Breathe

[Asher]

There was a thin layer of fog covering the grounds that evening. People went about their business, wrapping up the last of their daily routine before the guardsmen would have to take their spots atop the watchtowers. Things were oddly quiet when you considered the turmoil that the last few weeks had brought about, or maybe the tension had just become such an average part of life that people were used to it by now. Either case, Aton called in his shift for the day and started to head home. Home being a bit more relative than he thought it would be, though it was more often than not a bed within the very same room that he had grown up on. Every now and then he would find himself aboard a freighter hauling his goods off-world and he would lie if he said he didn’t prefer that.

The man jumped into his speeder and with the flick of the ignition he set off towards the very same place he had grown up with. Ever since his mother’s death it was hard to go there. Not just because of the fact that she wouldn’t be there but because of so many other things. Ember and Falcon had both tipped over when the news had hit and even yet Aton had remained there as if nothing had happened. He could only really remember the one time that he had cried over it, but once the initial shock had settled he just kept on pretending as if all was okay, hoping that somehow the pain would numb with time when it quite clearly would not. He didn’t allow himself to feel and in many ways the kid kept bottling it up for an indefinite ‘later.’ It had kickstarted him into adulthood, really. He no longer felt comfortable being the little kid that he was, he had to grow up and face life in full.

Not by himself, but he had to face it nonetheless.

And so he did, by masking just about everything with a thick layer of humor and a happy-go-lucky attitude. Deep down he was far from it, but that was what others wasn’t supposed to know. There was only one person who truly knew this, felt this, and right now that was just about the only person he had any interest of actively seeking out.

“Hey Mira!” Aton called out as he stepped through the door to enter home. “You here?”

“... Mira?” The boy repeated and kept looking through the house.

Maybe she wasn't home.

[member="Mira Rekali"]

 

[The End Narrator]

It had taken some time to get used to being home – atleast on a regular basis.

Mira sat at the counter idly and stared down at the comic before her, flipping through the pages with one hand while the other held her chin. Despite it being a relatively good read, she admitted she wasn’t into it that much.

A sigh escaped her lips as she continued to skim over each section, trying to drown out the silence of the empty house. It was a hard thing to still accept that her mother was gone. Mira had swore she felt a lingering essence within the Force, somewhere in the Galaxy but every time she pushed – she was rebuffed harshly.

The sound of her name being called out caught her attention, followed by a familial bond that was unmatched. The voice would repeat itself, a bit more cautious, perhaps? She said nothing, as she continued to skim through the comic. She made her presence known, tendrils of her celestial being traversing through the flow of the Force only to touch the mind of her brother, her twin – Aton. A comforting sensation, maybe even one of feeling complete. They had grown in the womb of their mother together, grown up as children and bonded in many ways – but they were so different. Mira was strong in the ways of the Force, much like her mother and the Leidias side of the family. Aton was like their cousin and perhaps some of the other members of the Rekali members – either without it or just sensitive to events on a grand scale.

Her crimson gaze would avert from the book and up to the glass of blue milk, as she gestured lazily, dragging it across the counter with the Force and into her hand. She’d take a sip of the frosty beverage while flipping yet another page, knowing full well Aton would join her in the kitchen soon.

She wondered though – what brought him all the way out here?

[member="Aton Rekali"]

 

[Asher]

There was no answer but he knew she was around. He was connected to the force, but his skills had never gone beyond the ability to sense someone else in the force. As such when Mira made her presence known he put his little mind to work, digging in deep to try and remember what the Masters had told him before he was dumped into the AgriCorps. He reached out, pulling at the tendril that Mira was extended aaaand… Bathroom? An eyebrow perked. No, that would most definitely not be it. With a shrug he discarded the notion yet again. Who needed the force anyway? The kid stepped through the living room and continued his search for his sister.

She wasn’t here either. His other brow perked up as well to hide beneath the curls of his hair.

Kitchen. She had to be in the kitchen. The half-man half-boy stepped through the door and sure enough there she was. Nose deep in a comic book trying to escape reality much like the kid before her did every now and then. Kid being a slightly relative term, perhaps. Did you ever really stop feeling like a kid? Aton certainly hadn’t.

He checked the content of the comic again, and…

“Oh dude, no way. I think that’s the one where uh, what was his name.” Fingers snapped, eyes closed trying to remember the name. “Captain Justice has to stop Troglador from destroying all of Coruscant, right?”

Aton went over to the fridge to grab a drink of his own.

“Instant classic, from what I’ve heard others say about it.”

[member="Mira Rekali"]

 

[The End Narrator]

Mira rolled her eyes and nudged away Aton. “No, it’s where Captain Justice and Marvelous Woman discover each other’s secret identity, and that they’ve apparently been dating this entire time.” She shrugged lightly and slid the comic around to face Aton as he returned to the counter. “It’s actually quite a cheesy moment for the comic, to be honest.”

