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It was dark inside in the Room of a Thousand Waterfalls. The simulated night sounds wrapped around everything and brought them into the starry feeling that invigorated the night and made it real. Seijoutai Priire subconsciously ran her fingers over the cool rocks that one of the waterfalls cascaded over. The water seemed to be jumping heedlessly over the waterfall, not minding the crash at the bottom that would send splashes of itself on the rocks and the girl standing on them. The one-time mercenary didn't mind the water that was flinging itself on her boots. She was drinking in the night before she went back into the Room Behind the Waterfall. As she moved behind the curtain of water, she supposed that there was only one thing that could make the night more perfect. Real stars glistening around her.
~*~*~*~*~
"I'll be back in a few," Priire said, waving a gloved hand at the few senshi still awake. The blonde grabbed a black jacket and slid it on over her black shirt. She'd checked the pair of blasters hanging at her hips earlier. "Okay?"
"A few what?" Kyoko asked, raising an eyebrow over her tea.
Priire's green eyes crinkled. "Weeks."
"What's the story?" Ippin asked, staring at her twin.
The pilot was suddenly serious. "Trouble on the Outer Rim." She walked over to the cabinet to grab a snack for the road.
"What's the real story, Aster?" Ippin questioned with a grin.
"I'm causing it!"
Everyone laughed with her. "Come on, Priire," Kyoko said. "Why?"
This time the girl was honestly serious. "I just want a break. It's been a long time since I've been out on my own, and I get this feeling that if I don't go out and do something soon, I'm going to literally break. Snap. Turn into a space case." She paused. "Planet case. Whatever." Priire grinned. "Besides, I asked Yoda, and he said I could go."
Kyoko shrugged. "Sounds good. Have fun... are you going to tell us where you're going?"
"Are you kidding?" Priire laughed as she walked toward the exit. "Then you could find me!"
Ippin smiled. "She's got a point."
~*~*~*~*~
It took forever to get cleared for takeoff or landing. Priire figured that she'd better wait through it. She had her entire vacation to be wanted and running from various branches of law enforcement; why start now?
While she waited, the green-eyed blonde scanned through the Black Fire Talon's database. She had most of the information in it committed at least partially to memory, but it was good to read parts of it again. Besides, she needed to pick somewhere to end up.
Most of the places she'd either been to recently, or they'd be easy to find her on. A grin crossed Priire's face. Agamar. No one would look for her on that agrarian planet! She frowned for a moment and hoped that the little bar she'd liked so much was still open.
"Permission granted..."
Priire hardly even heard the rest of the controller's words. She had to get off this planet!
~*~*~*~*~
"Epitaur! Hey, Priire Epitaur!"
The blonde waved at the man calling her "name". "Seijoutai Priire" had given away to one of her more common aliases: "Priire Epitaur". She flipped a blonde braid out of her face and started to walk over to the table where the redheaded man sat. On her way, she grabbed a drink. Agamar was agrarian, and that meant that there was a high population of people who made their own alcohol as well as the mass-produced stuff. There was even a local contest every year or so.
"Hey, guys. I would have thought you'd moved a little in the past four years," Priire laughed. The ribbing was taken good-naturedly. The girl sat herself down and propped her feet up on the table.
The redhead laughed. "Good to see you, Epitaur."
"Good to see you too, Celcho," she responded.
Celcho didn't stop smiling. "So... what are you running this time?"
Priire shrugged. "What makes you think I'm running anything? I'm respectable now!"
The rest of the table laughed this time. "Give me a break! No way!"
One of the men reached a hand around her waist. "You? Respectable? Not possible, kid. Whaddya do? Sell out?" He grabbed her left hand and looked at the ring she was wearing. "Is that how you can get such pretty baubles?"
Priire grabbed his wrist with her other hand and squeezed it. Hard. "I will break your hand."
The redheaded man laughed. "Yeah, she's still our girl!" He took her hand in his to admire the ring. "So, does this mean what I think it means?"
"It depends." Priire couldn't help grinning. "What do you think it means?"
