Subject: [OTL]: (alt. Betsy/Star Wars) Fanged Butterfly 2: Knightcross 23/? (R; imagery) From: Phil Hartman Date: Mon, 31 Mar 2008 02:20:46 +0000 will1@earthling.net Fanged Butterfly Vol. 2: Knightcross Chapter 23 by Phil Hartman DISCLAIMER: Marvel's are Marvel's. LFL's are LFL's. Any original characters are mine. The rest belong to their owners/creators. No money is being made off of this. Please don't sue. WARNING: GRAPHIC imagery, and mature themes. ----------------------------------------------- 40 ABY: Queen Mother's Palace, Hapes, Hapes Consortium, Inner Rim Territories: 16 days after the Battle of Corellia: ----------------------------------------------- Ben had waited long enough. He'd come to Hapes to rest, after Cilghal's tests and the evaluation and the Council's ... honor. Ben was still touched by what they'd offered him, but he knew he wasn't ready. The darkness had sung to him on Vulpter ... and after that training session with Betsy, he knew he wasn't a Jedi yet. Not worthy of the Knighthood the Council had offered him. #At least they understood why I had to turn them down for now. Everybody's been great ... 'specially Mom and Dad. Who else'd let me work out naked?# Ben thought, walking through the Queen Mother's garden in his cloak. As usual these days, he had nothing on underneath, save for his combat belt. After the training duel with Aunt Betsy, Ben had come to accept the ... practicality of just a cloak when in public. What needed to be covered, was covered by the groin pouch. And part of Ben ... didn't miss clothes. That SHOULD scare him, he knew. But it didn't. Bare skin provided freedom of movement and access to the blending effect of Ben's chromatophores. He knew he was a living stealth weapon. The question was, could that weapon be made Jedi? The truest test was self-control. Ben knew who he had to face before he could accept the Knighting. Dad might love him, might be there for him ... but another had shaped Ben Skywalker long before the boy's Vongforming. Ben's new lightsaber - with the silver crystal he'd found on the beach at Endor - hung on a clip of his cloak, glinting in the Hapan twilight. Silver could be light or dark, reflecting ... He approached the cage. His tormentor ... his cousin ... was wearing a shock collar and a thong. That was it. And a two-day growth of beard. Ben was almost jealous of the latter part. "You came. As I knew you would," Caedus said - softly, gently. What was worse than the ... patient look in the Sith Lord's eyes was the ... kindness in his voice. "Why aren't you mocking me?" Ben asked, trying to stay calm. "You mean, why did you fail to kill Gejjen? Why did you use a chilab to gather evidence and help ruin me before the entire Galactic Alliance? Why did you betray me?" Caedus said ... still with an UNDERSTANDING tone. Ben fought down his anger, then replied, "You betrayed ME." "And you knew I'd accepted the dark side. You still walked into the shaping chamber. You were ... glorious, you know. You endured remarkably," Caedus said, smiling again. That ... Jacen smile, of pride. "STOP that! You shouldn't be happy!" Ben blurted, trying not to ... cry. Why couldn't he STAY angry? /Because you remember what we were. Brothers, Master and apprentice ... and that I'd never be cruel to you without need,/ Caedus sent, over their Force bond. Ben snarled, ripping off his cloak and casting it aside, his lightsaber unlit in his hand as he stood revealed before Caedus. "CRUEL!? You made me a FREAK! I can't even be a father now thanks to you!" Ben hissed, blushing six different shades of red - he didn't want Hapan security to pick up on what ELSE the pouch kept from happening ... Caedus looked the now well-muscled, lean and tall boy up and down, nodding. "Actually, the pouch doesn't prevent mating. It's a matter of learning the muscular contractions needed to retract it," he said, absently. Ben glared at him and sneered, "You being the expert on Vongforming people." Caedus' smile became ... delighted. And he stood, stretching - it looked weird, with his stump of a right arm, which looked ... like it had growths. "I was wondering when you were going to ask just where I learned the