#melyn

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Today, there were no expeditions. No important missions. No one raining hellfire onto the Odessen base, and no scrambling to respond to a surprise attack. All in all, it was a calm day - something that Lana Beniko intended to take advantage of.

She woke up early, starting her day with meditations. Then, she scrolled through the Alliance’s stocks as she ate her morning meal, making a note of every area that wasn’t reaching expectations so that she could feed back to the relevant parties. 

When she was finished, she cleaned her space in the still-empty Cantina, and headed out to walk through the landing pad, where she took a moment to watch Havoc Squad run through their morning drills. A few Republic and Imperial soldiers had decided to take part, though by this point, one would have to look closely to tell them apart.

Satisfied with the military, Lana left, heading to the Force Enclave. There, she spoke briefly with Sana-Rae about the state of the handful of new Zakuul Knights they had recruited, heading outside when she was informed that Senya was running a training regimen with them.

Briefly, she observed, but unlike Havoc’s Commander, Senya wasn’t afraid to point out her presence and call upon her. Wanting to provide an example of the differences in fighting styles of other Force-sensitives, Senya requested a spar. Seeing the benefits of teaching the Knights something of the Sith way - and never being the type to turn down a challenge - Lana agreed, and the pair fell into battle stances.

The Knights watched closely as they fought, taking note of the similarities and differences. When they were finished, Senya suggested Lana come back again tomorrow, providing she had the time, to give a proper lesson into Sith philosophy and use of the Force. Lana agreed easily before excusing herself, satisfied that the new recruits were being brought into the fold under Senya’s guidance.

By this point, the sun was beginning to rise over the horizon, and the less-early risers were waking. With that in mind, Lana set off to have a word with Hylo about their supplies of rations.

As she strode through the base, Lana paused when she saw a familiar droid standing awkwardly beside the war table, alone. She frowned.

“HK,” she spoke, deciding to delay her meeting with Hylo, “what are you doing here?”

The droid came to life. “Response: Your meatbag associates requested I review the strategic planning. Personal opinion: I must say that I think a full-frontal assault would-”

“My orders should override anyone else in the Alliance.”

“Correction: There is one exception.”

A raised eyebrow. “The Commander wanted your input on our carefully crafted strategic plans?”

“Response: She did not directly request this, however, she was very clear that I was to follow the instructions set out by the other meatbags.”

Lana sighed. The Commander liked HK-55 well enough, but had never entirely understood the necessity of having a bodyguard on Odessen. ‘Odessen is our home, and besides, the biggest threat to me lives in my own head,’ she had said when Lana had first suggested assigning HK to her quarters. Eventually, she had allowed the assignment, but Lana was aware that it was more to keep HK out of the way so he wouldn’t offend someone unused to him, than an actual desire to be protected.

Every now and then, Lana would find the droid performing some ridiculous task, and when she found the Commander, she would always be met with a sheepish smile.

“...Thank you, HK. Instead of wasting your time here, go to the lab and see if anyone is available to check your diagnostics.”

“Complaint: But, Master, that is where Z0-”

“Go, HK.”

“Petulant grumbling: I am so disrespected here.”

Lana watched HK leave, before heading down the corridor. Outside the Commander’s room, she paused. She could hear voices coming from inside.

“Okay, but you have to admit that everything’s gone really well.” That was Koth.

“Yeah, yeah.” Theron. “Except for the part where she was impaled.”

“That’s just what I’m saying!” Koth again. “I saw those injuries. They would have killed anyone else.”

“I think that has more to do with the stubborn man in my head.” The Commander.

A scoff from Theron. “Stubborn isn’t the first word I’d use.”

“But what are the odds?” Koth continued, “Think about it. You even getting him in the first place was unlikely, but here we are. It’s fate.”

“Or bad luck.” Theron again.

“It’s not fate, and it’s not bad luck.” This time, the Commander sounded mildly amused. “It’s choice. Repeated choices.”

“Some of it, sure. But you can’t deny that some of the things we’ve encountered go beyond that. The Gravestone, for one.” Koth insisted.

“Judging from that expression, you’re denying.” It was Theron’s turn to sound mildly amused.

“I just - I don’t think that the Gravestone being there was fate. Even if we don’t know exactly why it was there, it was still the result of the action of others, and us finding it there - well, that was down to your crash landing skills. Not fate.”

“Ugh, you really can’t see it, can you?”

“Sorry, Koth. You’re right that things have been going well. I’m sure that the Force has been helping us - that it wants us to succeed - but I don’t… I don’t think things can ever be so simple as fate. I don’t think that we’re here because of fate. I think we’re here because we chose to be. I chose this Alliance - I chose all of you. And you chose the Alliance, in return.”

