I learned long ago that mornings really can be kind—especially if you wake up in the company of a pleasant girl, for whom you'd even walk through fire. And Hadiya was among those I'd jump into the abyss for. And now this cute face was lying on my chest and looking into my eyes happily—no, even triumphantly. Probably that's exactly how a general looks at victory in the most serious war of his life.
"So, satisfied?"
Blink.
"Good girl. You'll be my slave."
Blink-blink.
"I'll be seducing you and Vess and staging orgies."
Blink.
"Come on, will you at least pretend to be outraged?!"
"Nope."
"Yeah, I figured. One charges straight through, and the other pushed her. That's it—no more расширение the staff."
"I'm in, but I'm curious—why?"
"Because my nerves are still precious to me!"
"And what are you hi-i-i-inting at?" she frowned playfully.
"That's not a hint, it's a statement of fact. And the fact you'll be forced to share me is also a fact."
"Ah… yeah."
"By the way, Hadiya."
"Hm?"
"Tell me—how did it happen that until the last second I didn't see your real feelings? Before that, you were swimming in the pool with spark, with gusto, but… without… other emotions."
"It was hard. Very hard. I know you feel emotions, so I придумала a plan where I had to deceive myself. Or rather, not deceive—convince. I kind of abstracted myself, focused on the goal, forced myself to believe in the current situation so that I genuinely felt exactly what you saw. And only when the trap snapped shut did I allow myself to relax."
"And I didn't feel any подвох…"
"There wasn't any. No trick. No deception. You had nothing to do with it—I did everything myself."
"No, Hadi. If you think about it, that's how you can deceive me too—if a person believes their own lie strongly enough. I never thought about that before…"
"Hm… Now you know you're not all-knowing either," she rose higher. "But not everyone can do that. And if you'd used the Force on me, I wouldn't have held it and everything would've gone to ash, so that's a problem too."
"Mmm…"
"Shade, are you angry?"
"At what?!"
"Well, that I did it like this. You didn't want it."
"I didn't mind—especially after all your dodging, hints, and actions, I very much didn't mind!"
"Nom…"
"What worried me, Hadi, was your possessive nature! And the problems that could come from it."
"And second?"
"And second—I don't want to hurt you. In any way. And there was a conflict of interests. You won't stop, but you'll keep pulling the blanket to yourself. So I need to refuse. And you won't tolerate a refusal—especially one like that. And even if you do, it won't be pleasant. I tried to explain the underlying reasons, and… Mmm… Mmm?" She shut me up boldly, but nicely—with a kiss.
"Shade, cool down. I know it perfectly. In the end, I thought the situation through from all sides, including how to eliminate the rival. But the conclusion was one. Either leave you alone, or try to make peace. Listening to myself and realizing I can't leave you alone, I chose the second path. Yes, I'm jealous. Very jealous. Because you're mine. Mine! And then some Cathars. But… I'll have to. And besides, I won't be able to defy you."
"?"
"In the moment when you flared up, you simply подавлял. My whole core, tested for years, trembled and just crumbled. You probably don't remember, but I've already seen you like that. When you were angry. It stirs you. And it pulls you in. So I will accept it. For you. That's my word. Period."
"Ah… Hadiya."
"Hee…" she suddenly cheered up.
"Hadiya?"
"Nothing. Just вдруг thought how all those people will break when they learn their train left and the only seats are taken. And how I'll grind them into the dirt, mmm…"
"What a bitch you are," I shook my head reproachfully.
"Maybe. For others," she kissed me and, getting up, started dressing. And with huge reluctance—you didn't even need to see emotions to see it.
"What is it?"
"I need to check my idiots, check mail, and just see how things are. It's so hard to hold so much power in these hands," she pressed her palms to her chest and rolled her eyes. "It's so heavy."
"Explain that to Palpatine," I added silently, snorting into my fist. "What was it? 'Unlimited poweeeer,' right? Kriff, my memory's going… forget more and more… whatever, where am I and where is the Clone Wars."
"But what can you do—you have to," Hadi brought me back from thoughts.
"And why is that?" I couldn't help asking.
"How is it why? I давно carved it into myself that I will become the queen of Shikaakwa. First, to finally bring order there. I'm so sick of that грязь, I want to make a normal world."
"So what's the problem? Fly to any other planet—everywhere will be better and calmer compared to Shikaakwa. Even in the colonies."
"Yes, but… it's easy to say 'not my business.' Easy to take and leave. But try taking and fixing it. You made me understand that—you told me yourself that 'not everyone has rotted yet.' I don't want to rot like the others and close my eyes to what rules in my home. At least for those who, like you, believe in better."