specifics of the process," Caedus said, beaming ... and that stump ... twitched. Ben's jaw dropped when the stump ... gushed. An ARM, of flesh, grew spontaneously, dripping some mixture of blood and other body fluids, before Caedus shook it dry. "Didn't I promise you, I'd never ask more of my people than I asked of myself?" Caedus said, winking. And Ben watched, unable to move, as his cousin ... transformed. The stubble along the jawline, and the hair along the scalp, fell off. ALL of Caedus' hair fell out, everywhere. The hands, both old and new, grew claws. The feet grew bonespurs at the back, talons at the front. And he grew at LEAST a foot taller. Zekk, some crazy part of Ben's mind thought, would look Jawa sized. Caedus absently twitched off his thong, revealing a pouch of flesh over his groin practically identical to Ben's, then tore the shock collar off without as much as a grunt of pain. And those same claws shredded the durasteel bars of the cage, allowing the now bald, Vongformed Sith Lord to walk before Ben and lift the boy's chin gently. They were almost identical, Caedus a taller, adult version of Ben, with abdominal muscles the boy vaguely envied. Only Ben's dusting of red fuzz along his scalp, and Caedus' considerable height and muscle difference, separated them. "I know," Caedus said, with Jacen's eyes, "because I underwent the same process." "Y - you - didn't just ... change me to be cruel ..." Ben gasped ... "Never, Bennie. I did it so your exterior would reflect your inner truth, because you and I are like thousands of others across the galaxy," Caedus said, his new arm sliding around the boy's shoulders. JACEN said, Ben realized, his heart leaping with one last shred of hope. "Remember why I took you as my apprentice? Your soul was wounded by the Vong War, through the Force," Jacen said, hypnotic. "But who would protect, or accept, the others who were implanted with surge coral, were exposed to Vong biotoxins, were enslaved, then forgotten? "Someone who had endured the same suffering. THAT was the vision I had, even before Bimmiel. Lumiya just accelerated my timetable. "Now ... come on, kiddo. We have a galaxy to confront with its own hypocrisy, and Sith rivals to stomp." "But where -" Ben asked, stunned as they walked ... because if Jasa was BACK ... "Vjun. Grandfather's house. I renovated it ... and the rest of the planet. As a refuge and a place of healing," Jacen said, beaming down as if they were father and son. "Join me, and learn just where home can be ..." What was even weirder than the lack of Hapan security freaking out, Ben realized ... was that Jacen felt like JACEN again in the Force. Like the light AND dark Force user who'd comforted Ben when he was little. #I'm just going to gather information,# Ben told himself. He still leaned against Jacen, feeling ... good. ------------------------------------------------- He could finally ... FINALLY ... grab onto the light again. #TRAITOR!# Caedus RAGED - but Jacen slapped the Sith Lord back in his cage, almost giddy with anticipation, as he reached out with his Vongsense to summon the coralskipper in the fish pond, and maintained the Fallanassi illusion hiding him and Ben. The boy trusted Jacen again, and with Ben's help, Jacen might finally be able to reveal ... he didn't dare think it. Not yet. Not until Ben met ... Caedus chuckled, warningly. #What WILL he do when he learns why you shaped him? Means to an end ...# the Sith Lord taunted. #He'll understand. I hope,# Jacen replied, admitting that he couldn't keep that cage locked forever. Ben gaped as the 'skip rose, and Jacen opened it, then waved the boy inside. "A little bigger than the fighter model. There's a bed in back if you want to rest ..." Jacen said, but Ben sat beside him and shook his head. "Jasa ... I need something before we go. I ... I want to trust you, but ..." Ben pleaded ... and Jacen decided, as the hatch closed. "I shaped you so you'd be truer to your inner self. And ... your unique blending of Force sensitive and Vong DNA ... might be able to save others. Someone, specifically, who ... even my techniques have only stabilized," Jacen admitted, as Ben's eyes widened. "So, I'm