Chapter Text
Arcann knew he was, as Ress would say, in deep shit. He had commed Senya when he ran late today. The problem was that he had run so late, that even telling her he would be late had been 10 minutes after he was already supposed to be there.
And it wasn’t exactly the first time he had been late these last few weeks.
The first time it happened she hadn’t said anything even after he excused himself. It was really unusual for him to be late, but 5 minutes weren’t exactly a crime.
The second time he ran late a week later, (again 5 minutes) his mother had made an off hand remark, that maybe he should time his way from his new sleeping quarters on Captain Jales ship, so that he knew when he had to leave. He had only made an affirming sound before turning Senya's attention to their morning sparring session.
Arcann had sworn to himself right there to make sure to watch the chrono when he enjoyed waking up next to Ress for a few more moments in the future.
That resolution had lasted him 3 days before he turned up late again, this time 10 minutes late.
That’s when his mother had first said something.
“Is there a reason you continue to be late?”
Arcann took a second too long to think, as he scrambled for an answer that wasn’t the truth. In his hurry to get here, he had forgotten to prepare a lie in advance.
“Sometimes the crew asks me to help around the ship in the morning. Today Corso asked me to hold a pipe in place while he worked on it."
Senya looked at her son with an unreadable expression before smiling at him.
“It is very kind of you to help out. Just comm me the next time it happens, yes? That way I won’t have to wonder if you’re on your way or not.”
Arcann had simply nodded in response.
His mother had let the matter rest, even when he continued to be late at least twice a week. But he commed her every time, so she didn’t ask again.
He did not believe for a second though, that she had bought his lie.
Ress and her crew weren’t exactly morning people. Senya may not have much to do with Ress but Arcann vaguely remembered his mother airing her frustration about how the smuggler had skipped a meeting at 11:00 in the morning with the reason for it being too early. The rest of the crew was greeting the day a little earlier than Ress but 9:00 was still some hours after Arcann got up to meet his mother for training at 6:30.
He had a feeling she would say something about his tardiness again today. After all, helping someone around the ship isn’t the type of activity that prohibits you from telling someone you’ll be late by 10 minutes.
As he approached, he already saw her running through some basic fighting exercises. Senya did not look impatient or angry at his absence so he had the slightest hope she wouldn’t say anything after all.
That hope was immediately shattered once he got closer.
“Should we maybe move our training to the afternoon? Since Jale's crew seems to be so active in the morning.”
Arcann, officially 35 minutes late, stopped a few meters before his mother.
He could feel her irritation clear as day through the force and and the way she phrased her suggestion implied that she had enough of playing along with his lie.
He tried to quickly run through his options on how he could navigate this conversation:
Say yes to Senya's suggestion?
The easiest way out, but the afternoon was when he was actually fixing the ship with Ress and her crew, so unless he wanted to spin a web of lies it wasn’t an option.
Tell her why he was actually late?
Certainly a possibility but it was not something he wanted to talk about and he would like to avoid the ensuing, disapproving conversation Senya would likely have with him. His mother didn’t have the best opinion of Ress and would not be thrilled at what was going on between them.
Come up with a new, more plausible lie?
It would likely only get him into Senya’s bad graces more than he already was…Plus he was evidently bad at coming up with lies on the spot.
In the end he decided to improvise while remaining vague.
“No, we do not have to…Listen, I am sorry that I lied to you. I shouldn’t have. And I promise you that I’m trying to be punctual.” Looking his mother in the eyes had somehow never been harder. “Recently something tends to come up in the morning I can not foresee. I can’t really talk about it.”
He felt his mothers irritation melt into worry at the last part of his vague reasoning.
“It’s the nightmares again, isn’t it?”
Arcann paused. The nightmares, in which Valkorion still tried his best to make his son feel worthless, had resurfaced after they had finished him off for good. Out of fear that he would return once more, he had asked Sana-Rae if any trace of his father could be found in his mind. After days of meditation the answer had thankfully been rather simple: It was just his mind trying to work through years of living under his father. Not that it made the nightmares any less hard on him.
Senya was right in a way. He was plagued by these dreams but they did not tend to linger as long after waking up lately.
Since he had been lost in his thoughts, Senya had taken the moment to step closer to him and laid a hand reassuringly on his arm.
