The Time Travelers Daughter

[Amz]

The last year and a half had seen Chiara thrust into a most unimaginable future. She was more aware than when she’d initially awoken, piecing together that the body she now inhabited was a cloned version of her younger self as flashes of memory returned to her. Whoever had cloned her, had chosen the most idealistic version to bring over - not the wrinkled and grey relic she'd become in the end.

Chiara still had not figured out who the culprit was, or what rare conglomeration of events had pulled her soul from the netherworld and into this Galaxy that was several decades past her original timeline. Perhaps no one was involved at all, and the Force had a new occasion it needed her to rise to. The past events purely serving as her first stepping stone along the journey.

Whatever new purpose or destiny she had, it could wait. While Chiara might have been a daughter and servant for the Force, she was also a daughter of an earthly being, and this meeting was eight hundred years overdue.

Manu had gone missing before conquering Chandaar. His unaccounted presence had been something she struggled with. Despite the comforts, and the fulfilling life she’d lived, with the family her and Ash had created, she’d still been a girl, who on occasion craved the comfort of her father. He’d been crucial in the woman she became, and he missed the most rewarding parts of the labour his love and care produced. The cries of his first grandson, being one of those moments. But that was always the way with them. They had never seemed to keep very good track of the other.

The shuttle she was onboard landed down on Sabarene, she took the rubber band from between her lips and gathered up the locks of hair into a quick ponytail. Belongings were quickly taken and Chiara shuffled off with the rest of those exiting.

It was time to finally see her father, it was time to once again meet [member="Manu Xextos"].

 

[Manu Xextos]

His daughter.

His daughter was alive.

The rogue Force Master felt her presence before the shuttle touched the Sabarene desert. A strange energy overcame the dying man, he sprang up from his dais in the middle of the Sabarene Force Temple and amidst the Echani and force-using supplicants around him leaping back in shock, the man ran.

He ran faster than sound, to reach the other side of the planet. He ran for the joy of a familiar soul. He ran for the memory of his little girl found first in a bed of snow.

1.5 Years Prior

‘You need someone to tie you to this time, Manu. Always have… so I took care of it. Nah-uh-uh! No complaining! Mommy made it better. Just… be happy. Be whole.’ Ahani had put her hand on his cheek, caressing it while they knelt one before the other in his temple. Aran Ordo, Ahani’s Mandalorian husband was hunting further off, distempered by the Force Users in the Temple.

‘You look good, Mom. Happy.’

‘I am. Take a lesson, and find a way to be happy or you’ll continue to fade into the belly of your temple and become nothing but a disembodied piece of it. You missed out on two relationships the most. So I handled it. See you later, carnosaurus-gator.’

Present Day

On the edge of the city of Abha, a dust cloud grew. It swathed over the spaceport, shunting around it in a sandstorm, until a figure came with the crackle of sound.

Manu Xextos stood before [member="Chiara Viren"]. Eight hundred years finally gave the old Master someone from home. His mouth worked, silver eyes shining and lungs burning with the need for air. He could barely see her through the tears in his eyes. Barely speak for the air which seized into his lungs.

An honour guard snapped to attention at his presence, the Echani of Sabarene wearing the faces of Manu, Erryn, Kavi, Keth and Najwa, among others. Without further pause, Manu swept up Chiara into his arms, holding his chin on her hair.

 

[Amz]

Chiara had been unsure about what kind of emotions she would experience when seeing Manu again after so long and what the protocol would be when she did.

How should she approach him? Did she act friendly and casual? Invite him out for some caf so they could reconnect? Bound into his arms?

There was hardly time to decide, for observant eyes focused on the dust cloud forming in the near distance, carrying the warm familiar presence of Manu, following with what she heard to be a thunderous crack as he came to a complete stand still before her, flanked by the numerous faces of those from their shared past.

The moment was so surreal, and flew by quickly.

She tried to say something, but couldn’t seem to find her voice, and drew in a sharp breath that released the moment his arms were around her.

Suddenly it felt like she’d been thrown back through time. Before all of the wars peppered through her reign, before the death of her husband and all of the struggles she faced after. Back to when times were much more simple, when she was just a girl who was secure in the protective arms of a father, painfully reminding her again of how long it’d been since they’d seen each other and how deeply she had missed him. Emotions overflowed and poured down her cheeks in streams, entirely beside herself.

