Happy Fething Families

[Lina Ovmar]

Calina followed the HRD with a scowl on her face. Of all the places to go, of all the people to annoy, Anaya Fen had to chose Fondor. A planet under the protection of Sarge Potteiger, notorious for his hate of the darkside. Her mother had to go poke the dragon. Parla Vos, her mother's aide had sent word for her as soon as she herself had been repaired. It was her she followed through the facilities bleached and clinical corridors to her mothers room.

The door hissed open, and Parla stepped aside to allow Calina to enter first. Machines surrounded Anaya, a breathing apparatus hissed rhythmically, and the soft beep of a monitor filled the silent room. She drew level with the mess that was her mother. Her skin was blackened, her face a mess of tears, half lidded eyes revealed milky whites beneath. Her left arm was missing, her shoulder along with it. The most bizarre thing however, was the missing lekku, she looked strangely lopsided.

Calina was certain she was supposed to feel something, sorrow perhaps? But the only emotion she could muster was disappointment that he hadn't managed to kill her. She lifted her gaze to Parla. "Did you try to stop her?"

"You and I both know that stopping your mother from doing anything is impossible." Parla replied in a flat tone. "But yes, I tired."

Calina knew for a fact that there was one person in the galaxy that was perfectly capable of stopping Anaya doing what she wanted. They'd spent most of her life running form him. "And the intel?"

"We have it, the trihexalon is where we thought, but it will not be easy to get to, we will need allies and support."

Calina nodded, eyes dropping to her mother again and exhaling a long sigh. "Alright, set up a meeting with the relevant people and start planning. We will proceed as she wanted us to, she's going to be pissed enough as it is when she's able, lets not give her reason to be more so by delaying." The HRD nodded, bowing her head and leaving the room.

Calina pulled up a stool and stared down at Anaya's ruined face. "Feth, it would be so easy to kill you right now."

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

"Hardly the Sith way, a mercy kill at the beginning of true suffering." A voice spoke. Familiar, old, syllables dragged out long as if the speaker enjoyed to hear his voice and wished to experience it plenty within that moment and others. For a moment it seemed as if time itself stopped, but perhaps that was simply the sudden skip of Calina's heart, as she realized just whose voice it was. Nobody there. Nobody there. Nobody... there? All of a sudden a man, older, lines etched into his face (laughter lines? Was there truly anything of joy in that man's life?), eyes still retaining their blue ice shine as if it was that very first time Anaya had met a young lad.

Too tall for his breaches, arrogant, thinking the whole world was his to explore... a flirt, never serious.

One leg was crossed over the other, a hand holding Anaya's while a thumb brushed her beat knuckle over and over again.

"No words of welcome for your dearest father? A hug perhaps." There was that infamous smirk, the grin that bared teeth and had intoxicated Anaya so much in their young age. He seemed completely at ease, here, within the source of Anaya's power.

As if it was nothing to him.

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Calina stared at the aged form of the man sitting across from her, and drank it all in. Every little details, from the crows feet at his blue eyes. Her eyes. To the gentle way her handled her mothers hand, to the relaxed manner he took. She settled her own ice blue eyes upon his. She wasn't overly surprised to see him, where else would he be when Anaya suffered but as close as he possibly could, if not to add to it, then to simply enjoy it. Anger flared, stars these two were so alike.

Calina hated her mother, but she did not want her to suffer. Her mother's suffering had brought nothing but suffering onto herself. If Jared planned to stick around, it would be no good for Calina.

"I might carry half your genetics around with me, but your absences remove you of the right to claim the title father." There was a bitterness in her voice that snow balled. She dropped her gaze back to Anaya, steadying her breathing. "I've not heard hide nor hair from you since I was dropped at Vornskr's. Where have you been?"

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

"I am your father, not your nanny." The rebuke came comparatively gently compared to what he had experienced himself at her age. "This is not a family of warm hands holding up, cuddling your fears away and holding the darkness at bay."

His focus shifted from the mother to the daughter for a moment.

Eyes grew darker there, for an instance, before they glided back. "We are the darkness." Her words had landed on deaf ears, because in Jared's experience there was no such thing as a right to claim. You took it, yourself, clawing it out while your nails bled from damage inflicted. He was not her father because of any desire on her part.

He was the father, because he wished it so.

"I have been everywhere." The flicker of annoyance was noted on Calina's face. "Oh, you wish for more? That is all that I will give you freely. And even that was not given lightly."