“Arcann, I’m here for you. If the nightmares have taken a new direction I’m sure we ca-”
He shook his head. “It is not the nightmares.” He paused again, still uncertain on what to say. “I promise you that it is nothing bad. I simply do not wish to talk about it as of yet.”
Arcann shook the lingering thoughts of the nightmares away and gave his mother a reassuring smile. “I will tell you what is going on eventually. Just not now.”
Senya sighed before she returned his smile.
“Very well. If it is nothing then I will let it rest. But do still try to be on time, please.”
“I will.”
When Senya gestured to him to pick up a training saber so they could finally begin, he felt the tension the conversation had brought on, fall off him. He had not lied like last time but just dancing around the topic had been stressful.
He would have to talk to Ress about not holding him up like that in the morning anymore. Though he could already hear her pointing out that she didn’t exactly hold him prisoner, since she was usually still asleep. But maybe they had to rearrange the sleeping situation a little…
Arcann took a fighting stance and returned his attention to Senya. Now was training, followed by meditation and some maintenance on his cybernetic arm. Ress was for later.
Senya had promised Arcann she would let the topic rest as long as it was nothing.
Unfortunately, she did not believe that it was nothing.
As Arcann went on his way for the day, she stayed in the forest clearing they had meditated in, a while longer and tried to come up with ideas on what could be causing his continued lateness.
She came up rather short on ideas except for the nightmares but he sounded sincere when saying they weren’t the cause.
In general her son had seemed more at ease than troubled as of late.
It had started after he got temporarily assigned to Captain Jale’s crew, which was a whole thing in itself.
Captain Jale had practically destroyed her personal ship, the Starpath, a few months ago. It had been a wonder that she had been able to land it safely on Odessen. The ship had been smoking out of the missing hull plating, the hyperdrive and engine had been burned through and the interior had been damaged badly by cargo and furniture that had been flying around.
To say it plainly, the ship should have been flown straight to a junkyard but the Captain was adamant on fixing it.
The only problem was that the Starpath was an out of production model that had been insanely modified over the years. Since there was no documentation of the mostly illegal modifications, repairing the ship had turned into a ‘fuck around and find out’ project (as the Captain called it herself) to get it back to it’s former state.
While mapping out what they would need to fix the ship, Captain Jale had complained to the Commander that no one on Odessen could help them fashion the material for the hull, as such work is usually done by professionals, they didn’t have access to.
The Commander, for a reason that still eluded Senya, had suggested Arcann to the Captain. He did do some smithing in his free time every once in a while but he smithed armour not ship hulls.
Captain Jale, likely too lazy to hire someone, did some test runs with Arcann. Which, given that the Starpath already had half of its missing hull fixed, had worked out.
Before you can fix the hull you have to fix what’s broken under it and a few “Can you get me a hydrospanner?” and “Can you help me with this real quick?” had resulted in Arcann slowly becoming a ship mechanic in the making.
Which was why he had been officially transferred to Jale’s crew until the Starpath was fixed.
It had also done Arcann a lot of good. He seemed happy to do an official task for the Alliance that was not fighting related.
The base, or at least the people in mechanic related fields, also had seemed to ease up around him. Stopping to hate the former tyrant emperor was a lot easier when he was asking you about basic ship knowledge while wearing old, oil stained clothes someone had clearly lent him (It likely also helped that he looked ridiculous wearing it).
Jale and her crew also helped in regards to the base’s opinion of him.
The Voidhound was very popular on base. She had a notorious reputation, always a wild story to tell and a drink to buy. Her crew was no different. So when they started talking highly of Arcann and his help on the ship, people started rethinking their opinion of him.
They had also made sure to make Arcann feel like he was a true part of the crew even though it was a temporary arrangement. But Senya couldn’t tell if they meant it or if this was one of Jale’s attempts to get under her skin.
Not that Senya had something against her son having a social life but if that social life consisted of him getting invited out to drink or gamble with literal criminals…In that case she had a right to be worried.
Senya paused for a moment. Maybe that was what Arcann was hiding from her.
His constant lateness would certainly be explained if he drank with these smugglers too much and had to get rid of the hangover before meeting up with her the next morning.
It seemed unlike Arcann to drink like that but she had to admit that she did not know if or how he had indulged in alcohol as an emperor or if Jale hadn’t somehow pressured him into it.
