Like a Desert Flower

[Vereshin]

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The heat on Iridonia was not kind to Vereshin, who strolled along a grassy plain wearing a long, black overcoat. Fanning himself with his notebook, he braved the desert air in his inappropriate choice of attire and walked along a narrow path, which lead him to a little cottage. The house looked exactly like it had six years ago, when he had met Jairdain here last, almost as though it had been frozen in time. When he saw that she was not at home, he let himself through the front gate and gazed, delighted at her garden.

Mopping a bead of sweat off his forehead, Vereshin strolled along the length of the garden and caressed the desert lilies, their roots having adjusted to the harsh climate. His black roses would surely whither and die in such conditions and he presently felt like he was about to do the same. Looking up, he saw a woman with black hair emerge in the distance and immediately recognized her as the Sith he had known from years ago. As Jairdain approached, Vereshin leaned against the gate and waited, a sly smiling creeping onto his features.

"Your flowers bloom despite the heat, they are soft and delicate and yet, they survive." Vereshin said to Jair as she approached, his hand running gently over a flower. The last time they met had been on Coruscant, where Vereshin battled several Jedi and a Sith Lord, having revealed the dark creature he truly was. In this moment, he allowed his Force signature to seethe without bounds, the all consuming darkness of a singularity, so strong in it's force that no light could escape.

"They are just like me." Brushing his hand over a rose, Vereshin looked up at Jair fondly, a glint in his lime-green eye. "No matter what you throw at them, they don't stay down." The ends of his mouth parted into a smile as he spoke, revealing two rows of pitch black teeth. Having been trapped in a black hole for the past six years, Vereshin found he related to the desert flowers quite a bit. No matter how harsh the forces of nature pushed against them, they endured, just as he had survived the impossible.

"I have traveled here from the future, Jair." Vereshin said matter-of-factly, his voice lulling and soft.

Reaching down, he unhooked the latch of the gate, then held it open until she had walked through. He turned around to face her and looked into her eyes directly, his own gaze lacking the soft, naive jest they had once had. Time, as it proceed, had changed Vereshin. When he looked down, he saw Jair clenching her fist and smirked, smiling wryly. He could not remember how many soldiers and librarians he had slaughtered on Coruscant, only that Jair had been there to see it.

"Although I'm sure you recall when we last saw each other." Vereshin winked. Plucking a petal from one of the bushes, he brushed it against his nose and batted his eyelashes, his severe eyebrows arching upwards. "It's only a matter of time before it happens again." He said and threw the petal away. He would need to conduct some experiments to determine when exactly his duel at Coruscant would reoccur in time, until then, he had come to meet Jairdain to seek her help in rectifying the event.

From behind Jair, the door handle at the front of the house turned and Vereshin's smile dropped. Immediately, he placed a hand against her shoulder and swung open the gate, urging her to follow. With his hand in his pocket, he felt for his watch and pendulum, which he would no doubt be needing in the moments that followed. As the door had been locked, whoever was inside would take their time getting out, giving Vi and Jair the chance they needed to flee before the past overtook them. Holding Jair's shoulder lightly, he beckoned her out of the gate.

"Quickly now, they'll erase us if we see them first." Vereshin warned and lead Jair out of the gate. When he turned around, he could see himself, as a young Sith Knight wandering up the hill and writing equations in his notebook, just as he had done years ago.

[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain]

Not too long ago Jairdain had received an unexpected message. A person from her past had come back to haunt her. While this was not a bad thing, it was certainly a surprise. He requested she revisit her home on Iridonia. Luckily she was free to come and go as she pleased, that was something she needed. Making sure her son would be cared for, she made her way to her old home.

Entering the grounds, she was surprised to see her flowers and garden still lived. It had been a few years since she had been here last and had expected everything to be in a ruined state. Krest must be keeping an eye on it or it would have fallen into a much poorer state than it was.

She easily felt where her not quite friend or enemy for that matter waited and went to join him. Listening to what he said about the flowers and plants, she nodded. Motioning to the one he was caressing, she spoke her mind on her reason to planting them.

