Subject: [OTL]: (alt. Betsy/Star Wars) Fanged Butterfly 2: Knightcross 42/? (R) From: Phil Hartman Date: Sat, 26 Apr 2008 02:38:53 +0000 will1@earthling.net Fanged Butterfly Vol. 2: Knightcross Chapter 42 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: Themes, imagery, some violence. ---------------------------------------------- 40 ABY: Vjun System, Outer Rim Territories, day of the Battle of Corellia: ---------------------------------------------- The coralskipper came out of darkspace smoothly, stirring Ben on the bed of hau polyps as he yawned. He ran a hand over his now-shaved scalp, smiling that he matched Jacen's hairlessness ... and shivered a little at how RIGHT all his changes - the hairlessness, the claws and talons, the groin pouch, the comfort of being bare - felt. Worse ... or better? ... the feeling was a LOT stronger. #But I promised Jasa I'd help. I promised Tace, and he really needs my help,# Ben thought. He still felt awful about leaving Mom behind, carbon frozen, though. She couldn't have really hated Ben ... #After Tace is safe, I gotta call Dad,# Ben reminded himself, before entering the cockpit. Jacen wasn't using a cognition hood, the boy recalled. If anything, he was seemingly guiding the 'skip with the Force. That shouldn't be possible. And Ben ... was awed. /It's easier than it seems. One of the things I can show you,/ Jacen thought, looking over at Ben when the boy sat beside him. The bald elder cousin smiled approvingly at Ben's equally shaved head and said, "You look great. Glad you're OK ... are you?" "That feeling ... Jasa, I think my brain is ... changing. I want to help, but ... I want to stay more all the time, too. Like I ... I'm becoming ... someone not Ben," Ben asked; he didn't want to hurt Jasa, but ... Ben admitted it; he was afraid. Jasa rubbed Ben's bald scalp and said, "Don't be scared, please? I'll explain everything, really." Ben wanted to believe ... honestly, this time. And that scalp rub felt good. Like a father's gentle ruffling of hair ... not that Ben missed hair ... Jacen smiled and said, "That's a common greeting among ... well, you'll see when we land on Vjun." Ben was confused; from his astrogation lessons, he knew that Vjun was a gray, acid raining desolate rock with flesheating moss. The disk rapidly growing in the front viewscreen was green and blue. And inviting. Even the ripples of dark energy ... and that whisper of ... otherness Ben recognized as his growing Vongsense felt comforting. "Reach out. Take her in - she knows the way, just get used to the controls," Jacen offered, letting Ben reach out through the weird fuzzy feeling and meld his focus with the coralskipper. The boy GASPED at the rightness of it, at the warmth he was feeling ... how his cells hummed, along with Jasa's, and a host of welcoming minds through the Force. Someone was waiting for them. A LOT of someones. ALL with Force sensitivity, of different strengths. And one in particular ... Tace. Young, friendly ... and overjoyed to feel Jacen AND Ben returning. Ben greeted Tace back, and the little guy cheered, bringing a smile to Ben's face. /He's Force strong, but that's part of the problem. The others ... it's the effect of their yammosk cell implants. But the subjects needed to have Vong implants already, or undergo new implants,/ Jacen explained. #Implants?# Ben wondered ... no time for that now. Ben closed his eyes ... and the skip descended. He could ignore the sensation of scorching from the reentry, and felt relief and a flood of dark ... warmth as the dovin basal shut down and the skip extended landing struts. They slipped out of the skip, and Ben had to shield his eyes against the sunlight ... That alone told him that Vjun had changed. The acid clouds were gone; the once barren soil overflowed with senelok plants and Vong grasses, as yanskacs hunted each other and various Vong herbivores. As far as the Vong part of Ben felt, he WAS home. And then they came ... An honor guard of humans - all colors, mostly young adults or younger, both genders, altered as Ben and Jacen had been, formed a dual line along the walkway to Bast Castle. The castle, itself, was draped in giant sized thorn vines as if the whole structure was in an Embrace of Pain. Somehow, Ben didn't feel the least bit embarrassed that he was one among a crowd of naked people, all of whom were radiating ... devotion ... to Jacen. They were all warrior caste, even if not all were ready to fight. But the Force was with them all. Ben joined his fellow ... Shaped Ones? ... as they intoned, "Hail, Supreme Overlord." That the words were in Yuuzhan Vong felt ... good ... until Ben realized what he'd called Jacen, who asked through the Force, /Are you really OK? You don't have to say -/ Ben shivered ... but this time, at how GOOD the feeling in his mind, the welcome of his fellow Shaped Ones, was, and he sent, /I'm ... still confused. But you're here, so .../ Jasa put an arm around Ben's shoulders and smiled, sending, /Sorry for the brainkriff. The yammosk effect sometimes causes a ... group mind effect. Now that you're fully Shaped, you're part of the group. One of us./ Ben felt both safe and guilty; it was JASA. Why should Ben be scared? /Sorry I'm weirded out. It's ... like the Killiks?