Senya decided to watch her son a little closer during the evenings in the following weeks and got on with her duties for the day.
Her plans had to be postponed a while though as Arcann had been sent away with Sana-Rae to a mission on Voss a day later, to see what they could collect on Darth Nul. It had been a rather hasty departure with no time for Goodbyes but that was probably the best, given that any information about Darth Nul that came to light was more worrying than the last.
The day after Arcann left, Senya found herself in need of a slow morning. So instead of heading out to train she put on a relaxed outfit and went to make herself a cup of tea in the small communal kitchen, that was on the floor where High Command lived.
The little kitchen had been originally intended to be an option for the important people to make themselves a quick instant meal in between meetings.
Now it resembled the workplace of a Barista.
If there were still instant meals in between the 12 Caf machines and mountains of Caf-Capsules and Caf-Beans they would never be found again.
Most of High Command had surprisingly brought their own machines with them (as they all had specific preferences) and put them in here since the little kitchenettes in their apartments didn’t offer much space.
Four of these machines belonged to Lana and Theron alone, along with two cupboards stuffed to the brim with exactly one brand of Caf-Blend. According to them the excessive amount of machines and caf was a necessary precaution in case one of them stopped working or if there was a supply shortage.
Senya used to drink Caf in the morning as well, but after seeing what a Caf addiction can look like in Shan and Beniko she had switched to tea and added her singular kettle to the sea of Caf machines.
She was surprised to find her kettle currently in use by none other than the Commander of the Eternal Alliance. A sight that was odd in many ways.
For one she was still in a sleeping robe and she did not have her holo disguise activated yet, which usually smoothed over the rougher features of her years as an imperial spy. Like her cybernetic eye or the scars that went around it. Her brown skin which had always had an ashy undertone looked unhealthily gray without the disguise. A side effect from the carbonite poisoning that had stayed over the years. Her black hair, usually bound in a short ponytail, fell loose on top of her shoulders and Senya was surprised to see a curl pattern in her hair, she had never noticed before.
It was rare that one saw her in her natural state as she always took great care to make herself look more ‘vanishable’ in crowds, but even odder than that was the fact that she was in the communal kitchen in the first place.
The Commander, known to those close to her as Celeina, rarely distinguished herself from the rest of High Command unless she had to. Her apartment had been one of these exceptions.
While everyone else on the floor had a standardized 2-room apartment for themselves the Commander had asked for hers to be designed a little grander. Senya had been inside a few times to watch Celeinas children and the kitchen alone was bigger than her own bedroom. That particular kitchen was also furnished with a wild assortment of kitchen appliances including two kettles.
So that Celeina would leave her custom kitchen for a kettle cramped in between Cafmachines seemed odd indeed.
“Did yours break?” Senya asked instead of a greeting.
Celeina turned her attention to her while filling up the kettle and smiled shortly as a greeting before answering in a rather tired voice, ”No, I’m just trying to make tea without waking up the boys. They have been sleeping rather lightly as of late.”
Senya sometimes watched over the Commander's twin toddlers. They were rather adorable, despite their tendency to do things they’re not supposed to. That is until they find something mundane to have a meltdown over. A tornado was quiet compared to these two throwing a tantrum in sync.
“Always something new with them.”
“Yeah.” The Commander's tone couldn’t have been more exhausted.
“I am sorry if I’m keeping you from your tea by the way. I didn’t think I would be disturbing anyone at this hour.”
“It’s alright. Now that Arcann’s offworld I don’t need to be anywhere for another few hours. Take your time”
“Oh, did you have plans? I am sorry I sent him away so abruptly but I didn’t want to waste any time with this mission.”
“Don’t worry, it was just our morning training. Nothing important.” Senya leaned against a kitchen counter to wait for the Commander to be done making her tea. Seeing her so out in the open with her scars from her years as a spy got her thinking.
The Commander was notorious for being aware of everyone's business because as it turns out, spies are terrible gossips.
Arcann wasn’t the typical type Celeina observed for that, but Senya doubted that she didn’t monitor his every move anyway. If something was going on with her son and if it had something to do with Captain Jale, the Commander would know.
While they both waited for the water to boil, Senya decided to try her luck.
