Common Strains (CSA/ME)

[Yasha Cadera]

“Call them all, Kay. You’re going to need them all.”

Each of Yasha’s gauntlets were tugged off her forearms, and placed on the nearest table. A Mandalorian took off their armour in the family home, in such safe places, which delighted that sense of security everyone eventually needed to have. Once there were no others but [member="Lady Kay"] and [member="Beth Australis-Mantis"], Yasha plunked down on the chesterfield and tossed her forearm over her face. The light of the sun, while pleasant to most, burned Yasha’s eyes. Refusing to allow Kay or Bethy to see the searing moisture in her eyes, Yasha sniffed to settle herself.

Little [member="Adara Raxis"] looked up at her Great-Aunt with the demonic eyes of Darth Carnifex, genetic doubles of Yasha’s mother Aditya. Yet, unlike Aditya’s serendipitous physical oddity, the ache of a decrepit and lingering force played in the infant girl. A tiny hand reached up, closer to Kay’s face.

“Evidence. The HUD recordings of all our fallen and surviving warriors, AI reconstructions… everything. Mandalore never forgets. We can’t… Kay, I was slaughtering at five years old. A well trained child could do a good amount of damage before they get punted across the proverbial room. Violence aside… if the children remember their parents, then a victor’s strategy would be to convert or kill them before they one day well up and bite back at the monsters. Heck, it could be punishment for the amount of people who have been shooting at him. The Rebellion or the Rebel Alliance or whomever. You know, the ones led by Cedric Grayson, the murderer who tried to invade Mandalore.

It makes a macabre amount of sense… Aunt Kay?” Yasha gulped, legs over the arm of the couch she was too tall to lay in any other way. “…”

Yasha’s mouth worked and she was the twenty year old in a light blue dress meeting Kay for the first time, marvelling at the Palace’s architecture and the flowers in the gardens… Yet the girl lying on Kay’s couch had lost some of the effervescence of those days.

“Aunt Kay?” Yasha cleared the horror out of her throat, “Kaden went missing the day Adara was born… all evidence leads to the pirates. We found the pirates massacred, a couple of bodies too badly desecrated to get any identity off them… one of them was missing his forearm and his eye… just… like… Kaden. I keep thinking Kaden’s going to come back, he got lost, or captured and we couldn’t find him or…” One leg then the other pulled up to Yasha’s nubile chest, a loud hiccup bursting from her ribcage.

“Kaine Zambrano offered his son Alvarex to me on Bastion. I guess… I guess now that he’s seen the sort of children I bear… he wants me to marry his son. The Empress Salara’s son, maybe even his favourite…” Her lungs shook, yet Yasha’s face remained a mask of stoicism covering the inner pain. No tears fell, for Yasha banished such things.

Queens didn’t cry, Baiko always said.

“I’m only twenty, how is this life so complicated? Is it supposed to be this way? If I… if I don’t try to court his son, what price will my People pay? What will Adara pay? Life is much simpler, when I can wield my war hammer and go ‘fall, brigands’… I will do what is in the best interest of my Vode, as I have always done. As far as I’ve told Carnifex, if I have proof Kaden… Kaden is gone, I’ll give Alvarex a chance. One chance. One. Just the one… is it petty or too young of me to admit I’m tempted to give that one chance because Alvarex is the hottest man I’ve ever seen in my life? He’s an eight foot olive skinned Epicanthix muscular god… gee, I really am twenty, aren’t I? I’m sorry, but… I don’t know any other women I can talk to… and you’re family… did I mention Carnifex makes hot sons? Like… epic levels I’m glad I was wearing my armour ‘cause I was biting my lip going ‘Focus, Yash’ika!’, especially when he was holding the baby and cooing at Adara, rocking her back and forth all protective and… why does the guy with the hot available son have to be the most cruel form of evil in the known Galaxy?

Even more evil than Voorpah, and they’re the worst. You think they’re just cute little Naboo pets, until they open their gigantic killer maws and bite you.” Yasha made finger actions of what she considered the most terrifying evil in the worlds.

Fuzzy wuzzy itsy bitsy cutesy wootesy Voorpah. “I can’t accept that Kaden’s gone, but in my heart I feel it. That part of me which held onto him with the strength of every form of damnation and desire for victory is gone. It’s like it was never there.”

 

[Kay-Larr]

Once the others had left, and as [member="Yasha Mantis"] began to remove her armour, Kay removed her hold on her Force Signature. She wasn't so sure about [member="Beth Australis-Mantis"] , but she knew that her niece was Force-dead. Adara on the other hand, well, she couldn't talk. As the infant reached up to touch her face, Kay took it in hand and brought it to her lips, giving it a gentle little kiss.

Her eyes then went to Yasha as she tried to justify the killing of innocent children. And of course she disagreed with it. "No, it doesn't make sense. It's wrong. If we ran by the logic that killing them for the chance that they might go after you is the right thing to do, then they may as well kill all of us, including Adara here, for we all are capable.
The better option is to win their hearts and minds. Through that you gain their loyalty. Years ago I had taught that to a Sith Lord and he has forever been grateful. They served him and protected him until his...death." Of course that Sith Lord is now alive and well, but neither of them knew that his death was faked at the time.

