No Kind Of Home

[Preliat Mantis]

​

Two hours outside Keldabe​

Abandoned Mandalorian homestead​

Formerly owned by Preliat Mantis​

​

The long drag on the cigarette filled his heavy lungs. The exhale put the nicotine and whatever else was killing him slowly into his bloodstream. It cleared his head, scratched the itch. But it didn't change much. Preliat sat, observing the healing landscape, sat beside his brother, [member="Silas Mantis"]. There were two shovels, and a crate behind the two of them. His brother hadn't said anything since they arrived. A ship hovered over in the distance, bringing what he assumed were supplies to heal their wounded home. Well, his brother's wounded home. He looked to face his brother, staring at him in the eyes.

"Thank you for coming, Silas. I know this isn't easy for you. But it's what best."

He stood and outstretched a hand and pulled his brother to his feet. Behind them, there was a crate that needed to be put into the ground. A rainy-day fund for Preliat, essentially. Preliat's armor- his old one, the one he wore when he was but a Rally Master, lay inside, along with about five hundred thousand credits, weapons- you name it, it was in there. It just didn't need to be taken with him. Part of him wanted to destroy it, but the other part of him wanted to leave it there, for Silas, or for Yasha, if the need presented itself.

He looked out to the landscape and picked up the shovel. Preliat wasn't wearing any armor, denim pants and a plain shirt. He looked like an average man. He turned to face his brother.

"You've become more than I ever thought you could've back home, Silas. A father, a warrior, a symbol of hope for people. Of endurance. I long thought you would never escape my shadow, the name and reputation I created."

He stuck the blade of the shovel into the ground first. He spoke and worked at the same time.

"I thought for so long that i would be this way forever. But I have to make my own way. Yasha will be fine without me, so will Mandalore. I can't stay here anymore, Silas. I can't do it anymore. The wars. The fighting. The losses. This planet, our people- nothing but pain. Nothing but pain, Silas."

He threw the dirt behind him and began to dig again.

"But I have to ask you- will you be fine without me?"

 

[Silas Mantis]

"You call I'll answer ori'vod."

It was a hollow, empty feeling that hung in his stomach. Silas had known the day would come sooner rather than later, that the time before [member="Preliat Mantis"] finally left the Mandalorians would be soon upon them. Silas had entered this world trying to find the man he sat beside, as a foolishly brave teenager, he stepped into a life of violence and death from which he likely never was going to leave.

Taking up a shovel he joined his kin and began to dig as The Wolf bestowed upon Silas praise he could not recall having recieved since they were children. He remembered when the elder had shielded Silas from their father, how Silas had only dreamed of one day being that brave. Yet here he stood, his hero heaping praises onto him. Yes, Silas had grown into something neither of them had expected, but he wondered if it was really as good a thing as it was made out to be.

He'd never perceived himself as having left his brother's shadow, how could he? Preliat was the Wolf of Mandalore, a veritable legend, and Silas had so long been convinced he'd always just be his younger brother.

Still, Silas took the words to heart, even if he failed to find his own to say in return, nodding in solemn understanding.

"You are my brother Preliat, I will continue on and do my duty, repay the debts I owe, but I will miss you. We had only just started to rebuild our family, and it seems it is now about to fall apart again." He said with a sigh, sinking the shovel into the dirt, guilt plaguing him at the mention of debts alone. "But I understand why you must go, you deserve to finally be away from all of this. I will be alright, will you?" He had to know the truth, Silas knew his brother, they shared the same bullheaded stubbornness that lead them to push away help, and he had to know if his brother would reach out to him if the worst came to pass.

What was he going to do without his brother? They'd only just gotten each other back.

 

[Preliat Mantis]

Will he be alright?


He blinked several times before resuming his digging. "I haven't been alright in years, Silas." He threw more dirt behind him, making headway into the topsoil. It was the truth, simple and clean. No way around it. Preliat wasn't alright. The Dark Harvest, the Netherworld, the wars, the losses- the grief, the madness, the rage. It all took a toll on him. Physically and emotionally.


"But I think I will be alright some day."

The shovel found it's way into the dirt again. He didn't know what else to say. Honestly, Preliat didn't have much to say.

As per usual.

[member="Silas Mantis"]

 

[Silas Mantis]

Silas nodded as he shoved the shovel into the dirt once more. "You know I will always come if you need me." He stated firmly, tossing dirt behind him and digging deep into the ground.

Preliat had seen horrors, eldritch abominations, the walking dead, the loss of his love and his child, while Silas had simply failed so many. He had failed to be there for his family, and he had let hundreds die for the sake of his own morality. He heard them screaming in his dreams as they burned inside the Rekr. One day he would have to placate their desires for justice, or let them swallow him whole.

There was comfort in what Preliat said though, that one day things might be okay. Perhaps, if he lived long enough, Silas would lay down his weapons and become a farmer, he would till the ground and leave peacefully, raising his children to be whatever they dreamed of. It was unlikely, but perhaps one day there would be a chance. Careful not to become lost in thought, he sunk the shovel into the earth.

"Where will you go?"

[member="Preliat Mantis"]

 

[Preliat Mantis]

Preliat stopped in his work and sighed for a moment, thinking for a while.

"I will go where I please, for the first time in my life."

He had no real answer to that. He was simply going to...go. Mandalore...Concord Dawn. There was much of the galaxy he was going to see. He stopped again, throwing the dirt into the pile he had created.

"I should go...be a tourist. Just another man in the galaxy. Take photos. Get T-shirts. I suppose that would be helpful...beneficial. Enlightening."

He went back to work in tandem with his brother.

"And you? Are you going to remain here forever?"