"And I believe in better?" I smirked jokingly.
"Yes, Shade. You do. Don't forget it. You're the one who didn't pass me by. And if you had the strength to change my life, the life of an entire clan, then I have enough to change Shikaakwa."
"Mmm…"
"And second," she continued, "I told you right away, back then, that you would marry a queen!" lifting her nose importantly, Hadiya planted her foot right on the bed beside me, hinting that it should be petted.
"Yeah… and how do such gigantic complexes fit inside such a small you?"
"Somehow," she shrugged, going back to her clothes.
Sighing and checking the time, I rolled my eyes in suffering. I should get ready, but since I was already late anyway, there was no sense rushing. Getting up and following Hadiya's example, I couldn't deny myself the pleasure of slapping that springy butt, fully aware that now it's mine too—and I don't give a damn!
Hadiya only got more fired up, and before leaving she grabbed my shirt collar, pulled me down, kissed me, and pushing me back, walked to the door from the hip. Yeah, what a little devil. The things you find for your own head…
Turning the thought of that pale-blue Twi'lek over, I switched to yesterday's conversation about the friends. Hadiya was right: if we go, we go as a group. And if I'm leaning toward going, I should warn ours in advance and ask their opinion.
So, with thoughts about the future expedition, I reached the hall where classes were going on. Apologizing for being late, I joined my friends, who were learning on a mannequin how to treat and sew wounds. Sharif didn't react to my lateness at all—late is late; in the end, it's us who need to learn, not him who needs to teach. At least somewhere the teachers are reasonable!
"How's it going?" I asked Vessira as she injected an anesthetic around a wound.
"Great. You missed the lecture on treating wounds caused by shrapnel tissue damage," she glanced sideways, and I saw a piece of metal sticking out of the mannequin's leg wound.
"Then I'll see it all in the practical."
"Mm-hm. Where were you?"
"Talking with Hadiya."
"Hm?" Vess glanced at me briefly without stopping her work. "Hm… And why do I have déjà vu like I've seen something like this already? Right! You're only late in two cases," she shot me a sly look.
"Heh."
"Shade, you could've at least hidden your emotions—because I also, you know, wanted it," the look shifted to reproach. "Did you forget we're linked?"
"I confess, I'm guilty. I'll fix it!"
"You definitely will fix that omission, or next time I'll come myself and…"
"Chase her away?"
"Join in."
"Hm… good idea! But I'm afraid someone won't appreciate it. At least not right now."
"Exactly. And who was the initiator?"
"Who do you think?"
"No way she listened to my advice?" Vess feigned surprise.
"She calculated, planned, and yes—charged straight through. Vess, weren't you the one chasing her the first days?"
"I was," the Cathar nodded, drawing solution into an ampule. "But after getting to know her better, I decided that, first, she's an excellent ally; second, she clearly matters to you; and third, despite all her quirks, she really does love you. And with a partner like that, I can be calm," she winked.
"This world blows my mind," I shook my head.
"Shade, don't start. This is normal, I already said. And I even once chewed your ear about what problems can happen if a partner doesn't get satisfaction—including health-wise."
"I wonder what Mom will say," I looked up at the ceiling thoughtfully.
"She'll pat you on the shoulder, wipe a happy woman's tear, and with the words 'well done, my son,' bless you."
"Pff. Knowing her—it probably will be exactly that."
"But seriously—what's troubling you?" Vess pulled herself together, dropping the flirting. "I can feel what a stone lies on your soul."
"Not a stone—more like light anxiety. There are several pieces of news, both bad and good, that we should discuss—between us," I nodded at the guys. "It concerns everyone. But it can wait. For now, please explain to me what you're doing and why?"
"Easy. Look—first I started with…"
So, returning to the lesson, they showed and briefly summarized the missed material and then let me practice on several mannequins with different types of shrapnel wounds and different penetration zones.
At some point the Master decided to test us and slipped in a mannequin with a bullet wound to the chest. The test subject was me, and I immediately screwed up. I got ready to work by the already practiced method, but they stopped me and explained that this required a different approach. Basically, we'd already reached the needed level, and this was beyond the material we needed. So Master Sharif explained that if someone is wounded in the torso and shrapnel or a bullet remains inside, you have to drag the wounded person to a professional with equipment. If not, you'll have to use the Force anyway, because in field conditions you physically can't do this operation. Maximum—painkiller, an instant clotting drug, and a medical stapler so they don't die from blood loss.