It was a philosophical debate, Lana concluded. Nothing more. She would talk to the Commander about sending HK away later, but given the context, it wasn’t a major issue. In the case of an emergency, Lana had every confidence that Theron and Koth would defend the Commander - as well as having confidence in the Commander’s skills, themselves. There was no need to eavesdrop further.

Lana stepped back, intending to continue on to speak with Hylo, when Theron’s voice reached her.

“Eh. Maybe some of them chose this, but the three of us were dragged here by Lana.”

There was no bite to his words, and Lana resisted the urge to roll her eyes. She had spoken to Theron, at length, about why she had recruited him, but he remained hesitant to accept it.

A laugh from Koth. “Yeah, yeah.”

Koth, perhaps, had some more grounds for the agreement.

“Hm.” For some reason, Lana found herself paying closer attention to what the Commander would say. “I don’t think I would say that.”

“Really?” Koth sounded incredulous. “You had the least choice out of all of us.”

“I’m with him on this, Commander.”

The Commander laughed lightly. “There is no version of reality where I wouldn’t want to save the galaxy.” A considered pause. “...or where I wouldn’t choose Lana.”

There was a good-natured groan from Theron, but Lana didn’t stay to hear what would happen next. They were entitled to their private conversations, and she was sure that the Commander hadn’t intended for her to hear that.

An affectionate pulse through the Force told her otherwise.

happy valentine’s day!! inspired by & referenced from @maddiedrawz ‘s supercorp art <3

these two so much… ivive would definitely use háma as a weighted blanket shsjsjjsjsjs

in my legacy, lyn chooses to save torian. she’d previously spared the mandalorians, but had been reassured that she’d made the right choice due to having strong allies in torian and shae. when the time came to choose between torian and vette, valkorion reminded her of that, and spoke about the responsibility that would be on her shoulders if her attempt at showing the mandalorians mercy (even as it went against their culture) resulted in the neo-crusaders gaining power

so she saved torian. in the moment, she knew that it was the ‘wrong’ choice, but she was exhausted and unable to think straight under valkorion’s influence

and then vette died in front of her

lyn had only met vette recently, but they shared some common ground both being twi’lek, and lyn just... liked her. and she was horrified that vette had been killed so cruelly, and killing vaylin was in part a result of her anger at vette’s death

which was something she lived to deeply regret. that day was one of the worst days of lyn’s life, as she genuinely believes that if she had just made different choices, she could have saved torian, vette and vaylin

the whole thing’s made worse when she meets murrae (my warrior), who holds her responsible for vette’s detah. murrae’s honourable and won’t strike against her, but she clearly hates lyn for it, and the judgement is almost more wounding than any physical attack

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Kira looked back over her shoulder at her wife as the door slid shut, leaving the Outlander and the Hero of Tython alone.

Aisha looked over at Melyn. The dark side corruption that used to mar her face was gone, but now, she just looked tired. She sighed, leaning against the mission control table beside her. She looked as if she wanted to rest, but…

Melyn looked different. The twi’lek was, somehow, full of life. The smile on her face was genuine, and she bounced on her feet as if overwhelmed by anxiety. Only a few moments after Kira and the others had left, she was closing the space between her and Aisha. Aisha didn’t back away, but she did eye her wearily.

“I can’t believe it’s really you.” Melyn said, “I asked everyone I saw about you, but no one knew. No one. I almost thought that you were dead.”

Aisha shrugged. “I was busy.”

“Oh, of course. I completely understand. Your mission was important, and I’m very grateful to you for it. If only Master Satele… ah, no. Let’s not worry about that right now. I’m just glad you’re back!”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll have to send a message to Ashara, I know she’ll want to see you again.”

“Maybe.”

“Trust me, she’ll be ecstatic. Especially now that you’re here! We can actually work together again! How long has it been since the three of us were actually on the same side?”

Aisha’s lips pressed together. “I don’t know, Mel.”

To her credit, Melyn finally noticed that something was wrong. She paused in her enthusiasm. “You know that she was never Sith, right?”

“I know.”

“And even if she was, there are a lot of Sith in the Alliance.”

“I noticed.”

An awkward silence drifted between them. The gears in Melyn’s head whirred as she tried to work out what was wrong with Aisha.

“Did something happen between you two…?”

“No.”

Melyn’s lekku twitched. It was a small movement, but it caught Aisha’s attention. In all the time that she’d known her, she had never known Melyn to be expressive with her lekku. How much else had changed?

“Is… something wrong?”

Aisha looked down at Melyn. The Outlander’s brows were furrowed, and her purple eyes were wide. Her presence in the Force was open, genuine as it always had been. Something about that just made the togruta feel all the more angry.

“I was an idiot when we were younger, Mel. Ashara has never been on another side. She just changed her means of achieving our goals. We talked about it before I went off the grid.”

“Oh.” Melyn reached up and stroked her lekku. This, at least, was a nervous habit that Aisha recognised. “She didn’t mention that.”

