Private The Terror of Forming (Corek/Zambrano)

[Gunnr Zambrano]

A Mandalorian pointed his rifle at Gunnr Zambrano. Her instinct fought with the good sense of a honed warrior, she ought to slay this man. Strike him down. His slug hit her son. He was firing on her husband. Isn't defending her husband what she came to do? The gurlanin threat licked at the air, his gait, the weight of his paws on the ground… chased by five others… Gunnr grunted and leaned against her son, a searing pain in her head which passed before her next shaken inhale. "… … … Ambrose? Am… Ambrose, is… you're alive!!"

Gunnr leapt and threw her arms around Ambrose's neck, burying her face in his furred skin. He lapped at her cheek, tail swaying back and forth as fast as a speeder. She gasped, a curious sound which turned into a mixture of laughter and another pain finding its sweet death, that she might only know joy. "Ambrose! My protector, my… where did you go!? Where have you been!? I thought… with the destruction of Panatha you were dead!"

"Pup! My… pup… look at you! Taller than your trees!"

"Hullo!" She laughed freely, her tears wetting Ambrose's fur. Rubbing her cheeks against his shoulder, Gunnr's smile was as bright as a new sun exploding in a pressurized nebula. Hand clenched in Ambrose's fur, she hopped to her feet, staring at the Mandalorian. "Did you find him? Have you taken care of them all this time? You, I know your voice…"

Pretty brow furrowing, Gunnr cocked a sinewy neck, graceful as Yasha had been on the rare occasion Noah caught her dancing, before she died. Light as an eight foot giantess could be on her feet, she made her way a step or two toward the helmeted Noah Corek , eyes blue and wide and curious. "I do know your voice. I've heard it in the dark… I… pardon me, I assume you realize any sudden movement would cause your death, I have no reason to threaten you. If my son trusts you, I give you this chance to earn mine. I go to my husband's side, now." Gunnr shook her head, ginger waves bobbing around a pleasantly freckled face. "You dare not stop me. Magnus? Protect our space. Both of you, do as your Father says, turn around."

"Yes, Mother." He puffed up, when she reached to pat his shoulder on her way to the two wounded animals on the ground. Ambrose followed a pace behind, tail swaying low.

Two wounded, feral beasts. The creature which shrieked and hissed and bit underneath her Koe's straddling legs faded into a bodiless monster in her eyes. It hurt to look upon it, Gunnr grunted and turned to the hard-breathing lungs, the loss of control in her Beloved, her Koe. So few times had she heard even rumour of the mighty Kaine Zambrano losing a modicum of control, let alone to return to the unhinged, uncontained raw wound of a man, who fought the squirming nightmare underneath him.

"I should not, our sons were right, I should have listened to them… but I made a promise to never let you bear your pain alone. And by my Oaths, by Nussyn herself, as I love you eternal, I will always keep it." A Queen stood in her majesty, chin high and confidence around her shoulders like a cape. The closer she got, the more the biot struggled, clawing not at Kaine Zambrano, but the ground, trying to gain purchase, shrieking unintelligible syllables that collected into a froth-mouthed attempt to get at Gunnr, to slice into her flesh and steal her soul. The green flesh of the biot continued to migrate, it squealed and bucked, but Gunnr saw only the shudder and the anger on her Koemi.

An anger born of love.

"I didn't drown. I forced Magnus into the words, but now I… I think I understand a little more your hatred of the buckets. First Dromund Kaas, then Ancius… me… Why on the day of my resurrection, you held me so close, carried me so my feet didn't touch the ground, overjoyed that I was finally yours and no other's… and it was curious, I held to that all this time. We've both got other spouses, you and I, so what did it mean? I didn't care, it was another symbol of our love." Gunnr hazarded an almost virginal blush and momentary grin, staring at the shake of Koe's hands, the lungs trying to steady his breath. "I'll ask no more questions, you are a man of many gifts to me and many curses to the Galaxy. My perilous shield. I will accept this gift too, that you end this creature's agony, and allow me to keep my joy. Our happiness. I know you bear a weight I could never lift, I also know, my joy, our children, make it lighter. 'There is nothing that can separate us now, no power in the Galaxy. We are one.' The Galaxy is ours to shape."

Her memory served, the words whispered over her as they reunited upon her first new day. Again the biot frothed, snarling and snapping, trying to grate at the ground to attack Gunnr, to slit inside and end her. Ambrose growled and set his paw on the biot's arm to hold it down, lest it make purchase. Gunnr kept her eyes on her husband, her Koe. She stepped gingerly, careful of the knife blades around Koe's cape, and hugged him from behind around his neck, placing a kiss atop his head. "You might be my guide, I am your keeper, pi sezi. I will not allow you to feel this anger alone. My love... Thank you. Let it be done, so we might all be released from this grief and separation."

She set her face on the crown of his head from behind, holding him as tight as their bond. One more gripping embrace, and Gunnr left Kaine and Ambrose to the work, wrapping an arm around each of her boys, and walking them toward the hum of the terraforming equipment, to cover the sounds. Stopping short of Noah, with a strained, but compassionate smile, Gunnr nodded her head. "Come with us? Tell me, this is terraforming equipment, correct? I love researching new technologies, you should see my biodomes on Malsheem, show me? Now. You should come now."

It was, however small, another act of mercy, to give Noah Corek a moment of grace. A tear poured down her face, Gunnr gasped, and reached to tame it.

"Come along! Let's leave your father and Ambrose to their work. I think I might know how to stabilize this place. Turn it into a most cosmically beautiful garden."

Darth Carnifex

 

[Noah Corek]

Gunnr Zambrano - Darth Carnifex ​

Noah's heart hammered in his ears as he quickly flipped between aiming his rifle at Carnifex before aiming it square at the chest of this newcomer, his brain trying to recognize who it could be, racking his brain files of Sith bigwigs it could be but not coming to mind. His head turned away from this mystery woman and swept towards Girak-Kaine, his son in all but blood, as the boy spoke.

He stood deathly still as the young boy, no Noah realized in his head that his son had long ago stopped being the boy he saw him as and was now a man, spoke to him. A growl low in his throat came rolling through his mouth. "Girak…do you really think I don't know that?" The question was rhetorical and the utterance was an admittance that he'd only shared with Alex when sequestered away from all else and only in his most vulnerable moments.

