Private Goodbye Mum

[Glade]

Sitting atop a hill alone on a field of green grass, Natoline gazed out over an expansive landscape that stretched to the sea. A silent witness to a turbulent planet enthroned in an ever-present cycle of shifting powers and ambitions on Arkas.

Behind her was an overgrown training area. Boldly open to overlook the landscape below, it exemplified her mother's fearless strength and determination. Spartan by design but made of the most durable materials to stand the test of time in its construction. Marks of staggering telekinetic impacts lay upon its walls. A small, comfortable, disused retreat sat opposite it, flawless in its design and purpose, now too reclaimed by nature.

She knew. The whole area reminded Natoline of her. She'd searched for a week on a single memory. A holdout bolter that Siobhan had given her daughter to protect her guided her here. Now she'd got here, she didn't know what to say. Too late to hold her hand or tell her goodbye. Welling emotions wanted to flood out. Not wanting to make this about lack, she wiped her eyes on her sleeves.

With a heavy heart, Natoline unpacked a box filled with longing and memory. Speaking to the wind, the landscape, and the faintest hope she would hear her.

"Do you remember when you gave me—?" She unclipped her necklace and laid her holdout bolter on the floor, symbolizing her mother's strength and protection. "You said, 'I got a lovely daughter today', and saved me from the hell I grew up in." She placed her hand upon the edge of it. "Y'know what, I got a lovely mum, because that was the best day of my life."

Tears forming, she fiddled with her damp sleeves in her lap. Siobhan had been a force of nature, assured, protective, confident, and fierce. She placed a cup carrying its age but beautifully designed alongside the bolter. A relic from Kaeshana, the day the asteroid came for the world.

"You w....were the strongest woman I ever met and a better mother than we deserved. You walked into an asteroid for me, remember that? The sky was fallin' down." She chuckled, rubbing her filling eyes; hell on earth, and her mother had walked right in and pulled them out without a second thought.

"I kinda don't know if you'd want me to call you my mother now, after what I did, but I needed t'say. You opened your home, family, and heart to a strange, messed-up girl and gave me a room of my own, stability, family, structure, and love. I guess I'd never had that, and I didn't… I kinda didn't know what it was or how t'be."

Her words hung in the air; she looked off into the distance, a silent tribute to the woman who had shaped her life in ways she couldn't express. There was more, the box had just started but, "Miss you mum," her voice crumbled. Nato took her time to mourn, breaking down.

Siobhan Kerrigan

 

[Glade]

With tears streaming down her face, Natoline began digging a small hole in the earth with a hand shovel. She had chosen a spot under a blossoming tree, its vibrant red petals burning brightly. Strong roots, she knew because she kept bumping into them as she dug, bringing a grieving smile to her tearful face.

Picking out her first lightsaber from the box, she placed it on the grass. Older and weathered but polished and cared for. One of her most precious memories of her mother lay inside, the day she'd offered to train her and they'd met. Her fingertips brushed the edge sentimentally and pictured a flood of memories.

"We were so young." She whispered, "less speechifying," she rubbed her puffy eyes again, holding back from sobbing.

Taking out her Sigil of hope. She never shared it with the world, usually scared to take it from her vault in case something marred or blemished it. Cradling hope in her hands and finding the promised memories of her mother's time in the OP. She'd never let go of this and never take it off again.

Lowering the box below the tree, Natoline placed letters one at a time she'd never sent, dozens of them, often with Fyor's interjections. Datapads, parchment, holo recordings, music from her band. She'd copied a few tunes from their time together or what reminded her of Sio. Finally, a painting she'd done of their once home, and how she often remembered it. Each one wrenched at her to let go, but, "Guess I'm sayin' what I…" looking up, "I shoulda said. Sorry I was stupid, and I'm sorry I left."

Collecting her saber and clipping it back where it belonged on her hip. She then softly placed the necklace of hope around her neck, and the holdout blaster beside it. The next part was so hard. With trembling hands, she filled in the grave; each handful of soil drew her closer to leaving this moment, and when she was done, her mother would be gone too.

"Have'ta go," her voice quieter than the wind. Not gone, never gone.

An hour, not wanting to put those final handfuls in place, before Kaeshana's cup was placed on her mother's unmarked grave. A whole world could disappear, but never the spirit who walked it. Her statues and company could go, but never the memories of those she met or her daughter's love for her.

"Goodbye mum. Wherever you are, be happy."

Siobhan Kerrigan

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

Glade

Heroine, villain, saviour, tyrant.

Dark Jedi, warlord, corporate queen, mother.

Siobhan Kerrigan had worn many masks. It was easy to wrap people into little boxes. Perhaps even necessary to make sense of the world. And yet so limiting. To be sure, she had done much good, for a time. She'd fought Sith, saved the Eldorai from certain doom, liberated slaves, taken in outcasts and lost girls.

But somewhere along the lines, she'd lost her way. She hadn't ordered the horrors and atrocities Firemane was indulging in now. Indeed, she'd look with disgust upon many of them...and yet even in her time, the megacorp had committed abuses. Perhaps it had been inevitable. Too much power concentrated in too few hands, power wielded with impunity over a less developed and vulnerable people.

Somewhere down the line, the so-called 'legacy' had become more important than people, than those she called family. A singular obsession that, at the end of the day, destroyed her. Perhaps it had been the lure of absolute power, a drug that always corrupts.

It had all led her to spending the last of her days trapped in her own body, a prisoner of her own mind, lying in a hospital bed while the diadochi schemed until her estranged daughter Elpsis Kerrigan lit the flame of rebellion, an unenquable flame that would spread like wild fire across Firemane's domain. By now many on Arkas and Tygara would curse her name...others would the good she had done, even as they rightly cursed the evil she had made possible.

But her legacy lived on. In Elpsis, in the multitude of Karrigans and Saobanas that had risen against the tyranny Firemane had degenerated into, even in Natoline...Glade, and in the latter's daughters...Siobhan's granddaughters.

There was no spirit that suddenly manifested. Whether Siobhan was even capable of such was another question. Wherever she was, she felt...regret. Regret at what might have been. Natoline would feel the brush of the wind of her skin, hear the rustling the bushes. A howl of the wind that almost sounded like a lament. Perhaps it was the former Jedi's mind playing tricks on her, or simply a manifestation of her own yearning, but for a moment she would feel something akin to an embrace. A reminder of happier times.

Then the moment had passed. All that was left were the memories.

Thus passes the glory of the world.

 

[Glade]

Red blossoms caught the wind, a call like she gave when at her most lost. The Kiffar girl raised her head and looked around, daring to hope. Could it be? Did she imagine?

Winds brushed her skin and she squeezed her eyes tight. She curled up in an embrace, picturing her mum. She reached out, yearning to hug her memory, clinging so tight as if she could hold her spirit and turn back time.

For one fleeting moment, she felt home. Imagined or not, it didn't matter. A hundred hugs went through her mind as she rocked back and forth on the hill. Then, like waking up from a dream, she was gone.

'Thus passes the glory of the world. Gloria Mundi', came to her in High Galactic, like Fyor used to speak, her wavering voice calling out to the departing winds.

"But you are forever." She wanted to believe, hope... now most of all. Whispering quietly, "Thank you Sio. You gave me everythin'. Please, mum, find peace. I'll see you one day, promise." Worldly things faded, but never all the lives and spirits Sio touched, maybe Nato would learn that lesson one day.

Natoline picked up a few stray blossom memories and placed them in her pocket. A cutting from nearby stayed in a jar by her side. Fyor droid beeped over and picked her up too. They left together, her eyes never leaving the hill, part of her would be there forever.

Siobhan Kerrigan