Starfall. It’s all in the timing. (Sio)

[Glade]

Nato’s face perked up, at Tegs and their not so secret, secret, conversation. Relief wasn’t just evident, she was picking up on emotion, and she was expressing the same, she felt giddy with relief and overjoyed that they were reunited, part empathic at times like this that sort of took over.

Drinking a glass of water, not wanting too much sugar, ‘cause she had to watch her calorie intake, she’d just been starved and could have eaten… well her table, but if she did then she’d be putting on weight again.

Bad, she didn’t want to hear the rest, and… she started eating sweets, well she nibbled on ones corner, well almost, she sort of just unwrapped them, lining them up and decided nibbling could come later... at least that's what old Nato would have done. Maybe being in a household that actually paid attention to you when you were not starving yourself half to death to get them to notice anything all, maybe that's what did it, because before you knew it she had three sweets in her mouth.

"Can we, maybe one day, like, go back?" Soon. Did anyone have the heart to tell her. She loved that memory so much, her family now, could things be the same? Just strap on her armor, her shields, helmet, she'd even take her chair, build their house, statues, swimming pools, maybe arie was there waiting.

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] | [member="Tegaea Alcori"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Natoline Kerrigan"], [member="Tegaea Alcori"]


The mood had, unsurprisingly, changed and Siobhan felt bad. "It won't be the same Kaeshana you know, dear. It's not a home anymore. Nuclear winter, desperate struggle for survival, civil war...it won't be the same again. I'm sorry." A sigh escaped Siobhan and she angrily wiped away a single tear that was threatening to drip down her cheek. "But...I'd like to send help where possible. We mitigated the damage, there'll still be survivors who need aid."


Mitigation, that was what it had come down to. There was an awkward pause as she tried to gather her thoughts, which had drifted back to the circumstances of Nato's kidnapping. "Nato, dear, I...need you to tell me what happened exactly when you got captured. I...don't think it was just Dark Eldorai behind it." The last message had hinted at someone else.

Spoiler

In her hands she held a copy of the message she had sent, her daughter's false messages had stopped, and this had been sent in its place. “Your daughter was always ours.” One message, one location, unmistakably the temple, it hinted at who had really set this up but didn’t betray the name of the Uos.

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

[member="Natoline Kerrigan"] [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

Tegaea winced slightly. The reality of being on the ground at Kaeshana was more than she could imagine, worse than any situation she’d ever been in.
“Yes, we will do all we can,” she said softly.
Perhaps I can acquire Revan’s toothbrush and sell it to the Black Rose for 20 billion credits, she wondered dourly.

When Siobhan mentioned the message she looked between them. There was a story here, clearly, and she did not interrupt.

 

[Glade]

Ugggggh did she have to, she really didn’t want to remember, because she remembered things so vividly. She blew out a usually pffffft of her hair and told Fyor to nab her some water or somethin’ just to get him to leave, picking up her lovers hair ribbon, one Nato had kept in her pockets, and holding her velvet there for clarity, she pulled back into a time before, keeping her eyes pressed shut.

“Workin on their shelters! oooooh we had some really gorgeous places mum, you would have soooo liked them!” Her skipping voice and mind strayed off into happier times, times outdoors with people she cared bout. Elders she’d been with had accepted their fate gracefully, refugees even found some solace as they’d come across people to care for, to think about other than themselves. Natoline described this scene to her mum(s)! and poured out her heart, deeply smiling to herself.

But, with Fyor out of the room, she felt, angry really angry, clouds of hurt coming over her, betrayed, pain, and more, she didn’t want Fyor to hear what came next, only her mums.

“Got’ta call from Kei, old ship friend, y’know,” Nato’s face was incredibly tense, “when I got there, he was waitin'...” now she shivered, feeling sick, that was a bombshell worthy of explanation, one of her oldest friends laying in wait, Jedi Master, sounds unbelievable if she hadn't of been right there! “Got all grabby, found everyone, wanted to sacrifice us.”

“Arie, Sio, she came to save us, then things got kinda bad,” Nato just got her legs broke, but Arie just kept telling them to go to hell, even when they bleh, enough, she didn’t want their images. She was relieving the memory too vividly, and nearby a plate shattered from her outpour.

“Weird tho, y’know, like they kept saying I was dead to them, like, they just accepted we were all dead already,” a face, a helmet, she saw those tiny details of a disguised figure, "walked kinda, I dunno, maybe just being silly." dead, like that one line they'd heard, last time they'd left her family home, but Nato was too close to this to see it.

[member="Tegaea Alcori"] | [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]​

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Natoline Kerrigan"], [member="Tegaea Alcori"]


Dead to them.


Your daughter was always ours.


Siobhan was no genius by any stretch of the imagination. However, she was not a fool either though. So she lay there in bed as Nato spoke and thought. Words flashed through her mind. They made her feel very angry. Apocalyptically so. Fortunately she was rather tired, otherwise something in the room might have been accidentally wrecked.


"'Your daughter was always ours'. That's what the last message said," her eyes had narrowed and her tone had grown a couple degrees colder. "Nato...could your family have been involved in this? Your former family." Countdown to the brutal death of Mr Uos in...three...two...one...

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

[member="Natoline Kerrigan"] [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

Tegaea frowned at Nato’s story. It was rather puzzling.
“Who?” she asked, thoroughly confused.

It seemed that Siobhan was on the ball though and had a better idea of the true story.
Again Tegaea stopped and waited for them to continue. She’d heard of the confrontation between the father and daughter, and how Siobhan had rudely disabused him of his power.
She wondered though what sort of person would want to kill their own daughter….