/ Ben asked, leaning on Jasa as they walked and the other Shaped Ones went about their duties. /Similar. Except we don't go burrub burrub and eat people to have a next generation,/ Jasa sent, winking, and Ben laughed a little. "Supreme Overlord!" Ben heard, and he saw a bald woman running toward them. The boy wasn't embarrassed at the fact that either he or the woman were naked; she was one of the inner circle, a fellow Shaped One ... and cute ... #WHOA!?# Ben thought, shaking his head, and Jacen winked at the boy as Ben blushed. /Yammosk effect. I warned you,/ Jasa teased. "My Hand and Warmaster. What readiness state are we at?" Jacen continued, his eyes going ... RAINBOW colored? The woman glanced at Ben, then smiled welcomingly, and a gush of affection washed over him before she bowed to Jacen. "The skip fields are harvesting well. We have more than 500 ships ready; the carriers are primed for jump at your command. 1,000 warriors are completely trained, their weapons fully grown," the Warmaster said, an amphistaff around one bare leg as she walked just a step behind Jacen. Ben also fell in step behind his Master... and gaped. The Warmaster had supposedly DIED on Pedducis Chorios almost five years ago. "Well, the Skywalker heir, Shaped. Glorious," she said, smiling thinly. "DAALA!?" Ben squeaked. "Lady Mawrunner, please. A Shaped One spy ship picked up my leman and I after a Moff assassination attempt. The Shaped converted us, and we have served loyally ever since," former Imperial Admiral Natasi Daala said, her scalp glinting as they walked. She arched an eyebrow and smiled, adding, "Thank you for the kind thought about my attractiveness, but I am too old and too committed. Flattering, though." Ben blushed profusely until Jacen said, "TRY to be kind, Daala. I do realize that's like asking the Anzati not to suck brains, but ... " "Yes, Supreme Overlord. I shall endeavor not to taunt your new convert until after ... well. No sense putting the cart before the bantha. Please excuse me," Daala said, and Ben gulped as she headed toward a field of coralskippers and frigate analogues. "Hey. Don't worry. I promise, once we transfuse Tace with some of your stem cells, you can go if you want," Jacen said, smiling at Ben as they stopped at the castle gates. "Jasa ... I love you, and I want to trust you. But ... what IS this place? Please?" Ben asked, just needing ... something. Jacen nodded and said, "You know this is Bast Castle, Grandfather's house. I renovated it ... and the rest of the planet. As a refuge and a place of healing, for those injured by the Vong." Ben gasped; it all made SENSE now ... "You've been helping people! Jasa, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to ... whine," Ben said, feeling awful until Jasa looked at him and smiled again, as the gates slid inward. "You weren't whining, Ben. You deserve all the answers. Now ... you've met some of the adults. Come meet the next generation of Shaped Ones ... the natural-borns," Jacen said, leading Ben into a courtyard full of kids, altered like the adults. "Natural-borns ... we breed true?" Ben gasped, watching with a growing smile as he watched Shaped One children playing tag, kicking balls around or practicing combat moves. Some of them waved, and Ben waved back, returning shy smiles. A few knots of older teens, of both genders, were sparring with amphistaffs ... or lightsabers, and Ben nodded at them with a growing smile as they greeted him. He looked at Jacen as he said, "None of the natural-borns are older than 10, since I didn't establish this shelter until 30 ABY. "But there are a few hundred of them, and a few hundred kids your age who were exposed to Vong poisons near the end of the War, who were shaped in the past few years after we rescued them. We're not sterile ... " Ben blushed, both grateful and a little embarrassed ... and marveled that everyone ELSE'S skin had the chameleon effect. And they were all OK with who they were - happy. Except for one quiet little boy sitting on a bench, watching the other bald children and