Celcho shook his head. "Of all people, I can't see you settling down. Who's the lucky guy?"
Shrugging, Priire answered, "Someone honest."
"Why didn't I think of that??"
~*~*~*~*~
"Here's the load," Priire said, balancing a clipboard on her knee and checking things off. "I hope this is what you wanted."
The purple-haired woman Priire had been addressing put her hand on Priire's shoulder. "Thank you so much, dearie. There's just not that many people that'll haul stuff from Coruscant for free. You such a good person, honey."
Priire smiled. "It's nothing much. I just wanted to get away form the Temple and see the stars again."
"Dearie, that's s' nice. Do you work at the Jedi Temple?" The woman patted Priire's shoulder again.
Pushing her sunglasses off her face, Priire shrugged. "Kind of. I ferry around a group of Jedi Special Forces when they need it."
"That's so nice, honey. Would you like to meet the family that's getting all these pretty things? They're real sweet." The woman sighed. "I've heard that they might be getting a divorce. I don't know why, though, dearie. They're a foster family, like I told you."
Priire nodded and tried to look interested.
"They has a little girl with them that they just got a few weeks ago. She's s' little, and no one knows where she came from. All they know is that some yella-eyed woman brought her in. But she's a precious little thing, honey. Are you sure you don't want to go see her?"
The woman seemed so anxious to show her the family that finally Priire nodded and made plans to visit the Diciembre family the next day.
~*~*~*~*~
"Mrs. Diciembre? There gonna be a lady coming tomorrow. She want to see the baby. Hey, are you... oh my stars! Help! Someone! Call the police!"
~*~*~*~*~
It wasn't hard to love the rolling fields clothed in night's deep shades. Stars seemed to be reaching down from the heavens and lending their otherworldly beauty to every waving stalk of grain. Priire sighed happily and leaned back against the Talon's viewpoint. The metal under her was cold, but she didn't care. The land was beautiful in the pre-dawn stillness.
After a few more minutes, she forced herself up and lightly leapt to the ground. As she did, a feeling of pure darkness swept over her. It wasn't a peaceful dark, like the dark of the night kissing her shoulders. No... this was a cruel and evil darkness. Like the Coming Darkness she'd heard Yukiko talk of.
Priire tried to shake the feeling off as the sun rose and pushed the dark farther across the globe. The blonde had a meeting that she didn't care to miss.
~*~*~*~*~
"What's going on here?" Priire demanded as she walked up to the house with long, powerful strides. The blonde pushed her mirrored sunglasses up her head. She looked over the various law enforcement agents and the coroner and cursed.
"I's sorry, miss. You can't cross this line."
Priire sighed and turned to the man speaking to her. "Just tell me what happened. I'm supposed to be here meeting with the family."
The man shook his head. "There ain't no family left to meet with. They all dead."
With a frown, Priire looked at the house. She reached out with her senses, then smiled. "They aren't all..."
"...dead," a deep voice behind her finished.
She didn't look surprised as she turned around, even though Priire hadn't heard the man's approach. A good look at him told her many things. "A Corellian Jedi? Aren't you a little far from home?"
The blonde-haired man smiled tightly. "Not me. I'm investigating this murder-suicide. The father was murdered, and the mother committed suicide."
Priire tried not to show she was nervous. That meant he was more than likely Corellian Security. Great. All she needed was a nosey CorSec hotshot hanging around. She shook her head. There were more important things to do right now. "We've got to get the baby out of the house."
"We?"
Very slowly, Priire turned on the purple-eyed man. "Yes, 'we', CorSec."
"I don't remember inviting you in on my investigation," he said, crossing his arms so that his green and black cloak flowed around him. He was supposed to look menacing, but it didn't work on Priire.
"You didn't." Priire stared through him with her killing green eyes. "I invited myself. Trust me on this one. There's more going on here than meets the eye."
The Corellian Jedi rolled his eyes. "You're going to tell me some renegade Sith did this."
"Very possibly," Priire muttered, remember her dark feeling earlier. "I have... let's say I have an instinct."
