Family Ties (Rugs)

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

Varulla'aba was engaged in her only pastime of late, namely staring at the bland metal wall of her prison cell, as if by willpower alone she could make it vanish. Every passing day had been worse, and since her visit from the Jedi things had gotten no better. She still had one hour of recreation a day, in isolation from the other prisoners. She'd walk around aimlessly in the walled courtyard, staring up at the blue sky that kept her sane.

She lived for that one hour.

And then when it was over came the living death of life in solitary confinement, classified as a dangerous prisoner. It had been weeks, sets of five days, since she'd had a visitor. Without access to a calendar or a clock, she'd honestly lost track of what time it was. She still knew the days though, judging by each period of sky she saw. She knew daylight. That was good, it kept her with something.

In the interim, she'd slept. She'd eat. She'd do pushups and sit ups on the floor to keep herself in decent shape. In fact, she knew quite why so many prisoners and ex-cons were in such great shape. In prison you had nothing much to do except exercise.

Now if only she could learn to tone out the hum of that forcefield. That was her remaining annoyance, because just when she felt it could be ignored her breaks from her cell came, and when she returned it was like a new sound again.

Just another of the many things to hate about prison.

However, she did perk up as her senses told her something new. Someone was coming.

[Rugs]

It was an odd to learn that someone you loved had come back from the dead.

Well, not quite. Apparently, this person--this loved one--had never died in truth. But perception was a powerful thing, and nearly two and a half decades was a long time for beliefs to solidify in the mind.

And when the only conclusion that made sense was death, what else was the mind to do?

"One moment, ma'am. Stop right there so we can do a scan to be sure you're good to come in."

"Yes, of course," she said, nodding at the voice's command. "I understand." Security. This was a prison. They couldn't take chances, even if she'd already been checked at the entrance.

She was motioned to take another step forward so she stood on a metal threshold that ran along the floor, walls and roof. Two security officers on the other side of it nodded to her politely. Her tall escort held up a hand to have her stay where she stood.

Something inside the walls softly whirred and whined. It reminded her of the sound a hyperdrive made, right before it pushed a ship into hyperspace. It was different, of course. But similar.

A thin field appeared on the metal threshold's edge. It moved toward her, conforming around her features as it passed over her. She felt a faint static sensation on her skin, even beneath her clothing.

Once. Twice. Thrice the scanner passed over her. Then it blinked away again, to nonexistence. She waited patiently while her escort waited to hear from security that she was clear. She knew she would be, just like she had been the other times they checked her. She didn't have anything on her.

Nothing but an old stuffed bantha toy from years and years ago.

And it was empty. They'd scanned it earlier to be sure.

"Alright, ma'am, you're clear." Her escort motioned for her to follow, and she did so with a quiet nod.

She hadn't expected that they would let her go to the cell. That had been a pleasant surprise, even if she would have an armed guard hovering near her to ensure she didn't cause any trouble. It was just another of several pleasant surprises, she supposed.

They walked down a long corridor, passing a few more guards that were going this way and that. They turned left, walked a few more, then her escort's pace slowed.

"Two cells ahead and on the right," he said softly to her. He slowed to fall in behind her, and she followed his instructions. He was polite; he had been for the whole of her visit. It was a shame she couldn't tip him.

She passed one cell. Then she came to the second. She felt a knot of anticipation grow in her chest. She'd longed so much over the past few days for this moment. And now that it was here, she almost felt anxiety in her stomach.

What if she doesn't remember me?

There was a chance. It had been a long time. Twenty-four years.

But she had resemblances. The same creamy skin, the same expressive eyes, though hers were blue. The green hadn't come from her.

For a moment, she stood there, staring off down the hallway. Then she turned, looking into the cell.

And there, behind a shimmering barrier, was the person she'd hoped to see. The same one she'd thought to be dead and gone for years; the same she'd buried in her heart, since fate forbade her a chance to do it in body.

"Varulla'aba," she breathed, clutching the little toy against her stomach. Her breath caught in her throat. Tears blurred her vision.

"You're alive... After all these years, you're alive..."

Thoughts tried to form in her mind, but emotions ran too powerfully for that.

After all, she was Terana'aba, and Varulla'aba was her daughter.

{Not sure if I did that name right =P Twi'lek names are strange}

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

There were, from time to time, patrolling guards who came down her corridor. On even rarer occasions there were others walking down it. By and large though, she was the only one in her immediate vicinity, with little chance of ever getting to talk with others. It was so long a shot that she didn't even get up and walk to the edge of her cell. She merely looked up with a passing interest to catch a glimpse of whoever was passing by her cursed abode.

Nothing could have prepared her for what she saw.