His eyes and weapon tracked the unknown woman as she entangled Ambrose with his finger twitching on the trigger as he thought she might attack him but he was surprised when the entanglement instead an embrace and exclamation of surprise. His visor found the eyes of the woman and he grunted. "Find him? No, unfortunately he always seems to find me…"

He was confused when she said she knew his voice and against his better instincts he turned his rifle away from her as she went to the side of Carnifex and instead turned towards Girak and heard his words, pausing when he asked him to remove his buy'ce, such an idea anathema to a Mandalorian currently embroiled in combat but as the conversation between the woman and Canrifex ended and she made her way over to him he hesitated.

The hesitation didn't last long however as he reached up, unsealed the hermetic seal on his buy'ce and slowly with shaking fingers drug the buy'ce over his head, hair and face below slick with sweat from the action of the previous few minutes as his blue-grey eyes stared upward at the giant of a woman now beckoning him away from the current carnage, away from the man who had hunted him for nearly twenty years and the ghost of his wife. "I'm not going anywhere until you tell me who you are…"

 

[Darth Carnifex]

Helmet lock disengaged, black mane fanning out around His thick neck as He withdrew Himself from His sensory prison. Hateful eyes looked down at the snarling corpse-thing with all the anger of a fusion bomb. It was subdued for the moment, the biot's eye frantic in its fleshy socket. With the power of the Force He held it down, the armored body pressing into the ground beneath it until a visible imprint started to form from the weight. It wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon, not with how things were progressing.

The Dark Lord could vacantly look at His sons, His mind so distant and aloof. It was only her words that struck Him from His stupor, His eyes snapping to her in an instant. "I would have destroyed it had I known. The parasite should have died with its host, yet it persisted. The biotechnology was too potent." He cast a pitiful glance down to the thing which wore the face of Yasha Cadera, a howling thing that hadn't realized it was already dead.

Her weight against Him was comforting, Her kiss even more so. He would have liked to venture down this road in solitude, to resign to His grim task and see in through in total isolation. But perhaps, it was good that she was here, to witness His foul deed. To know that what He did, He did for her sake above all else. Perhaps it was selfish as well, to destroy a creature that by all definitions had claimed its own existence. But He'd long set Himself on this quest, and He would not falter even for the slightest moment.

"You are a fool, Noah Corek, to not recognize that which you profess to love. Or was it truly the parasite which enamored you? These vampiric spores which infest that which once knew life. Look at her eyes, and you will know the truth." He pressed His knee against Yasha Cadera's chest, bracing His arm against His other leg in a partial crouch. Into His hand materialized a large sword, jaggedly broken one-third from where the tip would be. Glowing runes were etched down the length of the blade, undulating with a dark and terrible malevolence.

"Let this all be ended, as it should have been long ago."

Noah Corek | Gunnr Zambrano | Girak Zambrano ​

 

[Gunnr Zambrano]

The Voice of the Dark in no folklore or fiction could claim innocence. Such vulnerabilities were trained out of him long before he left his youth, in a life pledged to the depravity of the Dark Side of the Force. For more than a century, Kaine Zambrano stamped his hatred on the Galaxy, and created lunatics of those, who cried safety at all costs. Gunnr was under no illusions, no spell or fiction as Kaine's body dug into the beast beneath him. As the desperation to preserve the strange Mandalorian's heart and soul led the man to ready a weapon on her and her sons.

To any unworthy creature, the frigid eyes of the Dark Lord were vacant as the mercy he purged out of the stars, while biding his time in the shadows of worlds. Gunnr long knew to be seen by Darth Carnifex , to be known and thus worthy of personhood in his eyes was a tremulous chasm, where the bones of his adversaries and those failures crumbled, but for the few, he lavished with reward. With his power, or possession. Since the day of her birth, his shadow cast over Gunnr's life, from worshipful God-King to warrior of renown, to the later years, when he saw her as a grown young woman and she noticed the cauldron pools of both red eyes. Rarer still was love, hard fought. Hard won.

And there he was, anger burning so hot he was still coming down from a kinetic desperation so unlike himself. For her. And she loved him, this hideous, consuming Dark. Her arms tightened around his shoulders as he relaxed into her, the kiss buzzed on her lips. "The past can't hurt either of us now, Koemi. Nothing can take me from you. My choice lies here." She cupped his chin, relaxing a worried grimace into the bright smile she knew her husband might not say he needed, but did nonetheless. A nuzzle of her nose on his cheek, a soft kiss. Such a private moment was usually reserved for their Inner Sanctum on Malsheem, but emboldened by the return of her protector and unwary of the strange Mandalorian, Gunnr felt no reason to hide behind the veil of cold deceit she wore as Seneschal, when Kaine or Braxus were not on the throne.

Gunnr grit her teeth at the inhuman thrash of the thing underneath her husband and stepped back, keeping her gaze on him, not the peripheral chunks of green flesh. "Koemi, your sword… Ambrose? See that it's done."

"Do you?! I don't know!" Girak-Kaine watched the other gurlanin edge closer to his mother and the group, their weapons lowered. He angled away from his approaching mother. "Our childhood was really confusing!"

"Gigi, that is not the way you…" Am around Magnus' waist, leading him away from his father and Ambrose, Gunnr stopped short. Noah Corek 's helmet came off with a hiss of decompression, Koe's words echoed through the swirl of her ear. And she saw him. His face wore more years than the last time, or maybe more cares piled on his shoulders, but as she stopped, as the words sunk into her soul, Gunnr hiccupped and put her fingers to her lips. "… talk to your Buir."

She sucked in another breath, felt Magnus' strong arm along her upper back to keep her steady. "Noa'ik… who am I?"

"I am Gunnr Hadda Nussyn Fitz-Kierke Zambrano, Queen-Consort of Panatha, Heir Apparent of House Fitz-Kierke, First of the Noble Houses of the Holy City. Keeper of the Crowns and Nussyn's Mantle, Priestess of Her Radiant Name. I am Consort of the Dark Voice, Seneschal of Malsheem. Kaine Zambrano saved me in the dark, bathed my wounds and brought my soul from the waters. I am His wife, mother of nine of his children. My name is Darth Imhilnos, in the language of my People, I am the Queen Infernal." Gunnr searched his hair, the dour set of his eyes, the strain in his neck and jaw. She reached for him and thought better of it, "do you not remember our vows? You and I. I'd come in from spending time around Alex's tree, tucked into one of the compound's rooms… I know time and distance part us, but… Koemi is my centre, and there's you, Alex, Saryn, Ahani…"

Sidling beside Noah, Girak-Kaine shoved his step-father with his good shoulder, trying to get all of them to move away from the macabre sword held in his father's hand.