not the first? You ... did this so I could ..." Ben asked, wavering between outrage and sympathy as the skip lifted off. Then the boy realized they were flying WITHOUT Jacen using a cognition hood, and he breathed, "Lubed ..." "Thought you might be impressed. It's just one of the things you'll be able to do now that your genetic shift should be complete. There's a shearer beast back in the hau polyp bed - you can lose that annoying red fuzz for the last time. You'll be hairless from now on," Jacen said, flying them past Hapan security. Ben smiled, blushing a little as he said, "I ... kind of like the whole ..." "Hairless and naked thing? It has its moments. We're a step beyond, Ben. I ... you were asking before, for a reason to trust me," Jacen said, his conspiratorial grin becoming a troubled look. He looked at Ben and said, utterly sincerely, "I know what I did was horribly painful. But you've seen that I changed myself first. I'm sorry for ... everything ... " "But you were right? I ... feel WHOLE, for the first time," Ben exclaimed, and Jacen shared his grin as their Force bond reopened. Then an echo - a probe - nudged Jacen, and he hugged it back ... shushing it a bit longer ... and Ben's brows rose (not eyebrows; those were almost gone, and good riddance). "Who ... ?" Ben asked, confused but wanting to understand. "... someone you'll meet at Vjun. I'm sorry about all the secrecy, but I SWEAR, that ... other ... isn't some monster. Anything but," Jacen promised, reaching over and squeezing Ben's left hand. "But you mindrubbed me about Allana ... did you mindrub me about this person?" Ben asked, frowning. "... in the same mindrub as Allana, but deeper. If I say more now ... Ben, I even mindrubbed TENEL KA about this person. She would've done ... drastic things, had I not done what I did," Jacen lamented, as they shifted to otherspace. "But it's the same person you need my new DNA to help?" Ben asked, trying to trust as Jacen looked at him. "Yes," Jacen admitted, fully expecting Ben to put the pieces together. The boy blinked, then shrugged and said, "I guess I can wait a little longer. You have to trust me, again, too ... so how long've you been ..." "Turning Vong victims into Shaped Ones like us? Almost since we retook Coruscant," Jacen said, grinning as Ben looked surprised. "Shaped Ones ... sounds ... good. Dad was right. You did learn more from the World Brain, didn't you?" Ben asked, smiling again. "I have all eight cortexes of the Vong shapers. The eighth was recovered on Zonama Sekot ... but I haven't been there for some time. I've been too busy. And I swear, this isn't about fighting your dad. It's about helping those who can't help themselves, and only those who WANT my help," Jacen promised. #And those whom I've hurt, even accidentally ...# Ben nodded at his cousin to continue, and Jacen said, "I've only been able to transform maybe 10,000 Vong victims, but we're at a crux point; enough new Shapers have been trained that we can branch out. IF we can get people to trust us," Jacen said. "Can you help everyone who's been Vong poisoned?" Ben asked. Jacen let real sadness into his expression. "Just humans. Evidently, the genetic compatibility between humans and Vong doesn't exist between Vong and others," he said. He beamed then and added, "But I HAVE found a way to bridge the Force blindness Vong genetics cause in most Jedi. Yammosk cell implants." "In people's BRAINS!? Stang, Jasa! That's ..." Ben started, gulping. "Only in the willing, Ben. And they've almost all gone through with the procedure. You'll be among thousands of friends, Force-sensitives eager to welcome you," Jacen said, calming Ben a bit. #And someone whom I've missed terribly ...