On the other side of the glowing field was almost a reflection of her. Another lithe form stood there, slender and of average height. She had headtails too, shapely ones at that. Their skin was the most obvious resemblance though, an exquisitely pale alabaster on both of them, a shade paler than your typical human, and creamier as well. The one similarity that was the most telling was in their faces. Both were strikingly similar, down to their large eyes. What was most telling though was the difference. Green eyes the color of her father's on the younger, and a sapphire blue on the older.

One gaze transported Var back over twenty years, to half-remembered days. Maybe it was some special memory of her species, or perhaps it was her force-enhanced memory, but she could remember snippets of her time as a toddler. Playing with blocks, the big and strong arms of her father holding her, and sapphire blue eyes looking at her with a look of infinite tenderness. There had been a voice that had gone along with those eyes, and a face very much like the one staring back at her now.

There was no question.

Var instantly felt herself trembling, tingling with a mix of emotions. For the first time since arriving on Coruscant, she had a hint of happiness. But hers was tinged by fear. This hadn't been the meeting she'd wanted to arrange with her mother. She wasn't the long lost daughter now come in nice clothing with a smile. Var was un-showered and clad in an orange prison jumpsuit, a dangerous inmate kept locked away under armed guard. She wasn't the sweet little girl her mother had once known.

That made her feel guilty.

But still, it was her mother, and when that once-familiar voice called out her name, Varulla rose from the bed timidly and crept forward slowly, like a starved dog frightened to approach the table even though it desired food. She came to a stop before the older Twi'lek with tears forming in her improbably large eyes.

Yes. She was alive. Against all odds it seemed, but then the same could be said for Var's mother. She'd been ripped away from her family by a Hutt, taken as a slave. They'd both been swept away from each other by the raging river of life, but somehow they'd come back to each other again.

"Mother..." Var sampled the word as she reached out with a hand, fingertips hitting the forcefield and stopping short with a sting. "It's you. It's really you..."

There were so many things to be said. I love you, I didn't mean to end like this. Please help me. How did you live? What happened to you? What happened to me?

One mattered more than the others.

"I'm sorry mother." Var hung her head and wiped tears from her vivid green eyes with the back of her hand. She'd shamed her mother and disgraced her family. The only daughter was a convicted traitor serving a life sentence in prison. Terana had deserved better. "You deserve better."

[Rugs]

"I hadn't believed them when they told me," Terana muttered, hearing but not hearing Var's words for the shock of seeing her daughter still alive. "For so many years I'd believed you long gone... Dead like your father."

Terana was a strong woman; life had forced her to be, whether she wanted it or not. Yet, for all her inner strength and personal resolve, her lower lip trembled gently and her vision misted. Her throat grew tight and she clutched the stuffed bantha to her chest.

For years, the little plush toy had been the only thing she had left of Var--just it and the memories she would always hold onto. For years, she'd struggled with her mind, struggled with trying to let go of Var and her former husband. They were gone. Dead. Nothing could bring them back.

So what was she to do when confronted by a ghost?

"It's been so long..." Terana said quietly. She stepped toward the barrier, still holding the toy to her chest with a hand. Her large, sapphire blue eyes were wide but focused on Var. Focused on her daughter.

It had taken a long time, but Terana had eventually been able to find peace in knowing she could see her daughter again in the afterlife. In knowing that though Var was gone, she was somewhere better than the waking world, with its coldness and cruelty.

And yet, her Var was, kept from her not by the divide between death and life itself, but by a hair's width of softly shimmering energy.

"There's nothing to be sorry for," she said as her mind abruptly registered her daughter's words. "You are my daughter Varulla'aba, and I love you, more than I can ever say."

Terana sighed, wishing that the energy field could be dissolved so that she could hold her daughter and feel for herself that this wasn't a dream, and that the Var she saw wasn't some phantom conjured up to torment her mind. That couldn't be, though. Unfortunately.

"I kept this," she went on, holding up the toy. "I've always kept it to remind me of you." Her mind was beginning to rush now, questions flooding in one after the other. What had Var been doing in the years since she lost her? How did she get away to freedom. Why was she in jail?

Too many questions. Too much emotion threatening to overwhelm her. No real place to start.

"I... I've kept it so that I always have a piece of you still with me."

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

It was, Var thought, all she could do to keep from sobbing up against the force field. Intellectually she'd been ready for this moment when she first set foot on Coruscant. Admittedly she hadn't expected to encounter her mother from inside a prison cell, but she had been ready to meet her. Yes, there were little jitters of nervousness, and even fear, but those were to be expected in something so crucial. But nothing could have prepared her for the emotional impact of this.

Tears trickled down her cheeks and she realized resisting tears was impossible. So she just went with it.

"I always remembered you! I- I'd lost faith that I'd ever see you again though, and... I never thought it would be this way."