“The part you speak of, was earlier in the book.” She spun the comic back around to herself and continue to idly read it.

There would be a recognizable box, one from Mira’s days at the Jedi Academy on Yavin IV – now filled with the various trinkets and Jedi relics left behind from their mother. The Skywalker Holocron and the one from Grandmaster Yoda would no doubt be within, along with Aaralyn's personal effects that Falcon wasn't holding onto. The box would resonate with the Force and even someone as limited in Aton’s potential might feel even a snag – especially this close. The lingering essence of Masters like their mother long since gone as well as those who were centuries passed – was a bit hard to ignore.

To the side of the box and haphazardly stashed beneath a stack of comics was a journal of flimsy sheets that Mira had been working on – and one she attempted to apparently hide when she sensed Aton. She was discrete, but she knew Aton wasn’t stupid.

Mira had prepared and explanation, but wasn’t sure how he’d perceive it.

How would anyone perceive it?

Falcon had come and gone. He seemed to be in his own world, he greeted her warmly and loved on her but ignored mostly of what she was doing – as if nothing but his grief still mattered?

Maybe he was beyond grief and just gone off the edge? She didn’t bother to ask. He’d been through a lot. Between Rhyen and then their mother – who could blame him.

Then there was the box they had found – with DNA of Aaralyn. She had examined it, and found out it came from Bespin and was purchased off the Black Market after one of her duels with [member="Matsu Xiangu"]. Matsu was nice, but did give off that ‘I’ll cut you up just right.’ vibe. She doubted she had anything to do with it. There was a warrior respect there, if she remembered correctly after speaking with her.

Beyond that, there was no indication on how it was obtained or what it was doing in a cloning facility.

Her mind snapped back to reality as she found herself staring at the book, a page held in her hand. She’d flip it suddenly, going back to reading.

Spoiler

[member="Falcon Rekali"] (optional)

 

[Asher]

Oh there was a look of disgust on the young man’s face. The reveal that Mira talked of had been a sloppy execution at best. CJ and MW just “stumbling” upon each other to stop the very same crime when they acted out of different jurisdictions just felt so incredibly contrived that Aton had almost dropped the comic and rolled his eyes until they bled. Besides, he had always thought Captain Justice had a better relationship in the old cycles, the one when he was still dating just your average woman and when he kept living a double life. It made him seem just a little bit more believable, to a degree. There wasn’t much about a flying man in spandex that really screamed all that much of realism to begin with.

Still, comics didn’t matter much. Eyes darted out at the box that they had found on Cartao. Aton’s lips thinned as he ran a hand through his thin beard. They should have left it. He didn’t know why that was his reaction to it, but something about it just screamed of bad business. They should have left it or destroyed that box when they had the chance, but here they were with tissue samples relating to their mother, inside a box, within the confines of their kitchen. The death had been hard enough on them all, but this just felt…

Weird.

Perhaps that was the easiest way to describe it.

“I see you kept the box.” The brother stated for the sister to hear before cracking a soda can open. “I still think it’s a bad mojo that.”

He took a sip, looked at his sister as she flipped the page of her book. A hand reached out for the papers hidden in plain sight, the ones hidden beneath a pile of other comics.

“What’ve you been working on, M?”

[member="Mira Rekali"]

 

[The End Narrator]

"It's not bad mojo." She let go of the comic, gesturing with her hand. "Would you rather someone take this and clone her?" She turned briefly and shot him a look. "For all we know they already did and it's been running around rampant." Mira simply groaned and looked back to the box. It was complicated for her. In a sense, it was all they had left of their mother - but in reality, it was dangerous.

She shook her head and dismissed the notion, going back to looking at the comic while talking. Her hand waving idly about.

"This and that. Studying the holocrons and notes from the holocrons that mom had before she passed them on to [member="Chloe Blake"] and [member="Jorus Merrill"]." She looked up at the bigger box. "Well, more like compiling the information, and believe me, there is alot." She let off a sigh before turning to full face Aton, closing up the comic and setting it into her lap.

"And thinking about the direction I want to go - like, where I want to be...."

[member="Aton Rekali"]

 

[Asher]

It was bad mojo. A wide arrange of tissue samples belonging to their deceased mother was found within a cloning facility on Cartao, and was now stored safely within the confines of what had once been said person’s home. This case, this wooden box, screamed of a bad mojo in every conceivable way for Aton and the fact that his sister had reacted as she had when she found it even more so. He was trying to move on with his life, but seeing his sister so hell-bent on following a trail that he thought to be better off unfollowed broke his heart. His brows furrowed and a frown set on his lips.

The idea of telling his sister what was on his mind was pushed aside for later.

“Oh?” He asked in both response to the fact that there was a lot of information as well as the idea that Mira was asking herself where she wanted to be or belonged. It was a familiar question he had asked himself many times over the last few months.

“Well? Have you got any idea where it is you want to be?” Aton asked and took a seat before Mira.

[member="Mira Rekali"]