"I was born on Panatha, delivered in the Holy City of Qocia to proud noble parents. Father would bundle me in a basket beside the soil in our gardens, I loved his gardens, we in House Fitz-Kierke had plenty of space, we grew vegetables for the market and to give to the servants. Ensure everyone around us was fed. I planted… acres of flowers over the years. Father was a warrior, he was often away. We went into the wild places for weeks at a time, and I learned to hunt. To survive. It was exhilarating, but I was never afraid, because my mother was with me. Father died in honour, and we were blessed. There were battles, austere times, but my family raised me with love and pride. My head high, I worked and studied botany and helped my beloved Panathans… when I wasn't dancing." Gunnr offered her hand to Noah, towering over him, her body designed by the eyes of the man kneeling in the dirt. Each memory a half-truth of the woman Noah knew, the pains and horrors of her childhood stripped away to nothing but the lessons learned by hardship served with parents' love and guidance. Kaine had cleansed Yasha's soul, twisted her past to fit the desires and wishes she had, when he held her in the night. Sordid hopes, barely whispered to Noah and Alex, dreams of how life could have been, had she been born on Panatha instead of Mandalore. "… but you know this. Didn't we meet after… right, the assassination attempt. Forgive me, I was a Priestess of Nussyn in the High Temple of Qocia, have you forgotten? Noah, we should do as Koe says. Come? With me and the twins? Tell me, how's Moe? Junior? I can't remember the last time I talked to them… what a terrible co-parent…"

Despite the macabre, Gunnr laughed, a smile as easy as any Noah'd ever seen on a lovely face. "… Noah, what is it? How can I take that trouble off your face?"

Another hesitant reach, as if he were an apparition. As if he'd crumble like thin blown glass. "Come with us?"

 

[Noah Corek]

Gunnr Zambrano - Darth Carnifex ​

Noah sat stock still as he took in everything that the current situation was throwing at him. Turning towards Carnifex he grimaced as he observed him crushing what he had considered his wife for the longest time and saw what was happening, the realization of what was happening finally dawning on him. When the Dark Lord spoke about looking into this woman's eyes.

For the first, and most likely only time, in his life he listened to the words of Carnifex and looked the newcomer in the eyes, blue-grey orbs taking in the fully blue of hers. He turned to Girak as he spoke and was about to admonish his son for his words before he heard the words spoke by this new woman and his voice caught in his throat as she called him a name only three people in the galaxy ever had, his mother, Alex and…”Yash’ika?”

“Gunnr Hadda…Ghada…” It didn’t take a genius to figure out her name was an amalgamation of Yasha’s middle name. Hearing the full set of titles he shook his head. “That’s not the name and titles I know you by…to me you are Yasha Ghada Nussyn Fitz-Kierke Cadera…though sometimes you liked to add Corek to the end when we were alone…”

Her hand extended toward him Noah hesitated for a moment before reaching and taking her hand and a chuckle escaped his lips when she spoke of the first time they met. “I remember…Alex held some sort of assembly at her temple, now our home, on Alderaan…I get drunk when she mentioned you were coming…I was so jealous because I thought I couldn’t compete with you…good thing I didn’t need to.”

His fears about who she was were laid to rest when she asked about Morgan and Junior, few knowing that Morgan’s family nickname was ‘Moe’. “They’re…ok. Junior joined the Alliance army despite our protests…Moe is travelling the galaxy trying to find herself. Cahira and Alexander are still at home, they’re watching Viggo…you know how he can get when he doesn’t have proper stimulation.”

He shook his head when she said she was a terrible parent. “Yash’ika…you were never a terrible parent, you loved and cared for them in your own way, stern but fair, trying to get them to avoid the same mistakes we made when we were their age…” When she asked what she could do he hesitated before he spoke. “Mhi solus tome, mhi solus dar'tome, mhi me'dinui an, mhi ba'juri verde.”

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"Speak not that dead tongue," hissed the Dark Lord, venom lacing every syllable. "You will not utter it in my presence, nor in hers. Their time has long ended, fated to wither into dust. Let their heathen crooning follow them into the abyss. You will join them too if you do not mind yourself. I will not suffer such blasphemy."

Taking the runic sword in both hands, the Dark Lord pressed the jagged tip against the mottled Vongflesh, drawing a fresh squeal from the parasite as it tried desperately to flee from its touch. Its eye thrashed around violently, fear extreme. The Dark Lord had long lost all sympathy for such a creature, it was little more than vat-grown tissue that had deluded itself with sentience. Whatever had existed of Yasha Cadera had only been imprinted upon it, it was never truly alive.

Raising the sword up high, Carnifex swiftly plunged the jagged back right through the biot's eyes, cutting all the way through until the blade burst out the back of the corpse's shoulder. It thrashed one final time and then fell still, the whole body joining it in silence. The Dark Lord released His hold on the body, rising to stand over it as it lay eerily still.

"Before you lay her body to rest. I would have to remove the biot from her flesh. It does not deserve to remain with her any longer." He looked to Ambrose, the towering Gurlanin who had been His adversary mere moments ago. "See that it is done, Ambrose. Then I would have words with you and your ilk, when all this has been put to rest."

At long last, the circle had been closed.

Noah Corek | Gunnr Zambrano ​

 

[Ambrose Cadera]

My claws dug into the loose dust of the planetoid. Decades did we refuse to investigate the smell and take it to its conclusion? Did we refuse the evidence of Magnus and Girak-Kaine's absence, their whispers, did I twist my own mind to disbelieve what I saw, when Yasha was alive before the fall of Mandalore?

I was there, when she met with Darth Carnifex . I saw how they embraced. How he wiped the sweat off her brow, when she'd been wounded, how he bandaged her arm and carried her into the pit of the Vong Shaper, who gave her the Biot. The difference, when she awoke with the vongflesh in control. My mind roiled, no, for Yasha I forgave the strange tidings, the quick violence. The growing dissonance of a traumatized and healing woman stuck.

