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Water Thicker Than Blood


imnotawitch

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  • 3 weeks later...

Title: A Month's Burdens (Part 1 of 2)

Characters: SW (Lucerna), Lizzie, Sanju Pyne, Durmat Rylon

Spoilers: LS IA and SW Balmorra. SW endgame title.

 

 

She could have held back at any time, but that would be an insult to the girl’s intelligence. In Lucerna’s small chambers in the Fury-Class starship “Rylon,” the Emperor’s Wrath laced her words with the persuasive power of the force.

 

“You want to stand up.”

 

“No.” Keera “Lizzie” Undine sat firmly in her seat, not showing a single sign of budging. The little Mirialan grinned, and Lucerna couldn’t help but join in.

 

“I think you’re done.”

 

~*~

One month ago, Balmorra…

 

Sanju Pyne took his breaths in short ragged gasps. This was it. This was his execution. His trial had been merely a formality. Once evidence of his Imperial activities came to light, there was no debating the outcome. As he knelt in the small Sobrik warehouse, rifles to his head, his thoughts reeled. His death was imminent, his life was going to end. Would there be anything? A light at the end of the tunnel? Some feeling of consciousness? Just please, let it end quickly.

 

“We have a situat-“ Sanju’s reverie was interrupted by the door guard’s short-cut cry. For a moment, Sanju allowed himself to hope. Was there anyone left who would rescue him? His questions were answered somewhat as a small woman wearing an Imperial uniform ran into the room. Sanju’s guards immediately turned their rifles on her, but it was too late. She threw a small ball by Sanju’s knees and activated a shielding generator at her hip.

“We take care of our own!” Sanju only had time to hear the electronic call from the woman’s helmet before his world turned white.

 

~*~

 

He could only see darkness.

 

“He’s starting to wake up!” It was a familiar young man’s voice calling from what felt like another lifetime.

Sanju Pyne opened his eyes. He could only see darkness. His mind still felt sluggish as he gathered his memories together.

 

“Fantastic!” Sanju heard footsteps come towards him following the girl’s voice that rang out. He felt a gloved finger poke him in the side.

 

“Sanju.” Poke.

 

“Sanju.” Poke.

 

Did he have to get up? He felt so tired..

 

“Sanju.” Poke.

 

“I can’t see!” He called back in protest. He wasn’t quite sure why he chose those words, probably because his sight was the most pressing concern at the time.

 

“Yeah, that’s what happens with carbonite hibernation. With the calibration of the grenade I used, you’ll be seeing fine in a few hours.” That was when the voice clicked.

 

“Lizzie? Is that you?”

 

With his sight gone, Sanju had very little warning before the Mirialan girl threw her arms around him in an embrace.

 

“Of course, silly. We could never leave you to die. We don’t care if you were an Imp, we know you were only doing what you thought was right for Balmorra. And you’re our friend!”

 

“We..? Our..?” Sanju stuttered before he recognized the male voice that spoke earlier. “You dragged Durmat into this!?!”

 

“I dragged myself.” The ex-ensign spoke with conviction. “I’m not a child, you know. Lizzie and I talked it over together, and I decided to come along.”

 

“I see..” Sanju still wasn’t happy. Although Durmat was twenty-one, he only had three years’ worth of memories thanks to a run-in with a Sith. While Sanju was abandoning his friends to work undercover for the Empire, Lizzie painstakingly taught Durmat the basics of the galaxy and living life as a functioning adult. Lizzie being, well, somewhat absentminded in everything she did, Sanju remained uncertain of her success. And he could only blame himself. “Where are we, anyways?”

 

“My new ship!” Lizzie said proudly. “I emptied the funds my parents set aside that were supposed to sustain me for life. And I bought “Bantha Milk’s Legacy,” along with everything else I needed for your rescue. We’re on our way to Nar Shaddaa now, where we can at least collect our thoughts, plan, and lie low for a few days.”

 

Sanju started to feel impressed with his old friend when he heard a faint snorting in the same room.

 

“Lizzie, you brought all the Snuzzlegruffs, didn’t you?”

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Title: A Month's Burdens, Part 2

Characters: Lizzie, Durmat, Sanju

Spoilers: None for the game.

 

 

"You're sure this Sith will show up?" Durmat Rylon paced nervously, trying to avoid the eye of the corpulent male scantily-clad Twi'lek dancer who had been watching him for the past hour.

 

"Of course not." Lizzie looked relaxed as always as she sat sprawled out in her chair at the small cantina table. "But trusting her is a better bet than anything else we could come up with."

 

Sanju sighed as he nursed a post-hibernation-sickness-headache. "Sith aren't known for tolerating failures. I failed in my mission on Balmorra. Why would she be interested in helping us? I think we're just wasting time on Nar Shaddaa that could be used to get further away from the Empire and the Republic."

 

Lizzie made a show of frowning and slumping in resignation. "Fine. Vette said they'd be here half an hour ago. If another hour goes by and they haven't showed up or contacted us, we'll leave."

 

Sanju opened his mouth to agree, but stopped the words in his throat as he saw a familiar figure in the doorway. Teruk, the tall Kaleesh Jedi Knight who was a family friend of Lizzie's, was looking right at them.

 

"You know, Sanju.." Lizzie began, "If you're hoping for microscopic fishes to fly into your mouth and feed you dinner, we're on the wrong planet for- Oh. Fiddlesticks."

