a new pain in his shoulder. He turns around and grimaces at the small piece of burlwood sticking from the back of his shoulder. He dismisses his pain and turns back to the smaller Zeltron who had been lying under him at the release of her boredom. He looks down at his front and sees blood on his own front.
Blood oozing from a long diagonal slash on her back. He kneels down, his emotions competing between wanting to make sure that she breathes and fear of hurting her more at his touch.
He relaxes as he hears a tiny bit of bright laughter. She rises and turns, twisting to look at him. He gives her a perplexed look, but smiles. “What?” he asks.
“It took an explosion to get you on top of me?”
He stares at her incredulously. “We nearly died in an explosion—an explosion that you caused, by the way—and you make a crack about sex?”
She grins sheepishly at his expression. “Sorry,” she says. Her eyes widen at the slight smile quirking one side of his mouth. She raises her hand to her hair. They both share smiles as she touches the twisted vine and purple flowers, that still rest there. After everything.
“So what is your opinion on Alderaani wood, now, Inspector?” he asks—the slight smile the only betrayal of his meaning.
He can tell that she is about to give a response from both of her heritages. She looks down. He can see the servos turning in her head, as well as the gamut of emotions on her beautiful features.
“I think that I may need more data.” She doesn’t meet his eyes.
He pulls her to his feet. She reaches up and touches his cheek. He watches as she takes a deep breath.
“I am okay with delaying the experimentation,” she says after a moment. She closes her eyes.
He raises her chin. “Really?” is all that he hears himself saying.
“Yeah. I think that you need some time for something like this experiment. I am okay with enjoying the moments with you that I have. Talking. Listening.” She grins cheekily. “Besides. You owe me a true look at the beauty of your world.” Her grin fades. “Without the ugliness of my world intruding.”
Maul smiles. “I think any ugliness from one of your worlds is balanced by the beauty from the other.”
She taps his chest. “Awww. You almost made my heart warm. But the toothy grin and the fierce expression kind of brought me back to earth.” She reaches up and kisses him. “But only kinda,” she whispers.
He picks up the discarded staff. He flips it in his left hand. “You’re right. That is a good piece of wood.”
Her eyeroll can be felt as much as the pressure wave. She hugs him close. Her eyes widen at something behind him. He turns at her look.
Bail and Breha stand there. They both smile, but Breha’s eyes are narrowed at Dani and the splinter of wood sticking out from his back. Her eyes soften as she sees the young woman’s bleeding back as she turns away.
Maul looks over Bail and Bre’s shoulders as they embrace him and twirl him around, careful of his wound. It is his turn for eyes to widen, as he sees Kenobi and another in slightly different Jedi robes standing there.
He sees Dani’s hand go to the new Jedi’s face, a face covered in an even more impressive beard than Kenobi’s. Maul sees the green eyes looking down at Dani’s now-black. He smiles slightly as he feels the emotions rolling off of the Zeltron.
A little bit of what he had felt from her, but something more akin to that of family.
A family of choice, as well as by blood and marriage.
He buries his face in Bail’s shoulder as Bre tightens her grip.
I know the feeling.
~=~=~=~=~=
Maul slowly awakens as the morning sun tickles his eyelids. He smiles as he sees Bail and Breha’s sleeping forms against him. He gently lifts himself—being careful not to wake them. he only feels a twinge of pain from his healing shoulder as he rises. His smile grows as Bail and Breha burrow closer to each other.
He walks over to the window and stares out at the beauty. Beauty that had been touched by the ugliness of the galaxy for a brief time. He recalls a conversation with an old Corellian as the new arrival’s eyes are on Dani and the other Jedi—a Jedi that he had found out was Bel Iblis’s nephew, by way of Mandalore. The Jedi is applying a bacta pad to Dani’s back as they both laugh at something.
“The Antols seem to be disavowing Jad’s actions as quickly as they can. Seems he was trying to launder money with the wood, when he found he couldn’t move it as fast as he wanted. Money from illegal spice and slaves—something the Antols are not fond of, at least the slaves.”
The old man had given a particularly reptilian smile. “Ironic that he was trying to buy up a type of the very thing that robbed him of a complete human jaw a few years back.” Draq’ Bel Iblis had looked at Dani with something akin to love. “Family is everything,” he had whispered, as he had spun a polished nightstick on a leather thong on his right wrist, ending it with a bumping motion on the ground before it rests in his hand.
Two pairs of warm hands around his middle and on his shoulders bring him back to the present. He feels warm skin against his.
“Thought you could get away from us, huh?” comes a warm voice from the shorter of the two.
He turns into their embrace. Breha touches his cheek as she sees the look in his eyes.
“You okay, Blackbird?” she asks.