Although she loved her riduur'e Noah and Alex, I knew better than most how transfixed Yasha had been. Haunted.

How had I not seen I protected the wrong pup? The newcomer's arrival scented the wind with my pup's essence. She walked and commanded the way we taught her, the way we wanted her to be, those years ago. My claws scratch at the earth, at the biot-laden corpse.

If any were to do what must be done, better for it to be the Dark Lord and me. The gruesome deed was done, any remaining esper of Mand'alor the Infernal stilled in the soil.

"Leave my pup with me." My gurlanin voice croaked out of lascivious jaws, I felt more than saw how four of our pack drifted off to surround Noah Corek , provide some comfort. "… go easy on Corek. You both know how hard it is to let go of her."

"I can help, Father…" The vacant echo of Magnus' voice rattled into my growling chest. I snarled, fanged teeth snapping as Magnus turned from where he guarded us, fitting his lightsaber back to his belt, beskad still in hand. His chin wobbled once, then stilled. He stood in his father's path, fingers clenched around the beskad's handle to stop the shake I saw in them. "Ambrose and I will see it done."

"No, child." I avoided my first instinct to call him ad'ika, as he searched his father's red eyes for a permission he received despite my chiding.

"Teach me what to do." Magnus put one knee on the ground, with a whisper-soft thought, Magnus cloaked the area around us with a dense fog, that expanded only to lick at Carnifex's boots as he paced back to his wife and child. To Noah. "Girak-Kaine and Dad don't need to see this. I've butchered hunted beasts…"

"It helps. Take your beskad firm in your grip… that's it, well done…" I talked Magnus through, he and I preparing the Infernal for a grave we dug with help from Magnus' telekinetic powers. I breathed through my mouth and he did the same. We separated biot and Mandalorian, Magnus' cloak becoming a shroud.

Yasha's buy'ce, collected from the battlefield, became the headstone to her grave.

Magnus sat on the soil, elbows propped on his knees, beskad in hand. The young man inspected it in a loose grip, finger playing with the knife's tip without getting cut. Wounds didn't cut that deep into Darth Carnifex's son, he was bred to be stronger than adamantine forces, huddled within a potential his still-growing body hadn't achieved, and wouldn't, for decades yet. I handed him a cloth and he cleaned his blade in silence, the fog beginning its drift across the planetoid and away in loose strings.

Odds were, his father would walk past without noticing his boy, attention only on the woman he loved. It was enough to know he did his duty. He hissed out a ragged breath leaning on my canine back, emotions flooding out from his caving chest in the tension of his muscles, the play of the knife over and over in his hands. I rumbled a purr-like sound, to give Magnus his moment to collect himself.

"You did right by her. Let her rest and tell me about your mother." Magnus' weight leaned into my side, his father's shoulders hunched and Yasha's nose sniffed. He threaded his fingers through my fur, and I let him.

At least a little longer.

"She smiles now… big bright grins… heh… keeps all of us on our toes, rules Malsheem when Father and Great Uncle Braxus aren't there. You gotta see her gardens, Ambrose. Most beautiful things anybody'll ever see…" The beskad drifted back into its sheath. A child's grief broke into a trusting consolation, and as Magnus looked up to eye his mother, I knew into my soul, life would be easier for them now.

 

[Gunnr Zambrano]

"I…" Little stutters in her eyelids, a tiny twitch of her chin, at the stricken name, Gunnr set two fingers to massage above her eyebrow, as if banishing a headache. She bit her lip, exhaling through her nose. "Mh. Sorry, I added what? Corek… yes… hah! Oh, yes, Saryn and Ahani say similar. I am Zambrano above all… but on our own… we can create such lovely names for each other."

The atmosphere of the entire planetoid must have vented to the expanse of space, when Noah took her offered hand, for the woman was momentarily breathless. She swooned, blue eyes covered again by thick eyelids. Her fingers meshed with Noah's, tentative, careful. As if he was an illusion which could break. Her lips moved, Gunnr leaned down to get closer to this fragile, armoured dream. The gentlest kiss brushed across his lips, Gunnr's mouth perking in an almost timid smile, before she stood back up to her full height. "What competition would there be? Love expands, does it not? Although I do believe I was nervous and thought I might have to best you in battle."

Girak-Kaine hung close to his step-father, muscles tense, ready to pounce on their mother, catch or carry her off. Their secret slain across a planetary altar, in the middle of an unknown nebula tugged at Gigi. Was the danger over or in a lull? The sword came down. Girak-Kaine clutched his wounded forearm.

"The Alliance army!? Does he want to go soft, or is it a death wish?" Gunnr huffed with an incredulous chuckle, twisting her fingers out of Noah's hand to swing her arm over Girak's shoulder. "What kind of brothers are you… ah! The poor boy's probably bored stiff. Take him on some of the hunting trips mother and I had… a few weeks in the desert outside Sabarene's colony would be a mighty approximation. Do all of you good. Don't think I won't abduct our boys and toss them out the back of a ship with no supplies. Survivors come home, failures will be mourned… ish."

Shaking her head, Gunnr laughed with none of the tension of the earlier spat Noah would remember. The difficulty with Jr became a pleasant game, one Gunnr already plied her mind to in happy challenge. "Finding herself, hm? She can find Malsheem so I can put her through a proper finishing school environment, Taiya's begging for more girls to chum around with. Moe might do Taiya some good… strange, I can't…" Images of Morgan and Taiya didn't materialize, they had never met. Neither had Hadus or Azarna played childhood games with Cahira and Alexander. Viggo didn't know his triplet half-sisters, as far away as the chasm between Noah and Kaine's ideals. The more she tried to picture the past, the more the world whooshed in an odd tidal pattern. Ears clouded with a vibration like crashing waves, Gunnr's lips relaxed into a pout, blue eyes glazed.

