{{ urbania's void - chapter 19
...hanging in the white (day twenty-five / +25)
The scent of fresh air drifted under his nose as his eyes opened and he began to slowly pull himself out of his restful slumber. The breeze that blew lightly through the open window tousled his hair as he shifted a bit. He felt someone next to him, nestled against his side. Squinting against the rich sunlight that flooded the room, he let his eyes trail down to the body curled up next to his own.
And wrapped up in General Jacen Solo's right arm was the Queen Mother of Hapes. He could see her mass of copper hair fanned out on the sheets behind her and he could see her peaceful face as she rested her head on his bare chest. He could feel her steady breathing; her breath on his skin and her own chest rising and falling against his side. Through the silky curtain of red-gold, Jacen could see hints of white fabric, but he could tell it wasn't the same thing she was wearing the last time he saw her. When they were... When they...
When we were falling...
His sienna gaze traveled around the room they were lying in. The sunlight was the main source of light in the room, and the only source of light at the moment. But it lit the room up enough. It was a bit overwhelming.
Everything in the room was white.
Easing away from Tenel Ka and standing up, Jacen instantly regretted leaving the comfort he felt lying beside her. He looked behind him, back down to the bed. The sheets were white, the pillows were white. Everything was white. Tenel Ka's wavy hair contrasted sharply with the calming pearly shade of the room.
He heard a sigh from her, a very content sigh, as she tucked her right hand under her head.
A smile broke Jacen's face. He chuckled inwardly.
Is this what it's like after you die?
Murmuring incoherently, Tenel Ka emerged from her curled up position and rolled to the side, sprawling out on her back. Resting her right arm beside her head, up on the pillow, she let a ragged breath escape her throat.
That's when the smile escaped Jacen.
He could see them covering her. The scrapes, the scars, the bruises. His senses suddenly flared to life as the last traces of sleep were shoved from his system. Turning his head, he saw a mirror hanging up on the wall. His eyes narrowed as he gave his reflection a once over. A pair of loose fitting white pants seemed to be the only thing he was wearing and his hair was still the same length it had been for his disguise, although it looked less tangled and... cleaner.
No... we're not dead..
Behind him, he heard the drawing in of a deep breath. His eyes led him to the reflection of the bed, where Tenel Ka was now sitting up, surveying her surroundings. He watched her. She started off on the right of the room, her head slowly turning to the left... and when she caught Jacen's gaze in the mirror, he saw her look away.
"Where are we?" Tenel Ka inquired, her voice freezing over with a sheet of emotional ice.
"If I knew, I would tell you." Jacen replied flatly. He didn't mean for the answer to sound so bitter, but Tenel Ka didn't seem to mind his tone. Jacen let his barefeet lead him to the window, where he stood and crossed his arms, admiring the warmth and glow from the multiple suns overhead.
Tenel Ka slid off of the high bed and shook her head a bit. The first thing she examined, after stumbling over to it, was the door of the room.
It was locked. And there was no visible panel to unlock it and open it.
"We are locked in." Tenel Ka placed her palm on the door and leaned against it, sighing.
"At least we're locked into..." Jacen twisted his head to look to Tenel Ka, who had turned around and rested her back against the door. It was the first time he had seen her out of bed. The last part of his sentence fell to a hushed whisper. "...paradise."
From across the room he could see her sharp gray eyes; she was watching him. The nightgown she wore now looked like it was made from Hapan silk, a shimmery light fabric that hugged the skin. The front laced up and it was tied loosely right above the swell of her breasts. The bottom swept the floor and covered her feet. It was a pretty plain piece of work compared to some of the stuff she was used to wearing. Her hair was down, and it cascaded to the middle of her back. She had to have it cut for her disguise.
Jacen was used to her wearing her armor with her hair done up in her warrior braids. He was also used to her wearing her intricate, overdone gowns that she hated so much for her royal position, with her hair done up in buns and twists and her face done up in different shades of makeup.
He had never seen her like this before.
Any other person probably would've described it as 'plain' --- but Jacen just stared in muted awe. The only blemishes with her image were the scrapes and bruises, but he easily looked past those.
"Paradise, you say?" Tenel Ka used her right hand to push herself off of the door and Jacen watched as she crossed the room to the window he stood beside. The bottom of the nightgown billowed out behind her as she padded across the cold floor.
"Is this window open?"
Jacen nodded in response.
Pulling back, Tenel Ka threw her fist into the square of the open window. They heard something crack. Jacen gasped and Tenel Ka just snickered, stretching her fingers out. She placed her hand on the wall beside the window and started running it up and down, searching for anything out of the ordinary.
And she found it under the windowsill. Pressing the button, the breeze through the seemingly open window stopped and all the sunlight vanished. The calming forest scenery that Jacen was admiring faded into a depressing cityscape.
The Urbania.
"We're still here." Jacen hissed.
Tenel Ka had a sinking feeling that they were still on the Urbania, but she didn't want to believe it. And she wanted to prove that feeling wrong.
She had just proven it right.
Just like Jacen, Tenel Ka had wanted to believe they were off of the retched spacestation, together in some paradise, happy together --- the reality being that nothing had ever happened.
But it had all happened.
A hybrid of a sigh and a growl escaped Tenel Ka as she twisted away from the neon filled window, stalking over to the bed. Seating herself on it, she slouched forward and leaned her head in her hand, her elbow digging into her thigh.
Jacen leaned his left hip against the windowsill and crossed his arms over his chest. The room had plunged into a shade of darkness, the neon being the only thing illuminating the space. A streak of green cut into Jacen's face and gave him an eerie glow as he shrugged his shoulders, chuckling slightly.
"Hey, at least our lives haven't been threatened... yet."
