Live Journal Feed/ Text / denotes mental thought
{ Text. } denotes Mindspeech.
X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
Chapter 13 - Destinies Meet, Part I
"Duh soo lah duh soo lah."
Anakin felt his head snap to attention at the ragged sound coming from the woman lying on the biobed. When he and Jar Jar first got to the Medcenter, they'd stuck him in the reception area, as if he had nothing better to do. Well, that might've been fine for Jar Jar, who'd fallen asleep not long after that, but Anakin wanted to hear her stories, to learn about places he'd only ever seen in his dreams.
The Gungan had said that his friend knew a lot of stories, and that was enough for Anakin. So, the second he learned where her room was located, he'd quietly left Jar Jar where he was, and had come here. Alya had been asleep when he'd crept past the medical staff outside and she hadn't moved since then, over an hour ago. Not until now, anyway.
As he watched, Anakin thought he saw the corners of her mouth twitch, as if she was trying to smile in her sleep. She was so pale; he didn't think he'd ever seen anyone with skin as white as hers; maybe it had something to do with the thing that doctor had pulled out of her chest.
Though his mother might've said otherwise, Anakin did know how to be quiet: you didn't last as long as he had in Watto's service without learning when to keep your mouth shut, your eyes down, and your ears open. / Mom. / Anakin felt his heart constrict as he thought of Shmi, all alone now with Watto. His eyes had just begun to burn with tears when Alya took in a deep breath, catching his attention completely.
X X X X
/ Breathe. Breathe. Got to breathe. / Inhale. The sound was rasping, irritating to her throat as she drew in a deep breath. Pain: a dull, throbbing sensation behind her eyes. / Let it go, let it out. /[i] Exhale. [i]/ I feel...sunlight. And sand...why do I smell sand? /
"Who's there?" Alia whispered, her eyes closed. Breathing: she had to focus on breathing. Gradually, she was able to identify that she was lying down on something. / A bed, I suppose. And I'm wearing something itchy. /[/] "I can't see you, but I know you're there. Where are you?"
In the answering silence, Alia struggled to sit up, the growing fear becoming a knot in her belly, but paused when she felt hands on her arm. They were small, but callused, as if they had been used for hard labor.
"Please," she heard, "Don't get up yet. Lemme get the doc, alright?"
The voice was young, male, and definitely not her singer.
"Who are you?" she asked again, her voice rasping, though this time she allowed her frustration to seep through, "Where am I? And why can't I see?"
"My name's Anakin," the voice replied hesitantly; Alia heard rustling and felt the bed beneath her dip slightly as the voice's owner sat down beside her. "You're in the Senate Medcenter, on Coruscant. And you can't see because your eyes are closed."
"Coruscant? What am I doing on Coruscant? I was on Tatooine, playing [i]deji with Obi-w...Obi-wan. Where's Obi-wan?"
She started struggling again, this time frantic to make sure the irritating Jedi was alright.
"Stop moving, you're messing up the bandage the doc gave you!"
Alia paused again, not only because of what her companion said, but because of how he said it: there was honest concern in his voice, as well as fear and confusion. Breathing deeply, she opened her eyes.
X X X X
Blue. Her eyes were a beautiful, shocking, terrifying blue. Anakin had never seen a color so wild and alive, as if the color itself was a living, sentient being come to bring him into Paradise. Though Alya's eyes were bloodshot and hazy with pain and drugs, but Anakin had only ever seen as vibrant a blue in her eyes as the holoimage he'd seen of ice katarrs on Rystalla. For a moment, Anakin could only stare, his jaw slightly open as he was mesmerized by her eyes. Until her snort of annoyance brought him back to reality.
He blushed, stammering out, "Sorry, I've just...never...your eyes..."
Alya sighed, an expression of resignation on her face.
"Everyone says that," she replied.
Shaking off his wandering thoughts, Anakin stuck out a hand.
"I'm Anakin," he said again, "Your name's Alya, right?"
Her eyes grew even brighter, a smile stretching across her face.
"You must know Jar Jar," she answered with a wry smile, "He can never get my name right. It's Alia."
"Oh, right. Sorry." Once again, he felt red staining his cheeks. / What's wrong with me? / he thought, annoyed with himself, / I've blushed more in the last three days than I have in the last three years! /
Anakin was startled when Alia began to chuckle.
"You have loud thoughts," she explained when he looked at her questioningly. At the alarm in his eyes, she quickly added, "Just your surface thoughts. I can't read anything more, and I think it's because of whatever Jorda's given me. It is Jorda, right? The 'doc' you were talking about?"