After what seemed like forever, the world finally began to come into focus after she was sure all of the tears she had within her had adequately soaked into Manu’s shirt. Chiara sniffled softly and tugged free, pressing fingers against her cheeks to wipe away the moisture. Even after all of these years, she could still hear the vitriolic reprimanded from Lady Breslinsky for such an, ‘undistinguished display of emotion, most unbecoming for a Cronese Queen’ needling the back of her mind.

“Please excuse me, such an outburst...”

She sucked in a shaking breath and stood back with her hands neatly folded in front of her, posture relaxing, a smile appearing. “I simply can’t believe this...I never dreamt I’d see you again after you went into that crystal slumber.”


[member="Manu Xextos"]

 

[Manu Xextos]

Chiara sobbed in his arms, and Manu’s own tears drained upon her hair. He held her until his arms shook, and the man whose life rested only on the Force, set [member="Chiara Viren"] down. She felt like Erryn, yet another in his mother’s clones. How Ahani brought about the mental sphere of her identical to his daughter was a mystery, but as Manu held her, he made the decision to love her as he loved his daughter. Artifice could become her, this gift from his insane mother. A gift to keep him where he now belonged.

“I love you. I missed you so much.” Manu sniffed and laughed, holding her austere chin between his frigid and near crystalline fingers. “Frak protocol! I’ve got my little girl!”

Chiara’s behaviour was as ever a reminder that he again missed part of her life. Part... the whole of it. He’d been a lousy father, the acts of the galaxy taking him from his children on myriad occasions.

“I never thought I’d see you again either, sunspot. How are you? Was the flight okay? Are you hungry? When did Ahani wake you? What have I missed? I got lost in the crystal, I couldn’t get out but... your great-whatever granddaughter helped me and we evacuated most of Chandaar and they’re here, Chiara. Your people and bloodline are here. I couldn’t go back in time to you, but I didn’t let go.” A massive but frail hand coddled her cheek, eventually letting go as the proprietous thing. Chiara was being a Queen.

“Come in! Come in, the Echani set up a room for us to chill out of the sun while I was running.” The desert sun bathed them in its unforgiving heat and light. Sabarene had become a hive of Manu’s empathic ways, his people aligning with the comfort of a large family. The light seemed to pass through Manu, as if he was half-gone, half-present. Bringing her inside, Manu sat on a long couch and smiled as an Echani with Dalia’s face handed him and Chiara cups of tea and bowed out.

“[member="Ilias Nytrau"] is here too. The old owl’s still kicking I can’t believe it. I know this is a loaded question, but how are you? How long do I have you?”

 

[Amz]

Manu’s cool fingers wrap around her chin and tilted it up, his dark grey eyes peering at her, examining her with the same disbelief she felt. In that moment she felt tears prickling at the edges of peripheral vision once more, blurring the world, but she held them back. They were tears of happiness and relief, but Chiara knew if she allowed anymore to spill, they would easily turn to more hysterics, so her spine steeled against them, no matter how difficult it was to do.

She took a deep breath, preparing to force herself away of his grasp for the sake of propriety, but her silver-haired father knowingly recoiled his fingers before then. Time made it easy to forget the characteristics of those amiss from one's presence, and Chiara had nearly forgotten Manu’s uncanny ability to detect changes in mood or expression, something all Echani were notorious for, but Manu more so, with his empath tendencies involved.

Contact and gaze broken, her violet eyes looked down at her crumpled clothing, hands smoothing out the wrinkles of her linen shirt.

It was not the clothing of royalty, confining and stiff, but flowing and loose and light. She’d had enough of suffocating dresses and tied up bodices in one lifetime, to not want to repeat the torturous experience in this new one. Besides, without a court to impress, there was no need to show obedience to dead customs, freeing her to the Echani fashion she prefered, and wore as a young lady. All in all appropriate for such a woman of conflicting heritage: that of solid Echani steele, and the ruinous Cronese krayt.

Upon hearing the use of his explicits, Chiara’s lip twitched just the slightest with humor. She was still dazzled by Manu, and again heard the scolding of the Lady Breslinsky, (there had been so many in the first several years) clear as crystal, ‘do not stare like an ignorant peasant!. But Chiara allowed herself to be ghastly, refusing to remove her eyes, recollecting the days when she had simply been his little girl, and the moment he’d found her.

A newly orphaned child, rescued from the snowy banks of Yavin VIII. Thrown out by usurpers for the sake of a chair and crown. It was a memory forever impressed on her. Seconds could have been the difference between life or death in frigged weather like that. Manu found her just in time. Bundled her up without a question, and brought her under the safety of his arms like a mothering hen. Offering the princess comfort, where there was none to be found.

