Subject: [OTL]: (alt. Betsy/Star Wars) Fanged Butterfly 2: Knightcross 58C/? (PG-15) From: Phil Hartman Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2008 02:05:31 +0000 will1@earthling.net Fanged Butterfly Vol. 2: Knightcross Chapter 58C 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: Violence, language, themes. ----------------------------------------------------------- 5/10/08: Xavier Institute: 07:00 hrs EDT: ----------------------------------------------------------- He stirred; the dream had been the same. Again. As it had for almost the past 14 years. Anakin Solo awoke, snuggled against his lover, Tahiri Veila ... alive. And as always after having that dream, his sense of relief at BEING alive - drawing breath, being in the Force and tangible at the same time ... was inexplicable. #Why the hell can't I shake the idea that I should be DEAD?# Anakin wondered, rubbing his face - Tahiri murmurred, and he snuggled into her again. Mara's niece-in-law, Marrissa Summers, had said there were novelizations of the Vong War here on Earth, that ... differed ... from what had happened in reality. Marrissa had also been awfully quiet about why she was so amazed, and happy, to see Anakin alive. Oh, he had a good idea HOW he'd escaped his supposed destiny - Betsy Braddock had intervened, telepathically blazing a trail of dead Vong and voxyn until she'd killed the queen ... and apparently to save Anakin, according to a Force vision she'd had. So what might have been? What had Anakin escaped? He rose, dressing, and decided to find out. Whatever it cost. ----------------------------------------------------------- He knocked on the door of the two-story house by the lakefront, where he sensed Jacob and Marrissa Summers were at - they weren't Force-sensitive, but their minds were strong, and so were those of their children, Chase and little Siri. Anakin smiled kindly when Chase - wearing pajamas, and a smile that grew wider when he saw the Jedi Knight - answered the door, and said, "MOM! DAD! Anakin's here!" "Oh! Anakin - please, come in," Marrissa said - she was walking with Siri against her shoulder, and wearing a robe as she burped the baby, while Jake - already dressed in his camoflague uniform - waved from the kitchen table. Chase ran back to his bowl of cereal, after letting Anakin in the door. It was so ... CLOSE ... to what Anakin wanted for Tahiri and himself - but what they'd danced around for so many years - that a pang stabbed at his heart. Not his spleen, as that damned dream had replayed so MANY times. "Sorry to stop over so early, but ... there's a question I had -" Anakin began - but the look in Marrissa's eyes stopped him. It was equal parts awe, pity, fear, respect and sympathy. "'Star by Star.' The novel about Myrkr. What happened ... or what WE thought happened. You ... you can borrow my copy; I just ... I should've had the courage to tell you myself. I guess I was just too overwhelmed, what with finding out you're all real - and ALIVE!" she said, nodding at a bookshelf and smiling ... then trailing off, looking sad, as Anakin drew out the hardcover book. "These must be valuable," he said, flipping through pages - there was the death of Numa Rar, early discussions about how to deal with the voxyn ... but also, oddly, points of view from the VONG. It was as if the authors had been omniscient ... and as Anakin suspected, Betsy was absent from the volume. "I just ... you all helped Betsy tremendously, and ... I really don't want to see you hurt. You have no idea how much you mean to a lot of people," Marrissa said softly, nuzzling Siri's cheek as the little girl cooed. "Oh, I've heard a LOT of talk about that. I wish I'd had the moral courage people like to attribute to me after the war, that I supposedly had during the war," Anakin breathed - then blushed; he'd taken enough of these kind people's time ... "Hey. Anakin. As one warrior to another - you need to talk ..." Jacob offered, and Anakin nodded at the younger man ... there was a look in his eyes that said that the young Summers had seen his own share of bloodshed. Maybe not the same as fighting a horde of Yuuzhan Vong, but some of Betsy's stories of Earth's "supervillains" had unsettled even the battle-hardened Jedi survivors of Myrkr. "Thanks, Jacob. I'll leave you all to breakfast - thank you, Marrissa. I'll get this back to you before we leave," Anakin promised, slipping outside into the early-morning temperate breezes. He couldn't help notice that the school's