“So…Arcann being part of Captain Jale’s cre-”
The Commander's previously tired face became irritated at the mention of Captain Jale's name immediately.
“Senya. I will not be having another conversation about Ress. Especially not at this hour.“
Captain Ress Jale had been part of the Revanite debacle where the Commander, Lana and Theron had first met each other. So when the Alliance was formed she was naturally brought on as well. In the early days she had been working unofficially for them.
Jale and her Voidhound reputation had done a lot of pro-Alliance propaganda in the underworld, pulled off some hits with her fleet on the Zakuulian forces and financed the Alliance with her vast fortune here and there. Most importantly though she made things happen for the Alliance that were…not 100% legal.
In Senya’s eyes she had always been a necessary evil, the Alliance had to commit to when they were still the underdog fighting against a mighty Empire. Similar to how she viewed the Commander's partnership with Kaliyo or Scorpio back in the day (Thankfully Captain Jale was a lot less homicidally minded and has yet to betray anyone).
But that was before someone got a really terrible hair cut.
With only a handful of ships left to call a fleet, the Commander had searched for possibilities to increase their fleet numbers without depleting their finances.
That possibility had manifested itself within Captain Jale.
She offered the Commander her Void Fleet, crew inclusive. The only thing she asked for in return was that she remained in charge of the fleet since she still needed it for her activities as the Voidhound.
Instead of going through the trouble of drafting a lengthy contract, the Commander, with the approval of the rest of High Command, had simply appointed Jale as an official fleet captain of the Alliance, who oversaw the Void Fleet.
The deal had sounded too good to be true, but everyone had been optimistic since Jale had a long history with the Alliance and an even longer friendship with Theron and the Commander.
Sadly, spies tend to keep the worst company. A lesson everyone should have learned after Scorpio.
It turned out that the catch was Captain Jale herself.
When there was an urgent matter to be done she made it happen with lightspeed…and that is where the pros of working with the woman stopped.
During everyday business she rarely showed up to meetings, she didn’t read reports (she pretends to be illiterate) and she had no idea about anything regarding her fleet.
It didn’t matter if you asked her about her fleet upkeep costs, the installed weapon systems or anything related to fleet tactics.
She. Did. Not. Know.
That the Void Fleet had survived a decade under her, was a miracle.
And now half of High Command has to somehow manage to work with Captain Jale on a daily basis.
Luckily Senya didn’t have much to do with her but the Captain's poor work ethic got under her skin whenever their paths did cross.
Never having been one to keep her opinion to herself, she had confronted the Captain about it multiple times.
The first time she had gotten a look meant to kill and a “Keep out of fleet stuff, Senya. You don’t know shit about it.”.
Every time after that all she got was a fake smile combined with a vulgar gesture.
Naturally she did not hold the Captain in high regards.
She was your typical smuggler. Wasting her time away in the Cantina most of the day and being rather vulgar every chance she got.
Her behaviour during meetings had been taken to the Commander a couple of times but she was adamant about keeping Jale on.
Senya saw Celeina’s irritated expression and knew that she should consider her words about Captain Jale carefully.
“I don’t want to talk about her. Not really. It's mainly about Arcann.”
The Commander eyed her and sighed. “Go on.”
“He has changed ever since he got involved with Jale’s crew.” When Celeina’s demeanor switched to irritation again, Senya quickly added: “Not in a bad way per se…He has just been acting a bit unlike himself.”
Something about her wording must have rubbed Celeina the wrong way. “Unlike himself, you say…Are you maybe worried he’s falling in with the wrong crowd?”
Senya wanted to throw a “Yes, I do think that he’s falling in with the wrong crowd. Jale’s crowd.” the Commander's way, but she had no wish to start a fight this early in the morning. In the end she was forced to remain silent as she could not think of a way to answer without implicating Captain Jale as the cause of Arcann’s recent behaviour.
Sadly her not answering also implied the same, so Celeina continued to look displeased anyway.
“And how exactly is he acting unlike himself, if I might ask?”
“He is late.”
“He’s…late…”
“Yes. He is. I know it does not sound like much but trust me when I say that it is weird.”
Senya took a deep breath before continuing as her previous words had sounded rather harsh. “He has never been late for anything! On top of that he also won’t tell me why it keeps happening. Yesterday he was over half an hour late! And when it first started happening, he even lied about it!”