“I love you too, and I missed you as well...fiercely.” Notorious to one of her better qualities, Chiara had clung to the hope they would meet again in her first life. Only when she sensed death approaching did she finally let go of faith, making up a holorecording and hoping that it might somehow find him through time. The only way to share the life he’d missed, her last resistance against fate.

She stepped in with Manu and followed his lead, paying careful attention to each step, deliberate and ever mindful in how she carried herself.

“The flight was fine, though I am a little peckish. Packaged peanuts don’t make much of a meal.” Chiara confessed, forming how she would answer the rest of his excited conglomerate question as she sunk down into the cushions of the couch beside him. With gratefulness she took the teacup from Dahlia’s look alike, silently appraising her aunt’s descendant. She may of had the face of Dahlia, but the same spark wasn’t there. “It’s perfect, thank you kindly.”

Chiara watched the girl leave before turning to Manu. “Ahani didn’t wake me," she corrected, "Was she supposed to?" she took another sip of tea, all the while trying to piece together her existence with this new tidbit of information. “Xander Blackmoore found me, about a year and a half ago. He brought me to Indupar and gave me shelter at his estate for a short time, but when he told me of the future we were in, I left to Yavin VIII for answers. Ilias discovered me there and took me in, helped me adjust and get my bearings. My memories were scattered, beginning when I first lost Ressa. They still come to me intermittently, but most of them are returned now.” She set down the porcelain cup in her lap, “Did my holo ever find you? It must have, if my bloodline survived. And...my granddaughter. Is she still on Chandaar?” Chiara knew that she would be as unfamiliar to this Queen as any other pauper on the street, but she never the less wanted to meet her, the last bit of evidence of her and Ash's love.

They had survived...though all of these years.

Her hand began to shake uncontrollably and forced her to place her teacup on the table for fear it might spill. She swallowed a forming lump in her throat.

“I have heard rumors about its condition…” she admitted, feeling her stomach turn with the knowledge that though decades passed, not much had changed. Chiara knew deep down about the inevitability that war would come again to Cron, but her sons reign had ushered in an era of prosperity that gave her hope that it would have stayed off the people's doorstep. Wishful thinking, that.

“It is peaceful here, and I hope to impose and enjoy yours and Erryn’s company, for at least a few days, but not longer than that I’m afraid.” Chiara looked apologetic for the fact she could not be there longer and went on to explain, “Zarah is alive. Xander discovered her in the palace ruins on Chandaar, frozen in carbonite. She was right under my nose for years, and I never knew. She will be coming here soon.”

“We reconciled long ago, after the war, and Airael’s death. Helped Ash and I more times than I can count in dealing with the Cronese nobles. When she requested help, I could not refuse. I’ve agreed to accompany her and Xander to the netherworld.” she let that sink in, shifted. “Life has been difficult for the people of Cron, and although they are content here, they shouldn’t have to be divided like this. They deserve the same kind of peace they have found here, on the land of their birth and inheritance.”

Chiara took another sip of tea. “Enough about me though, I want to know what happened after you awoke. How has this new life been treating you?”


[member="Manu Xextos"]

 

[Manu Xextos]

“Your favourite.” Manu handed [member="Chiara Viren"] a plate filled with her favourite foods, with sweets and meat to cater to the way her body craved. Just one more indication that Manu’s powers were the only thing about the man in working order. He couldn’t help doctoring the ones he cared for, which now included a planet of refugees.

He sat carefully, bending his palm to the seat to guide his controlled fall to the couch below his body. A haggard sigh. The run… it was finally catching up with him. Eyebrows which had been raised in excitement furrowed in confusion. “Yes. Ahani woke Erryn, she should have woken you… I’m sorry sweetheart, I didn’t even know she’d commissioned you and your mother until Erryn showed up at my ship… you’ll see her later sweet irli.”

His fist curled, skin paling white, hanging loose off elderly knuckles. “Blackmore… he didn’t try anything again did he? Wonder why [member="Ilias Nytrau"] didn’t tell me you’d popped up…”

Manu’s face fell in a pattern of eyebrows, cheeks and lips, his eyelids shutting to Chiara’s quest of her holo, her granddaughter. “I’m sorry, Ailyne, your great-something-granddaughter… There was this god of chaos, threw people into the Netherworld… she didn’t make it.”