A nail brushed Anaya's skin, wondering just how much stimuli needed to be applied to elicit a response.

 

[Lina Ovmar]

"No, this is a family where torture and torment are commonplace and family meals often end in blood. If i expected any molly coddling at this point in my life then I have truly learned nothing about the twisted world you two have built for me." she retorted angrily. "It would be nice, however, if i could get some karking consistency." she waved a hand at the unconscious form of her mother. "This one, I can predict. You... you I know nothing about."

Calina folded her arms and closed her eyes, her leg began to bounce, an outward sign of her irritation. She reminded herself to breathe, the pulsing anger rolling off her easing slightly and her leg stopped bouncing. First and foremost, she was not her mother, she did not lose her temper because things were not going her way and every time she felt herself leaning that way, she did all she could to avoid it.

Anaya whimpered and Calina felt a ripple of fear roll off her. Whatever Ovmar had done, he'd gotten something for it. Calina opened her eyes and contemplated telling him to stop, but it would only be wasted breath. "What does a daughter have to pay to learn where her so called father has been hiding?"

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

Oh, the annoyance, the frustration, the anger, it washed over him like the incense of a candle. The ash and smoke covering him in equal measures.

Pleasant.

But it had nothing on the fear of Anaya's mind. Even here, unconscious, it recognized its true Master, the one who had shattered it... the one who had tried to repair it. Unsuccessful. Experience, wisdom, age, it tempered power with recognition: he saw the fault lines now.

It would only take the distance of seven breaths to restore her sanity.

What would the point be? "Blood? Pain? Secrets? What does a daughter have to offer to her father?" In response Anaya whined again. Low sound at the edge of her throat. "A hug.... yes. A hug and a kiss and I will tell you."

 

[Lina Ovmar]

There was something strangely pleasant about the noise Anaya was making. She'd witnessed fear in her mother before, but never like this, never when she was so helpless, a smile tugged at the corners of her lips at his ridiculous request and she tilted her head slightly, a mannerism inherited from Anaya. "I thought we weren't a family that cuddles?" she replied smirking ever so slightly.

All the same, she wanted to know where he'd been. Had she been given the choice at a younger age, she would have chosen him, over her. He had far more to offer in the way of schooling. She'd learned all she could from her mother, all she wanted to a the very least, but from the legendary Jared Ovmar? She had to snatch up the opportunity while it was there.

She slid off her stool and swept around the end of Anaya's bed to where he sat, bending down she hugged him, planted a kiss on his cheek and straightened up again. "You realise, that she will take her next episode out on me, for sitting here and letting you torment her." She moved equipment from a cabinet and pulled herself up to sit on it. It was closer than her stool after all. "Where have you been?"

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

She reminded him of Anaya.

The Anaya he had seen shimmers of, the one that layers of abuse, corruption and fear had finally broken and discarded behind the curtains of the play. Coaxing those parts out had been pleasant.... when they had still been young and Ovmar still had illusions of some sort.

Not anymore.

"Who says your mother will be there to torment you further?" Jared asked rhetorically. It was clear from the sharp glint in his eye that he was fully expecting to take her.

Was it not his due? Was she not his?

"I was dead. For a time." Your brother is far better at killing than you are. He almost said it, but the trickster in him pushed back against it. Perhaps Calina would figure it out one day. Perhaps she wouldn't, that would be entirely her problem. "I decided to take it as an opportunity for a long-awaited vacation. I explored the sights, experienced what there was..."

A shrug.

"Here I am again." He seemed quite serious about it.

 

[Lina Ovmar]

"I say." said Calina, surprising herself. The justification for her response came rapidly, but she did not give it, not aloud. Anaya would die, but it would be on Calina's terms, not her fathers, not Sarge's not anybody's but hers. Anaya's life was hers to take and hers alone. One might ask why she'd not killed her yet, why she suffered more and more each day Anaya lived but that was an easy question to answer.

The moment hadn't yet been right.

Yes, there had to be a moment, you didn't descend from two people who were dramatic in all they did. Everything entrance had a dramatic flare, every kill served a purpose, every decision was calculated to produce the utmost impact. So it would be the same with Anaya's death. Nobody was going to take that from her, not even Jared fething Ovmar.

She didn't not pursue his vague response to his whereabouts. the fact that she wanted to know more was neither here nor their. She did not want to be sucked into his games. "Are you sticking around?"