 

[Glade]

Natoline didn’t want to even think about that, she was a strange mix right now, reconnecting with her mums, losing her home, friends, lover, then finding out her family might have been involved. Nato liked to let things go, just carry on and smile, all that was making her sleepy, and hurtful. Harder to answer sibby, so she kind of froze, again and lingered around Tegs question.

To Teggie “Oh,” she picked at her bed cover, “hmm, someone I used to know, kinda of used to be this Jedi, n my friend.” Used to, she was hurting about him, chance was bound to run them into each other sooner or later, and that would be awkward, for now Nato’s head couldn’t take thinking about their betrayal.

Her head hurt.

She wanted to say, dunno Sio, and just pull her covers up and sit in them, picking over them with itchy fingers and unhappy hands, but yes, she knew, she didn’t want to say, she could see what used to be her mother, Sroo, there behind her mask. “Yes.”

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] | [member="Tegaea Alcori"]​

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Natoline Kerrigan"], [member="Tegaea Alcori"]


Ever felt incandescent, burning rage? The sort that could be quite accurately compared to a star going supernova. Hold that thought, for it was quite close to what Siobhan felt. It needed an outlet, for it felt like she was about to burst. The outlet manifested in physical form by shattering a glass on her bedside table into hundreds of little pieces.


Water dripped down onto the table and floor. Siobhan breathed in heavily as she tried to get her temper under control. This was a good thing because the ceiling above had started shaking just a bit. "Your family was behind the dark elves capturing you. I'll kill them, I'll rip their hearts out. I should've rended your father limb from limb when we met," she spat hatefully. Hopefully the raging Chaos Goddess could be calmed down a bit. It was probably for the best that she was rather tired at this point. "And Kei was involved as well?"

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

[member="Natoline Kerrigan"] [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

Tegaea let out a little cry when the water glass exploded. She looked anxiously at her wife. Concern about the implications of this conspiracy were temporarily overridden by a touch of fear about her wife’s uncontrolled powers.
“Shh, calm, Sio, if her family’s behind this we’ll make sure they get what they deserve. Don’t enrage yourself now whilst you’re still recovering,” she said soothingly.
It would be distressing for Natoline too, and Tegaea was conscious to the fact that her adoptive daughter was very sensitive…if not a little naïve. Having her mother promise to tear her family apart – no matter how deserved it was – was probably not going to make Nato feel better.

“I find it hard to imagine a Jedi would help them, but there seems like there’s more going on here. I’ll come and talk with you, get all the details you remember and try to figure out the truth here…and find your birth family too.”

 

[Glade]

Teggs was right, Nato was twisted, knotted like fraying rope binding to those she loved, and had her brightest smile, eyes a bit watery. Sio was still her rock, that little Kiffar girl would light a moon on fire to help, well only distant moons with no fuzzy creatures or people. Looking on you could see Tegs was Sio’s rock remaining calm and steady, like a chain of events one helped the other, but rather than be helpless, she wanted to help too! So, Nato’s nose did a bit of investigating how she could, becoming still, “Got’ta get better mum, please, for me, for tegs.” Her voice asked, picking up her monitor in both hands to look into her mums eyes, as if she could get physically closer, “promise, then we’ll… we’ll go together?” She asked, hopeful, she wanted answers too. “Don’t wanna run forever,” she had to face this, again.

“Thankies tegs, families here” only here, only place she wanted or knew to be, shouldn’t she care more for them, how could she? She said this almost too quickly, whatever else there was, she didn’t know if she could call what was back on Kiffu family even in her head, made her feel queasy, but so did planets exploding it turned out, as Nato stopped chocolate munching.

Kei “Yes” but he’d felt, odd, sarcastic, careless, Kei was overbearing, caring and protective, so different. “I think.”

“Be okay, were all here,” She rocked just slightly, and caught herself, memories wanting to put herself away to happier times. “Gonna be happy again, you’ll see, I love you both.” She allowed herself some tears, and put her monitor down, after a quick hug of course around her monitor as Nato was hugger! Her screen went blank, and left them in silence.

Fyors hand twitched slightly and rested on her shoulder, she looked up and smiled, she still had friends and family.

Oh okay her screen came back on because she was a fidget too, and deep down she didn’t want to be cut off completely again!

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Natoline Kerrigan"], [member="Tegaea Alcori"]


To put it plainly, Siobhan had a vicious temper. Over the years she had become a lot better at controlling it, but it was still there. After all, she was a Dark Jedi Master known to be rather cruel to her enemies. On top of that, she was fiercely protective of her family. Anyone who hurt them deserved to suffer, no matter who they were.


However, even as a wave of rage washed over her she was not blind or deaf to Tegaea's pleading. If anything, her wife's reaction probably brought her back as Siobhan sensed that her wife was afraid...of her. Hatred for Nato's so-called parents was temporarily overridden by the guilt and concern she was feeling. "I'm sorry, Tegs. I'd...never hurt you," she spoke, sounding remorseful; her upper limb trembled. Reaching out a bit timidly she took Tegs' hand, clinging to it. The ceiling above them stopped shaking at last. Taking a deep breath, she slowly calmed down a bit. "I just...can't let anyone hurt you, Nato. No one messes with my family. I...love you both so much."

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

[member="Natoline Kerrigan"] [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

“We’ll find the person responsible, Siobhan. Together,” Tegaea said, taking her wife’s hand.

The view faded after Nato seemed to hug the screen. An odd one, her daughter, but very sweet just the same.

Then it came back because it seemed her daughter couldn’t bear to be alone. Tegaea understood that.

“Get some rest, both of you. I will be here for you both…always. Nato, we will find who did this and they will answer.”