occasionally coughing. That child's skin was paler than the others, and his claws and talons looked dull. But when the boy saw Jacen and Ben, he lit up like a nova, laughing and pouring joy into the Force - a natural-born Force user, like them - and Jacen swept the boy up ... "You're HOME! You're OK! I missed you! An' is that -" the boy said, beaming when he saw Ben. "Tace ... oh, WOW!" Ben said, amazed - the little guy looked a lot like Jasa, and Tace was so ... kind, accepting. Jacen set the boy down, and Ben knelt down to let Tace look at him more closely, as they grinned. "You're one of us," Tace - the nickname came easily - said, running a small hand over Ben's bald scalp, then over his own hairless head. "I AM one of you. And if you want, I'll be your big brother," Ben offered - he wasn't scared anymore. "Really!? ASTRAL!" Tace gushed, hugging Ben, and Jacen beamed. Ben laughed as he returned his little brother's hug, then took Tace's hand, and they followed Jasa to a door into one of the towers. "Thanks ... I brought Tace here soon after his birth. The Hapans would've killed him. His Shaped One status was obvious at birth ... except for the talons, fortunately. Tenel Ka had no hope of protecting him," Jacen explained, leading them into a medical lab. "So ... I mindrubbed her; only medical droids and nanny droids knew of ... his existence, and they could be wiped. Allana doesn't seem to have a Force bond with him," Jacen concluded, as he helped Tace onto a bed of hau polyps, and dug in a tank of ... crustaceans that scuttled over from a corner on four legs. "How can I help?" Ben asked eagerly, looking at Tace; the boy was bare and hairless like him and Jasa, had the same claws, talons and groin pouch ... he was just smaller and paler. "Well, I need a sample of your stem cells to test for compatability. You'd better sit down; this could make you woozy," Jacen warned, and Ben sat on the edge of Tace's bed, as the little boy smiled at him. /Thanks, Ben. I'm glad you came. You're real nice, and I never had a brother before. I have friends, but I can't play long, cause I get tired,/ Tace explained, and Ben smiled back. /You're nice too, Tace. I want to help you, and ... maybe I can stay,/ Ben sent, feeling protective of Tace. It was nice to be needed, but Ben also felt a bond with Tace, like with Allana. He wanted to help them, and if Ben had a brother here ... along with Jasa ... #Why NOT stay?# Ben thought, watching as Jacen took a crustacean from the tank and rubbed Ben's right forearm with sterilizer. "This is going to hurt. The hashar vosk is a living needle and bloodbag, but to go as deep as bone marrow requires it to bite hard," Jacen said, meeting Ben's eyes. Ben nodded, and said, "You're trusting me, Jasa. I can do this. I want to help, please." Jasa smiled, and said, tearfully, "You're wonderful. Thank you, Ben. Here we go .." The creature stuck its snout into Ben's forearm, and the pain was almost as bad as Ben's Shaping. But Ben looked at Tace, and squeezed the younger boy's outstretched hand, sending reassurance. Jasa had always been there for Ben, and Ben was going to help Jasa's son ... that was what brothers did. After a few minutes, the creature finished ballooning, and it withdrew its snout. Ben DID feel woozy, and let Jasa help him stretch out beside Tace. "Your arm's healing quickly; don't try to move for a while. The vosk has a serum thinning saliva to ease its extraction process. Here, drink this," Jasa said, giving Ben a sort of waterflask. Ben opened it, then took a swig and gasped; the liquid tasted good, just ... unlike anything he'd ever had. /Concentrated electrolytes and purified water, in a sucrose and fructose suspension. It's modeled after some beverage from Betsy's homeworld, something about reptile aid, or some weird name,/ Jasa sent, forcing the vosk to spit some stem cells into a scanner. Ben nodded, then asked Tace, /You want some?/ /Thanks!/ Tace replied, gratefully accepting the flask and finishing it; Ben wasn't worried about germs, since Jasa had explained their healing factors killed most bugs. Ben let his little brother curl against his side, and looked over at Jasa, who was smiling at them. /Told you you're a great big brother. Thanks,/ Jasa sent, as Ben set the flask beside the bed. /Sure. This feels ... right, Jasa. I want to stay, please?