A Gift for the Future

A Gift for the Future

Amber Penglass

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The snow that fell in ever-so-soft powdery gusts was tainted a slight violet, a side effect of various chemicals and conditions in the atmosphere. The small moon was a popular vacation spot for the locals of the system currently playing host to the former crew of the Ebon Hawk, and their first impromptu reunion since...

Revan, known simply as Kalora since the fated days of the Star Forge, turned not only away from the window, but also turned her thoughts away from that dire time. Even if it had resulted in granting her the greatest love and the greatest joy known to man, the times themselves were still hard to think about. So recent...barely a few months, yet it felt like years. Already the damage done by Malak was visibly being repaired, and the universe was making grand strides in forgetting that the dual menace of Revan and her apprentice ever existed. Ah, the resilient power of denial...so grand a gift to the realm of mortals, and yet so costly... This would all happen again, she knew. Carth knew it, too. And Juhani, Jolee, even Canderous sniffed at those who persisted in pretending that Revan and Malak had happened decades ago, instead of months. Perhaps not for years, for centuries, but this would happen again; a Sith lord and apprentice, wrenching the all the power there was to offer from the hands of the common individual, the apprentice eventually betraying the master...

Her lips twisted in self annoyance- what was that she'd just been thinking, about deciding not to think of these things? Everything she'd read recently said that negative thoughts would reflect badly on the development. She could only think that this phenomenon would be heightened by her connection with the Force. She had no evidence, of course- if any Jedi had ever been pregnant, it certainly wasn't documented! Something about physical relationships of any kind being strictly forbidden...

A hand went to her lower abdomen, and a slight smile of irony graced her face. She'd always been a rule breaker...this wasn't any different.

In the corner of the dimly lit room, a chime beeped. Grinning wolfishly, Kalora pranced almost girlishly to the console and peered at the image portrayed there, the image of Carth approaching the bottom-level doors of the complex the crew was residing in. Most were sleeping, but when Kalora had spoken of a sudden craving for the native food Galgoash -despite never actually having tasted it- Carth, already restless after a day of celebrating with newly reunited friends and comrades, had been more than happy to indulge her by going and fetching. There had been something else about him whe he'd readily offered to venture out to satisify her, an odd sort of...calm, she supposed, of something fitting into place. Selfishly, Kalora refused to think that this was because he was remembering a time whe Carth had done such things for his first wife. Twisting the simple band of crystal around her left ring finger, Kalora smiled a bit, and succeeding in avoiding a bout of hormone-induced jealousy.

Counting on the scant few minutes it would take Carth to make it up the countless levels, even with the turbolift, Kalora moved into the comfortable -if not luxurious- bedroom they shared. She lowered the lights, and slipped out of the loose clothes she'd been wearing for the past month. Before putting on the delicate, pretty little gauzy number that lay on the bed, Kalora tied a single, bright red ribbon around her middle, giving the little bow a pat before slipping into the lingerie. With a flick of the Force, she lit the smokeless, scentless candles positioned around the room. She turned down the covers, and slipped into bed. She hadn't intended to fall asleep, really, she hadn't...but the calming flicker of the candlelight, the soothing darkness of the room, and her Force-heightened hearing picking up the precious sound of that little, fragile heartbeat beating in time with her own...

Kalora was asleep long before Carth walked in the door with the bag of boxed Galgoash.

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He knew she was asleep the moment he stepped onto their level, and he grinned ruefully, glancing at the bag in his hand and shaking his head. Women. He grinned; but my woman, he thought happily. Her request had brought back memories, as he was sure she suspected, of Maia and their son, but for the first time it wasn't a sad, bitter, or self loathing memory. It was simply a part of his past, and also for the first time, he felt no guilt in admitting to himself he was happier here with Kalora now -he'd never call her Revan- just the two of them, then he'd ever been with Maia, as much as he'd loved his young first wife. Not that he wouldn't be thrilled with having more children, but it terrified him at the same time. The memory of Dustil's betrayal, while something he'd come to terms with, was still something that he had to admit frightened him out of his confidence of his parental skills... And to be honest, he didn't think Kalora wanted children, despite the conversation they'd had scarcely a day before their handfasting.

"Do you want kids again, Carth?" She was blunt, and that alone told Carth that this was something she was concerned about. She was a direct woman regardless, but this level of bluntness did not bode well. He turned to her, and decided to meet her honest tones with a frankness of his own.