From that moment, tool work ended and Force healing began. What can be said? It's brutal. Ramiry was already sitting among us like a heavenly being, and now she added a couple more points. Turns out there are several stages within the technique, with "sub-stages" inside them. For Force healing, it's not enough to direct energy and chant, "Hee-e-e-al." No. To start with, for proper Force healing you must have a clear understanding of the состояние of the subject in front of you. That's why the medic connects to the patient's aura, directly reading its state. If it's your own aura, it's far easier—you already know where and what hurts; you only need to determine what exactly is wrong: wound, inflammation, tumor, or something else, and to determine it you need to read exact parameters from yourself.
Then, with an understanding of the damage in your head, you can begin—but! You need to understand how regeneration works. It isn't mandatory; the Force can guide intuition in the right direction, but it's faster and more effective this way. And when you control the entire healing process "from" and "to," then you can heal fractures in minutes, but that's a level—whoa. For now, we could only patch ourselves up, and even then—mediocre. Mediocre compared to Ramiry; the required "minimum" had already been hammered into everyone back at Qigong Kesh.
Overall, Force healing had many pitfalls, one of which was concentration. Without it you can't apply the technique, and concentration is easy to break with a simple electric shock. That's exactly how Sharif taught us. We made a small cut on our arm and then tried to heal it with the Force. The complication was spontaneous little discharges the master would hand out. To his surprise, we handled it far better than some other students, and all we could do was shrug. Not like we could tell him our group is so screwed up that we somehow walked through a powerful Force source while constantly shocking ourselves just to air out our сознание.
While we were taught the "simple" stuff, I glanced at what Ramiry was working on, peeking into her notebook. Shouldn't have. Even the drawings were incomprehensible, not to mention the text.
Still, study is study, but like I told Vess, we needed a talk. So, having picked a time in advance, our friendly company—into which Hadiya quietly fit—gathered in my room.
"Well, Shade, what happened that you're not even trying to joke?" Zeng snorted.
"Graer?"
"No, Gris, not problems. More like I want to consult with you," I said, sitting backward on a chair and tapping my fingers thoughtfully on the backrest. "But I'll start from a distance. It so happens my father has a not very good reputation; more than that, formally he is considered exiled from the Order."
"Ah…" Ramiry started, but I stopped her with a поднятая ладонь.
"Wait, Rami. The situation is very strange and complicated. And I want to разобраться in it. In short, my father is somehow connected to the Starwatchers sect. Those guys are something—fanatics, maybe someone's heard. They found something here on Tython, because of which they redirected all their power. The information is accurate," I nodded at Hadiya sitting on the table and swinging her legs; she nodded back. "They're preparing a major operation, and to understand what's going on, we need to get ahead of them and be the first to reach the target location—good thing we still have time."
"What location?" Feng asked, already catching the gist.
"The Old City."
"Bad. There's light Force pressure there, and monsters," Zeng frowned.
"You've been there?"
"We passed by. We had to check on a group of researchers during practice with a personal instructor."
"And?"
"They got eaten," he spread his hands.
"Mmm…"
"Arg rie-r rare?"
"No. They weren't Force-sensitive. Just a group of researchers who had no idea what they were doing there."
"I think I can guess what they were doing there," Hadiya cut in thoughtfully. "Those weren't случайно members of the 'NachTechIndustrial' research center?"
"That's them."
"The company belongs to the Starwatchers."
"How do you know so much?" Ramiry raised her eyebrows.
"Shade asked me to find out more about them. I mentioned it already, or do you have amnesia?"
"No, we remember."
"Anyway, the situation is this," I drew everyone's attention back to me. "There's something very valuable and unclear lying in the Old City. We have the coordinates—we need to go and check. We need to go as a cohesive group. Hadiya will assign some of her people as support, plus equipment. And I'll bring my mother into this, as the most experienced Je'daii."
"And you think she'll agree to this idea?" Vess tilted her head.
"I think so. If we don't invite her, that's when she'll be offended. But this way—she may well take part just to cover us."
"Mmm…"
"Areur rag-r-r-ri a-r-r-re?"
"Yes, Gris, there are also weightier arguments in favor of this adventure."
"Rae?"
"For example, the Starwatchers are a cult spread throughout our entire system, with enough influence to steal an entire Sleeper Ship. And twenty years ago, they did steal one. And now they've focused all their strength on preparing a single operation. I want to stress this: careful preparation that's been going on for the second year already."
"By the way, Shade."
"Yes?" I turned to Hadiya.
"They pushed the operation back by several takeds. I don't know why, but it traces back to their science division. Something happened, but… no details."
"That works in our favor," I nodded. "So, I've conveyed my idea to you."
"And the plan?" Feng asked.
