Hoth: Blood and Ice

[Baesal Zyn]

The wizened togruta had been looking over the ridge for a moment, looking one last time at the world came to call home one last time. At the distance she could see the spires of the Jedi Temple she had built reflect the pink, orange and red hues of light from Tython's setting sun.

It was still a breathtaking sight after all these years.

Yet some in the Council were beginning to suggest the Order should move to Ossus as it was deemed more suitable. A shortsighted mesure to be sure and one she had opposed while she had been Grand Master but...that time had passed. She had resigned from her position that very morning and spent the day putting her affairs in order.

That certainly brought memories and made plain the toll the weight of the years had taken on her. Most of who she had known had either died long ago, disappeared without a trace or moved into retirement with family and other loved ones. There was some bitterness in these thoughts and she knew it well...the feeling of having been left behind.

She also knew, however, that this bleak sentiment was unjust towards those that were still around and had made fer last few years pleasant. Daz, one amongst them, had grown into a respected master and she was quite certain he could succeed her in her role as the head of the order...if he would ever accept the position.

She sighed, almost laughed: He was Layne's cousin indeed. The thought morphed itself into a memory.

She had not been there when Layne finally met her end but she had been told the tale and remembered the small service that happened when the coalition finally had some respite. The strongest element she could recall was Jerri and his silence. It was not hard for the silence was so loud it was deafening for any who could hear it.

She paused her travel and sat down on a log by the trail to take catch her breath. The trees were in bloom, extending a veil of white flowers over the valley below. From a certain point of view it seemed like the earth sought to reflect the evening's sky above it out of admiration or respect.

This was not so different from Galen's funeral. She remembered the service to be different from the ostentatious display of the other Panteer but it might be her memory was playing tricks. To her, the affair had been humble but purposeful...quite like the man Galen had become himself. It was out of respect for him she did not withdraw support the Paladins. To her they were too close to the crown and the games of nobility to properly serve the people but, if Galen could be an inspiration to those who remained, perhaps some good could come of them until history claimed them.

She'd give them a century or two, by her estimations, much like the Blackguard.

''Bloody Zeno''

She had frowned when the words left her lips. After it did she began moving once more.

The damn bastard could not see past himself or the now. He might have empowered his daugthers with his last act but robbed them of so much more. She was not sure if the action was selfish or selfless. Perhaps it was cowardly? Why did he not realize his children might need a father rather then power? Yes, cowardly. She supposed he could not bear to see harm befall them and felt...too limited perhaps. She sighed again. What was done was done, may he rest in peace...if he is still able after that ritual.

At least Breela managed to reach a degree of peace with her family. Things had been difficult with her daughter in law but, well, Breela was...opinionated. She managed to come around, last she'd heard, thought she suspected her daughter's first love had to fight a nearly literal tiger mom to ask her out.

She had gone up and away quite a bit despite being an old woman with a cane. She was never the most physical but she made up for it with sheer obstinance.

Now the sights had changed. The land below was all but hidden by the penumbra and the two moons of Tython had risen over the horizon. She could she Ashla make her ascent and from afar she could almost think the moon was made of pure white marble. Following her was Bogan. She could not see this one at this time of year, per se, but she knew its presence by the vast expanse of darkness that blotted the stars behind it.

She had known someone like this once too. A crimson shadow that had gifted the galaxy with strife, a shadow only identifiable by her wake. Her heart clenched as she thought about that woman, Moyr. She had loved her once, that was true enough, but the ebb and flow of time and fate made her lie when she said that their fate where tied together. Not that she wanted to lie but Moyr never could look at her quite like before. At best they were old friends, estranged friends, and despite her best effort that did not seem to change as much as she'd liked.

Darth Bellious had her sights set on something, a world and legacy of her own and there was no place for this jedi there. She had helped her where she could, even if she shouldn't have. Moyr had always been her weakness.

She looked up at the invisible presence and past it

''Are you happy, at least?''

She looked back down and continued to path to it's destination in silence. The dangers that might have lurked in the brushes knew better then to harass this particular old woman. Perhaps they would sense the strength of the Force within her or they would smell the Kin on her.