Carth shut his eyes tight, not wanting Kalora to hear the little demon that persisted in whispering those things... And knowing she already heard them. She always did.

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That was nearly four months ago, now. Carth, to his grand disbelief and gratitude, had realized starkly one day recently that he no longer feared having children. No more than any man, anyways. He'd managed to move past the tragedy that was Dustil, and embrace the miracle that was his wife. Where once he'd feared his wife's past may have influenced any child they had, he now realized that it would, but it would be in such a way as to defend him or her, not tempt. Who better to teach their children how to defend against the tempations of the darkside, then a woman who had once been the supreme wielder of that very force? The one who had been deep into the darkness, deeper than anyone else, and who had in the end rejected it totally and completely? There was no one better, in his mind. That was why, in the morning, he'd pull Kalora into his arms, nuzzle her neck and place a few gentle kisses where she liked them best, then he would ask her, this time, instead of her asking him...

It would be a fitting gift, he thought. In honor of the local snowy holiday, the crew of the Ebon Hawk had exchanged gifts. All but Canderous, that was, until Mission had presented him with a rather rare and difficult to obtain antique make of a blaster. Thoroughly disgruntled, the bulky Mandalorian had excused himself, and returned with what Carth was sure had been a hastily, exceptionally recently purchased necklace for the blue Twi'lek. It had been a simple thing of silver twisted into a rope chain, and a single pendant of some kind of dark stone, wrapped with more silver. Last Carth had seen her, Mission had looked as if she'd never take it off.

Carth set the bag of foodstuffs on the table in the kitchen. The fried tree snails that was Galgoash needed no preserving. He made his way silently into the bedroom, and paused a moment at the sight of the candles lighting the room in a seductively soft glow. Smiling, he moved silently to the side of the bed and to the lightly snoring figure huddled there. Kneeling beside the bed, Carth brushed a single strand of dark hair from the face of his beloved, his hero, his comrade, his lover, his best friend... She stirred, betraying that the state of her sleep had been a light one. She blinked open trustingly blurry eyes- had he been anyone else, she'd have been thoroughly awake before she'd even opened those eyes. That she allowed herself to remain relaxed and sleepy was a sign of the trust she held for him. He was proud to say that despite their problems in the beginning, Carth now trusted this woman more than he could sometimes believe.

"Hey," she said, yawning. A slow grin spread across her dark lips, tinged with something that suddenly had him suspicious as she scooted over in the bed, inviting him to slip in beside her. Smiling despite his amused glare of suspicion, he shrugged off his shirt, trousers, shoes, and slipped into bed in his skivvies. She turned over, putting her back to him as he pulled her into his arms. With a contented sigh he settled her into their favorite position, one that she suspiciously had seemed reluctant to assume recently, now that he thought about it... Having said that, Carth relished holding her like he was, moving his hands over her smooth, flat belly...

He frowned, then chuckled into her hair, poking the small bulge of her abdomen gently. He nipped her ear and said, "Someone needs to spar with Canderous more often."

"And not you?" she countered, and he could hear the raised eyebrow in her voice.

"Of course not. Canderous doesn't have to share a bed with you after he attempts to beat your ass black and blue," he told her, and she felt her belly tremble with the laughter that burst from her mouth. It was then that he felt it. Later, since it's rather inprobable that a four, five month old fetus would be strong enough to kick through the dense muscle wall of Kalora's abdomen, he would wonder if it had been his imagination, borne of his the topic his own thoughts had been dwelling on, and perhaps a bit of his own subconscious intuition kicking in, putting togeter the signs he had unknowningly picked up on in the past months. But either way, Carth suddenly frowned, his hands going still, his fingers splayed against his wife's bare belly, his thumbs moving the delicate gauze aside as he pressed his palms more firmly around the now suspicious little mound. Now that he thought about it, it was a little too firm, a little too perfectly round to be the flab of mere inactivity...

That was when he noticed the other thing, the thing that had slipped up while she'd slept. Slowly, Carth felt for the ends of the ribbon, and pulled it out from around her. He pulled it out from under the covers, and held the length of red satin up. It's glossy surface glinted in the candlelight as he thought about the bow he had just untied. A bow...like a gift...