[member="Silas Mantis"]

 

[Silas Mantis]

The notion of The Wolf of Mandalore becoming an intergalactic tourist was enough to make Silas smile even as he toiled within the dirt and inside the confines of his own mind. But humor aside he could not help but feel happy for his brother, truly this would be something that would bring much needed peace into his brother's life.

Then came the question of the hour; what was he going to do?

Silas racked his mind for answers and found himself lacking any vision beyond the beskar, it seemed to be his only option now. "It seems that way, but I am sure you once thought you would never leave this place either." Silas mused as he added to the growing pile of soil. "But I cannot consider anything else, not until I make right what happened on Utapau, not until I kill Rel [member="Connory"]." The warrior said solemnly, consumed by the deaths of hundreds he was directly responsible.

More names on the list of people he had failed.

Silas had known war since he was sixteen, it was hard to imagine a life beyond it, but it was impossible to imagine anything without revenge.

[member="Preliat Mantis"]

 

[Preliat Mantis]

"Take it from me, brother. Revenge solves nothing, and leaves you with the same empty feeling as you had before."

They were halfway done now, working in tandem, working together. One of the last things they would probably do for a long time.

"I'll be stopping to see Yasha next. Not that she needs me anymore.... She has much more than I could ever give."

He sighed. A sigh of failure.

He looked to the sky. Not a cloud in sight. A beautiful day.

"Out of all the things I will miss, you and Yasha, will be chief among them, until I return."

[member="Silas Mantis"]

 

[Yasha Cadera]

Yasha was already on her way. Alerted by Ambrose and Baiko, the young woman rushed to find her father [member="Preliat Mantis"] and her Uncle [member="Silas Mantis"]. Climbing off her bes’uliik, Yasha jumped the last six metres to the ground and rose, running full tilt to reach her father.

“DADDY!” The young girl who rose in Dathomir had returned a woman, the remaining years of her childhood played out under her mother [member="Aditya Mantis"]’ often cruel tutelage. In the end, Aditya had turned into the mother she’d hated from her own childhood, a driven woman who refused to give her daughter a moment’s quarter.

Yet this was no act of cruelty from Preliat’s wife. Aditya merely demanded their daughter survive the Netherworld once again. And she did. Stumbling to a halt, the 6’2” Epicanthix beauty had a desperate and stricken panic on her face.

“So it’s true! You are leaving… you’re abandoning us. Were you going to say goodbye?” Yasha reached for her father, but her hand flinched. “Daddy… how can I do this without you? ..... Daddy... ”

 

[Preliat Mantis]

"You were my next stop. But I suppose it's fitting to have the goodbye talk here and now."

He let the shovel stand vertical, looking at his daughter. He dared not touch the abandoning bit. That was a conversation that was accusatory and did not need to happen. The Mandalorians took everything from him, and gave little back. This was a long time coming. Preliat had no place here.

"I can't stay here anymore, Yasha. This isn't my place in the galaxy. I don't have a purpose here. I need to go. You'll be fine without me being here for a while."

[member="Yasha Mantis"]

 

[Yasha Cadera]

“But Daddy, I need you. Am I not enough?” Yasha’s face fell. She stepped closer to him, a hand on her stomach as she fought to catch her breath. She’d run and rode as fast as she could from the Palace, where the young Mand’alor was elbows deep in taking to her new position and charge.

“Isn’t your place with your daughter… and… and with your grandchild? Daddy, [member="Kaden Mantis"] and I… we… I need you. I need my Daddy. What did I do wrong? What did I do to make you leave?”

Yet she knew [member="Preliat Mantis"] was right. Mandalore was not the place for him anymore, he was a man in need of healing, not a man in need of war. Ramanar had died on Dathomir and Utapau. Now? There was nothing. "Don't go. Please, Daddy. I'm having a baby and I need my Dad."

 

[Preliat Mantis]

The weight of her words reflected in his eyes. But his daughter deep down understood why he was doing what he was doing. He was going to be a grandfather. He'd be there for the birth of his grandchild. That much he promised himself and his daughter with his look alone.

He embraced his daughter and held her tight.

"I will be there when you need me. But I can't stay anymore, Yasha. You didn't do anything. This has nothing to do with you and everything to do with me. I will be there when you need me, and I will come back. I will return. I promise I will return. I just need to find some semblance of peace and understanding, Yasha. Something I would not find on this planet, with the Mandalorians."

He cupped his daughter's face, staring at her eyes. His eyes.

"I promise. For you. And my grandchild."

[member="Yasha Mantis"]

 

[Yasha Cadera]

She’d known since Dathomir. Horrific, life altering Dathomir. [member="Preliat Mantis"] had always been able to cobble some form of sanity back together after an episode, but something in the demonic nature of his utter agony told his daughter that this time…

… there was no going back.

“Daddy… your scream it… it’s what helped me make it back and I wouldn’t have been able to… to come back without it… I kept thinking every second I spend in this place was causing you pain and… and I felt it… right here. It's what brought me back.” She beat her heart with her fist, shutting her eyes and curling up in her father’s arms.

“I don’t want you to go.” Yasha whispered, the words choking out behind tears streaking down from her eyes to the hands which held her face. Those hands.

A warrior’s hands. He’d beaten creatures to death with them and now held his daughter in a tender embrace, pleading in his way for the permission to go and be okay. Yasha’s chin wobbled. She panted out a sob, and ran her hands along his arms, to nudge herself as close as she could. “I love you, Daddy… Baiko kept up the manor on Atrisia and… and Mama’s sister, she… there’s a house on Panatha, it’s… it’s mine now… don’t take your prison ship, Daddy. Please… let me get you a different ship…”

Yasha tried to contain her tears, to find her anchorage in the tender display of affection Preliat used to hold her steady and promise to come home. “… I love you… don’t kill Kaden.”

[member="Silas Mantis"] [member="Kaden Mantis"]