"I think his name was Navras," Anakin replied cautiously, "They said he came in with the Naboo, or that he was Naboo; something like that. I remember some of the others talking about how he wouldn't let anyone else work on you, not even one of the bigwigs."
As he watched, an amused smile stretched its way across her face. "Wow. I must've really been something, then. Wonder how I good I was."
Though he was confused by her teasing words, and didn't quite get what she was saying, Anakin did hear the gratitude in her voice, as well as her surprise.
“What was that thing you said?” he asked shyly.
That made her sit up.
X X X X
“Huh?” There was only a trace of pain in her voice, she was proud to say; Jorda's surgery had done wonders in helping to accelerate her body's normal healing capabilities: there was only a dull ache across her chest now, instead of her entire body.
“When you woke up," Anakin repeated, "You said something like ‘duh soo lah.’”
“I did?” / Rabbits? Why would I be talking about....oh. /
“Yeah.” He paused for a moment, looking at her with his solemn blue eyes. “Don’t you remember?”
“Not…completely.”
Had she said something about rabbits? Or was this a test? But how could this possibly be a test: the odds were slim to none if anyone here knew that song. And no one knew about her singer.
“Does it mean something?”
Anakin's voice was questioning, and polite; his curiosity, though, made her smile slightly. Alia could remember a time when she had been as eager to learn something new.
“It means ‘rabbit’…in Dysean.”
“Oh. What’s a rabbit?”
For a second, Alia thought he was joking. Incredulous, she asked, “You’ve…never seen a rabbit?”
The boy definitely responded to that one. “We didn’t have them on Tatooine," he answered defensively, before adding uncertainly, "At least, I don’t think we did.”
“Uhhh…hmmmm,” replied Alia, trying to think clearly, “Well, a rabbit is a….well…they’re mammals, with long ears and two elongated front teeth.”
“Oh. What’s Dysean?”
“It’s….” / Would he know about the Clan? Could he? / “The language on Dysis, in the Beroe Sector; it’s where I grew up. I think.”
“Don’t you know?”
“I’m a little fuzzy on the details at the moment….everything’s a little hazy…”
For the third time since she'd woken up, Anakin found himself blushing with embarrassment. Drawing in a deep breath, he quickly tried to explain to her how he was feeling.
“I'm sorry. I just heard a lot about you from Jar Jar, and when we found out where you were we came to find you because Jar Jar was really worried and I wanted to hear about the gorla monster and the Taardi and Praxia and the Nakantu Caves so we snuck down here but they wouldn’t let us see you because they said ‘her condition is critical she needs rest’ so then Jar Jar fell asleep but I wanted to see for mys-”
Anakin was cut off by her finger pressing against his lips. Her eyes, slowly clearing, were still full of pain, but they sparkled with amusement. Cautiously, he smiled back, curving his lips against her finger.
“What are you doing such a long way from home, Anakin?”
Her voice, low and husky, was gentle and calm, like Shmi’s, as she removed her finger.
"Well..." he began, "That's sort of a long story."
"The beginning is a good place to start," Alia answered, grinning.
And so he told her everything: from the moment Master Qui-Gon had entered Watto's shop to the second he was told he had been freed. When he got to the part about leaving Shmi, however, his throat closed up, and he turned away from her. He couldn't talk about that; not to a complete stranger. Not even to Qui-Gon. So he was surprised when he felt a hand tentatively touch his arm.
When he looked up, it wasn't pity he saw in Alia's eyes, nor was it disgust at his attachment. In her eyes he saw understanding and compassion, and when she strained to put an arm around him, Anakin found himself leaning into her embrace.
"It's alright, Anakin," she said, holding him close, "It'll be alright."
"No it won't," he mumbled, his eyes burning, "It won't be alright. I left her there, all alone."
Alia sighed. He was so like her when she was that age. Memories came flooding back as she held Anakin the way Matis had held her.
"I lost my mother when I was young, too, Anakin." He wanted to ask her how she'd known what he was thinking, but he was too distraught to care. Maybe later.
"The pain never goes away, when you lose someone you love so completely," she whispered, cradling him, desperate to comfort the young boy; he was too young for such pain. Qui-Gon had been wrong to take him from his mother. Alia felt a sudden rush of anger toward the Jedi, though she knew what he'd done had been for the best. It still wasn't fair. "It's like a piece of your soul's been ripped away, and there's nothing you can do except...live through it."
Alia felt him trembling in her arms, and Thought hard about peace and healing. Imagining her skin as a type of membrane, she Thought about diffusing her own inner calm into his body, transferring its sense of peace and warmth from her blood...to his. Gradually, his trembling lessened, and after awhile, he looked up at her, his eyes clear and brimming with embarrassment.
"I don't usually do this around strangers," he mumbled, sitting up, running a hand through his lanky blond hair.