/ Ben asked. /Always, Ben. I - YES!" Jasa whooped aloud, and Ben and Tace sat up, looking at Jasa as he picked up the vosk. "PERFECT match. All we need to do is reverse the process, and Tace will be cured," Jasa explained, bringing the vosk to the bed and setting it over Tace's left arm while the boys lay back down. "Won't it hurt him as badly as it hurt me?" Ben worried, but Tace didn't feel scared. "I get a lot of needles, Ben. I'll be OK," Tace said, still wincing when the vosk jabbed him and started pumping its contents into the boy after Jasa touched the creature. "You can stay with him. Once the vosk is empty, it'll leave his arm. You should both nap, afterwards, though. Tace'll need to let the stem cells react with his body, and you lost a sizeable amount of fluid," Jasa said, as Ben nodded. "Sure, Jasa. Do Shaped siblings usually sleep like this?" Ben asked, relieved when the vosk finally let Tace alone, and the little boy rested his head on Ben's shoulder. "Same-gender siblings close in age do so, often, until adolescence. And you're you, Ben. You're watching over your little brother, and that's great," Jasa said, rubbing Ben's head and kissing Tace's forehead before dimming the lambents and leaving. /Thanks, Ben. You're astral,/ Tace sent, drifting off, and Ben echoed his smile, also growing drowsy. /You too, buddy,/ Ben sent. He was happy at having a little brother who looked up to him, whom he could be a friend with; he'd been an only kid forever. And if Tace was Ben's brother, then wasn't Jasa Ben's ... He drifted off ... not worrying about his brain changing. -------------------------------------------------- He HAD him. Like the rest of Ben, the boy's brain had been altered; he was more telepathically sensitive, more emotive, and less inhibited. More Vong ... Shaped. Completely and permanently. Jacen smiled ecstatically as he probed Ben's thoughts. Ben enjoyed being Shaped, and he really wanted to be Tace's big brother, while Tace worshipped Ben. And both boys loved Jacen as a father ... They would make a wonderful family. Part of Jacen lamented the necessity to push Ben to the dark, and a lingering trace of compassion questioned the need to corrupt the boy. It might be enough to make Ben Jacen's son ...the yammosk effect was enveloping and altering Ben's sense of self. A simple mindrub, deep into the boy's memory, would eliminate any lingering attachments to the Skywalkers ... and Jacen would help his son pick a new name. Perhaps not a Sith name, yet. But a father should allow his son time to grow. #Past time I started picking my own new name,# he thought, sitting on a bench nestled within the castle, overlooking the skips being prepared and the Shaped One shock troops preparing for whatever mission their Supreme Overlord commanded. The question was, what target? 1,000 Shaped Ones were a formidable force, but for what end? How best to use them? It was then that two flares in the Force drew Jacen's attention: One, distant, with Mara's signature, as the defrost timer went off on her carbonite. 24 standard hours. Jacen admired precision. If he could manipulate Mara's situation to his advantage with Ben, as the boy thought Mara hated the Vong blindly, it would accelerate things. The other flare, far closer, with BETSY'S signature ... Jacen also admired advance planning. He mentally commanded a specific Vongformed creature in a specific basement cell to trigger ... and his longterm guest received an unwelcome cold shoulder. A gold fleck appeared in Jacen's eyes as he summoned a comlink from his quarters via the Force and said, "Agent Tarfang, this is Colonel Solo. I have a pickup for you ..." ----------------------------------------------------- Betsy had landed with full cloak, taking far too long for her tastes to reach Vjun after reverting to realspace at the edge of the system. She'd worried that she had the wrong system, after seeing the blue and green marble that Neal had insisted was Vjun. But the coordinates and starcharts matched ... A change into a combat bodyglove, and the masking of her Force signature, had prepared Betsy for the trek to Bast Castle. Nothing had prepared her for the Vonglife, or the ... Slayerlike humanoids patrolling the woods, or the telepathic chatter of what FELT like a yammosk. OR the disturbing Vonglike echo from Ben, who was at least happy ... just changed. #Jacen has MUCH to answer for,# Betsy thought, disabling a lock and security sensor on a sewer grate into the castle ... and wincing when she recognized the maw luur lining the tunnel. #WHAT could Jacen be doing, playing with Vongtech like this? What's he done to Ben ...?