Pay the Piper (3597 BBY)

[Poludnica]

The feeling of restlessness had been with her since morning. Danica attempted finding the source of it. It wasn’t the first time Nieraan took care of the children. She was surprised how…caring and selfless the Firrerreo could be when it came to his family. Danica would never tell him that, but she sometimes battled with thoughts he was the better parent. More patient, less demanding, less emotionally labile. Nieraan had still been very young for his species, barely an adult. She avoided thinking about that, about growing old while her lover remained in his prime. Was this the source of her worry? Danica absentmindedly pulled s strand of ebony black curls away from her face. The driver informed her they were five minutes away from the mansion and the woman’s anxiety increased. She tried to distract herself with the holonet but it didn’t work. Her mind felt restless.

The speeder lowered its flight to land on the mansion’s roof. Danica craned her neck to see better. The lights were on but something seemed…off. As soon as the speeder touched the ground she jumped out of it, paying no mind to the flowing, crimson dress which gripped her ankles. The driver, a human named Rory also sensed something was wrong. His head whipped left and right, searching for something. No one came to greet them. The roof was eerily quiet. No servants, guards, children, Nieraan.

No…

Anxiety turned to fear and Danica threw herself toward the stairs which lead deeper into the mansion. „Nieraan!” She yelled before even reaching the main hall. The driver was right behind her, blaster in hand. The doors opened with the soft hiss and Danica darted through them, thankful for the flat shoes she was wearing today.

For a moment Danica’s brain couldn’t process what the eyes were seeing. She stood in the middle of the main hall, verdant gaze wide with shock. Rory stopped right behind her, he was talking to her but Danica didn’t register it. The spacious room looked as if a hurricane hit it. The furniture laid in a heap of mess. One of the chairs had been caught in a chandelier. Fresh blood stained the walls and the bodies of the servants as well as guards were spread across the ruined floor. Their slash wounds didn’t bleed tough, the fluids coagulated because of the imminence heat. Heat only a lightsaber could generate. The blood belonged to someone else.

For a long moment, Danica couldn’t speak nor move. She was frozen in a horror until the driver hadn’t broken every social protocol of the imperial aristocracy and shook her. ”My children.” The human woman whispered, aware of tears welling up in her eyes. Then, in a heartbeat, the shock was gone and the reality of what was going on flooded Danica’s numb mind. ”Nieraaan!!!” She shrieked and ran toward the nursery. Soft cries came from that direction and Danica's heart shriveled into a frightened ball. It was her daughter. A panicked cry left her lips when Danica noticed streaks of blood staining the hallway wall. Rory cursed loudly, even if he had no means of understanding what was written. The letters came from the High Galactic alphabet, the human woman recognized them immediately. Just like the handwriting: curly, elegant, slightly feminine. Cassius...

Guess who came to dinner?

[Rugs]

”Nieraan!”

Slowly, groggily, the world drifted into focus. A heartbeat thundered in his ears, in his mind, as the dark shapes around him tried to coalesce and faded again to formless grey.

”Nieraaaan!!!”

The shriek pierced the formless void around him. Nieraan jolted awake, breath coming in pained, quick gasps. Where am I? What?

He remembered. A blast at the door. Piercing, agonizing pain his mind as chaos erupted through the house. Brutal, terrible fighting as he and the guards tried to fend off the attack they hand’t realized was coming until it was too late.

Cassius.

The old man had found their home. Found their sanctuary despite Nieraan’s warnings to Danica that Korriban was no place to raise a family. He’d given as good as he got his time. He’d thought he’d beaten the man back, when a blast inside his mind sent him reeling.

Everything after that was hazy.

Nieraan lurched awkwardly to his feet from the broken table he’d found himself in. Pain wracked his body, and he could feel dried blood crusted along his arm, but still he moved. He held his hand out to the side and his lightsaber came zipping from the room’s corner to his palm, where it blazed to life in a golden glow.

“Danica,” he called. His voice sounded strained, afraid in spite of the brave face he had to put on. “I’m here!”

Hers was the only presence he felt in the home, besides their driver. No, one more other, faint, but there. Upstairs Nadirria. He limped into the hallway, where he saw Danica looking horrified at something scrawled in High Galactic on the wall. Nieraan did not read the language and did not care.

“He came, Danica,” Nieraan croaked, tasting blood on his lips. “We tried to stop him but...” he shook his head.

[Poludnica]

Danica.

A strained cry reached her ears and the human woman frantically looked around to find the source. She whipped her head from left to right torn between going after her children upstairs or Nieraan. The Firrerreo, who showed in the broken, dining room door made the choice for her. A helpless cry got trapped in Danica's throat when her gaze rested on the Sith Lord. He had been beaten, not only in a physical sense. His golden eyes were filled with something Danica thought she would never see: deep, overwhelming sadness.