The displeasure in the Commanders face faded in favor of something Senya couldn't quite place. “I’ll admit, that does sound like something is going on. But being late and not telling your mother why, isn’t exactly a crime when you’re pushing 30.”
Senya ignored the obvious jab at her acting like a mother hen. “I’m just worried about him. What would you be doing if your children were hanging around proven criminals and then started to change their behaviour?”
The Commander's expression softened at that and she turned silent for a moment while she poured the now boiled water into the two mugs in front of her. “You do have a point with that. This is not the case here though. Yes, Ress is a criminal if you’re seeing things from a law perspective. But by the same metric I am a dangerous murderer and you do not seem to mind that.”
Now it was Senya's turn to be silent.
“I know you don’t like Ress, Senya. That’s fine. You don’t have to love everyone afterall.” Celeina paused to put some honey into one of the teacups. “My point is that Ress isn’t a bad person. I’m not asking you to get to know her but perhaps you should stop judging her. I just cannot see her being a bad influence on anyone and you wouldn’t be thinking that either if you spend some time with her.”
“So you don’t know what’s going on with Arcann?”, Senya asked, a little defeated and clearly uninterested in talking about Jale further.
“No, I don’t. I'm sorry.”
With the tea now poured, the Commander picked up her mugs and went to the door. “I’m sure it’s nothing. Maybe he’s just working on a surprise for you, like back when he made that armour for me.”
“Perhaps you are right.”
As Celeina left, Senya felt more worried than before.
If an ex-Cipher agent didn't know what was going on with Arcann, then who did?
The Commander had lied to Senya.
Well, not exactly. In the split second she had said “No, I don’t” she truly had not known what could be going on. But then she remembered an evening in the Cantina some weeks ago, where Ress had been talking about this new guy she was sleeping with.
Said guy, as Celeina now realised, had appeared around the same time Arcann got transferred to Ress’ crew. (Even though she wished she hadn’t. Ress had gone into some detail of her newest bedroom activities. Not really information she’d ever wanted to know about her former enemy.)
It was a little embarrassing that she hadn’t figured out this 4 piece puzzle sooner, but with the Empire breathing down her neck, the Mandalorians raging a civil war and trying to figure out what Malgus had been planning…Her friend's most recent companion hadn’t really been a priority.
Though maybe it should be.
After Corso had once pulled out a ring on Ress some years ago, she had steered clear of relationships of any kind that went on more than a month.If Arcann's lateness was related to his ‘activities’ with Ress, it would mean they had been at it for almost two months now. A rather interesting development.
Though she was still uncertain if she should get involved in the newest Tirall family drama even if it did involve her friend. Her plate was already filled with things that were sure to turn her hair grey. She did not need Ress' complicated love life, mixed with the excellent relationship expertise present in the Tirall family. It was bound for disaster.
Already exhausted from the day at six in the morning, Celeina buried her face in her hands, once she had safely deposited the two tea mugs on the table where Vector had already prepared breakfast. The quiet frustrated moan she let out drew Vector’s attention from his toast.
“Did work already find you while you were making tea?”
Celeina looked up at her husband and smiled back in a tired manner. “Worse. My favourite family is likely about to be at each other's throat again.”
She knew what Senya thought about Ress. And if Ress and Arcann would still be a thing after he returned from Voss, their relationship was bound to come out sooner or later. It would likely end in a fight between Arcann and Senya.
She explained as much to Vector.
As Celeina went to rebury her face in her hands, Vector cupped her face with a gentle touch and pulled her in for a kiss.
“No matter what will happen, we will be here to give you a break from it.”
She leaned into her husband's touch, as she felt the worries of the day melt away for a second. Instead of thanking him, she went in for another kiss. They stayed entangled with each other until a sound of disgust made them turn their attention to the kitchen doorway.
Their teenage daughter had risen for the day. Understandably not the biggest fan to have found her parents making out in the kitchen before she had woken up properly.
With Thalia now present they both wished her a Good Morning and turned back to their respective breakfast plates.
Celeina silently thought some more on the Ress/Arcann debacle and decided to observe the situation but to not get involved for now.
Some of these days the Tirall’s had to learn how to fix their family problems without her after all.