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Of the two girls in the cell, the blonde was the most talkative. The other one—with brown hair—was usually of a quieter turn, but the blonde could get anyone to talk.
Without opening her eyes, the dark-haired girl asked a question. “What this time, Priire?”
“Gotten everyone in trouble,” the one called Priire said, despondently. Usually the embodiment of the old saying “laugh, love, live” Priire’s unhappiness made the other open her eyes.
“There are only two of us here,” the other girl smiled.
“You’re right, Xarae. I seem to get some of everybody in trouble!”
Xarae smiled slightly. “You are good at that.”
Priire’s laughter rang out. “So you think I’m good at getting everyone in trouble?”
“Oooooo, no comment!” the older girl said.
They were quiet for a moment. The only sound was the clanking of the old fashioned chains around their wrists and ankles. Priire had already gotten Xarae to check if she could use her considerable talent in the Force to snap the shackles and chains that held them. Unfortunately, there was something blocking the Force in their area. They guessed that it was a yalsamari.
“Xarae, what’s your favorite color?” Priire asked.
“Black,” the woman replied. “Why?”
The blonde gave her a roguish smile. “We need something to pass the time. No, now I have a better idea.”
“Good,” she replied. “Now I don’t have to think of another color.”
They laughed.
“Here’s something. Pick one word—just one—that describes you,” Xarae suggested.
“Stars,” Priire said with reverence.
The other girl looked at Priire. “Why stars?”
“You know my saying is ‘Starbred Senshi…’ ”
“Sh! No one can know that,” Xarae warned.
Another shrug. “They can’t,” Priire explained. “I checked this room for bugs. I’m a merc and a smuggler, remember?”
Xarae looked curious. “That’s another story I want to hear.”
“Later.” Priire paused, calming her turbulent feelings. “Anyway, ‘starbred’ basically means someone who is so closely connected with the stars that if you ever took that person away from them for a very long time they would go crazy or die. Someone who moves among the stars like a pulsar skate moves in the Corellian oceans. It was a title given to me by a man who said he’d give up his life for a starbred because they were the most holy thing in his culture. I felt honored when he gave it to me, but I’m not sure anymore if I really deserve it,” she sighed. The way she’d said it made Xarae realize that she’d been wrestling with the thought for a while. “Anyway,” she sighed softly. “It’s not like I can do anything about it. Destiny calls…and I follow. Does it bug anyone else to be at destiny’s beck and call?”
Silence reigned for a moment after the rhetorical question. Priire leaned back and closed her eyes. She didn’t move, listening for any clue as to where they were or how to get out. A sound made her crack an eye. Xarae had curled up a little tighter. The girl’s knees were to her chest and she looked as if she was trying to protect herself from something. Feeling that she didn’t have to face whatever fears it was alone; Priire spoke into the quiet.
“Xarae?”
The other one’s brown hair fell over her shoulders as she started. Priire hadn’t meant to scare her, and said so.
“It’s ok. I was just thinking. This place reminds me…” She didn’t say anymore.
“Of what?” Priire asked with gentleness.
“Well, once Sidious sent us on a mission that included crawling through heating ducts, spying on some Jedi. I…I got claustrophobic but he soothed me and put me to sleep in his arms.” Xarae’s eyes shone with unshed tears. “I remember it so well…” Her voice trailed off into tears.
Wishing that she could get over to her Sailor friend and put her arm around Xarae’s shoulder, Priire did the next best thing. “Maul?”
Xarae nodded then accented her tears with a deluge of words. “Sometimes I wish I could just drop off the earth. It just...gets to be too much for me. Even when you are there I am still alone. It just gets worse with every passing second without him. He is my other self. He isn't only my lover, he is my best friend, and sometimes he feels like my only friend. And he is gone. I can't believe it. I've had so many tragic things happen to me, but compared to this...only...Xianen and...Vidna, Kiristo...Do you know what it is like to watch your firstborn child die in your arms? Do you know how it feels to be too weak to save your newborn? I...I need...I can remember when I would sit with Xianen and sing him to sleep. And I remember looking up from his baby face to see Khameir in the doorway, his arms folded against his bare chest, a rare smile gracing his lips. Khameir...He has given me everything. Five years of his life.” Xarae paused then said it again. “Five years. And I...I can only give him sickened children and my loyalty. He tells me I have given him everything...my body, my virginity, a love no one else could ever give him...I gave him endless grief. It was so hard for me to watch him...I was...laying there, my dead body, covered by a shroud, in a beautiful white gown, and a white rose in my frail hands. I watched him cry over my body. I'd never seen him cry until then. It was so hard. I yelled his name over and over again but he couldn't hear me. I ran to hold him, but I couldn't. I couldn't hold him, I couldn't speak to him. He couldn't see me. He couldn't SEE me. I don't think I can make it.” Her voice broke again and she cried.
Deep inside, Priire hurt for Xarae. “I’ve never been loved, never like that.”
“Maybe that’s a good thing.”