female students who were outside were watching him. Closely. Actually, a LOT of heads were turning as he headed back to the guest room he and Tahiri were sharing ... Anakin just nodded and smiled; once, he might've been flattered. Then, after Dantooine, he would've been annoyed. And after Myrkr, he'd been too numb, then focused, to be anything but out to kill or talk Vong out of fighting. #And then, after Jacen left ... that was when `Ri and I left to find our own Jedi path. Wherever it led,# Anakin thought tiredly, heading upstairs to find Tahiri. She was still laying - naked, as usual - curled in the sheets, and purred when he stroked her exposed back. "Hey," she said with a smile, and he slipped off his boots to sit beside her, kissing her. "Sorry. Just wanted to find an answer," Anakin explained, holding up the book with its nek-eared pages - Marrissa must've been quite a voracious reader, marking pages when she'd been able to - and turning towards the back. Then he found the start of their capture by the Vong, aboard Lando's ship, and he focused ... glad that Tahiri was snuggling against him. "You sure you want to do this? You're alive," she reminded him - and he kissed her forehead, grateful for the reminder. Grateful for HER. "I want you to not have to deal with my weird nightmares anymore. You deserve better - you're so patient," Anakin whispered, meaning it all ... Tahiri stroked his messed sandy locks and breathed back, "You make it worthwhile. I'm happy - we're together, we're free ... and you don't mind Riina." The mention of Tahiri's Yuuzhan Vong personality brought a true smile to Anakin's lips, as he replied, "You're one. To deny either of you insults the whole package ... a nice package." The wicked smile he got back in reply was so worth everything ... but Anakin resisted the urge to tear his clothes off and show his devotion to the woman who'd made his life complete. And Tahiri WAS a woman - oh, she had her childish side, but that was her free spirit. She'd won out over brainwashing, had survived mental integration between her Jedi and Vong personas, had dealt with being a Killik Joiner, then a Jedi-in-exile ... and she loved Anakin. Despite his still-rash idealism, his tendency to take on absurd/impossible challenges, and his very un-Jedi approach to the Force-using life. He'd trained an EWOK, after all. /Don't you know that's WHAT I love about you? That, and your goodness? Stang, dummy, it's been what - 19 years now since we met?/ Tahiri teased through the Force, and Anakin kissed her. "I know. I couldn't be happier. I just ... I keep waking up in night sweats, phantom pain in my spleen, and you never complain. I want to be a whole man for you, `Ri -" Anakin tried to explain - but it was Riina Kwaad, Tahiri's Vong-self, who smirked at him. "Not `whole'? Your spleen is not the sexy-Kin part I like. Your spleen isn't important. The IMPORTANT parts work just fine," Riina whispered ... oh, Force, Anakin was a lucky, LUCKY man. "All right. You read, I undress you. No need to help Han - he has an army of droids and Chewie working on the Falcon. You get scared by the nasty book, I kiss you and make it better?" `Ri - Anakin wasn't sure which one she was right now - offered. "Have I told you lately I love you?" Anakin sighed, smiling. He let `Ri peel off his T-shirt - he'd taken to wearing the Earth clothes their hosts had graciously let them create using the clothing generator in the mansion's basement - and she kissed a line down his chest, nibbling his nipples before peeling off his socks ... "OOH! Toesies!" Tahiri giggled, tickling Anakin's feet - and he giggled, also ... yeah, it was weird. But it was them-weird, so it was OK. And he read ... And then he got to the part with the grashal. -------------------------------------------------------------- "BETSY!?!?!?" Betsy - wearing shockingly NORMAL clothing, jeans and a blouse, eating disgustingly sugary crap for breakfast and enjoying it too much - looked up from her datapad with updates Sage had prepared on what'd happened among the X-teams during the past 10 months. It wasn't that unusual for people to come running into the cafeteria half-naked; depending on the uniform and the power, it was almost normal. Almost. Xavier's was weird like that, but one rolled with it. Except when it was Anakin Solo, who was usually ... not a prude, by any measure, but certainly conscious of others' sensibilities. He was wearing only briefs - tight-fitting, high-cut, possibly made of the