# "How ...?" Ben asked, looking worried ... "They're not a bunch of Riinas, if that's what you fear. I'm not brainwashing people. The Vong gods were monsters, and better off forgotten. The ... yammosk effect DOES cause a bit of ... flexibility in the subject's brain, though," Jacen warned. "Do I ... did I ... get yammosk implants?" Ben asked, afraid. "NO. You're already Force sensitive, although your current implants might pick up the effect," Jacen said, both protective and welcoming. Ben looked relieved, and finally said, "OK. I'll help you ... IF you promise to tell me everything once we get there. I can't just back you to Dad without you being honest, OK?" "Agreed ... as long as you have no more chilabs up your nose," Jacen replied, winking. Ben looked embarrassed, then asked, "Ok. And no more attacking people? Aunt Cilghal -" "Was an innocent bystander of my fear. I'm very sorry," Jacen promised, but Ben looked sidelong at him with concern. "And no more Ailyn Vels?" Ben insisted. "Promise," Jacen said, as Ben nodded. The boy WANTED to believe ... "What'll you do now that you're not Colonel Solo?" Ben asked. "Try to reach a detente with your dad and the GA, and help our people. I was so stupid, making things worse ... hopefully Zekk'll make a better colonel," Jacen said, shrugging. "He can get to know Yuuzhan'tar," Ben agreed, blinking, as Jacen smiled playfully. "Sounds good, doesn't it?" Jacen asked. "... how Vong ARE we?" Ben gulped. "I can't wait to show you," Jacen promised, and Ben ... tried to smile. "I feel ... better. The pain's gone, I'm not embarrassed ... can I stay with you? I mean, after I help you?" Ben said, looking ... hopeful, as he headed to the skip's aft. "As long as you want. You always have a place with me," Jacen promised over his shoulder as Ben beamed at him. He was so ... wonderful. Not just now that he was one of the Shaped Ones, but that he was still willing to forgive. Lumiya, Jacen decided, had been a heretic schutta, even if she'd been useful. Then, Jacen turned his attention back to ... #Hang on. Just a little longer ...# he promised that joyful, longing Force presence. The one Jacen had hidden for so long ... Caedus just snorted, asking, #Two there are ...?# #NOT anymore,# Jacen countered. #That Krayt isn't the only Sith Lord who can make room for other equals ...# Caedus still seemed doubtful. Jacen just hoped Ben would understand who waited for them. ----------------------------------------------- Tatooine, Outer Rim Territories: ----------------------------------------------- The Angel's Wing swept in for a landing at Mos Eisley, and Betsy's heart skipped a beat. It was totally silly, she admitted, much like she'd felt first visiting Endor or Coruscant or Bespin. But it was TATOOINE. #I'm SUCH a fangirl at heart, after all ...# Betsy admitted, checking the security systems and turning to her passengers with a smile. "Everyone ready?" she asked, adjusting her salvage hunter's disguise - it had been decided that the party to assess Krayt's claim of being A'Sharad Hett should go undercover, since Force knew how many of his Sith were running around. "At least we're not dressed like Kuati telbuns or Sand People. Thanks for the practical wear, Master," Jysella Horn, clad in simple tan tunic and pants, said, while her similarly clad brother Valin checked their gear. "Transmitted the payment for ... did you HAVE to choose Docking Bay 94? And why not Mos Espa?" Valin asked. "Because the Lars farm isn't that close to Mos Espa, you little Podracing addict. I know you were trying to sneak off and watch the races," Betsy accused merrily, as Valin shrugged. "Better be careful, brother. Keep betting, you'll end up in a metal loincloth chained to some Hutt," Jysella giggled, and Valin looked suddenly ill. Betsy shook her head at that mental image ... not that Valin was hard on the eyes, but he was younger than Anakin ... and wondered where Jysella was hanging out between Jedi assignments. And with WHOM ... "As we agreed, I will stay with the Angel's Wing," K'urod said, innocently, as the Horn siblings looked at him with brief bursts of jealousy. "Calm down. Yes, K'urod gets air conditioning. He also gets the unenviable job of making sure no assassins, saboteurs or hired thugs get aboard or cut our quick getaway," Betsy said archly, patting N4-EL on the astromech's dome before they headed for the hatch. At least the Darklighters, relatives of Luke's old friend Biggs, would be waiting for them. It SHOULD be a ryshcate walk. Which, Betsy recalled with annoyance, was usually when the veermoks started throwing shavit. ----------------------------------------------- tbc ...