"Well, I'm not usually in a hospital bed, so I guess we're even." She smiled at him, trying to reassure him. It seemed to work, as he grinned back at her. Maybe if she told him about..."Would you like to a hear a story, Anakin?"
His eyes lit up like stars, and he eagerly scooted into a sitting position. Making herself comfortable, Alia thought for a moment, collecting her thoughts, gathering them and placing them in a context he would understand.
"A long time ago, a young girl was born near Anzat, on the world of her mother's people. Her name was Cadis. She was raised by her mother, Mala; they were so close, that some couldn't tell where one ended and the other began. Cadis grew up knowing only love and gentleness. I guess you'd say she was spoiled by her mother."
Here, Anakin saw a pained smile stretch across her lips, but was too caught up in the story to ask her about it.
"One day, Cadis found out something special: she was special. She learned that years before, her mother had met her father, a traveler from a distant world, whose presence had captivated Mala. This man fell in love with Cadis' mother, and married her. But the man's calling meant that they couldn't be together, and so, pleading to the Mother of All, Mala was able to give her husband the only gift she could: the memory of her love, and the hope that one day he would return."
"What? Why couldn't they be together?"
"The man was a Jedi, Anakin," she said softly, "Their love was forbidden; not only by his calling, but by her people. The gift Mala gave to her husband was the memory of their love, though none of the specifics, and a chance that one day they could be reunited. Her hope was that Cadis, who hadn't been born when the Jedi left, would grow up and find her father, bringing him back to her mother, where all three of them would live in peace and happiness.
“Years later, however, found that a disease had spread among Cadis' people, destroying them one by one. Cadis and I survived because one of her aunts found us hiding, and took us away, far into space before she, too, died.
"I said that Dysis was where I grew up, but it wasn't where I was born. Cadis and I were rescued by a captain of the Despin Trading Corporation. She took us back to her homeworld, and adopted Cadis. But try as she might, the captain could never replace Cadis' mother. No one could, and no one ever would."
Anakin was silent as she finished her tale, then looked at her with sad eyes. “Ever?”
Softly, Alia brushed aside his lanky bangs. “Someone once said, ‘Time is the only comfort for the loss of a mother.’ We’ll never forget our mothers, Anakin.” She smiled sadly. “But at least yours is still alive.”
He was thoughtful for a moment, before asking, "Did Cadis ever find her father?"
"Not before we parted ways," Alia replied, her eyes sad, "She left Dysis around the same I did."
Silence descended for a moment, before it was broken by the sound of someone clearing their throat. Both Alia and Anakin jumped at the sound, and swiveled their heads around to see who it was. Qui-Gon was standing at the door; behind his tall frame they could see Obi-wan and Jorda Navras peering in at them. There was a strange sort of smile on the older Jedi’s face, as if he knew something they did not.
Embarrassed at getting caught, Anakin quickly slid off the bed and walked over to where Qui-Gon stood.
“You created quite a stir when it was discovered you had disappeared, Ani,” the older Jedi said, a twinkle in his eye, “And that you had taken the Queen’s resident Gungan, as well.”
Hanging his head, Anakin scuffed his toe. “I just wanted to see if she’d tell me some of the stories Jar Jar talked about,” he mumbled.
Qui-Gon suppressed a smile, and glanced over at Alia. / She’s improved drastically, / he thought, remembering the last time he’d seen her.
“You appear to be much improved,” he remarked, his pleasure at her recovery obvious. Moving aside, he allowed for Navras and Obi-wan to enter.
Alia smiled at him before saying, “Thanks.”
Turning her head, she caught Obi-wan’s gaze and asked, mischief sparkling in her vibrant blue eyes, “So…who won?”
Qui-Gon looked on in amusement as his Padawan’s jaw dropped, open twice as if to speak and close, then firm as he pursed his lips.
“Your talent for articulating the irrelevant has also recovered, I see,” Obi-wan replied acerbically, crossing his arms across his chest.
“So, I won?” Alia returned, her eyes dancing.
“Neither of us ‘won,’ as you so eloquently put it.”
Alia grinned unrepentantly and shrugged. All at once her face grimaced in pain as she flopped backward onto the bed, gripping her left shoulder tightly. Immediately, Navras stepped forward, moving his bioscanner along her body, frowning as he went.
“Your left pectoral beneath the mammary tissue was already tense before the surgery,” he explained, his eyes concerned, “And prolonged stasis with a drakar digging into it, not to mention the surgery itself, most certainly did not help.”
“What’s the verdict, Jorda?” Alia managed to grind out.
He sighed. “You’ve sprained it.”
“I sprained my boob?!” she yelled.