The younger of the two pale Twi'leks lowered herself down onto her knees on the ground and rested at an odd angle, head cocked and staring up at Terana with a childlike sweetness. Gone was Varulla the Sith, gone was Varulla the Jedi. In their place was simply Var. The little girl whose life had ended on Ryloth decades ago was back in place once more.

And another question dawned on her, something nagging at her.

"What happened to you mother? The last I remembered, a man took you away."

[Rugs]

"What happened to you mother?"

What happened... That was right. Var didn't know. Their lives had been completely separate from one another ever since that fateful day.

"What happened?" Terana laughed bitterly, clutching the bantha toy once more to her chest. "Now that... That is a good question."

The whole of her story could be broken down into a few phases after the day they'd separated. First there'd been a few months of terror at first, when she'd been entered into the slave market and shifted around slaving circuits. Eventually, she was sold for the first time.. A few years later, she was sold again. Years later, she gained her freedom, and after time figuring out how to stand on her own to feet again, managed to make a life for herself.

"I wasn't sold immediately," she began abruptly. "Apparently, there several slave owners that wanted me, and their squabbling and competing with one another bought me a few more months before the final selling." Terana sighed, her expressive gaze introspective.

"Eventually, though, I was sold to the owner of a nightclub on Zeltros. The world itself wasn't bad--in truth it was far better than the other options--and I hoped that being told I was a servant meant that I was safe from some... dangers." Terana paused, still aware of the security guard who had to be listening by virtue of proximity, if nothing else. Her own inhibitions toward those memories made her want to get through that part of her life as quickly as possible as well. "I was mistaken. I was not as poor off as some others, but stil, I was not safe...

"I was there for a few years," she continued, hurrying on. "Some time later, I was purchased again by a wealthy gentleman from Raaltiir in need of a personal servant. He was an elderly man, and I feared what things he had in store for me. But he was true to his word. He was wealthy, and owned a large estate that needed caring for. So care for it I did, for over a decade. He took care of me, treated me well, even allowed me some freedoms. Eventually, he died, and I found myself free."

That had been the strangest part of it all for Terana. After so long, she was her own woman again, without a home or a family, or any idea of what to do.

"It took time to find my feet again. Years. My time on Raaltiir had not been bad, especially not for a slave, and I always remember to count that as a blessing. But I had to learn how to live for myself again. Over the years, I made my way here, and managed to make a living for myself, and here I am."

For a long moment, Terana stood silent, considering the trials and lessons of her past. Things hadn't always been easy, but they'd molded her, shaped her into the woman she was now. For better or worse.

"And what about you, Varulla? Where has life taken you?"

[Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy]

As the topic of her question swung around like a boomerang and struck Var, the Twi’lek folded her arms and stared at the floor. She really should have known that question was inevitable, but the things she went through… It wasn’t exactly something she’d ever thought would be shared, and certainly not with someone so important to her. But… She couldn’t lie, not now, not to her mother. And if Var had a right to know what happened to Terana, then the same held true of the reverse.

In a soft voice Var began her story.

“I don’t remember all of the details well, because I was so young. But after you were gone, father became distant. He seemed sad, and then one day he never came back from the mines. I waited for him, but when I got too hungry and he never came back, I left to the streets. I got picked up there, and turned into an illegal slave on Ryloth. I was doing domestic work for a rich family, and they weren’t cruel. But I resented it, and I ran away. That’s when things got much worse for me. I snuck onto a freighter, and I wound up on Tatooine, but I was passed out from lack of food and water. A healer nursed me back to health, but she sold me to a shopkeeper. And he… He was cruel.”

Slender, alabaster fingers rubbed upper arms as Var channeled off her awkwardness and discomfort into a soothing motion. After a pause she continued, deciding to gloss over the experience on Tatooine, sparing her mother the details that she herself had no desire to repeat.

“I ran away one day, and a Jedi found me and took me to Coruscant. He said I was force-sensitive, though just barely. I was old though, 6, and late to learning. I always struggled with it, unlike the others. I was always the last at everything, and when I was an apprentice I wandered off with another Padawan. Together we…”

Var’s green eyes made contact and she winced with discomfort as she revealed what now embarrassed her most of all, her fall from ‘good’ to ‘bad,’ as she still saw it. Or rather saw it again now.

“Fell to the dark side. We used anger and hate, and we chose to be evil. But my progress slowed there too, and after years I left and joined this new Sith Order of force users, hoping it would be different. It wasn’t, but I changed. I met this mechanic, and we became friends. It was so nice being around a normal person… I started to become normal again too. Then I found out you were alive, so I came straight to Coruscant to find you, and then I got caught and thrown in prison and ugh!”

Var hung her head.

“I just feel so helpless.”