She shook her head, unable to stop tears which welled up in her eyes. "What?" The woman whispered quietly, afraid to burst into uncontrollable cry. Her breathing became sharp and shallow. She was hyperventilating.

Rory appeared next to his boss again, a mewling bundle in his hands. Nadirria cried softly, visibly exhausted from shrieking for hours. The child's blue-black hair was damp with perspiration. Without thinking about it, Danica reached to cuddle the baby and press Nadirria to her chest protectively. "Where is Marcus?" She asked between erratic intakes of breath. Even before Nieraan replied Danica knew. She had known the moment the elevator door opened.

Cassius had finally done what he always wanted. Her father, obsessed with bloodline and lineage, needed an heir. At first, he only made despicable offers to buy the child. To leave them alone if they decided to sacrifice their firstborn. Apparently, he was tired of waiting.

"How could you let that happen?" Danica asked sternly. Feeling her sanity slipping. "How could you?!" She yelled in growing hysteria. Anger, fear, and guilt were a volatile mix. It wasn't fair, of course. The moment those words left her lips Danica felt even worse. Nieraan had done everything in his power to stop Cassius. Yet, when the horrifying sorrow clawed at her, Danica couldn't help but blame someone...Anyone...

[Rugs]

“How could I...” Nieraan’s fists clenched. Rage, an emotion unlike any he’d ever felt toward the woman standing just a short strides away from him, bubbled in the core of his being. Hot tears stung at his eyes. “How could I let that happen?” His voice rose to near a shout over the course of the question.

Nieraan advanced, and was face-to-face with her in an instant. But he did not touch her, nor did the Force threaten her as it swelled like an angry wave around him. Bodies of Cassius’s dead men rose from the floor around them. Some had blaster burns. Many more carried obvious cuts from a lightsaber. Others had been launched into the wall in or had clothes that were signed to darkness by some energy.

“This is what I let happen, Danica,” he said curtly. “And this.” He unzipped his jacket, showing the holes from blaster fire that’d pierced his guard. He raised his shirt, showing the wounds that littered his torso, in spite of his accelerated healing.

“Your father nearly died in this house,” he said, glaring into her eyes. Suddenly, turned his back to her, shoulders slumping as he took in the damage around him. The bodies of the dead fell to the floor as he released his hold on the Force.

Nieraan Onin seemed, more than anything at that moment, very tired.

“I told you Korriban was no place to raise a family,” he said, killing his lightsaber’s blade and clipping the hilt to his belt. “But I did not think he would be the reason. I thought we could hold them off, but there was one too many. And one was all it took.”

The glass frame of a painting further down the hallway shattered abruptly as the Force surged momentarily through Nieraan.

“I am sorry, Danica,” he said, sounding as weary as he felt. “I could not stop him.”

A moment’s pause, then a resigned question. “Do you know where he would have taken Marcus?”

[Poludnica]

Danica momentarily regretted her recklessly thrown accusation. Not because Nieraan's powers terrified her but because she noticed his tears. The human woman became painfully aware of own despair and moist cheeks. Danica felt frozen in place when Nieraan moved closer. Force swelled around them. Nadiria sensed it even more than her mother and began to wail again. Rory took a frightful step back, not sure whether running away wouldn't provoke the furious Sith. "Calm down!" Danica demanded, although her voice was more panicked than demanding. "You are scaring her!" She screamed as the corpses flew around them, soon joined by already ruined furniture.

To a simple bystander like Rory, the image had to be terrifying. An infuriated Sith Lord, a yelling woman, a crying child - all this enveloped in unsteady strands of the dark force. The speeder pilot finally ducked into an adjacent room, terrified and ashamed by the wet stain growing on his pants. Danica didn't notice it, focused on her raging lover who showed her the blood covered torso. Danica's anger lost the entire momentum once she gazed down at the burned marks. She shook her head, dark hair coming loose from the meticulous coiffure. "Nearly isn't good enough." The woman whispered between soft sobs but without any accusation. Cassius was a powerful, cunning adversary. He never started a fight he couldn't win.

Sadness sapped other emotions from both of them. Nieraan looked defeated, hopeless even. "So it's my fault now?" Danica asked, sniffling. Only hints of irritation breaking through the veil of sorrow. Mostly because deep down she did blame herself. It was her father after all. Cassius Liviana finally got his revenge. Danica hoped he would choke on it.

A sound of shattered glass startled her, causing Nadiria's weeping to start all over again. "Control yourself, Nieraan." She pleaded with a hushed, angry whisper. Easier said than done, Danica trembled like a leaf herself.

The moment Nieraan apologized, she felt unstoppable, overwhelming love for him. "I know." The human woman admitted gently, raising her hand to stroke his black-blue hair. "No one could have." She felt so, so tired but there were things to be done. "Back to the core, he won't hurt him." Danica said quickly. Not sure if she wanted to convince herself or Nieraan. "He needs an heir, this is why he risked everything to get here...Maybe they haven't left the planet." Nadiria finally calmed down and began to squirm. The child outstretched her pudgy, golden hands toward Nieraan, clearly preferring to be in his embrace.