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

The 'I say.' only received a snort in response.

The girl tasted a shred of power through her mother's immobility and suddenly assumed she held the reins. It reminded him of himself when he had been younger... and far more stupid, but eventually Ovmar had learned his lessons- some early on in his life, others through pain, sacrifice and application of force. But learned them he had and learned them well. Anaya's soul was his. Shadows gathering at the edge of his sight as he reaffirmed that in his mind. The body? No, Jared did not care about the corporeal.

The body was just a vessel, just a bag of flesh that could be discarded at will, if you knew how.

It was weak, fragile, it could not withstand much before breaking.

"Am I sticking around?" He repeated, tasting each syllable in his mouth before shrugging. "Probably not. Why, do you wish for your father to stick around?"

He hoped not.

It was weakness that made all of them cling to recognizable forms, comforts and sentiments. He hoped that at this point Calina would have let go of that kind of foolishness.

 

[Lina Ovmar]

"Not especially. Truth be told, I'd rather you both karked off to whatever hell you have created for each other, I'm sick of being caught in the middle of your games. However," she slid off the counter, padding to the door and peering beyond it briefly to ensure Parla was not returning. "I need her still." she continued, padding back to her stool. "Not for molly coddling, or to learn from, I've learnt all I can from her. But because her body is mine to destroy. I'll gift wrap her soul for you if you like, but until then I ask that you leave it alone."

There was a hardness in her ice blue eyes now as she met her fathers gaze. "Seeing as you have to wait, you might as well make use of your loitering time and teach me something. Because thus far, you have given me nothing."

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

A satisfied chuckle came first.

This was good.

Attachment was weakness and she had learned that lesson well, but perhaps it couldn't have been any other way- not with the way Anaya had treated her, shipping her off to Kaine and all the other torture their little girl had gone through. Perhaps letting her stay in the hands of Anaya had not been a mistake. Perhaps it had been exactly what she needed... to realize that all of them were alone at the end of the day. But then she had to... well, Ovmar supposed it wasn't ruin, as much as spoiling the moment.

His hand rose, then flicked at her.

It was a great force that took control of every fiber of her being, pressing down at every inch- distracting her... one could only use the Force when they were focused completely. Yet, if every inch of her body was being pressed together like she had been stuck between a vice?

Difficult.

Her form was pressed against that very door.

"Give?" Ovmar mumbled as he rose, suddenly very tall indeed. "Power is not given. It is taken, claws scrapping for every inch of it, until your fingers bleed, your hands broken and all you feel is pain."

Her brother understood that.

Fingers curled around her throat, squeezing slightly. "Why should I give you anything?"

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Calina gasped, first because of this fresh new sensation that pressed her hard against the door, then because her airways became constricted. She was not afraid, she'd been thrown around and beaten so often in her life that it no longer brought about a fear response. Only anger. Cool, calculated and controlled, she did not take her eyes off her father, so close now she could see every line on his face, and the flecks in his blue eyes that matched hers.

She dd not answer him, focusing instead on getting him the feth off. She let her anger build in the air between them feeling its energy sparking as the pressure built. She drew in a constricted breath through her nose, then exhaled through parted lips, and the pressure between them expanded with force enough to throw the old man from her, and hopefully shatter his concentration releasing his grip.

The door at her back buckled slightly and she felt the familiar stabbing pain of cracked ribs. A necessary cost.

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

Years ago Ovmar would have been rebuffed by that attempt.

But he was old, experienced in all the ways that she was not. He saw the attempt in her mind before she even thought to think of it and he simply... stepped to the side. Allowing the outburst of kinetic power to burst past himself and rage against the wall. The sudden buffet caused his clothing to weave and it wrecked a lamp next to the bed. Other than that she was still pinned to the door. It was an attempt in futility, one more childish outburst that did nothing but underline the inevitable.

"So much like your mother." Jared mumbled before the power around her was released and she would drop down to the floor. "Mentalism needs a firm hand, concentration, a mind shaped and strong to withstand anything and everything."

Already turned, already settled back in the chair.

"Being able to see the world as it is and at once as you wish it to be."

His gaze left hers, moving to Anaya... eyes softening slightly, barely enough to notice.

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Calina crumpled to the floor, clutching her ribs and regaining her breath. Getting back to her feet she glowered at the back of her fathers head, anger pulsing off her.