A chill hand wrapped around Chiara’s, Manu edging closer to comfort her. “The people are what matters. If Zarah is back, and she’s no threat to you I know you two would agree if you saw it. Let Chandaar go, but hold her people close.”

Manu smirked, tea cup setting itself down as he stood on aching knees, back bent further than it had in Chiara’s and the galaxy’s younger years. The man who was born into Palpatine’s Crimson Guard had reached his physical limit.

“I’m dying, Chiara.”

The air seemed to still in the room, as still as his ribcage would become. Echani in the room stilled themselves, caught in the pause before another of Manu’s final breaths. The people around Chiara and Manu revered and honoured every one of them, every ounce of air inhaled and expelled from the father of them all. He only wished to leave them with the best he could.

“Ahani is great, she... singlehandedly kept herself and me alive. Her way of making up for my early years, I guess.” Manu looked out to the city of Abha, a city he built with the help of his descendants, both genetic and adopted, and the refugees who joined them.

“Chandaar is gone. It’s unbreathable, if the Netherworld had industry, it would pale in comparison to what your planet became. I did what I could, Chiara. Getting as many people off the planet as possible was my highest priority when the Sith once again overran her. You don’t… you probably do if Ilias’s involved, but… the Sith are an empire which refuses to die, and after attempting twice to quell it in the intervening years since I woke, I realized through the error of my own ways. The best we can achieve for our people is to defend them here. On Sabarene, or another planetary system in the Outer Rim, Wild Space if we can manage it. Cron is in the middle of so many warring factions… even the Mandalorians are galactic powers, and they kill on sight. I wish I could have taken everybody, but the corporations who have overrun the Cronese Mandate were little more than slave traders who lock the populace away through fear. Yes, it’s terrible and yes I would love to help you, but… all I can give is my fleet to remove more of the populace and reclaim the Cronese Mandate elsewhere. Anywhere else. Chiara, Chandaar’s worse than your imagination could muster. If Zarah’s awake… if you want to help your people, help them here. Bring them here. Retreat. Regroup.”

A Manu who retreated at all was a Manu who had little left. His voice warbled, lungs wheezing as he stood on aching knees and leaned his hand against the window. “I awoke to a son of Keth attempting to burrow through and kill Raien… Ailyne found me soon after… to war with the Sith, battled my way to the southern reaches of the galaxy and battled again. Along the way, I rescued as many Chandaari, Echani, heck anybody I could. My crews on all my fleet ships are all refugees. We homesteaded on a world in CIS space, but war continued to follow. The Fringe, a now debunked empire, gave me Sabarene in exchange for my fleet. Aside from war? All I’ve been able to do is rescue the suffering, and defend them. Me? My body is done, Chiara. I’ve been taking my last breaths for so long I can hear the rattle in my ribcage. Only thing that’s kept me alive has been Ahani, and it was her idea to clone Erryn and you in the hopes that having my family back would tether me here. Give me a reason to stay. Erryn helps, she’s been fantastic, guess hearing you say you’re only here on a visit is… can’t hide that it hurts to hear that, but we’re nothing if not mobile, our family. You do what you need to do, but if you want my advice? You, Zarah and Xander should spend some time here first. You and Zarah aren’t used to things, especially not in the Netherworld. If Zarah just woke up from eight centuries of carbonite, I’m fascinated that she’s still alive at all. She’s going to need medical care and we have the facilities. I guarantee you take her to the Netherworld now?”

He shook his head and pursed his lips, turning back to Chiara. “She’ll never make it out. Let them come, give me some time to spend with you, let me see what I can do for Zarah.”

 

[Amz]

She noticed the controlled fall, the sigh. The bend in his spine, and a dismal undertone to his excitement. She stayed silent, contemplating his movements and then let her gaze begin to fall down, her nose recognizing the scents even before she could look at the plate of food placed in her lap. Her eyes widened. “Stuffed plavonian starfish?,” she asked, shifting her weight against the cushioned seat, “Neonan red cheese, camby berries? You even remembered the puffcakes! How did you...” she shook her head, and without even tasting it, she was brought back to her first memory of Thyrsus. The first time she wasn’t homesick. The eyes of a young five year old, caught in wonder at the rugged mountains shrouded in mist, peaks stretching high into the sky and shadowing the tribal city below.

