บท 118: Toxitus' Last Gift
I don't own Star Wars.
"Dad!" without thinking I ran towards the door to his room only to be tackled by the doctor and grabbed by Newt.
"Do you not understand what a quarantine is?!" hissed the green woman as she smacked my head through the hazard suit.
"What's wrong with him?!" I shouted, getting up to stare horrified at the man who was a little corpse of himself. "How is he still alive?"
"Never mind that… Listen…" Dad hissed slowly, cringing as he spoke with a voice like someone set his larynx on fire. I could see his organs working under his skin. It was… terrifying. "It hurts to talk so listen to me… LISTEN TO NEWT…" he growled, his fingers tightening on the sheets. "X-Xalbaia…" he growled as the doctor scrambled to a nearby button and pressed it. Several medical droids shambled in and began sticking him with various plunders and needles. Coving his face with an oxygen mask as he sighed and closed his eyes… the bed suddenly shifted, the sides curved up and closed around him with a cold misty hiss…
He was frozen.
"What… what's WRONG with him?" I asked turning to Xalbaia as she lead me down an alleyway.
"…It's a long story…" she began but Newt started speaking it.
"Several years ago my brother, Orrin told your father that Altora, your grandmother, was gathering everyone your father thoroughly pissed off in an attempt to get revenge. The usual. Now. Your father went off to curtail that. He began hitting and running her operations and taking out all of those who agreed with her… then your grandmother made a deal with your… other Grandmother."
I blinked at her as Xalbaia pulled us into a white room, shutting the door behind us and taking off the mask. Letting us know it was safe. "Wait. Who?"
"Darth Malisis." She said firmly, "The twi'lek I told you to RUN from when you were working that bounty on Blataant. She's Yura's Mother."
I dropped a little surprised onto a nearby chair as Xalbaia began to make tea. "…She's my grandmother?"
"Anyway." She said, waving off that information. "In return for outside the Empire's resources, Malisis gave Altora a plethora of research thought up by her former Sith pet Toxitus, who was incidentally also Malisis' former master."
"That's convenient."
"Doesn't make it any less true." Newt replied with a shrug. "A part of that research was a bioweapon that Toxitus didn't quite finish. A certain Scarlet Togruta stole most of the research and fried the hard drive. But Altora managed to get her hands on a watered-down version. Originally. Malisis' other allies, some sort of cabal, were to attack and inject Aiden with the weapon, but Aiden killed the first one and severely crippled the other." She smirked fondly, "He should start getting paid for that. Lot of money in killing people with lightsabers."
"So then how did he get infected with… whatever it is?" I asked, and Newt sighed.
"…Your father once told me he'd shoot his mother in the face for free… but when he had the opportunity he hesitated. And she got him… running off before he could finish her off… he was dying within the day and Calypso and Yura were sick within the hour and getting worse by the second. He managed to stabilize them by getting them in a cryo-chamber but he still had to find a doctor crazy enough to help him.
"Or owed him enough to actually care." Xalbaia replied, setting down the tea tray. "Sugar?"
"But what's… wrong with him what is it?"
"As far as I can tell the weapon was originally designed to kill republic-allied alien races by attacking something inside them, their very genetics… it's like a smart virus. It's working slower on Aiden because he's only half-alien. Newt and I are safe as far as I can tell." She then shook her head disparagingly, "…But he's not getting better, and he's not getting worse. The disease is literally killing him and keeping him alive. On the very edge of death. Its torture in a viral stage…"
"Who makes something like that?" I asked nobody in particular, just trying to process it.
"A sith lord." Newt replied, "Altora wanted him to suffer but she also wanted him to die. So she's pissed that it hasn't happened yet. And as an added bonus, Malisis is a little unhappy that Altora didn't keep her end of the deal. Deliver one blue twi'lek to her. She wanted Yura, and now Yura's dying to…"
I sighed and rubbed my hair, "Is my mom on this ship? Can I see her?"
"She's not here. She's on Hoth." Newt replied, I tried to ask why but she held up a hand. "The best place to hide an ice cube is with other ice cubes. This way if they manage to find Aiden, Xalbaia has other subjects to study and find a cure. But Aiden is the only one that can stay conscious and awake long enough for Xalbaia to get samples. Yura and Milky might die within minutes…"
"Are they safe?"
"A secretive friend of your father's watches over them with a collection of emotionless battle droids." Newt said, "And you need to stay away from them because I'm getting to the point." She sipped her tea, blanched and added sugar. "Altora wants Aiden dead, Malisis wants Yura. But from what I can tell they've both decided to settle for less. And come for YOU."
"...What?" I asked staring at her.
"Altora will be content in killing her grandson by proxy. And Malisis thinks you're force sensitive like your mother and wants to corrupt you into her cause."
"…But I'm NOT force sensitive. My MOTHER is barely force sensitive."
Newt smiled a little mischievously, "But you are. Your mother however, trained you to suppress it when she was training you to use a sword. She was trained the same way so the jedi she was sent after wouldn't feel her coming."
I blinked at her, "…You're fucking lying."
"Watch your mouth." She scolded, "And I am NOT. You can, to some extent, use the force. But it's not like I can teach you how to take off those mental blocks. So. We're going to have to deal with one thing at a time and focus on Altora."
"Wait, what do you mean?"
"Altora is the only one with a finished bioweapon." She said, leaning forward and staring at me, "We need it to fix Aiden. Xalbaia can whip up a cure much faster if we can get a pure sample."
"Okay." I said firmly, she was briefly taken aback.
"Just like that?"
"Yeah. Dad, Mom, Mama… whatever I can do. What do I need to do?"
