Chapter Text

Into the Dark

The world was full to the brim with interesting tales, and if Han Solo was honest with herself, she particularly didn’t want to be among any of them. If she were, then it might mean she wasn’t terribly good at playing the part of smuggler. However, she did find herself inclined to chase the majority of tales that spun narratives with gold at the end. People were often searching for any hint of immortality and said people always paid a huge price. For example, that was how Han found herself out in the literal middle of nowhere outside a series of temple ruins with a sparse understanding of the broken story spread out across the bleak ground. She simply met a man named Thrawn Mitthrawdo, who offered a large sum that accompanied the following story:

It was said long ago an individual named Sanguis searched high and low in search of the immortal answer.

He found it.

Sanguis found the answer here, only to disappear, yet others believed and constructed these walls around his disappearance. While Sanguis was a hermit with a goal, others gathered believing they were stronger together only to peel away, one by one, finding death rather than eternity. Their bones littered the ground, gradually decaying over time. (Han was sure she breathed in their long-gone bodies by the amount of dust she inhaled despite a scarf she tied tighter and tighter around her face. Even the goggles she wore for protection were littered by the surrounding dead.)

Centuries passed before one of Sanguis’s followers pored over old manuscripts and saved writings from the man. She learned his whereabouts in this place. (It looked more like a foreign planet somehow baked in frost. The chill somehow burned Han’s nose as she followed the others hired by Thrawn through the skeletal dust collecting along their faces and hair.) It turned out, the ritual Sanguis committed to gain immortality transformed him into a decrepit creature. He attempted to trap himself deep and far from others, only for them to build a labyrinth around him, trapping them with him and at night, he became the feral creature who ultimately tore them apart.

Noctyss tricked Sanguis during daylight hours in his humanoid form, explaining that if he revealed the secrets of the ritual, then she would perform it. And once she performed it, he would perish. This deathly fact turned out to be true because as Noctyss performed the ritual, she used a knife to pierce through Sanguis’s chest, believing that if she ate his heart, that would allow her to absorb his stolen immortality. It’s said that Sanguis wriggled the whole time as she opened his chest and scooped out pieces of his heart, unable to eat it whole in one go. (Han found this hard to believe since there was no audience present to witness such a scene.) As Noctyss ate the heart, her body transformed. Where Sanguis had humanoid daylight hours, Noctyss became a creature at all hours, forced to scramble all around.

Over the years, people fell upon their knees in worship to both Sanguis and Noctyss. The two lurked within the labyrinth, with treasures being left behind for them to guard. People distributed the evils of the world here, leaving behind a treasure trove of malice.

Han believed this Thrawn was more invested in the ‘treasure trove of malice’ portion of the tale, considering the miserable outcomes of both immortal beings. She once again tried to pull her scarf tighter, making it feel more like a noose than a protector of bone dust crawling up her nose. She hoped this job paid well enough she’d have some left over for the bills she’d pay future doctors now that the dead floated inside her lungs.

One of Thrawn’s men hesitated by her. His face was lost underneath his large hood, goggles, and a face mask he brought for the cold. It worked out for him even though a haunting heat sizzled along all their bodies.

“I was led to believe that you would stay with a vehicle in the event we need a fast getaway,” the man said, his voice cut so deep it screamed ‘narrator’ rather than treasure trove of malice or immortality hunter.

Han’s smarmy smile won nothing thanks to her scarf. “I needed to stretch.” All she remembered of this man was the earring on his left ear. Name? Completely forgotten. Attitude? Also, forgotten. And she personally did not care to learn any more about him, so she headed toward their vehicle.

Thrawn arrived here with her, earring man, and two other men with plenty waiting in safety back in the city they left behind for this adventure. Han climbed into the vehicle and sat there, deciding to start it to make earring man happy that she was prepared for their getaway, even though they hadn’t seen a single other person in forever out here.

There was no one to escape unless the stories of monsters were to be believed.

Han waited a few seconds before she dreaded her bladder that suddenly told her to get up. She stood there calling out, “Yes, I’m leaving the vehicle, but it is to take a piss because I am sure you do not want me to do so here.”