And now onto other matters. The talk of an arranged courtship. Being the ever-protective aunt, Kay disagreed with that as well. "He is using you, Yasha. He's seen what your capable of in terms of ruling over so many, and you are of childbearing age. So of course he wants that. Marrying you to one of his sons secures your people as his own, further widening his control of the Galaxy. How would such a plan work if his sons were grotesque?
It just wouldn't! Once you've outlived your usefullness, once they can usurp you from the throne, they will. I wouldn't agree to that, even if you were my own daughter, or even if you were me." Being forced into seperation from her husband, she was more or less available as there was no King for her people. "Why give Carnifex the ability to control you as he is trying to do me with this blockade? Is he your father? Is he your Elder? Don't let him put his boot over your neck. And don't fall for any of their charms, no matter how tempting."

Kay sighed, feeling very much like an old shrew. "Life as a ruler is very, very complicated.
And it comes with much sacrifice. I had to give up my husband for it, for the sake of my people and the rule of law. I don't...it's not for everyone. And it can be very isolating and lonely. I don't wish it to fall on my childrens shoulders. They don't wish for it either. So when I die, the monarchy will end. I will see to that. Hopefully what I have built from the ashes of the One Sith will continue long after I am gone. But..." She shrugged her shoulders. It wasn't as though it would be her problem anymore.

"I don't want you or Adara to get hurt in any way by their hands. But if they do..." Kay's eyes flickered to reveal the Sith undertones that they once held when she was released after captivity. "...then I will unleash the monster that they made me to be upon them, and will not stop until they are crushed beneath my feet." Her skin lacked some of it's colour then as the Light in her had faded. But a few moments later it had returned, once she buried the Darkness back into the depths of her core once again.

"Tread carefully,
Yasha...Take steps to ensure that what you have cannot be stolen by them, even if you bear their children."

 

[Yasha Cadera]

“I don’t mean killing children is morally or ethically sensible. I mean we have to think like he does to figure out what our best plan of attack. I thought you said he was taking them, Kay? Not killing, but taking to power his imperial machine?” Yasha peeked over her arm at [member="Lady Kay"] and groaned.

“You are talking to a child soldier, who fought and killed her fellow Mandalorians at the age of eight, Aunt Kay. During the war, all my Uncle Silas had to do was point and whatever or whomever was in front of us would be dead as fast as my katar could slit their throats. Do you think for a moment that the Mandalorians on the other side of the conflict didn’t shoot at me? They did. They defended themselves bravely, and I gave them Manda for it. So maybe you’re right. Maybe winning their hearts and minds is better.

Once the Undying had my heart and mind, he had a weapon which helped him win a war. Once he trained me, he had the future of Mandalore in the palm of his hand.”

Grinding her teeth, Yasha curled up on the couch, cuddling her arms underneath her cheek. “Kay, he’s taken out the FWC, the Alliance, he’s singlehandedly taking away all other competition to secure his family’s future. What if… what if there’s no other way to beat him? What if there’s no other way to secure my own People’s future?

I am but an object of Mandalore. I have no other function, but to serve my people the best way I know how. No, giving myself to Carnifex’s sexual procreative future isn’t the best thing I could ever try. Of course he is using me… At the same time… have you seen Alvarex Zambrano?” Yasha pulled a holoprojector from her armour and set forth a full sized holo of Alvarex. She whistled and shook her head.

“He’s the most attractive man I’ve ever seen in my kriffing life.” The girl whimpered, then sat up as Kay’s face changed. She spoke of the power of a ruler, the desire or lack of such in her children. “I’ve never prepared for anything else but the rule of Mandalore… I don’t know what else I am. Maybe that’s why this is so confusing… Aunt Kay?”

Yasha rubbed at her eyes, then back to Kay. Did her eyes change and shift? “I will… you have to let me help you prevent you from being stolen, too.”

 

[Kay-Larr]

"Ruling is never easy, and never simple. People think that all it is is sitting in some throne and giving out orders, but it's much more than that."

She cradled Adara in her arms as the little one began to doze, comfortable in the arms of her Great-Aunt. Kay watched [member="Yasha Mantis"] and studied her as she spoke of her past and willingness to hear her out. It said a lot about the young lady. It reminded her of what she was like 20 years ago when she was first placed in a position of power.

Kay looked to the holo image of the Emperor's son. He was of the same race as one of her bodyguards [member="Macoda Haberon"] . After he had gone away this last time, she came to realize that perhaps she understood why. He had fallen for her. Taking her out for speederbike rides; worried sick and yelling at her whenever she was in danger; that look on his face when he watched her overlooking a bonfire on the beach...She missed him. He made her feel safe, protected and special, just like Veiere did.

Veiere.

That situation was complicated. She was forbidden to be near him now, a decision that was more politically based than anything else. She couldn't be above the law and neither could Veiere. It would cause turmoil among their citizenry and cause her to lose control. His attack on Deneba and the slaughtering of the people there was wrong. And this was his punishment for it. But his punishment was also hers. At least no one was telling her to remarry. She wasn't sure if she could.

"He is handsome, I'll give you that. But be cautious. Is it in their culture that the men hold more power than the women? If something were to happen to you, could you bypass him for your position and give it to Adara? Or to someone else that your people would prefer? I'm afraid that I know little about the Mandalorian culture. When Ra ordered myself and others to go to Mandalore, I neglected to go. I had to look after Commenor." That and she didn't want to be forced to fight in the front lines of the Crusades that she didn't agree with.

Kay sighed a little and reached over to place her hand on Yasha's forearm. "I won't be stolen.
Commenor survives; that's our motto; and it's mine too. I can't just sit around and let my people suffer.
I will fight back. But whatever you decide to do, in regards to your future and your daughter's, I want you to be happy. And if you need my help or someone to vent your frustrations to, I'll be there for you. I promise."