Tenel Ka's sterling gaze locked onto Jacen's as her eyes went wide. Jacen let his eyes linger on hers for a moment before he turned to look back out to the vile city. Tenel Ka was thankful he looked away; he didn't see the corners of her lips upturn. It comforted her to know that this was really Jacen Solo she was with. Part of her still wanted to hide from him forever, another part wanted to strangle the life out of him and the last part wanted to run into his arms and tell him everything was alright.
The last part was the one smiling.
Stepping away from the window, Jacen meandered over to the bed and sat beside Tenel Ka. She turned her head away from him, glancing to the door. Jacen could tell she was still uncomfortable around him, he could feel it through their connection. He could sense a thin veil of anxiety and uncertainty in her mind, something he never thought he would feel from her. Her hand had moved onto the bed beside her leg and Jacen covered it with his own.
"I'm sorry." His head was tilted slightly as he looked to her. "For everything."
She could hear the sincerity in his voice and she could feel it in her body, but she just wasn't ready to forgive him for what happened, it didn't sit well with her how easily he was taken over.
"Would you feel better if I destroyed the Mindmap?" Jacen whispered. "I mean, whoever shouldn't know we're on the Urbania probably knows by now." He released an empty chuckle.
Tenel Ka nodded absently. She knew she would feel a little better if the Mindmap didn't exist and she looked to him.
"I have it right..." Jacen looked down to his pants, the Mindmap was in his pocket--- "...here."
A defeated sigh sounded when he remembered that he didn't have the pants on that he had on before. Tenel Ka pulled her hand out from under his and crossed her arm over her chest, rubbing her fingers over the skin on her left shoulder. Jacen vowed to himself that he would find that Mindmap, get it back and destroy it. A sudden outburst drew him off of the bed and Jacen was up, dashing around the room, opening the white chest of drawers, throwing white clothes around, to the floor, up in the air.
He had a feeling that digging around would bring answers.
But he stopped his rummaging when there was a click at the door.
He sensed Tenel Ka stand up behind him, off of the bed, positioning herself in a defensive stance. And the door slid open to reveal a man and a woman. The woman with long, straight purple hair stepped into the threshold of the room, the man in her tow.
"Ah. You're awake." Motioning with her hand for the two to sit down, the woman stopped in the middle of the floor, her black dress darkening the atmosphere. "Lights." Dim lights seemed to fade in from hidden places in the walls and their soft glow drowned the neon out of the room.
Jacen backed up towards the bed and sat down on the edge, Tenel Ka following his lead, not wanting to start too much trouble.
"My name is Nexus Mirdele. And this is my older brother, Tenk." She paused, her dark eyes shifting from Jacen to Tenel Ka. "You had a pretty nasty fall. Lucky for you, we caught you in our speeder. Must be fate, huh?" She giggled and slapped her brother in the arm.
Tenk spoke up, his voice deep and rich. "You both still seem very weak. Maybe you should get some more rest and we'll send some dinner up for you."
"How long have we been sleeping?" Jacen inquired.
"About three days, my friend." Nexus placed her gloved hands on her hips and slowly nodded.
Tenel Ka and Jacen exchanged incredulous glances as the siblings in front of them spoke to each other about the mess Jacen had made in front of the drawers. And with a bow, they were gone, their parting words: a promise to explain exactly what happened 'after they got more rest' ---
"It was them."
"Who?" Jacen arched an eyebrow as he turned to look at the Queen Mother.
"Those were the two who gave us the drinks in the Vina Lidrina that night."
Jacen thought back. Everything that happened while he was Kaidin was blurry in his mind but for some reason, the Mirdele siblings seemed familiar to him.
"We shouldn't worry about it right now. We should start worrying when they tell us what's really going on." Jacen inhaled deeply and stalked back over to the window, glaring out of it. "We should get some rest."
"You are not going to get any rest standing by the window, Jacen."
"We'll take turns." Jacen ran his hand down over his mouth. "I can feel how uncomfortable you are around me still. I understand it. I don't want to make you feel anymore uncomfortable than you already are."
Tenel Ka gazed at him, her eyes locked on his back, the way his shoulderblades shifted as he moved his arms, the way his smooth skin looked in the dim light...
"Then you should put a shirt on, Jacen."
With a chuckle, Jacen threw a sideways glance to where Tenel Ka sat on the edge of the bed. She was nodding slowly, in a matter-of-fact kind of way. "As her majesty commands." Turning away from the city, Jacen made his way to the pile of clothes on the floor and dug around in them, before pulling out a simple white long-sleeved shirt. He tugged it over his head and grinned slightly, "Better?"
One curt nod. "Thank you."
Jacen pushed his sleeves up over his forearms and spoke in a hushed tone, "Now get some rest." He walked back towards the window as Tenel Ka pulled herself under the covers. "Lights, off." And as the lights vanished, the room was bathed in the harsh neons again.
Force knows we'll need it for whatever's going on inside this building.
They both had a bad feeling about what was going on, but neither had really voiced it at this point. They were both too worried about being stuck in a locked room together. They tried to act normal, but the tension was overwhelming.
Physical tension. Emotional tension. Sexual tension.
The only sound Jacen could hear as he stared out the window was the quiet sound of Tenel Ka's breathing and the only thing he could feel was a single tear roll down his cheek.
He could feel it in his mind.
The Mirdele's seemed jovial and pleasant enough, for the whole three minutes they were in the room together. But something about them rubbed Jacen the wrong way. He felt like they had wronged him before... and something made him feel like they wouldn't hesitate to do it again. Tenel Ka was at a stage of emotional instability and Jacen would do anything to keep her safe during this period.
The tear traced a path down his cheek and fell onto his right hand, which was planted on the windowsill.
He was in love. He promised her he would never let go. And he never wanted to let go.
I never will.
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