The green-robed Jedi rolled his eyes again. "Since I have a feeling you're going to force yourself into this no matter how much I try and keep you out, my name's Micajha Autry."
"Priire." She didn't give any name but that; Priire knew for a fact she was wanted by several aliases in the Corellian Sector.
Micajha held the tape up so she could slide through. He glanced around the walk to the earthy abode while Priire walked directly to the half-open door. The blonde turned to look at the blonde man. He was examining the scuffed up ground beneath the window. Without waiting for him, Priire stepped into the house.
Immediately, she wrapped a gloved hand around the hematite necklace that hung at her throat. It took her a good long moment to relax enough to be able to cast her narrowed eyes over the trashed living room. There was nothing on the surface to send her into such an intense state of hyper-alertness. What was it, then?
She felt a hand on her shoulder and instinct ruled her powerful form. Twisting her body around, she pinned the intruder into her alertness to the wall. One of her many knives had appeared in her hand and was pressed against his throat.
"Down, girl!" Micajha gasped. "What the Sith are you doing?"
Priire let him go and backed off. She didn't answer him; instead, she rubbed her hand across the wall. The ex-mercenary rubbed her thumb across the tips of her fingers as if there was some liquid on her fingers. Very carefully, she breathed in the air around her. Micajha watched her, confused. He didn't feel anything.
Suddenly, her eyes snapped open. "Darth Syn. But why? What's so important about the Diciemre family that he would come here?"
She seemed to be talking to herself, but Micajha needed to know what she knew. He put his hands on her shoulders. "What?"
"Darth Syn," she explained matter-of-factly. "Also know as Prince Charming, or Sith Charming. No other known aliases. He works all over the galaxy, and he has special powers. One of which is control over women in certain instances." She turned her green eyes on the Corellian. "You're looking at a double murder, here, Micajha."
"Call me Mic." He was now very interested and slightly impressed. "You can tell all this by just looking at the crime scene?" The man shook his head and reminded himself that he knew nothing about her. She could be lying.
Priire shook her head. "I'm the pilot for a group of Jedi Special Forces. We've had a few run-ins with him." She walked over to the couch and moved several shreds of curtain off it. "I can feel him."
"Jedi Special Forces?"
Priire rolled her eyes. "Something like that." The blonde knelt down beside the couch and moved another bit of shredded curtain. She frowned when she saw a tiny baby underneath. The dark-haired child was lying in a pool of shattered glass. The glass looked to be almost as fine as Tatooine sand.
The baby opened her eyes and cooed at Priire. The blonde could help but smile gently and scoop the child up. Her blue-flecked-with-yellow eyes opened wide as her tiny hand reached for Priire's necklace.
"Don't do that, sweetheart," Priire laughed as the baby grabbed hold of the hematite charm. "Let go."
Micajha had, by this time, walked over to where Priire was standing. "This must be Kleppa."
Nodding, Priire moved the baby into a more comfortable position. There was some kind of aura emanating from the baby. Like one that she'd felt before... but not exactly. It was like seeing the color white, then seeing off-white next to it. Priire tried to place where she'd gotten the same sensation before. "Kairiku."
The man beside her frowned. "No, her name is Kleppa. Who's Kairiku?"
Priire blinked. She hadn't realized she'd spoken out loud. "No one important right now." But very important to Priire. Kleppa had the same feel as Kairiku, Kyoko's future daughter. Or like Tejina, Kirana's future daughter. Chouko, Rene's future daughter... the list could go on.
"She's special," Priire murmured. "I can feel it."
Micajha reached over Priire's shoulder to put a hand on the baby's head. "I... I don't know. There's something different about her, that's for sure. But what, I don't know."
"I do, Mic. I do."
The Corellian wanted to question her about what she felt, but he was interrupted by a purple-haired woman. "Honey, I's so glad you's here! We was so worried! When I found all of this, I didn't know what would happen!"
Priire smiled and hugged the baby close to her chest. "Hi, again."
"Honey!" the purple-haired woman exclaimed. "Is you okay with all this blood and such?"
This time, Priire tried not to smile. "I'm fine."