“Yes, my Queen,” he says with a grin and a half-bow.
“Did you enjoy your hike?” she asks, her eyes hooded.
“Yes, I did, Breha. Dani is an interesting person,” he says evenly.
She smiles broadly. “I know. She is a very caring and loving person. In spite of the smartassed Corellian exterior.”
He smiles at her omitting of the other culture’s traits. He lets the smile fade. “We didn’t go any further,” he says. “She said that she wanted for me to move at my pace. If we ever choose that path.”
She smiles. “I wouldn’t have cared if you did, Maul. Neither of us are possessive. But neither of us want you hurt.” She looks away. “Okay, maybe I am a little bit possessive.” She elbows Bail in response to his snort. “I just don’t want you to be hurt, my Blackbird.”
The three of them tighten their embrace. Breha breaks away suddenly.
“I nearly forgot,” she says. “This came for you.” She walks over and lifts a long box. She hands it to him.
He knows Bail and Breha watch him as he opens it slowly. As if expecting it to explode.Given whose name is on the return address, that is not far out of the realm of possibility. He smiles as he pulls the cloth away. A polished length of burlwood, last seen in its raw form in his own hands. Twirling and blocking.
He realizes that a double handgrip has been carved in the middle of the staff. He twirls it for several moves. Both Bail and Bre look on appreciatively. He reaches down and picks up the card that has fallen from the box.
He grins at the messy handwriting, signed with a single ‘Dorn’.
Thought you would want your wood polished.
Maul can hear the juvenile giggle that had probably accompanied the writing of the note.
“There is something else in there, Maul,” Breha says.
He stares at the tiny bag in her hand. He hears a tinkling noise at she places it over his hands and shakes. Four small objects land in his hand. Four gold and jeweled caps. Much like he sometimes where on certain of his horns on formal occasions. Three of them each in purple, gold, and a green with black highlights. The colors of an Elder Family—the only true remaining Elder Family on Corellia.
The fourth in a brilliant red, nearly matching the skin of a beautiful protector of now three worlds.
He looks at Bail and Breha. They both pull him into a tight embrace again. Maul thinks of them, of what they mean to him—of the trust he has for them. He realizes that there may be another that he might just be able to trust.
A tiny bit.
~=~=~=~=~=
Meglann looks at the clock thunderously. Running the diner by herself was not what she had wanted to do on the last day before the weekend onslaught. But, Gort’s teeth had changed her plans. Or that is what the excuse was this time. She hadn’t been able to reach the back up waitress she had. Fortunately it had been quiet today with the university students on break. The few customers that she had were regulars, who had been understanding.
The hands on the clock were creeping to the closing time. She places her head on the counter. She had thought about going out to the lake at the Organa’s cabin that she sometimes had access to. A certain University smashball guard had given her an extra couple of looks over his omelette and bacon (extra bacon with a side of sausage, extra home fries). She had received positive grunts from a suggestion for an early afternoon swim.
That had gone down the tubes when he told her he had a ‘conditioning’ session later in the afternoon. Probably with a member or two of the yell squad in attendance. She sighs. Meglann is sure that if she tried, she could do ‘perky’ and ‘peppy.’
Her eyes snap open as the bent bell sounds and a sharp warmth bursts in her middle. She looks up, just in time to see Dani turn the ‘Closed’ sign and lock the door. Meglann comes around the counter. Dani faces her. Her eyes are obsidian black.
Without a word, she snags Meglann by her belt buckle and pulls her towards the back.
“So things didn’t work out well on the hike?” she manages to ask the officer as she is propelled to the back office. Her breathing intensifies as she realizes that Dani is working her belt buckle loose as she is pulled forward. Another hand is pulling her apron and tank top up and over her head, before they reach the door.
Dani’s reply is staccato. “Lots of explosions. Violence. Good talk. Maybe some fun in the future.”
As she pulls Meglann into the office, her mouth stills any further questions.
Meglann runs her hand down Dani’s back. She exhales as she feels the long bacta bandage.
“Oh, Dani..,” she starts.
“I’m okay, sweetie,” Dani says as she pulls her mouth free. She grins. “Had worse scratches from you.”
She yanks her own top off and bears Meglann to the desk. Both manage to reach it without injury, as Meglann’s trousers are around her ankles.
Meglann closes her eyes as light blossoms behind her lids. “Would you like me to put horns on?” she asks, archly.
She squeaks at an errant tooth on her skin.
Meglann Florlin shakes her head, as she recalls a conversation with a Queen over breakfast, about this young woman, as well as the intriguing young man that both royals care deeply about.
“Do you think you could maybe put on a smashball helmet, while you’re doing that?” she asks innocently.
There are no more words at that. Only sounds and light.