Lineage

Chapter Three- Khalei Cathain, Year 3630

Khalei opened her eyes, awakened from her light slumber to the sight of sunlight shining into her face from the large windows on the other side of her bedroom. She took a moment to feel the soft silkiness of her bedsheets. Pure white without so much a speck of dirt spotting it. She tightened her hand into a tight fist with the fabric in hand, her nails almost tearing into the delicate material.

With a soft sigh she moves to sit up, propping herself up with her left arm and rubbing at her eye with her right hand. She gaze drifting to the floorlength mirror on the wall opposite her bed. She looked rather radiant if she did say so herself. Her dark auburn hair in small waves spilling over her shoulders and ending midway down her torso. Only clad in a black silk robe, contrasting with her pale freckly skin she smiled. She could get used to this, comfort and luxury all to herself. She needed it. After the year she's had? Definately.

She thought back to what had happened 5 months ago. The attempt on her life by one she considered a dear friend. The coldness she felt as she felt her blood froze and her life try to extract itself from her body. She wasn't well versed in the different rituals of the dark side, or even all the force powers seeing as she considered herself to be more of a lightsaber combatant.

She tried to think back to when she was on Korriban, trying to remember what the name of the force power used on her was. Was it cyrokinesis? She wasn't certain.

Her chest ached as she remember how she felt. The revelation that she did have a neice. That her brother had a child and left her abandoned. She only wanted to go and find her, finally show her what family was. She was in enemy hands though, the apprentice of the man who tried to kill her. She didn't even know what she looked like, how was she supposed to even start to find her?

She moved to get off the bed , robe falling down to her knees. She tightened the belt around her waist and took a look around the room. Everything was wooden, the walls, floor, ceiling and furniture. It was a strong contrast to her upbringing in Kaas City where everything was a dark grey steel. Wood felt warmer, more like home. The simple double bed, dresser and mirror were the only things in the room but it felt full. She didn't know why.

She walked towards the door, reaching out and taking hold of the doorknob when she heard a rustling on the other side. Loud thunking footsteps on the hardwood floor outside. She felt her heartbeat begin to race as she immediately went into her defense mode. She looked to the bed, searching for her lightsaber, lifting the duvet up with the force and throwing it to the side. There layed the saber hilt, she pulled it to her hand and gripped on the hilt. It was unfamiliar, it wasn't her dualsaber. That was taken in exchange for her life.

She twisted the knob slowly, making as little noise as possible. She stuck close to the wall as the door opened slowly, smiling to herself as she brought her hand up towards her face in a sweeping motion. Suddenly she was gone, gone in the sense that she shrouded herself from visibility. To the eye of whatever, whoever was out there. The door would have just opened with no one on the outside. She slipped out of the room, sticking close to the wall.

It took her some time to finally see who was on the other side of the door. But peering around a corner she spotted a very familiar shade of auburn and suddenly something black.

"You know I can see you Kha, my enhancements got stealth detectors in 'em." A gruff but somewhat high pitched voice speaks. Saezi lowers her pistol that was previously aimed at her chest.

Khalei laugh and revealed herself, stepping out of the shadows as she moves closer to her twin sister, arms opened wide. She pulls the mercenary into a hug, smiling into her choppy hair. "And to think I though I wouldn't ever see you again Sae."

Clad in her regular dark red bounty hunting gear, Saezi gave a shrug and hugged her sister back somewhat halfheartedly. "I've been looking for you. Aren't you supposed to be dead?"

Pulling away from the hug Khalei would saunter into the kitchen, placing the saber hilt down on the counter. She pulls out a bowl from one of the cabinets and opens the fridge, preparing herself and her sister some food. "It's a long story, and it includes the Force. You'd get confused. Besides, it's not as if I havent died before!"

"What!"

With a growing smirk on her face she looks over her shoulder and back at Saezi. "Please Sae, do you really want to go into this now. Im making us some brunch. We can talk about it over some food and drink."

Saezi quickly approached her. Her metal boots clunking against the floor in quick succession. Suddenly she was behind her, hand wrapped around her wrist and speaking in a low, warning voice. "Khalei."

