Two New Stars to Gaze Upon (Cross Ikon)

[Deio and Dahlia Leafwalker]

They say that when two star-crossed lovers die, their souls become stars that sit right next to each other.

Deio Leafwalker sat looking up at the sky wondering if the legend may be true, that his nana and dada were watching him and Dahlia from the stars. Dahlia, his twin sister, sat next to him under the little shelter they had made for themselves when their parents, Asteria and William, had died.

No, were killed. Deio reminded himself for the billionth time that year. Dahlia looked at him and smiled as best she could.

"Ready to tackle the day, Deio?" Deio nodded and stood up, Dahlia following in stead. Blonde hair hugged red hair before the young boy ran off to go and begin his daily thieving in the capital city of Naboo, Theed.

Coming to a nicer area of Theed, Deio climbed up a building and watched the people passing by.

"Now who to steal from first?"

Dahlia tidied up the little shamble as much as she could before walking to the edge of the alleyway and begging people that passed by for some credits or food.

"Spare some change, m'am?"

"Please sir, I'm so hungry. Could you spare some credits or food?" The little girl begged and begged, holding out a small tin cup to the people. Her mother's necklace hung below the scarf she wore, and her puffed red hair stuck out from under her cap. She began to see a few credits plop in the tin every once in a while, which she eagerly thanked whoever put the money in with a big toothy smile and a thank you. Something inside her told her this was going to be an interesting day.

[member="Cross Ikon"]

 

[Cross Ikon]

Naboo was a lovely planet, in Cross' opinion. Of course, being what a lot of people would consider a relatively sociable guy, he enjoyed being in the city as much as he enjoyed the countryside. On this particular trip, he had elected to leave his big, armored, longcoat on his shuttle in favor of a white button-down shirt and a relatively unobtrusive blaster-proof vest over it. As always, his hat, boots, and gun remained firmly on him until whenever his dear fiancee decided it was time to take them off.​

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He was basically having a nice day. Naboo had always reminded him a lot of Hapes, except for the constant light in the Cluster, and the fact that red-haired Hapans were often mobbed with questions on the homeworld. Many of them were, in fact, Ikons. But there was no reason to apprise anybody on this planet of his identity. Instead of being mobbed, he was able to happily walk through the streets with a large bottle of something cold and sugary, and enjoy the thought of what Rikki's face would look like when he gave her the trinket he'd just gotten her. It was not, in fact, of much monetary value... But his golden-skinned fiancee was rather fond of shiny objects, no matter how little or much they cost.​

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[member="Deio and Dahlia Leafwalker"]​

 

[Deio and Dahlia Leafwalker]

A glimpse of something shiny caught Deio's attention as he saw a red-haired man walk past below his perched position. Climbing down quickly, the young one started walking towards the redhead, a little more quickly then he should have, but he was eager to steal something, too eager. Not even attempting to come up on the man slowly or quietly, Deio ran past him, bumping into him to grab the little shiny thing the man had. Not even slowing down to look and see if the man was following, Deio ran as fast as his legs could carry him towards his home.

Dahlia sat counting the meager credits she had earned as her twin came running up out of breath. Her head snapped up and her eyes immediately filled with worry.

"What happened Deio? You didn't get caught did you?" Deio shuffled his feet and found the ground to be very interesting.

"I don't think so."

[member="Cross Ikon"]

 

[Cross Ikon]

Cross sighed as a little ball of frizzy orange hair smashed into him, almost knocking him over. He'd just managed to catch the bottle in his hand before it went smashing to the ground and sent glass flying everywhere. As he noticed the little piece of jewelry wasn't in his hand anymore, he shook his sleeve to make sure it hadn't fallen in there, looked around quickly, and then decided that he didn't have it anymore.​

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Oh, wait... The kid who'd knocked him over... That was an old trick... But the question was whether or not it was really necessary to go chasing the little thief for a trinket that he could just buy again for relatively cheap. The adventurous part of him said yes, but the old man part of him said no... Adventure won out. Down the alleyway he went, boots clacking a bit more loudly than he would've liked on the ground.​

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[member="Deio and Dahlia Leafwalker"]​

 

[Deio and Dahlia Leafwalker]

Dahlia froze as she saw a man with red hair walking towards where they were. She gestured towards him.

"That the guy you stole from?" Deio also froze and looked quickly behind his shoulder before snapping back to his sister, and nodding slightly. Dahlia began shaking.

"Oh no.."

"I'm so sorry, Dahlia." Deio also began shaking and tears were just glistening in his eyes. Dahlia put a hand on his shoulder and they both began to calm down.

"It's gonna be okay, I'll handle this."

[member="Cross Ikon"]

 

[Cross Ikon]

Unknown to the two scared children, Cross' stride was actually relaxed, and he hadn't even drawn his long-barreled pistol yet. Rather, when he saw the two small figures, he smiled a little bit. They were just a couple of homeless kids. Any vindictive temptation he might've had to scare them off, or worse let them sell the bauble and find out just how little it was worth, was totally gone. He stood there, everything on his face but his grin hidden in the shadow of his hat, with a hand on his hip and an eyebrow raised.​

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"Never had somebody actually follow you home, huh?"​

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[member="Deio and Dahlia Leafwalker"]​

 

[Deio and Dahlia Leafwalker]

Deio jumped at the sound of the man's voice and turned around, holding out the little trinket he'd stolen, his little hand shaking. His blue eyes glanced up for only a second before looking back down at the ground. Dahlia stood next to him, looking at the tall man

"S-sorry, s-sir. I just.."