“No, you’ve sprained the muscle underneath your…”
At that moment, Navras seemed to recall exactly where they were and who was listening.
“Perhaps it would be better if we continued this conversation in private,” he remarked, pointedly shifting his gaze from Qui-Gon to Anakin and back.
But as he watched, Alia simply shook her head. “No way, uh-uh; I’ve seen that look on doctors before, Jorda, and there is no way in Taresian hell I’m going to let you fill me up with chemicals when I’m perfectly capable of healing on my own.”
Navras sent her a piercing look. “That’s another thing I’d like to speak with you about.”
She gulped.
X X X X
Obi-wan watched in fascination as Alia blushed. Not a horrible red as he’d imagined (as Alia seemed to be extreme in everything else), but a very, very, mild pink. He noticed that the tips of her ears pinked as well.
“Later,” he heard her reply as she struggled to extricate herself from the blankets covering her. As he looked on, Qui-Gon moved toward her, placing a hand lightly upon her bandaged shoulder.
“You should rest,” he said quietly, his eyes gentle.
Alia flashed him a crooked smile. A familiar smile.
“We don’t have time,” she replied, covering his hand with hers.
Something caught in Obi-wan’s throat just then, even as his breathing quickened. All of a sudden, he felt as if he were intruding on some private moment. Which was preposterous. But from the looks on both the boy and the doctor’s faces, he wasn’t alone. Unease prickled at the base of his neck as Obi-wan watched the two of them staring at each other, the girl and the Jedi.
Qui-Gon’s hand suddenly glowed for a few seconds, before he pulled it away and returned it to the folds of his cloak. Obi-wan knew instinctively even before Navras pulled out his bioscanner to take Alia’s readings, that her injury would be healed. Not only that, but Force-healed, as well.
“Thanks,” she said softly, before a loud snort made them all jump, and turn toward the door. The snort was followed by a thump, and then they could all hear the noises coming from the other room.
“Ani! Ani, where be yousa?! Ani! Ooo, Ani, no be-en loss, Master Quiggon be-en muy muy angwee wit mesa if yousa loss. Ani!”
“I’m in here, Jar Jar,” Anakin called out.
Alia could hear the distinct slpit-slpat of her friend’s footsteps, oddly distorted due to the floor of her room.
“Al-ya!” With a surprised cry, the Gungan launched his body into the air, almost like he had when he’d taken them to Otoh Gunga, and suddenly found himself hovering a few centimeters off the bed.
“Don’t do that again,” Qui-Gon said softly, before releasing his hold on the Gungan’s body and setting him down gently on the bed.
Jar Jar jumped up to a standing position, rubbing where the Jedi had grabbed him, trying to get some more circulation going, but when he turned back to Alia, his mouth split into a huge grin.
“Al-ya, mesa so-so wurried ‘bout yousa,” he crooned, humming from deep within his throat, his large yellow eyes gentle with relief, “No be-en dis sick agin, okey-day?”
Alia nodded, pulling her friend to her in a fierce hug. She’d missed Jar Jar very much, and she hated that he’d worried over her. He was so innocent about so many things….the Gungan had enough wrinkles as it was with the Federation threatening to destroy his home. He didn’t need her to cause even more.
“Thanks,” Alia said again to Qui-Gon, rolling her shoulder to indicate the reason for her gratitude, before turning to look at the blond-haired man, “Can I go now, Jorda?”
The doctor looked at her, before giving them all a long suffering sigh.
“There’s nothing physically wrong with you,” he replied, putting away the portable bioscanner, “Though I’ll warn you that there will be scarring. Other than that: yes, you may go.”
She smiled at him as she stood up, leaning a little on her Gungan friend, walking over and patting his shoulder.
“I know what a sacrifice you’re making, Jorda,” she said solemnly, though her eyes were teasing. Still smiling, she bent forward a tiny bit and kissed his cheek. “Thanks.”
Turning around to meet the Jedi, Alia stood between Anakin and Jar Jar, proudly standing tall.
“What’s a girl gotta do to get a room around here?” she asked brightly.
X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X
Author's Notes
Slpit-slpat Yes, that is what I meant.
Anzat An actual planet from the SW-universe; for information on its location, go to Wookieepedia and look it up.
Katarr From a very beautiful image that I found on the Internet. I encourage you to PM me and ask for the URL. I'd put the hyperlink here, but I'm not sure how to do that here at
[i[Rystalla[/i] I made this planet up, from the Greek word "krystallos," meaning ice.
Taresian hell I am such an ST: VOY nut; I am obsessed, I swear. Anyway, this is a planet (Taresia) in the ST-universe, so go to Memory-Alpha.org in order to read about it.
