{{ simply being loved - chapter 20
Gadell stood in front of his dresser, in his quarters. He hadn't been in his quarters much since the wedding was announced, because he slept in Tenel Ka's bed every night. It was currently reaching the quarter mark of the night's cycle, leaving the cover of darkness and sleep hanging over the Palace.
It gave Gadell, Jacen and Tenel Ka free reign of the grounds, for what would end up being one of the most memorable nights in each of their lives. Memorable for different reasons, new love, lost minds, the impending feel of death, the shining rays of hope.
Gained trust.
Guards were usually posted everywhere around the Palace, during times of war and destruction. But this was a time of peace for the 63 planets of Hapes. And people saw no need for extra protection. They thought everything was right. The Queen Mother, marrying a strong, able man, both of whom could take care of each other and the people of their 63 planets.
Little did they know, both their Queen Mother and their strong, able male were stuck in a dangerous game of predator and prey. On each others tails, on Jacen Solo's tail, Jacen on theirs.
Commander Vessau had bolted straight back to his own quarters and now stood in front of the old chest of drawers, made out of Ithorian wood. Opening a top drawer, he dug around under some ancient tunics of his from when he was younger and found it.
It.
His father's lightsaber.
Twitches racked Gadell's body as soft, azure eyes landed on the silver gleam of the handle. He knew he couldn't channel the Force like he could before the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, but for some reason, carrying the blood red lightsaber gave him an extra feeling of comfort and safety against the bloodthirsty Tenel Ka Chume Djo and the intellectually efficient Jacen Solo.
Gadell knew that if he had to use it, he would just swing it blindly around, hoping to hit whatever enemy stood before him. His mother, Erianh had given the lightsaber to him as a birthday gift, after his father died. Gadell, being the self-sufficient child he was, tried to teach himself how to channel the Force and use a lightsaber. His bright blue eyes had seen holos of Jedi when he was young, he watched them intently, wishing he could be out there with them someday.
He never got his wish.
Thrashing violently against the dresser, the poison and ysalamiri blood surged throughout his veins. It had a longer time to settle into Gadell, giving him less frequent outbursts of the real Commander.
And with his blaster at his side and his father's lightsaber in his hand he slipped back out into the empty, dark hallway.
Tenel Ka stalked into the Palace, sneaking around every corner. The small train of light fabric from her tattered purple dress fluttered behind her as she padded down the hallway, her barefeet making no sound along the carpeted corridors. Like Gadell, she also had the sense to return to her room and grab her lightsaber, even though she knew the Force wouldn't help her if she got into a fight with one of the boys. But her confidence got the best of her.
I can take them. Force or no Force.
In the back of her mind, she knew something was odd about not being able to use the power she had held for so long. But the buzz of the blood and poison made her not really care. Her silver eyes adjusted to the dim light of the halls as she backed around corners and through archways into equally empty corridors.
Through the Force, she was blind, but her instincts blazed.
And she knew one of the stupid males was rounding the corner ahead of her, sliding back out into the Gardens.
Solo had followed the voids back into the Palace. It was harder to discern where they were at that point, with the dense stone walls towering around him, but he managed. He followed one particularly, who traced a sporadic path throughout many hallways before entering her own quarters. And Jacen Solo watched as the Queen Mother retrieved her lightsaber from it's place atop her nightstand.
That's a good idea.
Jacen let the void that was Tenel Ka trip out of her room and down the hall before he turned and sped down the hallway, to his own quarters, grabbing his lightsaber off of the belt clip on a pair of pants lying crumpled up on his bed.
And sliding back out into the hallway, he pressed his body into a corner and waited.
Viridian versus scarlet versus turquoise. No color had clashed by the middle of the night. And the game of manhunt was tiring out each unwilling participant.
Gadell stood, chest heaving in the center of the Gardens. Crimson lightsaber in hand, switched on at the sound of birds fluttering above. His icy eyes flitted from the Palace to the lush vegetation behind him. He deduced that they were in the Palace.
Tenel Ka shivered as she sat atop the railing of her balcony. She had returned to her quarters and perched herself up there, giving her a perfect view of the Gardens below. She saw Gadell, confident, collected.
"I see you down there, Commander," her voice was a whisper and it slipped through her lips with pain, sending crisp air through the cuts that had surfaced when Gadell had punched her earlier.
Punched her for sleeping with General Jacen Solo.