 

"Keera!" Teruk called as he covered the distance towards the three friends with long strides. "It's not to late to return to the Republic. You and the Rylon boy will have a place once you've repented for your misdeeds.

 

Lizzie moved between Teruk and Sanju protectively. "And Mister Pyne?"

 

Teruk sadly shook his head. "He will have to answer for his crimes. Now come along peacefully."

 

"Lizzie." Sanju whispered in her ear. "Let's go with him, end this craziness. Don't worry about me."

 

The little Mirialan showed no sign of hearing Sanju. "We're not on the promenade, Teruk. The guards aren't going to come down and restrain me if I strike you. We don't have to make nice."

 

Teruk shook his head and waved his hands, speaking with words laced with the Force.

 

"You want to come back with me to the Republic."

 

Lizzie felt the tendrils of Force snake through her brain, arranging her thoughts. She felt the compulsion to walk towards Teruk, to her old friend. The voice in the back of her mind cried for her not to, but she expanded her senses to take in the situation. Durmat and Sanju were also in the grasp of the Jedi's cruel persuasion, but she felt them fighting. Fighting. The people around her in the Cantina would hate if there was fighting. She had to think of them. She had to think of Durmat and Sanju. Teruk wanted her most of all. If she gave in.. if she stopped fighting the compulsion, he would leave them alone. He wouldn't invade their minds, change them, like he wanted to do to her. They could get away. Everyone would be happy. Everyone but Lizzie, but what did that ever matter? She didn't matter. She should just give in.

 

The taste of worthlessness was the last thing on her consciousness before the Jedi's Force persuasion pulled her under.

 

 

 

Yeah....

 

 

Second to last paragraph was a tough one.

 

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  • 2 months later...

Title:

Characters: Lucerna Nocturne, Durmat Rylon, mentions of Lizzie.

Spoilers: SW Balmorra

 

 

For the first time in his short life, Durmat understood what Keera's books meant when some character or another mentioned their heart was in their throat. It was an unpleasant ball of emotions that threatened to burst forth and cause him to break into tears. Well, the Sith beat him to that one. Strange woman. When she and the Twi'lek girl figured a rescue mission was out of the question, the Sith who introduced herself as Lucerna shed tears for Durmat's fate. When Durmat proposed wiping his memory as an alternative to killing him, Lucerna agreed, after first interrogating him to make sure it was what he wanted.

 

Sith probably don't fall in love very often.. Or at least that woman never has. I'm not doing this for me..

 

The thought brought a faint smile to his face. Either way, his memories, his person, were going to be vaporized by the sinister chemicals or the edge of a Sith's lightsaber. Still, at least this way, he would know that Keera wouldn't have to deal with his death. His protective best friend wouldn't have to live her life feeling like she could have prevented his demise. The fact that the person he was now would cease to exist would wound her, but she would have a faster recovery.

 

I'm a goner either way, after all.. At least this way the new me can bring Keera some hope, maybe the new me won't be so useless..

 

He barely noticed the Sith and her sidekick return some minutes later while he sat on the floor of his prison, musing over the notable events of his life. There was the time Keera started the Snuzzlegruff Salvation Society, the time they and Sanju stole his father's speeder and almost drove it off a cliff due to lack of experience, stopping less than a meter from the edge, and then there was the time he joined the Balmorran resistance against his father's and Sanju's vehement wishes, but was kicked out after he almost shot himself in the foot. After the last scene played before his head, Durmat looked up. There they were.

 

Durmat's felt his conversation responses were automatic, almost mechanical, as he took the syringe from the Sith and held it in his shaking palm. He was going to do it, he was going to wipe his memories..

 

Wait! His mind came to a screeching halt. Keera.. This Sith seems decent enough.. I could ask her to keep an eye out for you, to protect you, to help you how I couldn't..

 

No.. Idiot. That would just bring more danger to Keera. Still, if he did nothing, if he wiped away everything he was right now, she'd never know how he felt. The words were almost on his lips..

 

If you find a Balmorran Mirialan girl named Keera Undine, tell her I love her. Loved her. Love her.

 

No. He shook his head. It was beyond unlikely that Keera and this Sith would ever meet. Besides.. He almost smiled. She made me fall in love with her once. I'm sure she can do it again. There, that's a nice thought. I'll go out on that one.

 

Durmat barely registered the Sith and Twi'lek in the room as he jabbed the needle into his arm and pushed the plunger on the syringe. The first moment, nothing happened, and his mind was struck by fear that the drug was a dud. Then his mind felt fuzzy.. He felt himself sway on his feet. This was it. His brain was going to be wiped..

 

Funny, I almost don't feel afraid.. Forgive me, Keera.

 

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Wait! His mind came to a screeching halt. Keera.. This Sith seems decent enough.. I could ask her to keep an eye out for you, to protect you, to help you how I couldn't..

 

No.. Idiot. That would just bring more danger to Keera. Still, if he did nothing, if he wiped away everything he was right now, she'd never know how he felt. The words were almost on his lips..

 

If you find a Balmorran Mirialan girl named Keera Undine, tell her I love her. Loved her. Love her.

 

No. He shook his head. It was beyond unlikely that Keera and this Sith would ever meet. Besides.. He almost smiled. She made me fall in love with her once. I'm sure she can do it again. There, that's a nice thought. I'll go out on that one.

 

Gorgeously poignant. I love it :)

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