"The plan… when we're done here, we fly to Enil Kesh and prepare for the sortie there. I'll run a number of studies too, but those are personal hang-ups. Then—into the Old City. We'll discuss the actual plan of action with my mother present; she has more experience than all of us combined."
"Logical," Feng nodded.
"So what do you think?"
"We're in for any kind of trouble," Zeng smirked, and his brother nodded.
"A-a-r-r-re," Gris agreed.
"Where you go, I go too," Vess replied. Everyone looked at Ramiry.
"Huh? Why are you staring at me like that? Of course I'm in too. Someone's got to patch you up."
"Thanks."
"No problem, brother," Zeng saluted me.
"Just say you'd march in there alone—we'd have followed anyway," Feng nodded.
"Well… your opinion isn't an empty sound to me," I smirked.
"Gr-e ur-r-e ar?"
"Details? Yeah, there are. What exactly do you want?"
We sat over the Starwatchers, my father, and the whole situation almost until dawn. People threw out theories, Hadiya tossed in facts, and all of it got analyzed. It got especially heated when we started guessing what might be in the Old City. The options ranged from the most reasonable to outright nonsense, but as long as we don't know the truth, all of it had a place to exist.
When we finally realized that, well, it was already too late to sleep, we had to resort to a Force technique where one hour of meditation replaces eight hours of sleep. You can't abuse that too often—you can end up leaking out of your head—but in a combat situation, that's the last thing you think about.
Another taked passed like that. The twins, as usual, crawled into every crack and made new acquaintances quickly; Vessira also found people to chat with. Ramiry and I had no time for it—she stirred up a storm in the library, while I sat in meditation for hours, comprehending the Force inside myself and reinforcing my body. Gris stood out. Any free minute, he pulled out his comm and sat there messaging his contacts. If there were internet here, he probably wouldn't let go of his comm at all.
But everything passes—our time in Mahar Kesh passed too. In the last days before departure, we allowed ourselves to step away from everything and just swim in the pool. Hadiya and Vess talked to each other more and more often, but even so, the tongue wouldn't turn to call them friends. The first kept lifting her nose; the second kept bringing the first down from the skies. The one good thing was that their rivalry for my attention had shifted from a battle into a sort of game—where the main goal wasn't to knock the rival down, but to outperform her—and I used that shamelessly.
It's so nice when you've got loving girls sitting on both sides of you. And if one purrs while the other rubs up against you demanding attention—mmm… I feel like I'm in paradise. I suddenly caught myself thinking I'd become an addict without noticing. The emotions the girls radiated… the care, warmth, and simple happiness—they were intoxicating.
Yeah, sometimes Hadiya liked to shout. And poke with her little knife. And swear if she was really fired up, but that mostly made me smile indulgently. She was always like that, is like that, and will be like that—and no matter how she threw a fit, her emotions gave her away completely.
Vessira was no better. If you could still embarrass Hadiya, this one was unbreakable. She didn't care at all about others, or about her own reputation—clearly my and Mom's influence. I won't even talk about the moments when she loses her mind—there's no shame, no conscience, no fear.
By the way, I found a trait between her and Hadiya that's kind of shared but still different. While Hadiya would order her "slave" to get the job done and then run the process—for example, an interrogation—Vessira would personally do the interrogation herself.
So those are the slightly crazy girls I ended up with. Though… am I the one to talk about crazy? Exactly—not me. So I'm content, happy, and generally "living my best life." So we left Mahar Kesh fresh, a little rested, and some of us—including me—also happy.
But that happiness didn't last long. Exactly until we arrived at Enil Kesh, the Science Temple.
"Hi, Mom," I forced a smile, waving under the reproachful, displeased stare of one particular Togruta.
"Shade…"
"Looks like he's about to get killed," Zeng whispered behind me.
"So where exactly are you going, 'kids'?" She raised an eyebrow and swept our whole company with her trademark look, including Hadiya. And, by the way, she was the only one who kept standing proud and unshakable—though inside, she'd dropped.
"And us along with him," Feng added hopelessly.
But then Mom noticed the "tattoo" on my left hand.
"Riiight…"
"Mom, wait, I'll explain everything! So, we kind of got caught in a Force storm…" I looked at her. "I mean, at first nothing was wrong, and then it all started spinning and I got hit by lightning, but I survived just fine and everything's okay. Ramiry gave me first aid very quickly," I pointed at the Dandelion hiding behind Zeng, "so it's all good, and the mark stayed as a souvenir."
After drilling me with her eyes, she exhaled.
"Fine. I'm glad you're all okay," a faint smile appeared on her lips. "Come on. Tell me what you've been up to—and where this interest in the Old City comes from."