“Yeah.” Aisha fell silent again, and considered leaving things as they were. While she didn’t like it, she felt satisfied watching Melyn flounder. But after a moment, she pushed the urge away.

“But you are right that we haven’t been on the same side for a long time.”

“Uh- we? What do you mean?”

There was nothing but genuine confusion and concern colouring Melyn’s presence in the Force. Aisha wasn’t sure if that made it better or worse.

“You left, Mel.”

Melyn blinked. “Well, technically, but I was - I mean - I was sort of kidnapped and then frozen in carbonite.”

“I know. I read the reports. But, tell me, why were you on Marr’s ship?”

“He invited me.” Melyn spoke slowly.

“Why?”

“Because we worked together on Yavin. You know this. You were there.”

“Wrong answer.”

“No, that’s - that’s what happened. I don’t know what else you could possibly want me to say!”

“Try the truth!”

“That is the truth! Aisha, what’s wrong?”

Aisha clicked her tongue and shook her head, pushing away from the table and prowling further into the room. She looked out of the window, out towards the wilderness of Odessen. There is no emotion, she told herself, but it didn’t really do much to lessen the maelstrom of anger swirling inside her.

“When you left, everything fell apart. We tried to fight back against Zakuul, but we were completely outmatched. Then Grandmaster Satele went missing, and Master Gnost-Dural left for Ossus. The Council fell apart, and those of us who refused to go into hiding had nothing left.

“Kira and I went looking for… I don’t know. Answers, some clue of what to do - anything. We found recordings of your meetings. I heard what you said.”

“...What did you hear?”

“After recent experiences, I have reason to believe that Knight Aisha is not fit for service.”

Melyn winced.

“So now you remember?” Aisha asked, unable to keep the accusatory tone out of her voice.

“Look, I… Aisha… you seem so much better now, but you weren’t- you weren’t okay after what happened. As Barsen’thor, it’s my duty to-”

“Don’t hide behind titles, Mel. We’re sisters. Aren’t we?”

“Of course we are! But it’s- it would have been irresponsible to-”

“To not tell the entire Council that I was defective? That I was falling? That I was dangerous?”

“That wasn’t my intention.”

“Then what was? I can’t imagine what could possibly have been-”

“I wanted you to be safe!”

It was the first time that Melyn had raised her voice. Actually, Aisha wasn’t sure if she had ever heard the other Jedi shout before. Her presence in the Force was scattered, and there was more emotion rolling off her than Aisha believed she had ever felt from her before. She swallowed past the lump in her throat.

“I… I mean…” Melyn’s eyes darted around, something bordering on panic barely concealed. “On- on Yavin, you were so… I’d never seen you so…”

Melyn trailed off. She looked almost lost.

Aisha didn’t remember Yavin well. It was as if someone had snatched those months from her memory, and all that was left was a vague sense of dread - but Kira had told her some of what had happened. She thought it was probably best that she didn’t directly remember.

“How did saying that keep me safe?” Aisha finally asked.

“...We knew that we were heading towards war against Zakuul. We needed to be ready to fight. Every available Jedi would be expected to play their part, and you… you were the Battlemaster. Your skills were renowned. They wanted you on the front lines. Perhaps I was being selfish, but I didn’t want that for you. I thought that you had already been through enough.”

Aisha shook her head, and spoke again, but this time her voice was more gentle. “But you didn’t talk to me about it, Mel.”

“It was my responsibility…” This time, Aisha didn’t interrupt Melyn as she spoke, “...You would have disagreed. You would have told me that you were fine, and it would have been a lie. I am Barsen’thor, and I am your sister. I wasn’t going to let you get hurt, even if that’s what you wanted.”

“A Jedi’s life is sacrifice.”

“Maybe, but… should it be? I don’t know. I don’t have all of the answers. I just knew you were in pain, and I wanted to shield you from it.”

Aisha wanted to argue back, and tell her that it wasn’t her job to shield her, but bit her tongue with the sickening realisation that it literally was. Instead, she fell silent, continuing only when she was sure of what she wanted to say.

“You didn’t… really… shield me from pain. When I was told what happened, I was- it hurt. I blamed myself. I thought… if only I had been there. If only I had protected you. When I heard that meeting, it was worse. I thought that I had failed you. I thought that if I had been stronger… Perhaps you would have trusted me enough to let me be by your side again. Perhaps you wouldn’t have been lost.”

“I never stopped trusting you, Aisha.”

Aisha swallowed, and looked away quickly. There was too much to process right now. It was starting to become overwhelming.

Picking up on her nonverbal cues immediately, this time, Melyn stepped back.

“You should catch up with Kira and Scourge. I’m sure you need to rest after the journey here. We can… talk more later.”

Aisha nodded, and started towards the door. At the threshold, she looked back, and hesitated.

“Mel…?”

“Yes?”

“...I missed you.”