Priire looked shocked. “Never to know the wonder of being held by someone who loved you beyond mortality? I don’t think I’d wish that on anyone.”
“I wouldn’t wish the pain of this separation on anyone.” Before Priire could ask the next logical question, Xarae pushed on. “And yet, if I had to do it over…the only thing I’d do different is love him more.”
“It sounds beautiful,” Priire said softly. “You’re lucky.”
“Why? Love can be a dangerous thing, Priire. You've pieced your life back together, why rip it open again? Love does things to your life that change you forever. Sometimes for the better, sometimes not. Love isn't bliss. Love is something...unexplainable. The point is, Priire, love tears your life into a million pieces, and you never can place them back together ever again.”
Priire half smiled like the rogue she was. “It doesn’t look like you’re off to a bad start, yourself. I still think it would be nice to be loved…just once.”
Xarae shook her head. “It doesn’t work like that. You don’t love once. You love for always.”
There was another interlude of silence as the younger girl thought about those words. She cocked her head to the side and let her tightly braided hair fall over in her eyes. This prompted a question from Xarae.
“Why do you wear your hair like that?”
Priire tucked her blonde braids behind her ears and thought before she answered…for once. “When I was a kid I was bounced from place to place and it was like no one wanted me. In the last place I…well, I can’t really say I lived anywhere…stayed, my aunt seemed to love my hair more than anything else about me. She would always say how long and beautiful it was. Once, she even piled it on top of my head and tucked tiny white and blue flowers in it. Sith, she even got me to brush it regularly.” Priire’s smile was bittersweet. “I never did that as a kid. When I ran off, I wanted to get as far from her and the rest of my family as I could. At first, I wanted to cut it all off and wear it shorter than Zyta’s.”
Xarae shuddered a little. “I would never, ever cut my hair.”
Priire nodded. “I got to thinking like that too. So I just braided it. It’s really easy to take care of, and people can’t grab hold of it and yank as easily, and it sure doesn’t fly in your face.”
“Your hair, your choice.” The longhaired girl shrugged. “Still, have you ever thought about just wearing it?”
An unsure look came over Priire’s face. “Some. But I think I’ll leave it like it is. Reminds me too much of my family,” she spat the last word out like it tasted bad.
In the echo of the word, Xarae spoke again. “I've always dreamed about a family. I was...” she stumbled over the word, “abused...when I was young. I've always wanted to be a good mother. I...I was so happy when I was pregnant.” She smiled as she recalled that happier time. “Khameir was a little less than ecstatic about it, I really think he was afraid for the first time in his life...I remember telling him about it. He was...”
“Surprised?”
“To say the least! He wouldn't believe me. And he was so bitter to me about it all...but you should have seen the look on his face when I finally gave birth. I've never seen him happier. He tried to mask his feelings for Xianen, but he was quite unsuccessful. I remember coming back from a little lesson with Sidious...to see Khameir sitting cross-legged on our bed, playing with Xianen. I know he was so happy when he was with his son. I wanted so badly to give him more happiness, but it just...wasn't meant to be. That was what I mourned for the most. Our happiness. It left with our firstborn son. We'll never be the same...” Tears welled up in Xarae’s eyes again.
Priire looked down and frowned at her bonds. “Telepathic comforting hug,” she said, miming hugging someone.
That made Xarae smile though her sadness. “You…are…crazy!”
Priire took as much of a bow as she could. “You’re not half bad yourself.” She looked around the cell. “We have got to get out of here.”
Xarae frowned at her. “It’s not that easy. I mean, it’s not as if all the sudden someone’s going to appear and just zap us back to where ever!” She halfhearted glared at Priire for a moment. Then the brown haired girl’s deep blue eyes unfocused and she spoke dreamily. “He’s coming!”
“Let me get this straight,” Priire said after turning around. “You just said no one was going to appear and zap us back. That it just wasn’t going to happen. Right? So please explain the presence of a dead Sith Lord breathing down my neck.”
She wasn’t listening. Priire was the farthest thing from Xarae’s mind. “You came,” she whispered.
He didn’t speak. The man whom every Sailor from Earth had claimed to be the personification of evil stood silent. In the instant that Priire looked away and looked back, wondering if he was real, the tattooed man ran a ghostly hand down Xarae’s cheek saying more in a motion than a million words.
Xarae herself closed her liquid blue eyes as one tear trailed down her face. “Thank you,” she said as soft as the wind that seemed to blow Maul’s ethereal cloak.
With a suddenness that gave word to his training, Maul spun his lightsaber and ignited it. The red blade twisted around with such speed that it made a circle of light.
“Pretty,” Priire commented as the two captured Sailors broke free of their bonds and stood. The spinning saber had formed into a red hole in the space/time continuum. On the other side, Priire could see Sailor Yavin beckoning with her staff to them.
“Shall we?” Priire asked.
Xarae smiled. “Do you believe in love?” she whispered looking at Priire.
Because the brown-haired girl wasn’t looking at him, Xarae missed Maul’s brief smile.