.

[Rugs]

The Core Worlds. A long way from Korriban and Dromund Kaas.

Out of reach, unless the Empire’s advance could bring the Republic to its knees. “I see,” Nieraan said, accepting Nidiria as she reached for him. He held her gingerly against his chest, smiling down at her as he bounced her gently in his arms. She was precious to him. It was hard to believe, looking back. He’d thought the children would be a burden in the weeks and months leading to their births. Yet now, he he was, cooing quietly at a little ball of flesh without a care for how he, a Sith Lord, looked.

And for all the love he had for her, it felt as if a hole had been torn in his very soul with Markus’ kidnapping.

“Maybe they haven’t,” Nieraan said thoughtfully. But what would they do? Where had Cassius even landed? He couldn’t sense the old man, nor could he his child. “They probably have.”

He sighed, looking at Danica wearily. “Cassius will pay for what he’s done,” he said. “I swear that to you, Danica.” Some plans were already forming in his mind, but they would take time to set in motion. Danica would not like them. But the only person she could blame was her father.

“I will get Markus back,” he said. “He will have a better life than I had.” He lifted Nidiria slightly. “They both will. They must.”

[Poludnica]

Danica's throat clenched when Nieraan took their daughter. Nadirria almost immediately calmed down and the human woman felt pangs of envy gnawing at her. How petty...She chided herself inwardly. In this great tragedy that had befallen them Danica could think about no one else but herself. Why Cassius couldn't have been the father Nieraan tried to be. Nieraan of all beings. Nieraan who grew up in slums, Nieraan who had been abused and mistreated was able to love more than the creme de la creme of the Core society.

She quickly wiped away tears that welled in her eyes. There were things to be done. Danica forced her numbed mind into cold calculation. Nieraan couldn't sense Cassius but that wasn't any indication. She could see him trying, thinking. Even if the Force itself eluded her, the woman knew the Firrerreo enough to know when he used it. In such moments cold, the calm focus changed his features." Maybe he masked his presence," Danica said quickly. Refusing to believe that nothing could have been done.

"We must act now. Inform Renata, the navy...My father isn't a fucking ghost." She hissed through clenched teeth, sensing that Nieraan already had something in mind. The look of determination on his silver features told Danica all she needed to know. She was ready to raise hell, throw curses at him to act now. At this moment. To inform everyone about this injustice. "I don't need your promises, I need you to act." She demanded but quickly went quiet when a terrifying realization dawned on her. Cassius wasn't working alone. Someone had helped him, someone important, maybe even a fellow Sith Lord, maybe even...No. Impossible. Danica's features formed into a mask of pensive worry. They have made many enemies among the aristocrats. Nieraan was their boogie man who hunted those that misbehaved and Danica was the Coruscanti invader. A human who chose an alien for a mate. Something the Empire frowned upon.

Something broke in her when she heard Nieraan's words. His promise to give their children what neither of them had had. A good, stable and safe home. She began to sob; Nadiria immediately joined her mother. "He will destroy him, Nieraan." Danica wept. "Cassius will crush his spirit like he had mine." The mere thought made her sick. She remembered her childhood all too well. Verbal and physical abuse. Humiliating slaps for the tiniest, silliest offenses. Being called stupid and worthless. The idea that Marcus was about to suffer through it could drive Danica mad.

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[Rugs]

“He might as well be with the way he slipped in here,” Nieraan muttered. He felt dejected, and not for the first time. Korriban was supposed to be his sanctuary. His refuge from the dangers of the Galaxy beyond. Even Kamirille had sense enough to stay away.

Yet Cassius had shown up to the world with a team to assault his home. How could that be?

“Acting takes time,” he grumbled, sneering in irritation. “You think I don’t want my son back?” He felt himself tensing and forced himself to relax. No need to upset Nadirria. “I know where your damn dad lives. I can go running off to his headquarters, bang the door down, and then what?” He narrowed his eyes.
“Get myself killed? That’d solve a lot. Then what keeps him from taking her?” He lifted Nadirria slightly.

“This will take time, Danica,” he said, sighing. Again, he felt weariness from the day’s fighting creeping into his bones, into his soul.

“No he will not,” he said. “He will not crush our boy.” Empty words, but Nieraan had nothing else to offer. He was too weak to face Cassius, and the Empire wouldn’t commit resources to help a Lord’s personal squabbles. But if he could prove himself something greater, and in the process find a way to strengthen himself...

Two requests came to mind. One would be annoying, but necessary. The other made him want to vomit.

Kamirille.

“Right now all we can do is prepare for what’s coming,” he said. “This won’t be easy.”