Private The Manda: Twin Defenders

[Ordo]

Mia Monroe


The unhindered wind swept across the wastland that still consumed their home. So, much like the blood waste it was to His eye that He could almost see bodies piled high around Him, rivers of crimson life flowing in the distance. He had to shake his head to clear it. They had the fields dedicated to the Manda now. Their people could return to the Manda without wandering those waste. They wouldn't be trapped and tortured before they could return home. They could rest until they were ready to be returned to the cycle.

He blinked away those thoughts and shook His head one more time and turned to His sister. She had been different than He was in death, and had returned in a manner different than His. She would have to remember her connection to His fields and Thier purpose without drawing in the ghosts. But He would help. They were together again. They could help eachother again.

"Are you ready, Liberation?" He asked to stoke Her memory.

 

[Mia Monroe]

She hated the wastes, the scar on Manda'yaim felt like it was carved into her own flesh. Her greatest failure. Motes of sand and dust hammered at her armour, if she closed her eyes, it sounded like rain.

Something in her had shifted, since his return to her side. Something she couldn't place into words, it was more a feeling, a sensation of being whole...of being more than she was. She'd forgotten something, lost it as she'd been yanked from the Blood Wastes, trying to find her way to him.

Liberation...

Something stirred in her chest as she turned to face Him, head tilting, "Well, ori'vod, there is only one way to find out."

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[Ordo]

"You can already feel it, Yaim." He said as he closed his eyes behind his visor, "But if you concentrate, not on the force, On us, On our worlds where Mandalorians haved lived and died. Loved and lost. Because the Manda is not black and white, Like jedi and sith. It's Mandalorians and all the good and bad and every facet between. Focus on Yaim. Feel It's energy."

He turned His visor to the sky, and reached back through himself like following a memory from one to the next. Then he simply let his will and desire for the connection to fill him. It wasn't faith or belief. It was knowledge. He told the Manda that it filled him and the Manda was there.

"The force is shaping and drawing and guiding and brute forcing." He began as his body started aching with power, "With the Manda a thing is Us, Ours, Here or it is not."

He held up a hand and a hazy heat wave appeared 10ft away. A partial entrance to the Manda.

"Focus your will, tell something to be and the universe will bend its knee and something will be. And don't feth it up. It hurts...a lot."

Mia Monroe

 

[Mia Monroe]

Mia stepped in and out of the force like it was something she could pick and chose to be a part of, it was why her eyes never permanently bore the corruption that came with using the dark side, it was why she could resist its pull and the allure for power. It had a life of its own. She listened carefully, focusing on the ground beneath her feet, on the Yaim that had been weeping.

She focused on the energy of it, on the way it connected to her, to Ordo. For a moment she contemplated her approach. She stepped into the force, it didn't step into her...but the Manda...

It was like drawing from a well whose entrance had been sealed shut, like she was clawing at it with bare fingers and no tools, scratching and getting nothing.

Liberation.

She stopped scrambling, realisation dawning on her. The seal evaporated and the Manda flooded her with such force her helmet cracked and evaporated.

"Fuck." Her nose was bleeding, a sharp pain lancing across Her head.

Less.

It eased.

"Ow."

Ordo

 

[Ordo]

Less.

It eased.

"Ow."

"Told you." He said as He crossed His thick arms over His chest, "You have to feel it for yourself, though. The pain never gets easier, you just get used to dealing with it."

He held out a hand, an unnecessary gesture and the heat wave looking ovoid shape in the air clarified. Tall grasses of deep green with almost purple bowing grains swayed on the otherside. Pale blue sky pushed against a harsh blood red in the distance. It was a stark contrast to the dead barren waste that hung around them. He let it close.

"It probably helps that I spent so much time making it for us, while you spent more time expending your anger." He said without judgement in his voice, "And I remember everything."

He reached out and took Her hand, an aid to help Her channel Her Will.

"Again."

Mia Monroe

 

[Mia Monroe]

She brushed the blood away, flicking it off the back of Her hand to stain the ochre ground. The contrast of it caught her attention.

So much blood split.

So much red.

"I remember..." What did She remember? She remembered insanity, She remembered being out of balance. She remembered him dying, the pain of the news that sent Her over the edge. So many dead, so many at Her hand. She wanted Carnifex to be the one at fault, to be the one who caused all the suffering, but it had been Her who convinced Ijaat to target the planets core. It had been Her that severed the trust Her people had had in the Liberator.

It had been Her that had provided Kaine Zambrano the perfect opportunity to take His vengeance.

"No matter how many ways I look at this, at all our people have lost, it all began with me."

She lifted Her eyes to look at him. There was regret there in Her sapphire eyes, but there was also determination as He took Her hand.

"Again."

She focused on Him, the connection between siblings stronger than any other. She opened the well again, drawing from it controlling the flow as the manda filled Her. She let out a slow exhale. Pain was a constant for Her, it had been for a long time, She was used to managing it. She let it sit within her, getting used to the sensation that was both familiar and alien.

"What have I forgotten, ori'vod?" She asked Him.

Ordo

 

[Ordo]

He felt the energy within Her. He knew it as well as His own scarred skin. He also knew She had severed the ties to madness that had taken hold early on in death. It was a thing He had not been able to do for Her. The Manda knew what Its children needed and had allowed for much, for what did it have to worry over when they would all return to it eventually.

"The Manda, you know the word but you've forgotten Its face." He said quietly, "You've forgotten what We have been empowered to do and for what purpose. We are greater, but we must serve now. Guardians of The People, Protectors...even if We must protect them from themselves. Use your Will, arrogantly determine that reality is what you tell it to be. Know what it is you want so completely that the universe bends to your unyielding relentless determination. You're Mandalorian, Liberation and all it take to liberate. And I am War and all it takes to wage it. But War can enslave, and Liberation can destory. Both Freedom and Order are needed to drive Our people, Our Ad'ika forward."

He sighed as His memories jumbled again then separation of Himself had still not fully aligned.

"Call the Warriors in The Manda." He said, "Ask one to join us here. They will answer."

Mia Monroe

 

[Mia Monroe]

Liberation.

She let out a breath she didn't realise she'd been holding, tears springing in her eyes at his words, the weight of it striking her, as foggy layers began to lift away from her mind, memories that had been blurred snapping into sharp focus. She had known it, it had been what was driving her. It had been at the core of everything since Ijaat and Ashin had yanked her back. Called her before she was ready to face it all.

It was why it had been so hard to remember.

"We must see their strength restored. We must guide them on the right path. We must protect them from any and all who might stand in their way. I remember, Ori'vod." He words were a harsh whisper, she blinked away the tears. War and Liberation. Twins, Protectors of the Manda, Guardians of the Mandalorians. Keepers of the Fields.

Her mind raced through the spirits she was connected to, spirits she had been connected to since she returned, those who had died before her, those who had died at her hand, ancestors and kin alike, she could feel all of them, she could hear all of them. But where they had been twisted by the dark side of the force before, now they were calm.

"Come."

Mia didn't summon one, she summoned many. They shimmered in the dusty winds around them, encircling the pair, both tangible and smoke. Here and not here. Capable of touching the environment around them, but not being touched. for you couldn't kill a ghost.


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