Thrawn shot her such a dark look from across the ruins. It didn’t matter that the goggles obscured his face because she felt the stare searing straight through her pounding heart. Han shrugged out of the car, wishing there were more options to pee behind. A tree would be helpful right now rather than shattered rocks of some weird place of worship.

Left behind bones lightly crunched under her feet, making her clench her teeth; it sounded like gravel rather than ancient human lives being extinguished at last. She reached a larger rock and was about to unzip and crouch when her eyes met long finger-like lines crisscrossing the rock's surface.

She reached out, running her hand along them, they disappeared as she wiped some of the black dust away. Underneath the piece was designed with mother of pearl and lapis lazuli, and Han could care less because she studied the dirt on her hand and moved to another potential hiding spot, but more out of interest as her bladder forgot she had to go in the first place. It was as if someone tried to scrape their way along the wall; there was a variety of handprints and feet moving upwards. She tilted her head back to find a shadow leering down at her.

“Mitthrawdo!” Han shouted as she stumbled away from the spot.

Han didn’t make it far before a skeletal hand collapsed around her ankle, sending her face-first into the ground. She looked back as a skeleton rose from the ground, and the shadow from above landed on the ground.

No, nope, she was not about to deal with this.

With her other foot, she kicked the skeleton in the face, watching its skull crumple under impact. Already, she was back making a sprint for the vehicle. She leaped into it, slamming her hand on the horn as she continued to yell for Thrawn’s attention. To the left, she spotted earring man fighting a skeleton with what looked like a sword. Such a moment would be enticing if it weren't for the threat of death approaching.

Han reached down, pulling her firearm free. She was glad the vehicle was running because she let it lurch forward ever so slightly to get a little closer before firing off at the skeleton. She hit its skull but this one was more intact and turned looking at her instead. She put the vehicle in reverse backing up as earring man returned to fighting the monster. Then to her right she saw a woman with long grayish hair run one of Thrawn’s other men through, and he barely had time to hit the ground dead before she pulled at invisible strings to rise him back up to his feet.

Nope. No, no fucking way. Han shook her head and slammed on the gas pedal as she continued to back up before whipping the car around and got out of there. The others were probably already undead or whatever happened. She heard something tearing after the car, off to the side, and could see dust fly up as it chased her but she forced the car to go faster and faster not caring that its engine shuddered.

Up ahead, there was a line of cars and a few bright lights, causing her to slam on the brakes. It didn’t help much because her vehicle ploughed into a military car as she was yelled at in another language. The local government was not happy that they trespassed in such a forbidden area. Her vision swam a little with her brain struggling to catch up a bit because her face did hit the steering wheel. Her nose gushed blood as she rose her hands rather than protecting herself, somewhat understanding that she was under arrest.

Maybe she should’ve at least saved the rich man to buy her way out of this situation.

Chapter Text

The Rare Book Room

If Leia Skywalker could physically devour the ancient macabre, she would. It was a rather ridiculous dream to consume her ever-waking thoughts, but if anyone wanted to complain, she’d point a finger in the direction of her Uncle Obi-Wan Kenobi. And yes, she’d invoke the power of his whole name to either toss complaints in his direction or reach out in the event it was the macabre that actually threatened her existence.

As she stood on her tiptoes on a tall ladder, she thought as loud as possible, Help me, Uncle Obi-Wan, you’re my only hope. If it weren’t for her brother in an alternate corner minding his own business, she’d say such a thought out loud as if it were an actual cantation to cause Obi-Wan to materialize. Leia stepped up onto a shelf, but with only one leg to propel herself upward. Her one mom, Anakin, (whom she sometimes called Dad as a joke) was the tallest, but Anakin would disapprove of her current motive.

Anakin had a habit of saying no to all things 'supernatural.'

Meanwhile, her other mother, Padmé, insisted she be more empathetic about this factor since it was due to something-something traumatic in Anakin's past. Sometimes, either Padmé or Anakin would even lament, insisting, Don't you remember? No. Leia did not remember. Luke also did not remember. Neither one of the Twins could recall the wicked town they all lived in once upon a time before moving away first with Uncle Obi-Wan, before Padmé and then later Anakin joined them. The first parental units she remembered first and foremost were Obi-Wan, Cody, and Bail (who she considered a parent, but Luke did not).