hide of some Vong animal, the man had a disturbing tendency to let Tahiri pick his underwear for him - and Tahiri ... well, Tahiri was in a sheet, looking like an escapee from a Greek chorus. Betsy rolled her eyes, casting a telepathic illusion among the gathered students' minds that Anakin and Tahiri were dressed - no sense in letting young, impressionable minds think this sort of exhibitionism was common among Jedi - and motioned Solo and Veila to her table. "You do know how very lucky you are that the rest of your family and friends are out learning more about Earth? What's the trauma?" Betsy asked, more serious than she sounded; Anahiri were usually so unshakable. Then he held up a copy of "Star by Star," and Betsy groaned. "I ... I had no idea how much you ... I *BURNED OUT,*" Anakin whispered, looking and sounding honestly ... shaken, as he sat, Tahiri beside him and rubbing his shoulders. "Anakin, those bloody novels are FICTION. And while I did manage to cut us a quicker route to the voxyn queen, it wasn't as if we got away unscathed in reality, either. Raynar still ended up with the Killiks, Jacen still ended up with Vergere ... but I'm not helping, am I?" Betsy realized, and Anakin rubbed his face. "Betsy, I've been having nightmares ever since Myrkr about being stabbed in the spleen and bleeding to death, sacrificing myself in a blaze of Force-light. THIS BOOK IS *EXACTLY* LIKE THOSE NIGHTMARES," Anakin insisted, letting Tahiri rub his back. "The Force works in mysterious ways. Events could cause ripples, such as Obi-Wan sensed after Alderaan. A more beneficial effect might have inspired this world's authors," Betsy tried to soothe. Anakin sighed, and Tahiri said, "You're alive. That's what counts." "You're right. Betsy - I just ... thank you again. Seriously. I guess I just needed to face what might've been," Anakin muttered. Betsy squeezed his hand and held his eyes. "Anakin - don't bury this again. You've been evading this horror for too many years. I thought we'd talked about your lingering guilt over what happened to Eryl, Jovan and the others?" she reminded him. Typically, a flash of heat flared in his eyes, but it faded - and Anakin sighed. "If it was about them, then I'd be kicking myself more. I know their deaths weren't my fault ... I just ... why do I keep SEEING, FEELING my death, then waking up alive? If it's not the Force, then why do I keep -" he trailed off - then his eyes lit up with understanding, and he groaned. Betsy looked at him, then Tahiri, and back at Anakin - "My slacker phase," Anakin growled. "You think you should've accepted Mastery after the war?" Tahiri asked. Anakin kissed her nose. "Force, just when I thought I'd gotten past that stupid duel Jacen and I had before Sernpidal ... I've been beating myself up for walking `dead,' when I should've LIVED to FIX what's been broken with the Order. We talk about being better, learning from the mistakes of the Old Republic Jedi, and instead ..." he sighed. He looked at Betsy, smirking wryly, and said, "For all of Uncle Luke's mistakes, WE haven't had the moral courage to offer any better ways. Oh, we've done SOME good - Jaya and Jag hunting bad people along the fringes, `Ri and I doing the `wandering do-gooder' thing, even Jasa before he stuck his head in some Sith karkhole. But we never stood up and said, `Hey, mimicking the old Jedi Order's SHAVIT!'" "And where is it written that the Solo children were supposed to inherit the Order's reins? Even IF Luke's somehow - unintentionally - mindkriffed the Council, it's a damn sad statement on THEIR failings that they LET it happen. I mean, honestly - Kyp and Corran BOTH on Luke's leash? That ALONE should scream `MINDKRIFF'! And I ran off to search for a way home ... don't take everything on your shoulders, Anakin," Betsy insisted. Anakin's Solo grin returned as he said, "That's one of my endearing traits." "Uh, no. Aggravating, maybe - c'mon, dummy, let's get dressed before Betsy has to drop the `no-scaring-the-hosts' mind-trick," Tahiri said ... with a fair amount of regret as they left the cafeteria. But when didn't Tahiri want to - or deserve to - see Anakin naked? #Speaking of seeing things through ...# Betsy reminded herself. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- World Court, The Hague, Netherlands: 15:00 hrs local: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jennifer Walters had had her share of "Perry Mason" moments over the years - a last-minute witness showing up to alter the balance of a trial - but this ... even the Sensational She-Hulk had to admit, the PM from Val Cooper was a SHOCK. "Ms. Walters?" Charles Lehnsherr asked, as Jen blinked at her Blackberry - the not-quite 14-year-old boy had been accused of murdering Betsy Braddock months earlier, and had led the teenaged mutants known as the Genarchs in a series of attacks against both supervillains and the government of the mutant state of Genosha. "Shhh. I might have a serious case of `WIN' for us, for once," Jennifer told her client, as she stood when the chief justice looked at her. "Your Honor, I'd like to move for a dismissal of the murder charges against my client," Jennifer asked - touching off murmurring from the gathered prosecutors, jury pool, press and spectators who'd gathered for the "Trial of the Magnusson." "On what grounds, Ms. Walters?" Judge Thierry Rouleaux - a patient man, if growing less-so given the months of delay over jurisdiction and the sensitive matter of indicting Magneto's youngest child in a capital murder case - sighed, his refined English accent slipping into French tones. "Because ... I can produce the alleged victim of the crime. Alive," Jennifer said - oh, THAT was a grenade to toss - As she'd expected, the news caused shouting, not a few outraged prosecutorial shrieks, and serious gavel-banging from Rouleaux. "Ms. Walters! I HOPE you can make good on this outlandish request. A lack of a body does not mean that there was not a murder!" the lead prosecutor - Rachel Winters, a harsh stickler for holding superhumans accountable for their actions - snapped. "Am I body enough, Winters? Muzzle yourself before your betters, or I'll be forced to remind you why you were held in contempt in the suit against President Kelly's pardoning the X-Men." Winters went ashen, young Charles' jaw dropped, Jennifer fist-pumped, and an amethyst gaze swept the courtroom ... as Betsy Braddock stormed in, smiling vindictively at Winters. "Your Honor. I'm here to kick arse and take names. Shall we begin?" Betsy said ... yeah, it was her, Jennifer thought. Older, but ... ------------------------------------------------------------------- Surprisingly, Chief Justice Rouleaux had only asked for a genescan, and had just held up a hand when Betsy had started on the "time travel" explanation for her age discrepancy ... and since the U.S. had dropped their charges against young Charles in the face of protests from Genosha ... well, the boy just had to face his father for trying to kill Magnus. And Betsy thought she could help her alleged "murderer" out there, too. "Wait - A SITH HOLOCRON!? Betsy, I was an evil little jerk hopped up on EM-juice and my own ego. I admit, the Genarchy was a stupid idea, and I DID fry the top few floors of Dad's palace," Charles tried to explain, once he'd been allowed to change out of his orange jumpsuit, then freed to her custody, and Illyana had teleported them back to the U.S. They sat in a bistro in Laguardia - no sense in sticking around The Hague - as they waited for Magnus to arrive from Customs; he WAS a leader of a nation whose relations with the U.S. were ... prickly ... and he'd been asked not to just teleport onto U.S. soil. It made sense, Betsy supposed. Charles tilted his head, looking at her with gratitude and bemusement, and said, "Seriously. I was a punk." "Well, yes, but being a punk is one thing. Seriously - your mother found a Sith holocron near your Antarctic base. Given that your eyes DID turn yellow-orange during our spat before you drop-kicked me through that wormhole, and that you have a presence in the Force, I think you were being seduced by the dark side," Betsy said matter-of-factly. Charles looked horrified - for his mother, Betsy sensed - then looked at her like she'd gone bloody insane ... and she opened her shields, letting him read her. That made the boy go ashen, his eyes flickered to the lightsaber she took from her purse, and he looked at her again. "You're SERIOUS," he breathed. "The - we're - THIS GALAXY - ?!" "Believe me, I've had to fight too many S and M freaks with bad taste in plastic surgery for it all to NOT be real. On the plus side, I've made wonderful friends, Wookies are great for a hug, and the Falcon's parked in the mansion hangar bay," Betsy said softly, grinning. Charles still looked shocked - but he was taking it all rather better - and then his jaw dropped again, as Betsy turned at a familiar Force-presence and smiled. "So, this is the suspected dark-side victim?" Leia