{{ urbania's void - chapter 35
...dancing on a thin line (day thirty-three / +33)
With a flick of the wrist, Welk motioned to some unseen being and the music grew a tad louder.
"Guards." His voice was a low growl.
Gold-faces filed in through the main doorway of the chamber. Jacen assumed they were the same ones from dinner - but he couldn't actually tell. They all looked exactly alike, save for a few height differences. They stopped around the perimeter of the room, the glare from the water throwing soft shimmers against the gold of their masks. Anja, Eryl and Lusa entered behind them, taking their places behind the three dark Jedi.
Jacen subconsciously felt Tenel Ka shift near his leg, her right hand planting itself in the cushions of the chairs as she moved to a sitting position beside him.
"I had a dream..." her voice trailed off.
"I did too." Jacen whispered sleepily.
The others were currently stirring and waking up, hissing to each other under the watchful eyes of the dark Jedi and the empty, soulless Gold-faces.
Lomi Plo padded towards the group, her boots clicking softly on the transparisteel floor. She reached a hand out to Jacen and held it there, long pale fingers posed towards him, palm downward, awaiting his grasp.
Tenel Ka let her gaze follow Lomi Plo's arm, all the way to the tips of her fingers, where a dazed Jacen Solo sat, staring at the Nightsister. She couldn't tell if Jacen was in some sort of trance or if he was just playing along, but he took Lomi Plo's hand and rose from his seat.
The Queen Mother hadn't noticed, but her right arm had been resting across her stomach, her hand on Jacen's hip. When he stood and began to move away from the group, her hand reflexively pulled him a tad, as if to signify her not wanting him to leave, or get hurt.
As they traipsed away from the group, to the center of the chamber, Jacen turned his head back, his chocolate eyes locking with a storm of worry. He shot her a lopsided grin and turned back, satisfied with the nod he received from Tenel Ka afterwards. He didn't know what Lomi Plo wanted him for, but for some reason he still moved with her to the middle of the floor.
"Dance with me."
"I can't dance," he replied, with somewhat of a fib.
"We saw you in the Vina Lidrina..." She responded, placing one hand on his shoulder and the other out to the side. "Even though you were in a bit of a drunken stupor, it was still dancing."
Jacen took her hand in his and wrapped his other arm around her waist. He tried to keep an unreadable expression on his face, but his eyes kept giving his nervousness away. They kept flickering to the rows of seats, where Welk was now getting Jaina Solo up and over to the floor and Raynar Thul was currently holding his hand out to Tenel Ka.
And the mind games began.
As Lomi Plo and Jacen moved around the room, their feet taking over the direction, the Nightsister made sure her body was pressed as close to Jacen's as possible. Her head was resting against the smooth fabric of his jacket, tilted upwards just a bit. She was breathing a bit heavier than normal, her hot breath snaking through the wires of Jacen's high collar and onto his neck.
She giggled inwardly at his uncomfortable state.
They slid past Raynar and Tenel Ka, who were too busy in their own conversation to notice Lomi Plo and Jacen.
"What is your problem, Raynar?" She spoke firmly, trying to shove the quaver from her voice.
"I have no problem, sweetheart." Raynar spun Tenel Ka around, his fingers digging into her. One hand at her side and the other clasped over her right hand. "I have no idea why you think I have a problem."
Tenel Ka's eyes instantly moved over to where Anja Gallandro was dragging Zekk Arkenna to the floor. "Is that really Anja?"
"Depends on what you mean."
"Is it a Mindmap?"
"That would mean Anja was dead."
"I know." Tenel Ka let her gaze meet Raynar's, the steely seriousness of it caused Raynar to smirk. "Is Anja dead?"
Thul shrugged nonchalantly.
"Why must you be so difficult?"
"'Cause I love seeing you get all worked up." Raynar made a noise halfway between a purr and a growl, and then proceeded to throw his head back and laugh as he led them through two other pairs of people.
Tenel Ka suddenly felt very closed in and giving the room a once-over with her eyes let her know why. The Gold-faces had dispersed themselves into the crowd, each one finding a partner. Some stole their partners from other people, some pulled the remaining guests out of the chairs.
Raynar suddenly let go of Tenel Ka, pushing her out into the sea of people. She stopped in front of an empty-handed Jacen Solo, who quickly grabbed her before anyone else could, and they continued around the floor as to not draw attention to themselves.
"Where did Lomi Plo go?"
"I don't know." Jacen whispered back to her. "She just let me go and sped off, dodging between everyone."
Tenel Ka spotted them at the side of the room, Raynar, Lomi Plo, Welk, Anja, Eryl and Lusa. They were watching the floor. "They have left the floor."