"…Bait." She said with a shrug. "We got to get her eyes on you… Preferably try to capture you to gloat. Then we trace her and raid her. She's already tried to capture you once when she put that hutt bounty on you…" she then laughed a little, "I mean. When she had Tuuba put that bounty on you. She pretty much has his entire organization under her thumb. Uses him as little more then a figurehead… For now."
"…Seriously." I asked a little disgusted.
"Altora's not stupid. Just focused." Newt replied. "So. I'm going to take you back to Spira. Put a goddamn tracer on you so you won't stay kidnapped for long the next time it happens-"
"I'm not letting it happen again." I said sourly.
"Uh huh…" she replied, smirking at me, "I'll take my chances. And then… you're going to go to Torga and ask him to give you jobs to piss off Tuuba's businesses… we're calling your grandmother out… your paternal grandmother. You know what? I'm just going to borrow a phrase from Aiden, Your bitch of a grandmother."
She stood up and downed her tea in a quick gulp before glancing at Xalbaia. "Thank you for the tea. Do you need anything?"
"Some new holo-vids. I've watched My Little Bantha the Movie far too much for my liking." She replied sardonically before turning on the holo-screen, and sure enough, the My Little Bantha theme song played out as she turned to watch it, completely bored. Speaking the opening scene word for word.
"Right…" Newt and I said together, walking out as she waved goodbye absently, still speaking the movie.
"How do you know all of this?" I asked as we headed back to the Death Trap. "Who else knows?"
"I'm a very good spy." She replied simply, "And as to who else knows about your father and mothers; Tolara, Scarlet, Orrin, Isana."
"…Wait who?" I asked, hearing a name I didn't recognize. "Whose Isana?"
"A bounty hunter friend of your father. She's being paid an exorbitant sum of money to protect your mothers." Newt replied, "She can be trusted." She sat in the pilot's seat and patted the copilot's chair, telling me to sit. "Come on. I'll take you back to Spira. I got to return this ship anyway."
I stared at her as I felt the ship move beneath me… and we flew away in silence, I got one last glimpse of the quarantine ship, before it flicked out of sight. I turned to her as she flew casually, planets and asteroids flying by as we caught a glimpse of the blue orb of Spira.
"…How long have you been watching me?"
"I've been looking out for you and Circe for three years give or take. I pretty much told your Aunt Tolara that it was happening and went off… Orrin got the job I was originally up for. Of course once that bounty got out I had to give you something to protect yourself other than that old wookiee."
"So you gave me dad's rifle."
"It was just collecting dust in his ship. I figured you could put it to better use." She smiled prettily at me. "Still. I had hoped you'd go live with Circe after you got that bounty off. Make it a little easier for me to keep an eye on the both of you, but Scarlet offered to do it for me. It's when she also found out about your dad… she wasn't happy about it either." Then a little smugly, she took off the glove on her left hand to reveal a silver ring on her ring finger. "Especially when I told her I married Aiden. The look on her face was HILARIOUS." She added as I stared at her.
"Wait… so what does that make you?"
"Your step-mother I suppose." She replied with a shrug, "But you can call just me Newt. Now. When we land, call your friends on the com and go home. I'll contact you when I have a solid lead on your grandmother…" she said, landing the ship at the port. "I got to return this hunk of junk to Knights and get back to my own ship…"
"You stole this ship from Ozjin Knights?" I asked shocked as she stood up and took my right hand.
"I borrowed it. He was pissing me off. Now." She clasped something around my wrist, a tight-fitting bracelet. "This is a tracker that you can't take off. Because I know better." She said firmly.
"What?! Hey no! I-" then she pulled something from a satchel at her waist and I paused… it was a lightsaber. "…Why do you have that?"
"… It's your mother's." she handed it to me, smiling kindly, "I figured you should have it now in case someone angry and sith-like decides they would like to cut off your head. You're a natural with a sword, just ask Caradoc to give you pointers." Then she shrugged again and wrapping an arm comfortingly around my shoulders led me off the ship. "…Or a jedi. Who knows…"
"This is…" I held the saber hilt reverently in my hand. It belonged to mom. I tightened my griped and attached it to my belt. "…This is a lot Newt."
She smiled at me, kissed my forehead, and handed me speeder bike codes. "…Go home Sweetie. Call your girls. Have a nap… and lock your doors alright?"
I began to walk away, the locator on the bike codes leading me to the speeder they responded to when I stopped and turned to look at her. "…You said my grandmot- Malisis sent two of her… cabal? After my dad…"
"I did." Newt nodded, "…I only know the second one. He called himself the Scream. He did a lot of it when I set off the bombs to save your dad." She smiled smugly. "…But Aiden wouldn't tell me about the other one. She just stayed silent through the whole fight… I think the black-haired one at the Blataant party is another but he's a little squirrelly." She seemed thoughtful for a moment then shrugged, "…I'm going to have to tell your aunt about all this. And she's scarier than any sith."
…I did not want to be her… but with a smile and a pleasant wave, she went back into the Death Trap and headed off to return it to Ozjin Knights.
I went home… or at least the place that was home for now as I contacted a very relieved and angry Nike. They had apparently gone to yell at Seis, expecting me to be there. But with a few harsh and kind words from everyone they told me they'd come back immediately, and we'd head off to Kashyyyk to get Caradoc…
I sat there waiting for them… dad was alive. But in trouble, moms were alive, but in danger. I had a NEW mom, she was a little whimsical. And now I had to worry about my grandmothers… both of my grandmothers. What are the fucking odds?
I held mom's lightsaber in my hand outright, I had never seen her use it myself. But instinctively I pushed the activation… and immediately spread my legs as the bright red light shot down between them. I was holding the damn thing upside down. Turning it off and upright, I activated it again and stared into the red sith glow... it was the same color as my hair.
…I wonder if I can change it.
End of Chapter
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