{{ urbania's void - chapter 22
...dust settles (day twenty-seven / +27)
Jolted awake by nothing in particular, General Jacen Solo shook his head about, letting his eyes focus themselves. He had fallen asleep in an uncomfortable chair that he had moved to the window. The neon lights fell across his face and they all were just blurs as he blinked the sleep out of his pools of brandy. Right after his eyes accomplished the feat of focusing, they widened.
The room. He remembered everything being white. The walls, the ceiling, the floor, the furniture, the bed...
Now gray. All gray.
He looked down at himself. It was still the same long-sleeved shirt, the same loose pants. But they were now gray as well.
"Lights. Maximum brightness." He tried to keep his voice calm, hoping that it was just a trick of the harsh neons seeping in from the window. But when the lights in the room appeared, he knew he was wrong. Everything was a sharp gray. No color in the room except gray... except...
Oh no.
Within the gray sheets on the bed, he saw smidges of crimson. Bolting from his seat by the window, Jacen almost tripped on his way over. His heart started beating again when he saw Tenel Ka tangled in the sheets, her head buried in the mess of pillows. Upon closer inspection, the crimson was on her nightgown and Jacen's heart stopped again. Grabbing her shoulders, his hands covering the straps of the nightgown, he gently shook her around, trying to wake her up.
"Hmm...?" Tenel Ka used her right hand to push herself to a sitting position and as she forced herself out of a sleep induced trance, she looked down at Jacen's hands, which were still on her shoulders. At the same time, she shook them off and Jacen pulled back, realizing his error.
"What happened?" He asked, his voice breathless.
Tenel Ka just arched an eyebrow.
Frantically, Jacen motioned towards her nightgown. As Tenel Ka glanced down to herself, Jacen took the chance to also stare down at her. His eyes landed on her right arm, where the huge gash he had made as Kaidin resided. The scar tissue was turning out rough and jagged, causing Jacen to look away. Being this close to her and being able to see all of her bruises and cuts close up made him want to smack himself.
"I am not hurt," she stated.
"Are you sure?"
"I would know if I was hurt."
Jacen nodded in response. He knew that. He knew that she would tell him if she was really hurt, but it still made him feel better if he was reassured that she wasn't.
He slid off of the bed and paced around the room, shaking his head. "Wasn't everything white before? Did we change rooms?" Jacen began to ramble off questions, mostly to himself while Tenel Ka took the chance to glance around the room, her steely gaze taking in all of the gray. Looking back down to her nightgown, she scowled -- it was still white, except now covered in blood red splotches, one on her hip, one on her stomach, one down her shin, and so on... she didn't pay them mind because they weren't injuries, it was just on the nightgown. She was paying more attention to the man pacing in front of the bed. She suddenly became a bit worried about him; she noticed he looked stressed and tired.
How could he be tired? It feels like we have been sleeping for days.
"Jacen."
His head snapped in her direction as he stopped his crooked line around the room. "Hmm?"
"How long have we been sleeping?"
"I don't know. It's hard to say..." Jacen crossed his arms over his chest and stared down to Tenel Ka, who was calmly seated on the bed, her legs stretched out in front of her. She looked collected yet through their connection, Jacen could still feel a sense of weakness and fatigue. And that caused him to spin around, lock his gaze above him and throw his arms up in the air, screaming at the top of his lungs.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US?!"
With that, Jacen slammed himself down on the edge of the bed and hunched over, resting his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands. Billions of thoughts raced through his head.
Just how long have we sleeping? It has to at least have been a couple of days, I smell like an ill mynock. I'm kind of hungry. I wonder how Tenel Ka is feeling...
Tenel Ka's eyes narrowed. She could sense the anger behind his loud question, the rage, the fear. Jacen Solo was truly distressed. A little nagging voice inside of her told her to laugh at him. That was the voice of vindictiveness. The voice that would never let her forgive Jacen. The voice that was beginning to die...
Effortlessly, Tenel Ka moved up behind Jacen and placed her right hand in the middle of his back, slowly running it up and down. Under the warm fabric, she could feel his muscles tense up. In his mind, she could feel his slightly confused state. Jacen knew that it was a gesture of friendly comforting, but it gave him a whole new round of energy and confidence that would hopefully help to get them out of whatever mess they had fallen into.