Punched me for something that never happened.
"You shall get what is coming to you."
The loud hiss must've traveled far below, as Gadell turned his head upwards and stared directly to Tenel Ka and her switched on teal blade. She looked worse than she did at the Hapan grove, eyes like ice and hair snapping out behind her in the breeze. She was crouched on the thick railing of her balcony, sending a threatningly insane gaze towards Commander Vessau.
"Not if you get it first," Gadell sneered and began heading towards the Palace.
As Tenel Ka flipped her lightsaber off, she turned and slid off of her perch atop the railing. Mere seconds later, she watched the door to her quarter's slide open. A silhouette meandered in and without the Force, Tenel Ka had no idea who it was.
Until a scarlet blade shattered the darkness.
"Dear."
"Your highness."
Flipping back the on switch of her own lightsaber, a snap-hiss sounded. The silent room then buzzed with the static noise of duel lightsabers, poised for action.
It would be a sore sight to anyone who had trained with lightsabers before. If the normal Gadell and Tenel Ka had been watching themselves fight, they both would've been disgusted. Clumsy thrusts, angry slashes and off beat dodges lent an unprofessional glean to the battle. It looked like two children who had found their parents weapons and had begun to toy with them.
Gadell had beat his lightsaber onto hers so many times so fast, it caused Tenel Ka to slam into the railing, her body bent over it backwards. Her lightsaber was out, horizontally in front of her while Gadell's was sizzling vertically, pushing down towards Tenel Ka.
Moments passed. Slow moments. Smirks were traded and the battle was about to continue until the two saw a flash of darkness pass between them and the moonlight. They pushed away from each other and stood, lightsabers ready for whatever had just arrived.
"Miss me?" A snap-hiss as Jacen Solo's emerald blade joined the fight.
Jacen had sensed both voids in Tenel Ka's quarters and from previous experience during his vacation, he knew another way up to them. The vines along the wall. He had climbed up them, lightsaber at his belt and used the Force to vault himself up over the railing and over the two clumsy, lost lightsaber wielders.
"Of course," Gadell charged towards Jacen, who effortlessly crashed lightsabers with him. The Commander winced and began blocking himself as Jacen started falling into a dizzying combination of offensive moves, letting the flow of the Force give him the upper hand. Vessau backed off, and stumbled backwards through the open balcony doors, into the moonlight.
Jacen swallowed and cringed at how dry his throat was, he really didn't want it to come to this:
"I take it, you want a turn also, your highness?"
Tenel Ka scowled and hesitated, watching Jacen. Moments passed until she threw her lightsaber to the ground and stepped forward, kicking Jacen's viridian blade out of his hand, with incredible ease. Jacen was taken by surprise as a fist was planted straight across his jaw and her body crashed forward onto his, both childhood friends, tumbling to the ground.
She had raised her fist above them again, to punch him, "Unlike you Jacen Solo, I like to play dirty."
Gadell probably regretted the next thing he said.
"We know you like to play dirty."
Jacen watched as her silver eyes widened and shifted to the side. Tenel Ka slowly crawled off of the General and stood up, her back to Gadell.
"Is that all you are going to talk about for the rest of your life?" Tenel Ka inhaled deeply, spinning around.
"I would like it if my wife was faithful."
Her voice took on a tone of defense, "Nothing happened."
Jacen Solo inwardly felt a huge burden lifted off of his shoulders. He had thought nothing happened, but he wasn't sure. Part of him was relieved, while the other part was a bit depressed. Jacen's own eyes widened as he expelled the last perverted thoughts from his head, shaking it and turning his attention back to the unhappy couple.
"Right. I'm sure nothing happened." The sarcasm was like a disease speading slowly around room.
Both men could tell Tenel Ka was fed up. One was a bit frightened of it. And the other was enjoying prodding her along.
"Gadell."
"Dear?"
"I am going to kill you before this night is over."
Gadell cackled, "You're so cute, dear."
A solemn expression crossed Queen Mother Tenel Ka Chume Djo's face as she stood alone, in the center of the room, facing Commander Gadell Vessau, with her back to General Jacen Solo. The moonlight cut shards of light into the dark bedroom, landing across the mirror, the chair, the bed, the dressing room. Each item and it's history in the past weeks gave the room a stuffy, musty atmosphere. Glancing around the room, Jacen let his eyes linger on each thing for a moment.