# Betsy worried, fighting nausea as she crawled through the maw luur. FINALLY, she breached the castle, climbing out into a rather well-furnished apartment. Or cell ... With an eerily familiar Force signature, which Betsy dismissed as some trap. THAT Jedi was long dead. What was interesting were the stains in the carpet; Betsy recognized them as damage from quick freezing ... carbon freezing ... She dodged as some THING spat a stream of carbonite at her, and the telepath sliced at the creature with her violet lightsaber - Mistake. The explosion of quickly heating gasses forced Betsy to duck, and she rolled to the front door. Where, to her horror, a naked Jacen - a two-meter high freakshow, with a groin pouch, a hairless body, and claws and talons - stood in the door frame, smiling cruelly. Betsy leapt up, barely able to process what she was seeing, much less when Jacen stood aside and gestured toward the hall. "You COULD stay and ask what all this is. Or, you can try to catch Tarfang, and his prisoner, before they leave for Nar Shaddaa," Jacen purred, disturbingly. "Gardulla the Hutt will likely pay our doubledipping little friend plenty for the Hero of the Well of the World Brain ..." Betsy gasped, her lightsaber shutting down as she shivered. "That's not true! That's IMPOSSIBLE!" Betsy shouted, reaching out - Tarfang WAS laughing greedily, following two Slayer/humans, who were pushing a carbonite slab, encasing - Betsy broke into a run, as Jacen laughed, "Search your feelings." Betsy hated herself for leaving Ben, but he felt ... safe enough. If there was even a chance ... #I'll return, Ben. I promise,# Betsy sent, trying to ignore Jacen's sadistic laughter. She prayed she could keep that promise. ------------------------------------------------------- Galactic Alliance Blockade, Corellian System, Core Worlds: ------------------------------------------------------- Galactic Alliance Admiral Gavin Darklighter wasn't happy. At least a few of his friends were fighting for Corellia; Gavin wouldn't have minded joining them, except that the Corellians were setting a bad example when galactic unity was needed. He was aboard the blockade flagship, Ocean ... as a roil of armed craft executed a near-perfect microjump from seemingly nowhere, between the orbital stations and the blockade of GA craft. "SIR! Multiple contacts - Corellian warships, fighters, frigates - DESTROYERS! It's the fleet Intel found in the Kiris Cluster, sir!" the lieutenant, a Bothan named Sy'lur, gasped. "Dare I be so droll as to say `It's a trap?'" Niathal commed - she was back on Coruscant, but had a real-time link to the picket; Intel had expected some kind of Corellian thrust after Thrackan's slaying. "Far be it from me to say no, ma'am," Gavin sighed, ordering weapons free and fighters to launch. #Peace in our time. I wish.# ------------------------------------------------------- Jade Shadow, on Yavin IV, Galactic East: ------------------------------------------------------- Luke Skywalker was NOT pleased. He'd spent a day chasing the GAG Star Destroyer Ganner Rhysode, worried to death about his wife AND son, both of whom had muted or altered Force signatures. And when he HAD caught the Ganner, he'd discovered that Ben and Jacen had left the ship ... with Mara left behind, trapped in carbonite. When he asked why nobody had THAWED his wife, Luke had been quietly told by the Quarren captain, "Honestly, Grand Master, she scares us too much." Luke had almost forgiven them; Mara WOULD be outraged when she thawed ... The rendezvous had taken place in the Yavin system, so Luke and Artoo had diverted to the old Jedi Academy to rest and thaw Mara. The old medlab still functioned, even with much of the tech destroyed during the Vong invasion years earlier. The slab had been easy enough to offload from the Shadow, and Luke stood by with medpacks and an oxygen mask, in case Mara needed them. She would be blind and nauseous, at least. Luke triggered the thawing process, not wanting to believe that Ben would leave his own mother behind, carbon frozen ... Mara gasped, fear and longing and panic filling the Force as she sat up and Luke grabbed her arm carefully. "Easy, love. You were -" "BEN! Luke, Jacen - he - he VONGFORMED my baby! BEN!?" Mara cried, and Luke felt his stomach sink. Jacen ... SHAPED ... Ben? The very idea ... Luke looked back at Mara, who had closed her eyes, and was calling softly, "Ben ... baby, please, answer ... I'm sorry I panicked ..." Then she gasped, her eyes flying open as she seemed to look through Luke, and he knew Mara had found ... someone. ------------------------------------------------------- Ben stirred, somehow realizing that he was on the astral plane, the dimension all sentient minds were linked to. It was a higher dimension than Force speech; the Force was more primal. He floated, pleased that his astral body was Shaped like his physical one, and he looked back behind him at the web of minds that made up the Shaped Ones. They nuzzled him, and he smiled. Ben was one of them, now, and he didn't ever want to go back to the weak jeedai human he'd been ... but someone had called him here. Then she appeared, dressed in a skintight black catsuit, an inner fire blazing, and Ben beamed; she was OK ... ! ~BEN!? You're here! Oh, honey, what happened!?