"The foundations from with you took your power were given to you by Spencer Jacobs. From there you took, but you still needed a leg up at the beginning." Her voice was even and calm, despite the anger rolling off her in waves. She wanted to retort aout the likeness she had to her mother, but she could taste only venom in whatever she might say and all that would do was prove his point.

I do not want to be like her.

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

The reminder of those old days almost made him wistful.

He could practically see Jacobs forcing about a dozen of those henchmen killing themselves to save him. Where had all that time gone? Was it really that far away? He had been a different man back then, young, arrogant, passionate. Taking risks that weren't necessary simply for the sake of them. Jared had been brash... hungry for life and everything in it.

What had happened to him?

Life. Love. Power.

"This is true." Ovmar acknowledged with a nod. "She taught me all that she knew."

Head tilted. "But you already had Masters... three of them. Your mother, her former lover and now," Lips curled upwards. "Cerbera." Oh, how far Cerita has come since the days of hiding behind Rave's skirts to avoid the wrath of those who hated the source from which she had grown.

"What more do you need?"

 

[Lina Ovmar]

"All of it."

The words came out as a whisper, but they echoed as if the had been shouted, rippling in the force. The hand holding her ribs had dropped and she held herself a little taller.

"Each master has their own little niche, their own strength and in those strengths there are weaknesses. I want to know all of them, so I can tear down those who seek to find mine." A hunger, quite like Anaya's when she was close to a kill, but far deeper and darker glittered in her eyes and she took a step towards her father. "I have been thrown around, beaten and tortured my whole life, as it should be for a sith. I suffer it, for the knowledge I gain from it."

"Knowledge is power."

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

[member="Calina Ovmar"]

Once Ovmar would have agreed with her.

Now... now his opinion had shifted. Not overly, not enough to make a point out of it, but enough to be amused about the echo of words that no longer resonated with him as much as it had in the past. It didn't matter, what mattered was that Ovmar could respect this hunger. Far more than he could ever have respected her tendency to shout and cry like a drooling toddler. A slow nod came from him, it wasn't acceptance, not even confirmation, just an acknowledgement of her point.

"I could show you things." Jared allowed, shrugging at the same time. "Terrible things. They will stress the very fabric of your being."

He shifted slightly in his chair.

"It will break you. But the fire will forge you anew, making you stronger than ever before." His jaw leaned slightly against supporting palm. "Knowledge, power, they have a price- you think Anaya and Kaine were bad, tortured you, hurt you... but in the end? Their purpose, in their own twisted way, was to make you stronger in the only way they know how." It was a fundamental truth. None of them wished Calina dead, because she would have been dead. None of them wished for her to be completely useless and unfunctional, because then she would be eating from a straw and being reduced to nothing for the rest of her days. "What I will show you has no such inclinination."

Head tilted again.

"Are you ready for such a thing?"

 

[Lina Ovmar]

Calina's eyes drifted to her mother as she pondered her answer to his question. She had been tested, physically over and over again, but mentally her pain threshold had not yet been pushed. She contemplated her worst memories; her first physical memory of this life, Taun Wa's head rolling to her feet; Luke, the only soul brave enough to befriend her on a ship full of her mothers employees, beheaded for knowing whose child she was. Both brought pain, but not fear.

She was not afraid, not of being undone and remade, not of pain. She was not afraid of what was necessary to make her strong enough to defeat her enemies. She lifted her eyes from Anaya to meet that of her father's.

"I am." she replied her determination reflected in her iron gaze.

[member="Jared Ovmar"]

 

[Jairus Starvald]

She wasn't.

But that was okay... neither had he been, when his first studies began.

Oh, Ovmar had taught that studying under Jacobs would have prepared him for anything he might discover, but that had been youthful arrogance and ignorance. It was much the same with Calina, so much that now he could see a little sliver of himself in her.

It was small, very small, suppressed under years of Anaya's insanity, but it was there.

"Very well, then I will train you." She looked eager, licking her lips in anticipation and that amused Jared. "What? You think we are starting now? Here? It will be soon, but not now."

His attention left her and went back to Anaya. "Now that you have what you want from me, leave us- I want to be alone with her for a little while." Once more his hand held hers. Just for a moment there seemed to be a measure of tenderness there. A soft support, a squeeze of the fingers curled around hers.

Just for a moment.

A glimpse to what could have been, if they had been different people in a different time and a different place.

[member="Calina Ovmar"]