Jacen suddenly became even more alert than before, scanning the surroundings. He saw two Gold-faces twirling wildly, one let go and grabbed Jaina away from Zekk. The remaining Gold-face took Zekk in its arms, guiding him around. Jacen's vision became blurry after that. A groan escaped his lips and Tenel Ka was staring up to him in an instant, her heartbeat quickening.
"Can you see me?" He croaked.
Tenel Ka was about to respond positively with a confused expression, when his face was suddenly knocked out of focus. "I..."
Her right hand clutched around the front flap of his jacket.
And then something pulled her away from him.
Far away.
Jacen was left to spin alone, blindly stumbling across the clear floor. They were touching him... something was touching him...
He could feel the hands on him. The hands. They were warm, alive.
He was dancing, spinning. Tenel Ka had been pushed away, into the fray of bodies. He looked for her as he flipped his head back, the sweat from the tips of his hair flying upwards and raining back down onto him and the beings around him.
Yelling. He could hear yelling.
"Get off of me!"
"...kriff!"
"What's going on?!"
"Where--- what?"
All different voices. All familiar. And cackles. Insane giggles from all sides of the room.
He finally ripped his eyes open. Surrounded by gold.
What are these things?
A Gold-face latched onto him and began to guide him around the room. The music registered in his ears again, a low haunting melody that carried his feet. They were guiding across the floor, Jacen with his face tilted up towards the ceiling, his head resting against the wire frame that his collar formed. He was sweating profusely, a hand on the Gold-face's shoulder, the other out holding the Gold-face's hand. His eyes were closed, and his body in the hands of his companion.
The Gold-face was much stronger than him and Jacen sensed that from the strength and build that he was dancing with a male. These weren't just creatures, droids or something of the like.
They were humans.
Humanoid, anyways.
The melody fell into a confusing array of instruments, scratches and noises. It formed a beat that caused everything to come to a halt.
The Gold-faces were in an outer circle, surrounding the guests that had all stopped, and without intent, had formed an inner circle. Each guest faced the Gold-face they had been dancing with.
Everything seemed to freeze, except the music, which continued it's steady stream into their ears.
Hoods were thrown backwards and masks were removed one-by one, almost to the beat of the music.
One mask removed.
Tekli stumbled backwards, "Ulaha?"
Two removed.
"Krasov... thiz can't be..." Tesar narrowed wide, jet-black eyes.
Three.
Alema stammered out her sister's name. "Numa!?"
Four.
Jag's lips pursed, "Cherith...?"
Five.
Kyp tensed, extremely quickly, gritting his teeth. "Zeth?"
Six.
"Anni... I knew I saw you..." Jaina was shaking her head.
Seven.
"Ganner." Jacen stood defiantly, small twitches racking his right eye.
Eight.
Tenel Ka's hushed whisper echoed throughout the chamber, "Mother?"
Nine.
"Anakin!" Tahiri clasped her hands over her mouth.
Ten.
"Father..." Gadell murmured to the dashing man standing before him.
Eleven.
Chewbacca. Lowie roared in anger.
Twelve removed, all thrown to the floor.
"...Peckhum?"
Zekk spoke last, and they could all hear the despair in his voice. Everyone, everyone knew these had to be Mindmaps. They were Mindmaps...
...mindmaps... right?
"Mindmaps can only be made of people who are dead..." Zekk mumbled, falling to his knees in front of the older male. The man who had been like a father to him. The man who was dead.
The music seemed to reach a devilish crescendo that matched Zekk's wails as he slammed his fists on the ground, screaming a mindless jumble of obscenities.
And within an instant after the masks were thrown to the ground, the light in the room flickered out for a moment and switched back on, leaving the dazed guests looking around... alone. No Lomi Plo and gang, no now-revealed Gold-faces. No old friends.
Old friends who were long gone...
The room was silent, except for the sound of running water...
No... Jacen spun around, locking his gaze on the walls, then the ceiling, then the liquid under their feet. Blood.
The water running throughout the room had turned thick and red. Everyone noticed it; everyone was frozen in disbelief at the events that had just taken place.
"Quadripdici will return to guide you back to your rooms. I’m sure you all need some rest after this turn of events. Have a good night." Lomi Plo's voice sounded over the unseen audio devices, sarcastic, dripping with the dark side.
All wide-eyed and silent, they returned to their rooms, quietly, single-file, like children who were being reprimanded for something they didn't do.
Jacen Solo sat down on the edge of his bed and stared straight ahead, no blinking, no movement. He was lost in thought, his hands set calmly in his lap. His back was straight, his hair in his eyes, his chest rising and falling, very slowly.
The Queen Mother emerged from the refresher, her hair damp, her body clothed in a simple nightgown of deep cerulean. Something was different --- she was wearing the string of broken gort eggshells around her long neck. The pale pink caught Jacen's eye and he turned his head suddenly, his eyes drawn to it.