The General turned to look at her, his eyes red, bloodshot, empty. Crawling out of the bed, Tenel Ka stepped around him and stood in front of him, using her right pointer finger to motion behind him to the pillows.
"Sleep."
"I was sleeping."
"Sitting in a chair by a window with your head against the wall does not constitute a good rest. Go."
"I'm not tired."
Tenel Ka heaved a defeated sigh and meandered to the window, glancing out over the city. Jacen watched her from his spot on the bed. One of the dark splotches covered her back. Seeing it brought Jacen's mind back to the room.
Why the kriff is the room a different color? And why is Tenel Ka's nightgown turning dark red like that?
"Maybe you should change," Jacen suggested.
"No." Tenel Ka replied mere seconds later, curtly.
Jacen instantly regretted bringing it up, as he realized that Tenel Ka probably wouldn't be too comfortable stripping out of her clothes anywhere near him. And there was nowhere she could go.
They were in a room. Four walls. All gray. One window. A locked door.
The furniture was very classy, as was the decor of the room. Normally Jacen would probably love a room like this, Tenel Ka probably wouldn't mind it since she had to be in rooms like that all of the time, but this room made Jacen feel uneasy. Very uneasy. He stood up and began pacing the perimeter, studying each piece of furniture he came near, running his hands over it, squinting at it, kicking it.
Tenel Ka turned her ashen gaze from the window, leaned back against the wall and placed her hand on her hip. Pitching a silent fit by the locked door was Jacen Solo, whom she was watching. She heard him mumble.
"I have a bad feeling about this."
She stared as he stepped to the middle of the floor, slowly turning in a circle, his eyes traveling around the room, across the ceiling. "Who are you? What exactly is it that you want?" He paused as Tenel Ka joined him in the middle of the room, scanning the surroundings with him. "How long have we been asleep? Why---"
"Oh, keep quiet." A voice sounded. It seemed to come from every corner of the room.
Jacen and Tenel Ka exchanged worried glances, quickly trading thoughts about who or what the voice was.
Jacen, it sounds like Tenk Mirdele. One of the ones who came into the room.
That's who I think it is al---
"That's right. It's me, Tenk."
The two quickly closed themselves off from the Force after that.
What? Tenk has the Force...?
Jacen took a deep breath and opened himself up a bit, trying to read the voice they heard and the person behind it, but he was countered by a mental wall.
"Stop that, Solo. It's not going to get you anywhere."
Jacen sighed and shut himself off again, a slight scowl showing on his face.
"Don't look so glum, General. I just commed to tell you that I heard each and every one of your questions." He paused. "But I don't feel the need to answer them at the moment. So go back to sleep."
"We are not tired." Tenel Ka firmly replied.
"Oh, yes you are," the low voice let out a rich laugh.
Jacen was about to defy Tenk, when he saw movement to his right. Glancing over, he saw Tenel Ka's eyes slowly fluttering shut. She was swaying back and forth; and finally she fell forward. Jacen caught her in his arms and realized something as he did.
He felt a bit groggy too.
Carrying Tenel Ka to the bed, he gently set her down and without warning, he collapsed beside her, falling into a deep sleep. The room retreated into silence and the lights faded out, leaving the tense two in the settling sheets, stormy shades overlapping Jacen's gray as well as Tenel Ka's spreading burgundy.
Floors away, Tenk flipped the comm switch off, laughing heartily as he watched a wall of holo-screens.
"How's the room working, Tenk?"
"Perfectly fine, father."
Ryled Mirdele clapped his son on the shoulder and sat down beside him, as his daughter entered the room behind them.
"How're things in here?" Nexus leaned around her father and gave him a kiss on the cheek before seating herself on the opposite side of Ryled.
Tenk leaned back in his chair and pulled his feet up, resting them on the console. "Swell."
Moments after that, a worn out Raynar Thul entered the room, stepping to the screens. He ran his tired eyes over them before speaking his question, which was laced with a high concentration of sarcasm.
"Where's Lomi Plo and Welk?" He rolled his eyes.
Nexus giggled, "Who cares?"
"Where are the others?" Raynar asked as he stretched his arms above his head, the bottom of his shirt crawling up his stomach.
Tenk smiled. "They'll be on their way soon, I suppose."
"Good." And with that simple response, Raynar left the dysfunction of the Mirdele family and went to plan a little havoc of his own.
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