Strands of her ginger hair began to sway as if they were submerged in a gently waving sea. Syllables rocked like crashing foam, glimpses of names, mhi solus… mhi…

"I think the atmosphere's gone thin…" She sniffed in, gasped and pressed the side of her finger against her nose, checking for blood. Koe's harsh voice purged the water in her mind, shifting the waves. She could breathe again, heart pulsing in her chest "… Koe… he's with Ambrose… I ought to take a look at that terraforming equipment, do something about the force fields and localize a greater concentration of the captured atmosphere, Magnus and Girak-Kaine will be first to go anoxic if… I'm sorry Noah, um, you were saying…"

"Your vows, Ma'ada." Girak-Kaine tucked his good arm around his mother's waist, to keep her from swaying, glancing back at Darth Carnifex in hopes he'd know what to do.

"Oh. Oh!" Gunnr grinned, red hair tucked behind one ear, with a pink blush to both cheeks. "I… ah… remember what we did after the vows far better… hmm… I sense a desire to recreate that eve… and midnight… and morning… "

"Maaa'aadaaaah." Girak-Kaine grimaced, still holding her upright. "I'm right here."

Chuckling deep, Gunnr rose on her tip-toes to kiss her son's cheek, a drifting fog over the landscape. She didn't dare turn around, not out of fear, but to preserve her more tender son's attention. "Sorry, but I do believe you promised you'd at least meet the eligible ladies I selected now, hmm? And maybe have a wedding of your own? Oh, Noah, Koe, he promised. We get to select some strong, intelligent and beautiful young ladies, and finally see if any meet this one's fancy, hmm?"

"Ma'aaadaaah…" Girak-Kaine pouted and after he was certain Gunnr would stand on her own, sidled up to Noah while clutching his injured arm, nodding to the side. "Do you have a bacta patch? I need to tell you… Dad? I… need your help."

Noah Corek Darth Carnifex

 

[Noah Corek]

Gunnr Zambrano - Darth Carnifex ​

When Carnifex spoke of the ‘heathen tongue’ Noah rounded, a fire ignited in him that only Carnifex and those who spoke ill of his people could, of which the Dark Lord was guilty on both accounts. “The Mando’ade were here long before you Sith and we’ll be here long after, no matter the efforts of demagolka such as yourself. Big and better Jetii and Dar’jetti have tried and we’ve always bounced back.” Despite the anger behind the words his tone was calm and even and he turned away from the Sith Lord, eyes wanting to be averted for what came next.

The venom from his voice faded as the four gurlanin that were Yasha’s bodyguards gathered around him, ever faithful companions. A shiver ran down the man's spine as he felt the intertwining of his and Gunnr/Yasha’s fingers and the ghost of a kiss. When she spoke of competition he chuckled. “Oh please.. A powerful, strong and gorgeous woman of means versus me, a semi-retired soldier/mercenary running a moderately successful military manufacturing company, really there was no competition.”

Noah wasn’t blind and was more than well aware of Girak-Kaine and the tightening of his muscles, the young man obviously on edge at the moment and so he made sure to send a calming smile his way.

He snorted at Gunnr/Yasha’s exclamation at Junior and shook his head. “A conversation that we have had with him many times…well one that I’ve had with him…you still refuse to speak with the boy.” He grimaced at her ideas of making him less bored. “Surprisingly he’s taken to military life well, he’s an officer, he’s been in multiple battles so far and has gained the trust of his subordinates and superiors…he sounds like he’s thriving to me.”

When the conversation turned towards the other twin Noah had to laugh and shake his head yet again. “Again I think being AWAY from family has helped Moe as well, she was always attached to Junior at the hip and them being away from each other has seen her blossom. She’s currently captaining her own freighter and is doing quite well for herself.” He of course neglected the fact she was also smuggling, a job which usually saw her in direct opposition to the Sith.

He saw the effect his speaking of the vows had and he grimaced when he saw the physical toll it had on her, embarking to keep his speaking of his first language to a minimum going forward, slightly saddened that she didn’t repeat the vows back to him.

He followed them to the terraforming equipment and laughed full heartedly at her embarrassment of Girak-Kaine. “Yeah…I remember those long hours together very well…” He winked up at the taller woman and grinned. His eyebrow was raised at the news of perhaps Girak-Kaine’s possible impending marriage. “Hmmm, this is the first I’m hearing of this…” A teasing tone was in his voice.

His eyes turned towards Girak-Kaine when he called for him and he smiled ruefully as he saw the wound on the young man's arm, the wound his own slug had caused. “Of course, only fair.” Reaching for the belt of his armor he withdrew a small medkit and popped its seal, ready to use its contents.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"I dragged the children of Mandalore kicking and screaming from their beds, and I fed them to wolves. I will continue to do so until all of it's people are destroyed." The Dark Lord let Ambrose and Magnus do what they will with the body, it was no longer His concern. Instead, His eyes fell to His wife and those that surrounded her. In a spout of green flame, His runic sword disappeared into embers and smoke. Yet, even bereft of weapon, the Dark Lord still cut a terrible figure; bristling with authority and sinister regality.

"You would do well to abandon their ways, and let their words be as forgotten as their graves. In time, there will be no one to mourn their passing. They will forget them as a people, all of history will be scoured of their existence. I give you this warning only as a courtesy on behalf of my wife. Next, it may be your kin that I feed to the wolves; make you watch as they gnaw the bones of your young boy." The Dark Lord's voice had grown quiet, not as loud and commanding as it had been earlier. It was almost a whisper, a croaked threat of doom that would linger in the ears long after it had been spoken.

And there was no doubt that the Dark Lord would make good on His word.

The endless dead of Mandalore could attest to that.

"Help your mother back to the ship, my son. She will need to be attended to. The heathen's speak has afflicted her, as I had warned." He then again looked to Ambrose and the other Gurlanin. "Detain Mister Corek, would you. We'll allow him the courtesy of another day's breath, but I do not want him armed."

Gunnr Zambrano | Noah Corek ​

 

[Girak Zambrano]

Almost rough, Girak-Kaine yanked Noah Corek away from the group. His injured forearm shook, he glared at his step-father, in a husk whisper, "are you trying to die?"

The emerald eyes Noah knew faded to void-black, as the Force extended through and around Girak-Kaine, his supernatural senses touching on Magnus, on his parents and the six gurlanin scattered about. Without turning his head, he knew where each were, their breathing and heartbeats.