"What is wrong, Jacen?"
It took him a few moments to gather his thoughts before he opened his mouth to speak, and as he did, he gazed deeply into Tenel Ka's eyes.
"What they did... it... it was so wrong." His head began to move back and forth, slowly. "Especially to Zekk."
Tenel Ka nodded in agreement.
"Peckhum... I mean... he's dead..."
She could see tears forming in his eyes.
"And this is how Zekk finds out... it's horrible."
She crawled onto the bed beside him, reaching her hand out to wipe the tears from his eyes. He hadn't cried in a long time. It felt good. It refreshed him. His warm tears running down his cheek, mixed with the warm skin of her palm and fingers, wiping them away.
"Were they all real? Mindmaps or not? Were they really there? Was I seeing things?"
She scooted a bit closer to him and sighed, her breath hitting his neck. "They were real, Jacen. They were Mindmaps, they had to be. But they were real all the same."
He shuddered, his mind suddenly begging him to change directions.
"Thank you," he whispered. His right hand wrapped around hers, holding it up near his face and with a slow fluid motion, he brought it to his lips and planted a gentle kiss on her open palm. He let her hand go and turned to her, shifting his whole body to face her. Their right hands joined across their laps and Jacen's left moved to her cheek, where he traced her exotic cheekbones with his thumb.
His visions had shown him blood on those cheeks. In reality, he had seen a dravell there, he had seen tears there, he had seen bruises there.
Now his lips were there, as he pulled her closer to him with his left hand. He let them linger on her cheekbone and then he raised his chin above her head and pulled her into the crook of his neck. "Thank you for everything..." That whisper was softer than the first.
Tenel Ka could tell he was emotionally drained. The past standard month had been taxing on the both of them. "You need rest, Jacen." She softly pushed away from him and let her eyes search his out.
His brandy-browns had a dull glaze over them, shadows of grays and blacks under them. The collar, which looked fairly comfortable before, as it seemed to cradle the neck, was now bent at a slightly odd angle, snakes of onyx trailing up Jacen's pale skin.
"Here..." Even though her heart begged for the opposite, she went down the technical path and began to undo the clasps on his jacket, pulling the flap over and opening the dark green fabric the rest of the way. She moved swiftly, the fingers on her only hand deft and agile, unhooking clasps, undoing buttons. She pulled the jacket off of him and went straight for the crooked collar. As she tugged, the shirt it was hooked to went with it, all of it tossed on the ground.
The jacket had given him a good amount of bulk, and what seemed muscular to her before was nothing now.
Jacen seriously was drained.
His whole body was gaunt, pale. It was like he was too busy taking care of other people and he had forgotten about himself. He just stared at her, again, no blinking.
"Jacen..."
He shook his head, "Hmm?"
"You need to rest." She pointed to the pillows behind him.
Suddenly he nodded, as if it clicked in his head. He moved his body backwards and a sigh of relief sounded from the copper-headed female seated in front of him. The sigh was for his physical strength. As he sat there, it looked like he would fall over with a flick of the wrist. But as he kicked his boots off and pulled himself back to the head of the bed, she could see his muscles working, hear his joints cracking...
As he nestled himself under the covers, Tenel Ka stood and made her way to the window of their room, where she peered out of the stone frame, her eyes traveling over the neon city. She didn't know how long she had been standing there, but a stirring worked itself up inside of her body as she did.
She wanted to be near Jacen.
Her feet carried her back across the carpeted floor and her eyes peered down to Jacen's peaceful form, the airy sheets resting over his exhausted body. She leaned over him and kissed him on the forehead, planning to turn back to the window, to attempt to piece everything together in her mind again. But before she could leave, she felt a hand on her waist. She glanced back, into a pair of childlike, wide eyes.
"I told you that you needed rest. Are you disobeying me?"
"I am, your highness," a tired, shaky chuckle escaped his pursed lips. Seconds passed and he slid over a bit, giving her enough room to sprawl out beside him. "You need rest too."
She knew he was right. She could feel the fatigue and exhaustion seeping through her body and mind. She also didn't want him worrying about anything more than he had to, including her.
And the invitation to crawl into a comfortable bed with the only man capable of making those shadowmoths flutter around in her stomach? There was a small part of her that rejoiced at the thought.
Gathering up the nightgown's small train of silk, she fell on the bed beside him, letting go of the nightgown and pulling the covers to her waist.
Within seconds they had found a comfortable way to sleep beside each other, in each other's arms. Jacen breathed in the intoxicating scent of Tenel Ka's skin and she basked in the way his arms felt around her. For once, in the middle of this dementia, they found peace. They found peace in their sleep.
The day, the dinner and the dance had stolen all of their energy. Now it was time to get it back.
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