"Roses are very hearty plants and can survive almost anywhere. Of course, using Plant Surge on them helped establish they would live here."

If he thought his aura would scare her, he was greatly mistaken. They had initially met, they were both Sith. Their next encounters had happened on her way out of the Sith and back into the fold of the Jedi. Even now though, Jairdain could not call herself Jedi. She had been tainted by the dark and could never recover from that fully.

"They seem to be like both of us. We're too stubborn to stay down."

His physical features, as always, were lost on her. She might use the Force to see, but many fine details were missed. Color was one of them. Furrowing her eyebrows slightly when he said he had travelled from the future, she shook her head slightly and then focused on him through the Force before speaking.

"How is that even possible?"

Not at all resisting his guiding hand, she allowed him to lead her away from the familiar home and grounds. He didn't go far before he turned around and observed the two of them at a far younger age. Through the Force, she could see it as well and shook her head and repeated her question.

[member="Vereshin"]

 

[Vereshin]

Leaning against the fence, Vereshin reached down and caressed the flower beneath him, his eyes never moving from Jairdain as she walked through the gate and joined him. He wore a pair of round, black sunglasses, which covered his eyes and prevented Jair from being able to see as he watched her. When he compared his apparent inability to be killed, not even by a black hole to the lifespan of a rose, Jair nodded and told him about the flowers, that they could survive in the harshest climates despite their delicate appearance, something else Vereshin seemed to have in common with them. She revealed that she had used Plant Surge to keep them alive, which made Vereshin think back to how he had bought his roses from an alchemist, who had manipulated their molecular structure to make them black.

"That reminds me of the roses I bought from an alchemist all those years ago, their molecular structure had been altered to make them bloom in shades of black and purple." Vereshin said fondly, retracting his hand from the rose. He walked out the gate and closed it behind himself, then turned around and faced Jairdain as she stood in front of the house. Little did she know, the reference frame of the area had been shifted backwards, which was why the roses were still blooming, for they were in the past. "I remember you asked me if that would hurt the flowers, to which I still can't say, I've never been very good at alchemy." He chuckled, smoothing back his hair. Sliding a hand into his pocket, he flipped open his little, silver case and retrieved a cigarette, which he placed behind his hair for the meantime.

As Vereshin spoke, his force signature seethed unhindered, which did not seem to phase Jairdain. He was not surprised, as she had seen just as much conflict and terror as he had, although Jair had spent much more time with the different Force orders of the galaxy, from Sith to Jedi and in between, whereas Vereshin had always been exclusively a user of the Dark Side. With a bout of laughter, he smiled at her when she compared them both to the roses, no matter what the galaxy threw at them, they always seemed to come out unscathed. Her features creased as Vereshin revealed that he had traveled to the future, the happy recollection from moments ago having come to an end. Looking over his shoulder, Vereshin quickly checked for any sign of his past self arriving, which he knew would happen eventually.

"I was sucked into a black hole." Vereshin said plainly, as though there was nothing extraordinary about the sentence. "By the time I came out, the way in which I proceeded through time had been slowed to such a rate, that I was pushed backwards, into the past." He said, his tone dropping.

Walking away from the gate, he turned around to see a figure walking up the hill, their features resembling his own when he had been a Sith Knight. They stopped above a tree, where they proceeded to write an equation in a notebook, just as Vereshin had done years ago. In front of Jair and himself, the handle on the door began to shake, as though somebody was out to open in from the inside and judging by the version of himself which had appeared on the hill, Vereshin only knew just who it could be. His eyes widened behind his sunglasses and he darted away from the gate, lightly gripping Jairdain by the shoulder and urging her to follow him.