Sighing heavily she spins around. "Now if I had a knife in my hand I could have so easily accidentally stabbed you Sae. We gotta be careful in the kitchen, they're getting only more advanced and complicated, means there are more ways to die!" She grins at her sister, the joking in her voice obvious but Saezi's expression showed that she was less than impressed.

"Kha, I don't need fancy food or whatever to share stories over. I need to know what happened to you. Why my sister was almost killed. You're the only family I got left Khalei. There's no mum or dad, no Jonaii, just you!" Saezi seemed to get more and more hysterical with each word. When she finally finished she could only stare into her younger sister's eyes with a small tear escaping and slowly running down her cheek.

Khalei reaches out with her free hand, lifting it to Saezi's cheek and slowly wipes away the tear with the back of her hand. "Alright, I'll tell you."

Saezi begins to grit her teeth together, she nods once as he lifts her own hand and quite violently drags her hand over her eyes, all trace of tears gone. "Well... good."

Khalei turns back around and starts to cook again. Taking hold of some Nerf meat she had hunted for the day before and a sharp knife. She starts to slice the meat. "Its starts with a datapad. I was over at a friend of mines Kaas city apartment in the beginning of the year. Darth Lupus. She had left me in her office, don't remember why but I was alone there. She was sent a message on her datapad, I didn't mean to read the entire thing but I couldn't stop once I started.
It was sent by someone in her family. A request for supplies to make a bomb. It got me curious so I saved her name for... further research."

When Khalei looked her shoulder once again she grinned at Saezi's expression. She looked almost... disappointed. "Bombs Khalei? You were a Darth at the time!"

"I know I know! I don't know what I was thinking but I took her name and I went back to my Kaas City apartment and I started my research."

At this point she had finished cutting up all the meat and would start to season it.

" I hired a... Mercenary, a spy of sorts, and I kidnapped her. Raouka J. Harzy. I threatened her and I threatened her family but in the end I convinced her to make me a bomb. It was huge Sae. Very big and very serious. You needed a special suit to even be in its presence."

Starting to get into her story her hands seem to go into auto pilot. Kneading in all the spice and tastes she added into the bowl.

"There was a mistake, an invasion of sorts. Harzys trooper company attempted to get her back. I got the Regime involved it was very messy but I saw out of the corner of my eye someone go into the restricted area where the bomb was and I followed after I went... Without the required suit and I was hit by the radiation immediately. I couldn't stop though because when I went in that that someone who went in before me, his name was Andar Organa, had activated the bomb.
I couldn't get out of there, I was stuck with the bomb when it exploded. Andar died immediately. I only kept myself alive by using all my force, all my energy to create a bubble with the force to protect me.
I was saved by Director Loxid, I'm sure you know him. He dragged me out of the rubble and helped me get to my Nar Shaddaa hideout. Where I stayed and got healed. My partner at the time, Serethen, tended to me."

Khalei paused and looked behind her once again. Saezi sat on the counter and looked at her hands, fiddling around with her thumbs.

"The others who ran the regime with me weren't happy with my decision making, I was a flight risk and they plotted against me. They rallied one another and harassed an answer out of the director. They found me, locked me into my bedroom and engaged me in combat."

She pulled out a frying pan and placed it on the stove. Pouring a generous amount of oil in and let it sit for a few short moments.

"You know how I am with combat. I'm good with it, I'm agile and I rely on acrobatics. They knew it would take ages before I would give up so they pushed me out my window into the alley below. That's where Farseer Midjen jumped down after me and performed some sort of cyrokinesis, that's making and summoning ice Sae. He lowered my heart rate with it, almost so that my heart stopped beating over all. He left me alone in that street thinking I was dead."

She popped the nerf meat into the pan. The sound of searing meat filled the room. Saezi let out a sound of outrage. "I'll find him!"

"No need. I don't know what happened next but I woke up back in Darth Lupus's apartment. Her grandmother found me and healed me and I'm not sure what happened, but as payment I gave he- well she took my dual saber. After that I knew I couldn't return to the regime so I came here, our father's old hunting log cabin. I've been here about 5 months now. And that's the whole story."

Khalei turns around and faces her sister. Looking at the familiar features. "I'm alright now Sae, I just... I can't go back, no one can know I'm here."

Saezi stands up and nods, heading back towards the front door only looking back to give Khalei one nod. "I won't tell anyone."

And with that her twin was gone, gone just as she arrived.