The chair that Jacen was tied to for hours sat near the vanity table, which was under the mirror that showed him Gadell's reflection in his vision. The bed that he had to stare at all night, Gadell and Tenel Ka cuddled up in the covers. The dressing room, where Jacen tried to tell Tenel Ka about Ta'a Chume.
The dressing room. There was a reason he tried to tell her in the dressing room...
The camera!
Jacen stood behind the unkempt Queen Mother and seeing that she and Gadell were busy with a verbal arguement, he fell into the Force.
Two voids in front of him. And...
There!
...another flitting around the perimeter of the room. Dashing over to where it was, the verbal arguement ceased mid-sentence and both participants looked over to Jacen, quizzical expressions showing.
Gadell crossed his arms over his black-tunic clothed chest, "I believe Jacen Solo has lost his mind. And now he's searching for it."
Solo leapt up onto the vanity table and began grabbing at what looked like thin air. Closing his fist over what he was after, he froze, glancing forward into the huge mirror. Gadell and Tenel Ka were standing in the same spots they were before, except now they were both facing him, looks of disbelief at his sudden outburst. Jumping off of the table and landing on his feet, Jacen made his way to Tenel Ka.
"Here." He dropped the camera into her metallic palm.
Studying it for a moment, she looked to Gadell, "Do you know anything about this?"
"What's that?"
Jacen snickered, "Don't play dumb! I saw you." Jacen mocked Gadell's thumbs-up sign he had given Ta'a Chume, Exna and Jeauno; adding a goofy face to the impression. "When you were lying in bed with Tenel Ka. And she was sleeping. It's been in here since the night you came down with that fever, Tenel Ka."
"That's not true."
"Oh yeah?"
Tenel Ka watched the silly, little boys argue and she rolled her eyes. The middle of the night was passing with every second.
Every second counted.
"You're an idiot, Solo."
"I'm not the one accusing my fiancée of things she didn't do."
"She did it. She did it with you."
"No, she didn't, but we can make it happen right here, right now if you really want it to occur. Then at least you'll be accusing her of something she did." Jacen was tired of Gadell's false accusations, and that was the first thing that slipped out of his mouth.
"Excuse me?!" The Queen Mother intervened.
Jacen glanced to her, "I didn't mean it, Tenel Ka."
With one last maniacal laugh, Gadell grabbed his lightsaber and ran towards the door of the quarters, turning his back to it and motioning to them with a finger. Motioning to them to follow him. To chase him. To hunt him down.
And with that, the door shut behind him and Gadell was gone, his laugh echoing in Jacen and Tenel Ka's ears. Jacen, poised behind Tenel Ka, could see her silhouette, racked with shudders. She was shaking and Jacen didn't know whether to run away or to comfort her.
"Jacen..."
There was no anger in her voice.
Slowly stepping around Tenel Ka, Jacen saw moonlight spill across her eyes. A calm gray.
The calm before the storm.
"Tenel Ka... I..."
"I am tired of being used." A shudder caused her neck to twitch. "Something is happening to me. They did something to me. I have never been so weak... everything put in front of me during my lifetime, I was able to fight off. But this... this..."
Jacen was amazed at the way the real Tenel Ka was shining through the broken shell of her poisoned alter-ego. He wondered how long it would last. He moved a foot forward, placing his hands on her shoulders, his skin was met with scratched pieces of purple fabric and smooth flesh.
"Whatever's ahead, Tenel Ka, we'll get through it."
"We."
"Yes."
Jacen leaned in to plant a kiss on her lips and he succeeded, her kissing him in return, until she suddenly jerked her head back and turned it to the side, spitting to the ground.
"You are repulsive. Do you always take advantage of weak women?"
The silver storm had begun.
"But you... I..."
She ripped her hand across his cheek resulting in a loud smack that echoed with the steady sound of the humming lightsabers, that were still lying discarded on the ground. She walked over, picked her turquoise weapon up and exited the bedroom, leaving Jacen staring at the ceiling.
Kriff! JUST ONE NORMAL KISS. PLEASE. First it was interrupted before the dance, then the poison, then the poison again and the spitting and the anger and... damn!
Conjuring the Force, he levitated his lightsaber to him and followed Tenel Ka out of the quarters minutes later.
It was time to end this. It was time to end this and tell the hopefully unpoisoned Tenel Ka exactly how he felt once and for all.
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