"Jair, we have to go." Vereshin warned."If our past selves see us, they'll override us in time." He said, trying to keep his voice low. With his hand wrapped lightly around Jair's shoulder, he gently pulled her along the front of the house and ran across the grass, to where they had crossed over onto the sand dunes years ago. Once they were well away from the house, Vereshin turned around to see a second version of Jairdain unlock the door and walked outside to tend her flowers, her features baring all the traits of her younger self. "Quickly, to the shipwreck!" Vereshin urged Jairdain, the Jairdain in the present to follow him to the abandoned shipwreck they gone to explore after meeting in her garden when they had been young.

[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain]

There really wasn't any need for Vereshin to cover what he looked like. She was physically blind and outward appearances meant next to nothing to Jairdain. She saw what was inside. Having been exposed to the best and worst in people, she was not concerned about what he was. As dark as he was, he had never lifted a finger to try and harm her. So she trusted him not to do that this time.

"I am sure the flowers you have are quite beautiful. These I have grown not for their looks, but because I want this garden to be a shining beacon on this world. Something that defies logic here."

Her picking of words was done to interest him and something that might make sense to him. Shaking her head as he answered a question she didn't remember asking, she decided to say her opinion of it now.

"No, it doesn't hurt the flowers. I've learned a few things since I asked that. They only change color, but remain flowers."

Some alchemy changed items deeply, but doing it to change the color of flowers was easy. If Jairdain had any real notion of color, even she would be able to do that now.

"How did you make it out alive? The whole science thing is still quite confusing to me."

What education she had was limited to mostly grade school level. After the age of ten, she had gone to a school that didn't focus much on maths and sciences and instead had taught her about the Force.

The sight he was seeing, she also saw through the Force. Again her brows drew down and he pulled her away. They needed to return to the shipwreck they had been visiting, but she did not understand why. Maybe that question would be answered as the day progressed.

[member="Vereshin"]

 

[Vereshin]

Jairdain's inability to see had not occurred to Vereshin, who rarely noticed it aming the times they had been together, for Jairdain handled herself exceptionally well despite being blind, so it was difficult to think that she was blind at all. Still, she could sense his Force signature and despite dark creature he had become, she trusted him dearly, his presence in the Force having not phased her. With his hand resting on the fence post, Vereshin reached out and took Jair's hand, which he guided to a flower and let her caress it as the petals fell away. Her mention of the flowers he had kept himself brought a smile to his face, when he recalled buying them from an alchemist.

"They were, and I'm sure they're still blooming brightly where I left them." Vereshin said, chuckling slightly. Due to the time he had lost inside the black hole, his flowers were most likely unaffected, still blooming as though the effects of time were irrelevant to them. Jairdain went on to explain how she had not planted her roses for their looks, but rather, as a beacon which defied logic, something Vereshin had to respect as his very existence defied the logic held by the laws of science. When she mentioned her intention by planting the roses, he chuckled, audibly enthused by the statement. "Anything that defies logic has my heart." He smiled.

Thinking back, Vereshin remembered how Jairdain had asked him if altering the colour of flowers through alchemy hurt them, although it would seem that she did not remember. She revealed that the process caused no harm and left the molecular structure of the flowers intact, it just changed the colour, to which Vereshin smiled.

"Well that's good to hear then, for the sake of my flowers, at least!" He said, retaining the smile. From changing the colour of flowers with alchemy, to getting sucked into a black hole and surviving, defying logic seemed to be a feat which he attained regularly and as Jair asked the question just as to how he had survived, Vereshin looked at the ground forlornly, the smile on his mouth having disappeared. A pause followed, filled by Vereshin withdrawing a sigh as he thought about the sheer impossibility of the notion, one which he had turned entirely on it's side. "I shouldn't have." Was all he said as he looked at Jairdain, his hand resting on the post.

"According to the laws of conventional physics, there is nothing that can escape from a black hole, but I did." Vereshin said, his voice dropping to a deep level. Retracting his hand, he moved away from the post and walked out the gate, just a figure began to approach from up the hill. "While I was inside, I pulled the mass outward and ejected myself, effectively creating an output of matter." He explained, squaring off a section with his hands to involuntarily convey a black hole being pulled outward and ejecting the matter inside. By scientific terms, it was no longer a black hole, but a white hole, spewing out matter from a pocket in space from where nothing could enter, but Vereshin had entered it, which made him wonder what had happened to the black hole that had existed in it's place.