~ Mom begged, as Ben hugged her and cried. ~Jasa needed me Shaped, Mom. He needed my DNA to be Shaped so we could save ... someone,~ Ben tried to explain; he hoped Mom would understand. Mom leaned back and looked at Ben, before kissing his forehead, and he cried in relief as she sent, ~You'll always be my little boy. I'm sorry I panicked; it's ...~ ~I know the Vong hurt you, but the Shaped are different, I promise. We're not monsters, Mom. And I'm sorry I left you frozen. We just had to leave ... ?~ Ben begged. Mom rubbed his head and sent, ~OK. But please, tell me where - ~ ~BEN!~ The astral plane roared, and Ben pulled himself away from his Mom. Jasa - his Master, his ... ? - was calling. Ben longed to obey, as he was pulled from the astral plane, but not before Mom SCREAMED - and Ben sobbed as a pillar of fire consumed his mother, while Jasa wrapped Ben in protective shadow. ---------------------------------------------------- Luke stammered, unable to fully process what he was seeing: His wife floated, her eyes blazing, amidst gold fire. Her bodysuit became red and gold, and she SHRIEKED as she was surrounded by a ... firebird ... Artoo squealed, fleeing and toodling for Luke to follow ... and the Jade Shadow exploded. ---------------------------------------------------- Jacen raced to the medlab, both elated to see Tace's skin flickering with the chameleon effect - in synch with Ben's even! - and horrified as his sons awoke with cries - "My mom - Jasa, my dad - they're -" Ben sobbed, shaking, and Tace hugged him, tearing up. Jacen hugged them both, shielding them, reaching out ... Gone. Mara was ... consumed, by something. Screaming, flying off of Yavin in a rage. And of Luke ... a gaping hole in the Force. The dark thing in Jacen's subconscious hissed, #NOW.# Consciously, he still felt horrible, and hugged Ben as the boy sobbed, "They left me ... Jasa, where'll ... ?" Jacen leaned back, and said, "Join me. Let me end your suffering, finish your transformation. You've felt it; you know the Shaped Ones usually have their memories erased. It only takes moments. You'll never be alone. "Become my son, Ben. Join Tace and I permanently." Ben shivered, but Tace snuggled into him, and the older boy composed himself, putting an arm around Tace. After a moment, Ben nodded and said, "You always cared for me. You taught me, raised me since I was 8. I ... I'm ready, Jasa ..." Jacen smiled approvingly, putting one hand at the back of Ben's head, the other at the boy's right temple. And he pushed, diving past the boy's dropped shields and stabbing his heart, cleansing carefully, selectively, leaving shared lessons and rooting out any trace of the Skywalkers ... Ben Skywalker was sacrificed. Remade. Shaped. The dark thing soared, cackling, and Darth Caedus opened his eyes where Jacen Solo had sat a moment before. He released his elder son, who opened his blue eyes and slowly smiled, whispering, "... Father? Tace?" Tace cheered, hugging his big brother, and Caedus put a calm hand on the little one's forehead, driving home a gentler version of the programming he'd done to ... "Paxis. Tace, remember, your older brother is Paxis, now. And our family name ...?" Caedus said, as his sons leaned on each other. "Domain Caedus, Daddy. Thanks," Tace said, shrieking with laughter as Paxis tickled him. "Silly. Thanks, Father. I feel so right ... it's allso clear, now. How can I serve you?" Paxis asked, devotion and loyalty warming Caedus over their bond. "Share your skills with Tace. Help guide and protect him, when I must leave. You will fight by my side, Paxis, I promise, but enjoy your remaining childhood first. Grow, learn our ways, and someday, you will be my strong right hand ... my heir," Caedus promised, hugging his sons. "Tace will someday rule part of the galaxy with you ... but first, I must secure it." ---------------------------------------------------- Somewhere in hyperspace, Betsy felt the Force shift dangerously; something was terribly wrong. "Yes, Elizabeth. But before we confront my errant student ... we must first secure the truth." Betsy spun in her seat, while Neal squealed and turned his dome toward the bedroom hatch. Vergere warned, "We will need an army, to stop Caedus. "And your Ganner is the first recruit ..." ---------------------------------------------------- tbc ...