"Provoking Father is one thing, but doing so by causing Mother pain is a death wish capable of razing Alderaan to the ground. I am well aware of Mandalorian pride, but bravado needs to sit behind wisdom's pilot seat, hm?" Girak-Kaine hissed out a calming breath, hovering over the much smaller Mandalorian. "Mother doesn't understand Mando'a anymore. It, along with many things, were the cost of her resurrection. Say things in Epicant, she'll handle it better. Pain is her penalty for memory, and this isn't about the past. It's about protecting her. Make new memories. Hold the old ones close to your chest, like armourweave under beskar'kandar. Her love is there, her emotions are too… let her have her paradisiacal childhood. Let her keep this beauty Father crafted. Do not force those nightmares back in their place because you want to reminisce. I know I ask a lot, but she's my mother. She's your wife. Love or hate, you've been embroiled with House Zambrano from the first day you held Magnus and I and gave us your paternal love. Loggerheads are inevitable, there will be time for battles aplenty, not today. Father is… remember the Nexu pride on Vodran? Even wounded, the larger was more vicious than a krayt dragon… because his pride was in our line of fire. Females, kits, the like. Choose your battles, just like you taught us."

Handing the medkit back to his Dad, Girak-Kaine's alien-black eyes scoured the landscape as Darth Carnifex set his version of order to the place. "Coming, Father."

Trotting to where Gunnr massaged the side of her head, Girak-Kaine scooped up the eight foot woman and held her in lithe, but strong arms. His forearm burned, and he let it, the pain anchoring him into the task of keeping both Noah Corek and Darth Carnifex alive. "I've got you, Mother."

"I'm… it's fine… the air's left me lightheaded." Gunnr's face contorted, knees curling toward her chest as another wave passed. "Whatever you two are bickering about, it can wait, Koe! Noa'ik! I refuse to… mmh!"

"Rest, Ma'ada, I won't drop you." Girak-Kaine shifted his mother's weight, as her arms sunk around his neck, her forehead dug into his shoulder. She tensed, back rigid, and a grunt threaded through pouting lips. Girak-Kaine spoke into a communicator, which floated to his mouth. "Othyn, make a landing."

"On that ball of ill planned rocks!? Are you daft? Have you thought of jumping into the ship the way you jumped out?" The clipped voice peppered out of the communicator, and Girak-Kaine growled.

"Mother needs help. Father wills it."

"What a pleasant landing spot… two ticks." The ship hovered and with a surge to the edge of the once-battlefield, veered in for a landing which shook the stones at their feet. While the ship landed, Girak-Kaine sunk closer to Noah.

"Adara helped Father do this. It was the only way. She knew there was no hope if mother were to remember her, or Mandalore so… Adara remains a loyal cousin, forgotten daughter of Darth Prazutis, Queen of Mazara. Magnus is Mother's firstborn. The love will come back, let her live without the weight of the past. Don't… ever… speak Mando'a to her… again… trust your children. We'll do what we can…"

It was all he could give, child stuck between two fathers. Girak-Kaine worried at his bottom lip as he carried his mother toward the opening bay doors of Othyn's precious personal vessel, the insults between Sith and Mandalorian were fitting tributes to polar oppositions. It was in the Mandalorian's nature to fight and answer threats with violence. It was in the Sith's nature to threaten and oppose. Neither Mandalorian nor Sith were bereft of the lethal instinct necessary to start and continue wars. Even personal ones.

As his boots crunched into the soil, Girak-Kaine knew his mother would be the spark, which lit thermite and plasma. He tried for years to keep them separate, these two sides of himself and his twin. Two families, two happinesses, but the twin shadows of Mandalore and Malsheem were all consuming. He gripped his mother tighter as she weathered another shiver, her mind attempting to make sense of the cognitive dissonance within.

"I've got you, Father's here. You'll be alright... we'll be alright." But if they were good, truly magnificent, Girak-Kaine and Magnus knew they could save both their fathers. They clung to the childish thought, as Magnus finally stood up from the dirt, and turned to watch the gurlanin swerve their heads with deep growls.

 

[Ambrose Cadera]

Magnus sheathed his blade, and I wonder, old warmonger that I am, whether Darth Carnifex knew his son still had such a Mandalorian weapon. I grunt into the air, the beskar woven into his cloak enough of a reminder of how much all Mando'ade despise the butcher of our Clans and Houses. He, who razed Sundari to the ground.

Noah Corek remains a proud and noble Mandalorian, he will for the rest of his life. Few things could create uneasy equilibrium between the two men, the Pup might be the only one who could still violent hands.

I followed Ra for the bloodletting. Stayed on Mandalore, after an orphaned Hell-Child sought the strongest predator in the Death Watch camps to curl into, seeking the safety which came from being too small to threaten a beast like me. There was a desperation to Yasha in those days, keyed in to the horror of losing her mother twice. Of a father, who abandoned her as a demon in the dark. She knew how to kill on instinct, but living in a rebuilding world?

Even Gray couldn't soothe the ferocity out of the child. I grew to love her as my own daughter, and I know I was an old fool to think I and my pack could raise a one-skin, but she still curled into my wolfish side at night, or Phila's or Ta'anat's. I promised to her uneasily sleeping head I and my kin would follow her to the end of the cosmos. We would protect her until the end of time. The helm on the grave was built by another of Yasha's loves.

"We've been given an order." What if House Corek met Yasha first? Clawed paws scrape along the ground. I walk past Magnus, the tension in my fellows a complex chord plucked along my spine. My fellows chitter and click, echolocating all possible threats. They snap and snarl, ready to tear at the ground, to spill Zambrano blood for the decimation of Mandalore.

Yasha… no, my pup was given a new name. "Gunnr…"

My hoarse croak echoes across the tiny space, Phila's telepathic voice repeating the name Gunnr spoke, when she told Noah who she was. And one by one, my gurlanin kin turn from their outward protection of Noah Corek, to face him.

Nothing in the universe could strip us of our Mandalorian nature… except the promise I made to a terrified pup, who didn't know how else to be safe, than to curl up into the side of a monster, and hope it took pity and protected instead of harmed. My lips curl up, baring talon-like teeth. "We will in perpetuity have access to Gunnr and her pups. You will not keep us from them. We will protect her and her children, beyond any order you, or any other could give. Give your word, one strong enough to be ever unbroken."