"I believe the black hole entered me when I pulled it outward, which is what you sense as my Force signature." Vereshin turned around and said. The thought was no doubt absurd, but it would explain the drastic change in his presence in the Force. He could no longer cast light, only destroy it, which would make sense since his signature emulated the black hole he had come out of.

"At which point, the laws of physics at play were no longer conventional, but arcane, serving to circumvent nature rather than respect it." Vereshin said, walking away gradually from the post. Having created a paradox, he existed in space and time as a derivative which nobody, not even himself could figure out. "Which is essentially, what magic is." With that, he shrugged, the laws of physics having become irrelevant, beneath him even. "Breaking cardinal rules, rather than following them." As Vereshin spoke, the paradox trapped them, throwing them into a loop of time as the events of the past began to repeat themselves. His eyes widened as he turned around and saw the version of himself in the past striding up the hill, before darting forward to grab Jairdain's arm.

When she turned to follow him, Vereshin ran up the sandy path in the direction of the dunes, the rooftops behind them becoming ever more distant as they ran. He looked over his shoulder to see the past version of Jairdain walk outside her front door to tend to her flowers, which still bloomed due to the time lost to Vereshin when he had been trapped in the black hole. With not a moment to spare, he turned back around and darted down the dunes with Jair at his side. They stumbled down a sandy bank, which lead them onto a outcrop, laden with rocks and shrubs, where the shipwreck protruded from the ground, having not changed since they had last been there. Vereshin gasped for breath, somewhat elated by the sight, as well as the memory he shared with Jair when they had been attacked by scavengers.

"Here we are." Vereshin said and began to walk ahead. Slowing his pace, he relaxed his shoulders and kept his balance as he walked down the hill, Jairdain following closely behind. "Our past selves will soon arrive here, just as we did years ago, so we needed to get here before they did so we can rectify them." He turned to Jairdain and explained. Reaching out, he offered her his hand to help her walk down the hill, leaving it hovering in the air for her to take if she wished.

[member="Jairdain"]

 

[Jairdain]

In all the times they had been together, not once had Vereshin directed any of his darkness in her direction. So that allowed Jairdain to trust him a great amount. Her hand pressed into the flower he had guided her to and she smiled just slightly.

"Where did you leave those flowers?"

He commented that anything that defies logic he likes and she let a sigh out through her nose. There were times she felt she did just that. Somehow she had escaped the destruction of her world and dying with her people. Since then, she had discovered friends and allies in the stars. She had been adopted and now had a new family that welcomed her. Jairdain had also changed in the years since they had met and become a new person. Part of her remained the said though and it was that part Vereshin clung to.

It was so long after the fact, Jairdain felt it hardly mattered any longer about his flowers. If they had been changed or hurt then, that damage was so long ago, there wasn't anything that could easily be done about that now. Nodding was all she could do when he answered her question about how he had made it out alive.

As he continued on and elaborated, she tried to grasp onto the science he spoke of. It was a weakness of hers and she had never studied physics, math or anything that would be considered higher than anything beyond that of primary schooling.

"It is a good thing you thought of that, Vereshin. To have the ability of the Force is a blessing and curse. You used it to get back and out. Nobody can blame you for wanting to survive."

Giving him a small smile, she fell into step slightly behind him as they walked to the ruined ship they had visited so many years ago. Time should have taken its toll on it more, but somehow it was in the same condition as before. Some of the reason they were running had been explained. This situation revolved around Vereshin and she was just a small piece of the puzzle. He had his whole life to fix, her part was small bit and hardly mattered to her. To him though, it meant quite a lot.

Since they needed to stay out of the sight of their twins, they dashed down the dune and stumbled just a little. He reached his hand out to steady her and she accepted the help.

"What is the plan when they do get here? I don't exactly like the idea of having to kill ourselves, but I can't think of what other open there is."

[member="Vereshin"]