asked, smiling kindly. "Former. Charles Lehnsherr, Leia Organa-Solo," Betsy said. "Guh," Charles stammered. "Eh. Not much for words. Kinda a nice change," Han said, shrugging. "Gah," Charles wheezed, his jaw somewhere near his knees. "Now, now, dear - lift that jaw. Leia's too polite to mock you, but Han's sense of humor is lethal, and given his eldest boy's shenanigans lately, he's less than patient with people he thinks are slighting Leia," Betsy warned, enjoying this far too much. Charles looked at her, then at the Solos, then at Betsy - and fainted. "Stang. He's not as scary as you told us," Han sniffed. "And just why, sir, should my temperamental, emotionally-disturbed youngest child be `scary'?" "Erik!" Betsy laughed, leaping up to hug Magnus - for all the times they'd fought, the man was a friend; enemies and adversaries were two very different things. Erik Lehnsherr returned the hug with a gentle backpat, then smoothed his dress suit and ruffled Charles' hair. "Thank you, Elizabeth - and I am glad to see you alive, if a bit surprised at it all. The older Charles called me and passed along the good news about The Hague ... of course, I'll be dropping charges about the Genosha business. My son needs help, not judgment," Magnus said, smiling when Charles stirred. "Dad - I'm dreaming I'm in - gah. They're still here!" Charles gasped. "C'mon, kid. Let's sort this out before some crazed `fan' comes along and - hey! Who's THIS rodder?" Han snorted, looking at a magazine cover with an ad for - "Han. Leave it," Leia asked, as they slipped toward a quiet corner of the jetway for Illyana to pick them up. "Besides, I TOLD you, that hat and the whip do nothing for you." ------------------------------------------------------------------ "Wait - Allana's our WHAT?!" Jaina blurted - she and Jag had decided to face their "fame," such as it was, here on Earth, so they'd asked Marrissa for the latest novels about them ... "No wonder Tenel Ka didn't want us to visit," Mara snorted, sitting around the younger Summerses' living room with the Solo-Fels, Luke, Ben, Marrissa, Chase and Siri. But it was Ben who was looking pale - even a little faint - and Luke asked, "Son?" Some kind of weird Force-ripple came off of Ben, and he whispered, "My memories - Jasa, what'd you DO -" Mara and Luke looked at each other in fear, and Marrissa sighed, "The memory-rub. It's in the novels - Jacen hid Ben's memory of -" "Zekk and I WERE right that day after Thrago! DAMNIT! Jacen, you idiot - Bennie, let me in, please?" Jaina asked, kneeling beside her cousin's chair and holding a hand to his forehead. Ben nodded - at least he still trusted her - and Jaina tried to dig carefully. Durron had taught her mind-trick manipulation, so she might be able to fix this - she was relieved that there wasn't MUCH memory-rubbing, just a spot about five years ago ... but what she found was so shocking, she landed hard on her butt. "TWINS!?" Jaina gasped - Allana wasn't Jacen and Tenel Ka's only child - ?! "What?" Dad asked - he, Mom, that blonde girl, Betsy, some brown-haired kid, and a white-haired guy who looked like the boy, appeared - and Jaina wasn't sure how to explain this one. "Tace - Aunt Leia, Tace is Allana's -" Ben said, and Mom's face lit up, as she went to hug Ben, and helped Jaina up. "I KNEW it. The holos on Toryaz Station - Tace's piloting skills, Tycho was so proud of him, and Winter thought Tace was like Anakin. But she had the wrong brother ... and Jacen would trust Winter with his son, since a boy in a Hapan household would be treated little better than property," Mom said, happy and sad. Dad's face went through a few dozen expressions, and in any other situation, Jaina might've laughed - "I'm a grandfather. A grandson and a granddaughter ... I'm a GRANDFATHER," Dad muttered, as Mom patted his shoulder. But it was Ben who was the most shaken - then, the hammer fell ... "HE *LIED* TO ME," Ben - sweet little Ben, usually so nice, even if he'd been so loyal to Jacen that he'd joined the stupid GAG and not even questioned until now - SNARLED. He leapt up, his fists balled, his face twisting - then he barked, "Excuse me, please" - and walked out. "Ben -" Uncle Luke called, all guilt and sympathetic pain - Jaina stepped in front of him. "He needs to vent. He might say and think things he won't mean, things he feels but he'll be scared to say - he still loves you, but he needs to let this out, even his anger. Believe me, getting betrayed by Jacen will do that," she said. -------------------------------------------------------------- Jacen had MINDKRIFFED *HIM.