Keen eyes filter into my mind, my fellows staring at Corek. Conflict roils in us all, settled only by the promise of returning as loyal and prodigious protectors of the Pup.

Arm crossed over his chest, dirt-stained hand gripping his own bicep, Magnus hovers behind and to the side of his father's shoulder, Carnifex's cloak close enough to brush against him. "Mother will be alright now, right, Father? Noah Corek is worthy of life, he... didn't know. We gave him no warnings. Father..." Does the boy not realize how much larger he is than his sire? How strong?

Noah Corek Darth Carnifex

 

[Noah Corek]

Gunnr Zambrano - Darth Carnifex ​

The man pointedly ignored the threat leveled at him by the Dark Lord, knowing it was bait that he had no intention of rising too. He instead busied himself with binding and healing Girak-Kaine’s wound, spraying the long gash with a bacta mist before applying a bacta patch, an extra large bacta patch typically used for chest wounds such was the size of the young mans forearm.

Noah would have berated Girak-Kaine for the pulling but decided against it due to the severity of the situation they were currently in. He snorted as the words Girak-Kaine spoke filtered through his brain before shaking his head. “Gigi, if I was trying to die I could think of much simpler ways, throwing myself from a cliff being one of them.”

He grimaced when the topic of speaking Mando’a causing pain was spoken. “In my defense nobody warned me that would happen, all he did was insult and threaten me, my culture and YOUR family or did he wipe the memories of you and your siblings playing like he did your mothers?” Perhaps his words were harsher than he meant but he continued.

“If he had said speaking Mando’a would cause her pain I would have stopped, but no, he instead decided to be his cryptic and melodramatic self.” At the end of his spiel Noah huffed and turned towards Gunnr/Yasha as she struggled, his face contorting in a mix of shame and pain as he watched what was essentially the woman he married in pain. “I’m sorry love…we’ll behave now.” Noah spoke in Epicant, a language filled with love as he had learned it specifically for his wife.

As the ship made landfall and Girak-Kaine spoke of his sister, Noah’s daughter in all but blood, his own blood roiled. “Hmm…seems you two aren’t the only ones of my children I’ll be having words with…” It wasn’t a threat or an admonishment but simply a statement of fact of what he was going to do.

He let out a snort as the gurlanin turned to face him, protection gone and now turned to essentially detaining him, basically betraying him. “Hmmm so this is how it’ll be huh?” It wasn’t an accusation but simply a statement of fact as he was turned for all intents and purposes into a prisoner.

 

[Darth Carnifex]

"Fidelity repays fidelity. Swear the oath in blood, and it shall be done." It was all that was required to secure the Dark Lord's promise, for He knew that as long as Ambrose drew breath the oath would never be broken. He had counted on it when He made His move, knowing that Gunnr's presence would have tipped the scales. The original plan had been to kill them all if they interfered, but fortunately for them that path had been averted.

Noah Corek's future, however, remained uncertain.

"For the sake of my children, it would behoove you to behave." The Dark Lord turned from Noah and moved to join His wife and son, just as their transport descended to the ground. Together, they boarded, and sped away from the small planetoid; leaving behind a single solitary grave. A monument to what had one been, which had now mercifully come to an end.

Carnifex left the care of Noah to Ambrose, Magnus, and Girak for the duration of their journey. He would commune with Gunnr privately, to heed His wife's voice and know all of her feelings away from prying eyes. The journey would not be long, for the Malsheem had drawn closer since their departure. They met in the infinite void, that empty expanse between systems, where the Malsheem would receive their vessel into one of the innumerable cavernous hangars.

Awaiting their arrival were four score Crownguard, arrayed in two equal columns flanking the landed shuttle; twin rivers of crimson cloak and black gammaplast. At intervals they carried tall 4 meter standards, upon which the banner of the Kainate hung down from. As the Dark Lord and those accompanying Him descended the boarding ramp, the Crownguard all began to pound their chestplate in unison.

The loud, thunderous drumming persisted even as they passed, filling the air with its rapturous sound.

Noah Corek | Gunnr Zambrano ​

 

[Ambrose Cadera]

After Sundari, I need not ask where Darth Carnifex s blood originated. He shed his, fulfilled his promise to the pup. A rushing breeze of my fellows' thoughts stole my ears, as my decision filtered through them. To a one, we all shed our blood on Zambrano's feet, cuts to our forearms we'll bear as furtive scars. The air smells of copper and iron, the ozone of Magnus and Kaine's lightsabers. Unearthed soil, from Yasha's experiments.

The ship carrying Kaine and Gunnr hit escape velocity as I stand in my humanoid shape and armour. My fellows grip Noah Corek by the biceps, attempting to disarm him as three readied to pounce. "I live to protect my pup. Since your death would upset her, this is how it will be. I would rather become dar'manda than live one more hour without knowing she's well. "

"Phila, Ta'anat, pack the terraforming equipment as a gift for Mother. Ketu, Desh, Polu, secure Buir. Leave him his beskad." Magnus turned to Noah Corek with a rattling sigh in his chest. The dust from the grave still peppered his forearms, one of his hands curled into a hard fist like a climber holding a tether. "Fight us as hard as you want, make it convincing, bleed me like a bantha, I can't let you go, Buir. Besides… you've got family to meet. There's seven more of my siblings aboard the Malsheem."

"What of Father's shuttle? You're the better pilot. Take it back and I'll handle Buir and the Yaliyr." Girak-Kaine pulled his hood over his head, a vast black shadow on the landscape. While no telepath of one-skins, I can practically hear the confusion off the boy. Of course Darth Carnifex took off to be alone with Mother, of course he would leave the minutiae to his sons. His new pets, the gurlanin. I don't envy him, I can hear his grinding jaw from here.

"And leave you with enough rope to hang? I might be thick, but I'm not dumb. Five words out of Buir's mouth and you'll be halfway to Alderaan before I could target your nav systems and fire. The autopilot will follow us." Magnus growled through gritted teeth and pulled out a communicator. "Hurry up! Obey me!"

A nod of my head is all it takes for the subtle change in dynamic, as my pack follows the orders of a boy who hours before was nothing but a child in our eyes. So was his mother, I suppose.