"We're sorry, sir. It's just that, well, um.. We don't have any money, so we steal.." Both twins cut off, ashamed of what they'd done. Sure they were thieves, but it's not like there were many jobs young ones could do these days, they did what they had to do.

[member="Cross Ikon"]

 

[Cross Ikon]

"No, no, it's okay..."​

​

Cross looked between the kid holding the bauble out to him, and the girl next to him... They looked like siblings at the very least, if not twins. And there was something familiar about them. The red-haired admiral decided it was their eyes. Something about their eyes made him think back to when the Novas and the Ravens had been in full force, alternately shooting at each other and hiring each other out.​

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"So, uh... You're orphans, then?"​

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[member="Deio and Dahlia Leafwalker"]​

 

[Deio and Dahlia Leafwalker]

Before Deio could stop her, Dahlia nodded and spoke up, some gut feeling inside her telling her to trust this man.

"Yea, our Nana and Ada were killed by an assassin, but we never knew why."

"Dahlia!" Deio clamped a hand over his twin sister's mouth moments too late. Dahlia gave Deio a look that told him to trust her and his grip loosened on her mouth, allowing her to break free from his grip and keep talking.

"My nana's name was Asteria and she had pointy ears like us." Dahlia pulled back some of her hair to show her little pointy ear.

[member="Cross Ikon"]

 

[Cross Ikon]

"A-star had kids? How-"​

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It'd taken him a moment to process that the little girl had just said his former subordinate was dead. Killed by an assassin, no less. The irony. He vaguely wondered how said killer had even gotten lucky enough to catch Asteria with little enough warning that she hadn't simply disappeared. Cross finally sat down on the ground across from the twins, leaning his arms on his knees.​

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"Poor girl... Survived all that time, and then went and got killed by another assassin, huh?"​

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[member="Deio and Dahlia Leafwalker"]​

 

[Deio and Dahlia Leafwalker]

Both of the twins gasped and their eyes grew wide.

"But-"

"What-"

"You knew our nana?!" The two kids stared at this tall man in utter shock, an awkward silence hanging in the air. Then Deio finally spoke up, bombarding the man with questions eagerly, Dahlia in close pursuit.

"Who are you? How did you know Nana? Did you know Ada too?"

"Was Nana an assassin?"

[member="Cross Ikon"]

 

[Cross Ikon]

Cross barely had time to blink before the two little kids started jumping on him with all their questions. It made him feel a little weird, finding one of his friend's orphaned kids out here in some alley on Naboo. Like he was intruding or something.​

​

"I'm Cross Ikon. Your mom worked for me for a while, and then for a big old criminal empire, and then... retired, I guess? Never met your father. Knew Asteria got married, but didn't really come to see it. But, yeah, when your mom stopped working for me she went back to assassinations. Good person to have on my side during a fight, though."​

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[member="Deio and Dahlia Leafwalker"]​

 

[Deio and Dahlia Leafwalker]

The little children quited as he told them about their mother. Even though she had been retired when she was killed, Asteria had never told her children exactly what she had done for a living, and the twins were eager to hear about their mom. Since Cross didn't know their dad, Deio thought he should tell him who William was.

"Ada's name was William and he was Camoa like Nana, but he used bow and arrows."

[member="Cross Ikon"]

 

[Cross Ikon]

"Bows and arrows, huh?"​

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Cross raised an eyebrow absently, not even listening for a response to that. He was more interested in why the little Camoa boy hadn't hidden or camouflaged better when he'd stolen the little bauble.​

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"Wait, so if you two are Camoa, why d'you have such a hard time stealing things? Couldn't you hide?"​

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[member="Deio and Dahlia Leafwalker"]​

 

[Deio and Dahlia Leafwalker]

Dahlia shifted her feet.

"We can't until we're 10. Nana told us about it, and even then, we don't know if we'll know how." Deio handed the little bauble back, grabbed one of his ada's arrows, then sat down and played with a little bit, talking about Nana and Ada was still a sore subject for him, and Dahlia fingered her mother's necklace.

"I'm Dahlia, and this is Deio. We're twins."

[member="Cross Ikon"]

 

[Cross Ikon]

Cross patted Deio on the head, and then raised his eyebrow at Dahlia and grinned at her.​

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"I can definitely tell that you're twins."​

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He tilted his head to one side as he glanced around the alleyway.​

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"So, A-star and her husband died, and you two ran away... Into an alley? You probably could've lived in your house, right?"​

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[member="Deio and Dahlia Leafwalker"]​

 

[Deio and Dahlia Leafwalker]

"We didn't know if the hunter was going to return and look for us,"

"So we left. We haven't thought to go back there for a while." Dahlia looked thoughtful, and Deio disappeared for a second then came back with something clutched in his little hands. he looked shy now and whispered something to Dahlia and motioned for her to follow him a little ways away from Cross. They talked for a little bit, looking at Cross every so often, then seemed to come to a conclusion. Coming back over, Deio held out a small holorecorder.

"We think this may be for you."

[member="Cross Ikon"]

 

[Cross Ikon]

Cross raised an eyebrow at the two little kids as Deio handed him the holorecorder. What was he about to see, here? Some kind of will, or a kind of depressing 'if I die' note? Either way, he was going to have to watch it... And he was going to watch it with these two children. He was fairly sure it might concern them.​

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"Alright, then... Let's see it. You guys know what's on here?"​

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[member="Deio and Dahlia Leafwalker"]​