* OK, Ben could see why Jacen - not Jasa, NEVER AGAIN "Jasa" - had hidden Tace and Allana from even him. Ben had been 9; he'd had a big mouth then, and the Hapans were jerks about royal sons. But the chuba-kriffing Hutt-licker had stanging well MINDKRIFFED BEN - and he hadn't told Ben a thing EVER. #Why didn't he think I'd be trustworthy now? Why'd he mess with my MIND? I *TRUSTED* HIM,# Ben seethed, stomping along the lake - he REALLY didn't want to hurt anybody - but it finally all just exploded, and he yelled, "YOU WERE LIKE MY BROTHER, YOU KRIFFING *BASTARD*! I *LOVED* YOU LIKE A BROTHER! LIKE A - A -" It was too much; Ben hit his knees and just sobbed. Jacen tried to take Dad's place, and Ben had been so blind, he'd LET Jacen do it. And this'd been when Jacen WASN'T Sith. That made it worse. A big, wracking heave shook Ben's entire body, and he closed his eyes against the pain; he'd followed Jacen, even killed people - maybe not at Jacen's command, but Jacen had sent him into a situation where it could happen. #I loved you. You were my hero. Why ...?# Ben tried to see ... That was when he sensed them, and looked up, snot-nosed, red-faced, tear-stained ... "Ben. Oh, Ben, I'm sorry. I - we -" Anakin began, as Tahiri held her hands to her face - SHE was surprised? "We didn't think Jacen could be this cruel. Not to you. That brenzlit ... we thought -" Tahiri tried to explain, but Ben shook his head ... and managed to smile. Even stand. "You guys didn't do anything wrong. You wanted to believe Jacen was OK. Dad and Mom wanted to, too. I don't blame you - really. We ALL trusted Jacen," Ben said, accepting Anakin's handkerchief. He saw Jaina coming over, and knew she'd heard him too - and impulsively hugged his big cousins and Tahiri. "Please, don't feel guilty, OK? Can you forgive ME for being so -?" Ben asked - and Anakin, Tahiri and Jaina smiled. "WE FORGIVE YOU ALREADY!" the others laughed - and Ben started to feel OK, REALLY OK, for the first time in a long while. --------------------------------------------------------------- Well, somehow, Ben had turned out all right despite Luke's kriff-up. #DAMN you, Jacen - no. Damn ME. I tossed a bunch of holocron quotes and gut feelings, Force visions and paranoia, into a food processor and came up with Jedi philosophy puree. And when I didn't like what the rest of the Council cooked ... I rewrote all their cookbooks,# he thought bitterly, watching from Xavier's office window as Ben talked with Anakin, Tahiri and Jaina. The poor kid seemed OK - and didn't resent anyone ... #I messed up Jacen. I have NO other person to blame.# "I know that look," Luke heard - he'd been asked to speak with Xavier and the other gentleman, Magnus, Xavier's ideological opposite from what Betsy had shared over the years - and he returned the silver-haired Magnus' knowing smile. "I have not had my share of parenting successes either, sir. Although I believe I DID make mistakes ... whereas you still have a bond with your son. A chance to repair the damage. My son ... may not respond," Magnus said. "The Skywalkers have a ... complicated father-son relationship history," Luke said, vast depths of unintended irony in that one simple statement. "Skywalker? SKYWALKER?" Magnus boomed, looking around with a magnanimous smile. "Really, Charles. Next, I'll be growing a beard and swinging a staff." "No less likely than myself sitting behind the desk sipping Earl Grey and saying, `Make it so,'" Xavier said in a deadpan tone. Luke was confused, but just put on his best "Jedi Master" smile. "Seriously ... I became obsessed with a moral ideal, mutant rule of humans, and my son rebelled against it as obsessively as I drove it into my followers. Charles - my contemporary here, not my son - always stood for working within the system, trying to change through peaceful efforts," Magnus said, looking at another window ... his son, Charles, was talking with Rachel and the Grey twins, uncomfortable but at least welcomed back. "We both have second chances, Master Skywalker. I have far more work to do in repairing my relationship with my son, however. I would advise you to accept your son's good will while you have it, strengthen your bond without blinding him," Magnus advised. Luke nodded; it was extremely good advice. Ben was forgiving him ... Luke just hoped he deserved it. ----------------------------------------------------------------- tbc ...