"We were children, Buir. More worried of the Mandalorians outside House Corek than we were of Him. Gunnr has no memory of Alexander, Viggo and Cahira, 'cause she's never met them. Just as she had no memory of you, until she saw your face." Girak huddled in his cloak, as if it hid his weaving mind, or the sting of Noah's rebuke. "Anything not aligned with His desires is mocked. Perhaps I'm used to it. Perhaps, as much as it breaks the common mind, our Father is good to us! You and him both! The places he is deficient, you excel. The reverse is true. You taught us how to survive, to love our family. He taught me to stop fearing my mind. The ecstasy past the corporeal, expanding beyond the confines of my meat and bone into the swelling nebula of time. I become infinite, unchained by this complicated Galaxy of thieves and redeemers! If I could show you… if…"

As he talked, his shadow grew and spread like a low fog on the planetscape. It billowed out of him like void-black charnel smoke. I stepped away, but it followed, cold as the dead of space where no light brushed against it.

"Girak!" Magnus shook him out of the increasingly emotional frenzy. The fog dissipated. Girak stuttered, caught himself, as if he were floating beyond an airlock, and only then noticed he was tethered to a ship. "We bring Buir now, and we deliver Buir back to Alderaan in one piece, when all this dies down, hmm? Use that non-corporeal mind to strategize a way out of this, alright? Or do I need one of the wolves to chaperone you, in case your meat and bones veer off into a star during the flight?"

Preparations finished, we split our convoy between the two ships. Each parsec crossed was another closer to my pup, I wondered. What greeted her, upon her Dark Throne? For me, I removed each piece of my beskar'kandar, laid it aside in state to my old self. At the sight of the Malsheem in our viewport, I transformed into my wolvish form, deciding to meet what came in my own skin.

The cavernous stretch of the place! Hangars large enough for battle cruisers to run maneuvers, our retinue perched beside the ship the twins and Gunnr descended from. And there, upon disembarking, the sheer noise. Warriors in rows, a lesser man would imagine them infinite.

I saw little of the Crownguard, their black and red standards, or the armour they wore. I saw my Pup gilded in a circlet-crown and jewels, tall as her husband and stood at his right side. The guards didn't cause her trepidation, nor did her eyes skitter around in perpetuity, seeking exits, seeking the greatest threat to stab.

She was their Queen.

I took my place behind Magnus and Girak-Kaine, my fellows guarding Noah behind me.

 

[Gunnr Zambrano]

Othyn took off in silence, a piece of background equipment to the couple, who remained onboard.

Gunnr's mind continued to attempt another genesis, finding places where Noah belonged, rectifying the beast, the out of phase monster, her husband hovered over. Together, they were a ferocious phantasm and unhinged marauder, breaking a passion out of her Koemi few, so few, could possibly manage.

Not even the destruction of Panatha broke past Darth Carnifex carefully crafted walls. Her heart thudded against an ample chest. Hand on Koemi's armoured chest, Gunnr shoved him into his seat. It would do, until they returned to the grandiose in their floating home.

Gunnr slid her hands along her husband's shoulders, plump lips a thin line. Piece by piece, she loosened and removed the cape with its lethal edges, his armour and shirt, leaving the mighty Kaine Zambrano naked from the waist up. Fingers traced the memory of scars she hadn't recognized upon her resurrection. The ones which burned into her mind without ceasing. "You told me, then, the one who gave them to you was dead." Blue eyes met black and red, and with a deep sigh, she leaned down to kiss every one. Part cognizance of her place in their creation, Gunnr laid each to rest in a gesture of maintained ignorance.

This was the path, with her mighty love and protector. A man's place was to be the bastion and bulwark, He fought and thrashed and calculated to bring a space of comfort and peace for His wives and children. For His Uncle and Himself. In return, Gunnr and her sister-wives created life resplendent. They terraformed, conducted alchemical experiments, assassinated, fought in battles, claimed the stars themselves for their perilous family. Each piece of the whole, with Koemi in the middle radiating the Dark's purity. Radiating both violence and order for those under His care.

And while Kaine cared for little, she knew the ferocity of His love. It radiated through her, touched upon every place and memory. Each centimetre of skin.

"You give me such gifts, pi sezi. And now you give me this: That the weight of the past which pressed at your back is ours no longer. You and I are free. I would have this no longer cloud your mind." Her task completed, Gunnr straddled His clothed waist, wrapped her arms around His neck, and embraced Him with their mutual, primal strength. They spoke soft as early lovers, her hands a comfort and her mind returned, until Othyn chimed their proximity to the Malsheem.

Dressing Koemi took Gunnr the remaining time, hands along fabric and skin, slow and devout. Ensuring not a strand of hair nor fold of cloth or piece of armour was out of place. Perfection was His due, and she would have no fault in her Koemi.

Last, she swept the beskad-lined cape over His shoulders, and affixed it at the neck.

"We shall keep Noah close, unarmed... outside the Inner Sanctum, for now. I needn't ask about Ambrose, you've got that clever glint in your eyes. Plans are afoot." Tapping His forehead with her knuckle, Gunnr grinned before taking her station at Darth Carnifex's right side. She too ensured her own physical perfection, rolled shoulders back, fixed hair and the jewelled necklace on her décolletage worth more than a backwater planet.

The drumming roar of Malsheem's Crownsguard thundered along her spine and delighted Gunnr's skin. She felt her sons' presence, as they landed and stayed in quiet wait. How proud she was that Noah Corek would see her in her proper majesty, a ruler and Consort, celebrated. This was what life ought to be, glorious returns and lovers once lost brought back to their proper places.

Gunnr couldn't wait to see Noah's face, to introduce his step-children, of whom Taiya stood at the end of the procession's hatch, in a radiant velvet green court dress, a small tiara on raven hair. Although her eyes were emerald and not amber as Yasha's had been, she was indeed the Infernal's daughter. Barely at the end of her adolescence. Beside her, several courtiers in an array of garments, all awaiting the return of their God-King and Seneschal.

Othyn trotted down from the ship last, angled between the Yaliyr and Noah, a rarity as an Epicanthix who didn't meet Noah's height. Emerald eyes swept along Noah's face and shoulders, his chin-length black hair combed back in tandem with his pristine Commander's uniform. He took Noah's forearm in a grasp almost temperate. Civil. "Stay by my side, and you will survive this."