The woman sighed. "What is we gonna do with little Kleppa? There ain't a home around who'll take her. Not after this."
Micajha interrupted. "Superstitious?"
"But, dearie, this baby is bad luck! We all knowed it. They was just kind enough to take her in." The woman groaned. "What is we gonna do?"
The Corellian man shook his head. Superstitions. They were so pointless. And now this baby was going to be alone for the rest of her life because of them. No one would take her in. He certainly wasn't going to.
"Can I have her?"
~*~*~*~*~
Ippin was missing Priire. She missed her stupid jokes, her practical jokes, her candy stash, her target practice at Riku... well, maybe not that.
It had been three weeks since Priire left, and there hadn't even been a call. Nothing.
The redhead sighed and glanced up from the book she wasn't reading. Everyone seemed peaceful, relaxed... bored.
Suddenly, Xarae giggled.
Considering Xarae's normal state of dignity and quiet repose, this was unusual. The brown-haired woman put a hand over her mouth, and the giggles subsided to a grin. Ippin wanted to know what had tickled Xarae so. She was about to ask when she heard booted feet against the floor of the Room Behind the Waterfall. Ippin turned her brown eyes to see whom it was and squealed.
"Hi everyone," Priire laughed. "Look what I found! Can I keep her?"
Ippin looked horrified. "Aster... I have visions of you knocking down some little old lady and stealing her baby..."
Priire grinned. "It's a long story." She held up the tiny infant. "Isn't she precious?"
The baby's sparkling blue eyes caught everyone's attention, even more so than the child's burnt red hair. The little girl cooed.
"Her name is Kleppa."
Ippin stopped cooing at the baby to stare at the man standing behind Priire. "And he is...?"
"Micajha Autry. They wouldn't let me have Kleppa unless I was married..."
"Seijoutai Priire!"
She gave his sister a green-eyed glare. "So I told them about Kousotsu. Mic is Corellian Security. He offered to fly the Talon, Kleppa, and me home." Priire had a false smile on her face. "CorSec. Police. You know..."
"Oops."
Micajha was staring at Priire with narrowed eyes. "Would that be the same Seijoutai Priire who flew her swoop through the Corellia Mall?"
Priire rolled her eyes.
"And made off with a visiting princess's jewels?"
Priire started whistling.
"And hijacked that same princess's speeder?"
Sutaru threw a pillow at the blonde pilot. "Leave my planet alone!"
The ex-mercenary ducked behind Ippin to protect herself. "Nothing got that messed up! I was hired! I gave it back!"
The little Corellian senshi continued throwing things until Kousotsu grabbed her and swung her around. He'd felt Priire come in and the excitement surrounding her arrival through the Force.
"Kousotsu!" Priire said, a bigger grin finding its way to her face. "I missed you!" Her smiled turned impish. "Look what I found!"
The handsome man's face paled. "Not again," he groaned, half-seriously. "Who does she belong to? And what are we going to tell you other daughter?"
Ippin laughed uncontrollably. "Priire, you're gonna have more kids than Annika!"
As if it was some magic charm, the mentioned odango atama appeared. It only made Ippin laugh harder when Annika squealed and dashed over to where Priire was standing. "Babies!"
While the women laughed, talked, and made a fuss over Kleppa, the two men introduced themselves.
"Mic. Good to meet you."
"Kousotsu. Same here."
They shook hands and that was the end of the conversation.
"Can I hold her?" Annika squealed. Priire nodded and very carefully handed the baby to her friend. Annika cooed at the little girl and twisted one of the baby's locks of hair around her finger. "She's precious!"
Kousotsu put an arm around Priire. "Why did you pick her up?"
For a moment, Priire considered how to explain it. "I'm not sure, exactly. I can feel she's special, and I get a sense that she needs to be protected. Do you..."
Instead of Kousotsu replying, Xarae did the job. "I'm in a special position to know. That child needs us."
"So I can keep her?"
Everyone laughed at Priire as she took the baby from Annika. "Kleppa..." she cooed. "You're gonna stay with us where you'll be safe."