Carth looked up to see that Kalora had half twisted in his arms, and was smiling up at him with that patented, devilish smile of hers.

"Oh, Force," he breathed, and in a moment he'd surrounded her mouth with his, her body with his arms, and her heart with all the love he could pour through the Force Bond their marriage had granted them despite his lack of Jedi status. He pulled away sooner than she would have liked, but she humored him as he stared at her, then down at her belly -he'd long ago shoved aside the bed covers- then at her again with the most astounded, confused and yet thrilled expression she'd ever seen. She couldn't help it; she laughed, curling against him as his hands cupped hers over her own stomach.

"Thank you," he murmured into her hair. "This is... Kal, what a gift... You don't know... I... I'm..."

"I know," she said calmly, happily, and he kissed her again. "But she's not just our gift, you know," she whispered when he'd pulled away to move down along her, pressing kisses to her abdomen and petting the smooth mound there. He looked up, not bothering to question how his Jedi wife knew the gender of their unborn daughter. She smiled at him, reaching down along her own form to cup his face. There were sparkles in her eye when she said, "She's a gift to the future, too. I can feel it. She has... Carth, she has a destiny greater than even mine was, than ours or yours. I...I can't tell if she'll be the one to bring it about, but... Carth, when I realized I carried her, I saw... Oh, Force, Carth..." Those sparkles turned to tears. "I felt and I saw what she'll bring about in the universe, Carth, she and her children, her children's children... She'll set in motion something so, so beautiful... But so sad, too..." The look on her face and the tone of her voice told him even she wasn't quite entirely sure what exactly it was she had seen. But Carth knew the moment she spoke, that he knew it too. Their daughter would be the mother, the grandmother, the greatgrandmother and the ancestor of something unimaginable. There was something potent in the future of their line, and it would begin with their child.

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An Undetermined, but decidedly loooooong time in the future...

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"I want to be a Jedi," the sandy haired six year old declared to his mother. Shmi Skywalker looked at her son and smiled wearily.

"Is that so?" She humored him. Last month, her little boy had had his heart set on being a bounty hunter that only hunted the 'really, really bad guys.'

"Yeah," he said, tinkering with the little remote on the kitchen table while Shmi prepared that day's food rations. "And I'll be the best one ever! Bet no one in our family has ever been a Jedi...bet I'll be the first..." he trailed off, little pink tongue peeking out between his little lips as he concentrated on the project before him. Shmi smiled a secretive smile.

"I have something to show you, Ani," she said, leaving the stove to let the food simmer. Curious, Ani peeked up from his work, watching avidly as his mother disappeared into her bedroom, returning a moment later with a small box. "I wasn't always a slave, you know, Ani. And once upon a time, I had a mother and a father who insisted I knew everything there was to know about everyone in my history, especially the important ones."

Anakin was a smart child.

"A Jedi? In your...antses...acens..."

"Ancestry."

"Yeah that. Anasensetray."

Shmi laughed, and set the box before her son. "Open it," she told him. "Don't get too excited. According to my mother, it hasn't worked in generations. Something about a brilliant engineer managing to make it so that it would respond only to it's master. Something about needing a special crystal, too, I think...I never paid much attention." But her son had already tuned her out it seemed, as he pulled from the box a foot-long cylinder with a small box adhered near the top. The design, while decidedly ancient, was sleek and sophisticated, reeking of retired power and endless tales...

Anakin had no idea what it was, and said so.. Shmi laughed at her son's frank, almost accusing tone. "It's a lightsaber, love. And you can have it." Ani's eyes widened as he realized that he not only held the traditional weapon of his chosen heroes, but that it now belonged to him. He'd never seen one before, had no idea what one looked like. Oh, he'd had imaginings close enough to the real thing, but nothing that would have let him recognize a lightsaber in real life if he hadn't been told what it was.

When Shmi put the box away, she had no idea that she'd just given Anakin Skywalker the single, seemingly insignificant piece of knowledge he'd need to one day identify a lone stranger named Qui-Gon Jinn as a Jedi, and subsequently follow the older man on a journey that would lead the universe in the greatest battle it had ever known...the greatest, that is, since the one Anakin's ancestor had begun, fought, and ended, countless years ago.

History has, as they say, a way of repeating itself in the most ironic ways.

End.

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Well, there you have my first Dueling Circle submission. Enjoy, all!

-Amber Penglass