“I remember the first time you brought me to Thyrsus...you went to Kausta and asked her to make these dishes for me, trying to help me feel at home. I was still missing Chandaar and these were the popular dishes served in the high-class circles of the Cronese sectors. I gobbled up the puffcakes first.” a sheepish blush took over her cheeks. “Then complained about how full I was...and how..if I was forced to eat anymore, my stomach would burst! Not even thirty minutes later, I turned around and inquired about more puffcakes, because I was still quite hungry.”

In truth, she hadn’t loved the wildness of Thyrsus in the beginning, but acclimated in time. Starting with that first meal, the first time she felt a sense of belonging again. “It was such a small gesture, but it meant the most to me.” A smile cracked across her face and reached up to touch her eyes.

She belonged here, too. “Thank you for this.”

Chiara looked over the options and decided to begin with the fruit side of her plate, picking up a camby berry and popping it in her mouth. She chewed, savoring the sweet-tartness that touched her tongue. She picked off another and offered it to Manu. “Would you like some?” He looked like he could use some energy, he seemed worn out. Was he eating properly and getting the rest he needed?

“It’s okay...I mean...Mom is here? I haven’t seen her since…” she didn't want to say it, but since her death. Right before Divya’s twenty-fifth life day. The Kae had died younger than she should have, leaving Chiara and many others to speculate if her grief over Manu had anything to do with it. Erryn was never the same after he’d gone. “I’m really looking forward to seeing her again.”

She exhaled. “I’m sure there was a good reason why Ahani couldn’t be there, but it makes sense now. I was trying to figure out that bit for a while. How I came to be. Was able to piece together that this body was cloned. Not hard, really, when you remember dying as an old woman and are then found later in a cloning tank. And no, actually, though I didn’t stay long enough to give him a chance to. [member="Darth Vizios"] only tried to offer me a dress and food, but once I found out the year I was in, I had a lot more on my mind than eating and finery.”

She had to wonder if he was scheming, Xander. First he happened upon her, then found Zarah, who he was bringing to Sabarene. She harboured the same distrust of him as Manu seemed to have, and worried for her cousin who was with him, and even Manu. Through the time sitting there with him, Chiara could tell he was not up to his fighting strength, all was not well with her light-breathing father.

Still, it would be foolish for Xander to try anything. He’d be severely outnumbered here, and he was, for the most part, nothing if not strategic and purposeful. The likeliness of it was doubtful, but if he did, then she would need to be strong for Zarah and Manu. Zarah seemed certain of Xander’s word, but the man she remembered was only ever driven by his own self interest.

It would take more than a empty promises to convince her that he didn’t have ulterior motives.

“I can’t really say why Ilias chose not to tell you, or me for that matter. But knowing him, if I had to hazard a guess, he was probably monitoring my progression. Catching up with eighty-years of memories can do a number on a young mind.” she ate another berry, chewed, jaw slowing with a swallow. “I know I’m not her. Chiara. Not really...but every emotion I feel, every memory I have...they are as real to me as the air I breathe. I can’t separate myself from her, it’s who I am.”

She stayed quiet in the reveal of Ailyne’s fate, of Chandaars fate, of Manu’s fate.

The news of it all at once, was enough to shatter even the hardest of hearts. Chiara's heart had always been fleshy, it broke much more easily.

Her lip trembled, she bit hard to still it, but there wasn’t anything to be done to stop the little that was in her stomach from churning. It was a good thing she was sitting, as her vision blurred and she felt her head tilt forward like she might faint. Her fingers clutched tightly at the friged hands that had wrapped around hers. There was so much to be said, but what was at the forefront of her mind was what came out first.

“Dying?” The air vacated her lungs like she’d taken a punch to the gut. She turned to look at him, searching out his silver eyes. The tightness in her chest increased, and she held onto him more steadfastly, as though by doing so she might convince his eight-hundred year old body to remain in this Galaxy.

“I scarcely can believe this to be! No. I...I lost you to the kyrstallsovn once already...and I can’t bear the thought of having to live in a separate plane of existence again. Zarah needs me, but I can’t leave to the netherworld now, not knowing this.” Manu was the more immediate need at that moment. “By the Force...there has to be something that can be done?" Chiara felt the urge to get up and move, to do something. "I’m sure Zarah and Xander will be anxious to leave, but I will do my best to convince them to stay. In the meantime though...you gave me healers hands, there’s no reason why I can’t put them to use. Let me help and take care of you now. Let someone else shoulder the responsibility for a change.”

And in the meantime, I will figure out how to save you.

[member="Manu Xextos"]