Tython was a strange an wonderful place indeed

And so she came upon her final destination. The construction was elegantly simple from the outside: Within the shadow of the peak was found a simple ovoid object that filtered the light through, making it invisible at a distance. A trick she had learned from the Gree and Hatcha's work. The defenses powered down at her approach and the now white-silvery egg seemed to melt away to expose the opening iris gate on the ground.

She stepped on the platform and, with a movement of the hand, reshaped the egg and activated the lift. The descend was fast but comfortable as she designed that elevator with her old bones in mind. It did not take a minute to reach the entrance of the hidden structure

Her tomb

She did not want to build the structure at first but that was R-5 T-8's wish. He never asked for anything else and after years of dutiful service she could not refuse him such a thing. The tomb was state of her art and similar in construction to the upgraded and polished Star Moth who was docked to it and could exit via a secret underwater tunnel: Years of training and refinement made the blend of artificial and natural harmonize to perfection. The designs and functions was ever alien but also mesmerizing and artful. Many minds would break trying to understand or reproduce her work here...and they would also fail.

As she reached the doors of the inner sanctum the also newly upgraded R-5 came to greet her and complement the location. The droid was in heaven as he finally returned to his primary functions. She bade him goodbye one last time and instructed him to never enter the inner sanctum before she did so herself.

The living wall closed behind her and before her was a large cocoon like pod that would be her sarcophagus, hovering over a large pool of viscous liquid of turquoise hue. Behind it was another iris door but it was not time to cross that one yet.

She breathed in for a moment, final musing in her head. She would die here, in a way. What would emerge from the cocoon once the process had started would look, sound and perhaps think like her...but it would also be something so different that it could not be her.

It should not be her.

The old master undressed slowly and put her personal affairs in an alcove before walking to the pod. The pod was so oversized that it almost made her look like a children as she grabbed it's soft, silk smooth edge and pulled herself in. The cocoon began closing on her and so did her eyes as she entered a final meditation.

Closed, the cocoon submerged itself in the pool and the lights from the crystal lanterns went darkened into twilight.

From within the room it was impossible to tell the passage of time. It might have been days, weeks, months or even perhaps years until the structure sensed the tremor in the Force coming from the center of the inner sanctum. The lights powered back on and the now congealed liquid cracked and tore away from the re-emerging pod. The thing itself was wrapped tight around was was inside it as if it had shrunk or the occupant had grown to exceed what it could hold.

Soon movement was seen under it's thin surface and something began to slowly test it's limits. One of the sides would finally be punctured by the tip of an outstretched, clawed, hand. A tall but thin figure, robed with gossamer-like film, would emerge from the hole and fall to it's knees on the platform. It's body jerked at odd angles, still unfamiliar with itself

Then it took it's first breath and became calm

The gossamer began to move and shift until it peeled itself away from the main body and straightened at it's back forming two sets of delicate glass-like wings. They began moving and stretching, the light passing through giving them the appearance of living stained glass and leaving a myriad of colors in it's wake.

Once free from it's own appendage, the main body would begin to rise up to it's full stature.

It began observing itself, gazing at the seemingly fragile crystalline chitin that covered it's body over it's metalline flesh. It instinctively knew that despite it's look this chitin would prove more impenetrable then durasteel.

It also knew that it was a she.

She turned with a dancer's step towards what remained of the pool to get a sliver of a reflection. She was feminine indeed as she had kept her former body's primary and secondary sexual characteristic, if only in appearance. Her montrals and lekkus were also present in form but most surprising was her face. It was...almost the same. The coloring was different but the shape and expressions it made was identical to a younger self.

Except for her eyes

They were not killik joiner black eyes, no, they were fine compound eyes that seemed to shine pink, green or yellow in turn.

She smiled, wondering what her former self would say. Or what anyone else would say. She also smiled, wondering how vain she was finding herself mesmerizingly beautiful.

As she did she reached through the force, through her synaptic network, through the unseen link the kin shared with each other.

All of them replied

She sensed the waking of her hive: drones, semi-sentient relays and sentient agents. Has awakening washed over them, her own mind and awareness extended and transformed into something unique and unparalleled. Something with a purpose.

She was now Queen of a hive of her own making. Her children and herself would grow and evolve in secret as they would keep a silent and unseen watch over the galaxy as it's new guardian.