trans_9 | there were nightblooms in the east

Arha found herself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling for far too long with the rush of her Mothers-Within all but quiet in the dead of night. As much as she commanded herself to sleep, it would not come, and she rose, slipping from her bed and pulling on the pale blue nightgown and robe she had purchased not five hours prior. Half way down the steps of the tiny beach hut she had found for sleeping, she paused, weaved and sat down. In her mind, she saw the face of Sana, the Fremen child she had watched die during the Ohm invasion. She let out a breath and stood, letting her robe puddle behind her as she strode across the sand.

Her bare feet, long used to sand fell into the Fremen style, slip-sliding, random but sure in the moonlight with the alien sound of water crashing to shore ringing in her ears. The moon was full-bellied in the sky and cast pale, silvery light that touched seafoam and washed out the world. She should have been resting, but she walked. There were no true footprints to follow, but she did not go too far before she found herself flowing into the hybrid fighting style that was Jed-Eye and Bene Gesserit both. Sana's face welled up in her mind's eye, fiercely Fremen, and in response, her movements jerked.

Her crysknives were out and she moved quickly as the wave of enemies swarmed. She blurred and cut down many, kept moving, always moving to protect the child who fought as well. Little Sana was fierce with her blade. Arha didn't pause even when she felt the stab of something sharp rip into her.

She sliced its stabbing arm off and in her detached state, she realized she had been stabbed clean through her midsection. The small cry that came from her left jerked her head around. Sana's fingers and torso were bloodied, her crysknife still gripped in her hand. Arha pushed herself up, fighting the dizzying waves of pain and nausea to slash at another creature and found herself unable. She watched the dust motes swirl and felt the heat of the rock beneath her cheek.

And she stared, bearing witness to Sana's death.

This was what came of telling Kyle that she was fine. She was not. No one could be fine after such a thing. No one could be.

[OOC: Open, new tags mean new threads.]

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"There are others who would take on the memory of what happened," Arha said softly. "And you already have much to bear." She paused, trying to pull herself together, to keep it in the way a Bene Gesserit, a Fremen, a Jed-Eye was supposed to do. Arha felt Wedge's emotion rise and tilted her head to study him with eyes that were full to brimming with tears she refused to let fall. His tight smile forced her eyes closed.

"I would not wish you more pain," she whispered hoarsely. "I would take such a thing, take it all, if I could. But one must work through such things to become stronger. Such a thing is what Kalim would say to me over and over during my Bene Gesserit training." Kalim is dead and died long before the Ohm came. It was absurd the way that woman still lurked in her thoughts. A laugh escaped, though it was soft and sad. At the least, the old Bene Gesserit woman had not been killed by the Ohm.

Arha had been alone before Rogue Squadron, before Jed-Eye, before this ship. Arrakis had been harsh to her and sought to scour her with sand and time, but she had bested its deep deserts and had loved its people the way she loved everything. She had survived and learned to love everything in life, even the pain--pain meant you still yet lived.

"Without you, my squadron, my Jed-Eye, I would be lost. I would be lost and alone and I am--" Her words died as they came and she gestured as if that would fill in the words. "I am alive," she whispered, and the sentence was fierce, crackling with heat and deep meaning those words held for her.

Edited 2010-06-19 21:54 (UTC)

"There's enough for me, knowing that my home is gone, that the future of my universe has been taken from it--from us. I've spent my whole life fighting evil men and I'm not about to stop just because they're bigger and badder than before." His grip on her shoulder tightened just slightly, more emotion swelling in the man. This wasn't where he had seen himself as he had finished the Adumar mission. There had been a future there, just waiting. Iella and Corellia or where ever they'd wanted to go.... Another wave of emotion. Was she in the pods? Had she been saved? He couldn't dwell on it now.

"I'm glad you're with us Arha. And I'm glad we can all say at least that. We're alive and angry and the Ohm don't know what's going to hit them we come for them." Confidence he may or may not feel.

"I'm fortunate to have my friends and a squadron to occupy me. And I'm lucky to have made new friends. Like you."

"We will give the Ohm something to think about," Arha murmured. "I, too, find myself fortunate that I have made such rare and beautiful friends." She leaned up to kiss him gently on both cheeks as she brushed her fingers against the nape of his neck.

"I shall fight my best for your universe," she said, her expression softening slightly as her eyes found his. "For I have come to love its people fiercely."

Wedge hesitated a moment, then wrapped Arha in a warm embrace. THey were on vacation. Her position wasn't quite that of an inferior. Not in this hodge-podge squadron, thrown together from different realities. That was what he told himself.

"Thank you. I wish I could have known more of your people. If they were anything like you, I'm sure I would come to care for them just as deeply." A small, sad smile came to his features.

"We can fight for all of the universes that the Ohm have destroyed without reason and without justification. It's probably the best and noblest cause I've undertaken. That we've undertaken. We can't fail. Impossible is what Rogues do best, after all."

"You are welcome." She was silent for a long moment. "I carry my people with me," Arha murmured, burying herself into his hug as if it were the only warmth left. Her fingers curled against his hair as she hugged him back and stayed there, curled against him, her lips buried against the join between his shoulder and neck.

"We will not fail," she mumbled. "I will give everything, all I am." Arha's lips curved. "We are Rogue Squadron, always, and I am in your Wing. I am Jed-Eye, Bene Gesserit, Fremen, pilot--if ever there was an impossibility, I should be it. So. We will not fail, Wedge Antilles."

Wedge leaned into the embrace, his eyes closed. Her fingers against him, the feel of her. It was almost a relief, relaxing and comforting. His mind reminded him of Iella, the woman he loved, who may be sleeping still in the pods. He sighed quietly, his fingers dug into her back just slightly.

"We can't fail. The thought that we might...I can't think that we will. We have to believe we'll succeed."

"I believe," she whispered, easing her fingers through his hair before letting them settle against the nape of his neck, where they rested warmly. "I will always believe." Arha would never doubt this thing, not even at their darkest hour and the certainty of her belief lie in the quiet firmness of her words.

"I will believe for you, too, should you falter," she said very softly.

there were nightblooms in the east

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