“Hurry up!” Luke whisper-shouted a few bookcases down while he kept watch. “Someone’s coming!”

“Then shush!”

The wood under Leia’s foot bowed a bit under her weight, and she partially pushed off to grab the book of her current desires. Her fingers barely connected with the spine, not that it mattered. The entire bookcase wobbled right before it plummeted forward into another shelf. Her book-grabbing attempt led to a domino reaction.

Leia clung to the shelf closest to her hands as she plummeted downward. Dust puffed up everywhere, causing her eyes to water as she hacked away on it. She scrambled for the book as she struggled to get to her feet, ignoring Luke as he yelled, “Leeeeeia!” Look, he complained a lot, and right now, she wasn’t in the mood to hear his complaints. Although she understood the reason behind his whiny pitch, the second she cleared her eyes of dust to see, Luke stood near the entrance to the rare books room with their Uncle Obi.

Drat, Uncle Obi-Wan Kenobi was not her only hope.

As quickly as possible, Leia hid her book behind her back before offering a regal wave to her uncle. Adults loved her, and she was about to up her charm to ensure they got off scot-free.

Luke stood there signalling for her to run as he mouthed, Leeeeia, all over again. He had one foot over the threshold, forgetting that she had nowhere to run.

“Well, hello there.” Obi-Wan and Leia shared a curt nod with one another.

Meanwhile, Luke threw his head back with a major huff. It was a more meaningful signal than the one he did seconds ago because it meant she was gonna hear him complain later tonight. In her defense, she told Luke that they should place bets on who would ground them and for how long. She said Anakin and he said Padmé. Seeing how both were at work, they should’ve voted on either Uncle Obi or Aunt Satine because with Uncle Cody at his personal family reunion thing, they were the only two around.

“Aren’t you both supposed to be at school right now?” Obi-Wan asked as he entered the rare books room with his hand out.

Leia continued to hide her book of choice as she dipped her other hand into her pocket and dropped a set of keys into his palm. Ever since Anakin decided she was going to talk even less to Obi-Wan, she left those keys less guarded. She buried them deep within a junk drawer as if Leia weren’t nosy enough to dig around to find them.

It wasn’t fair that her Mom decided to stop talking to Obi-Wan right when he started to expand his whole little mystery-magic-monster hunting-whatever services to the world. Look at all these books! People were dying to get rid of their cursed items and they arrived to collect dust because it wasn’t like Obi-Wan had enough people working with them to comb through everything, and she was the one that figured out the importance of the book that she continued to hide behind her back.

In a perfect world, Anakin would let her balance this paranormal madness with Model UN. Padmé rooted for her to do both to no avail. Why couldn’t they pay more attention to her brother? He stood there already moping about getting in trouble and they weren’t even in trouble yet. He was failing two of his classes and she had all A’s. He had no special hobbies other than ‘hanging out’ with his friends as if there wasn’t a future to tackle.

“Are you going to tell me what you are holding behind your back?” Obi-Wan asked.

Leia was an excellent liar, and yet, she didn’t rely upon such a skill set. She held out the book for him to take. Obi-Wan studied it for a few seconds without comment. The silence was absolutely daunting. Leia stared at her brother, willing him to remain calm while he bounced on his heels beside their uncle. Maybe they could still get away without any technical lies or any other chaos than the broken shelves.

To be honest, Leia hoped their punishment was fixing the room back up again because it would give her the chance to look through all the books. The look Luke shot her told her how much he hoped that was not a future fact, but she’d cover for him while he snuck out.

Obi-Wan snapped the book shut, startling both Luke and Leia. Those pages bunched one another so loud in the looming silence of their upcoming discipline. Obi-Wan did the same as Leia earlier with hiding the book behind his back, he crossed his arms as he looked between the twins, his gaze equally swiveling between the two.

“What if I were to propose an idea that you would need to accept so I would not tell your parents that you decided to skip school today?” Obi-Wan mentioned.

Luke’s nose wrinkled as he attempted to parse through those words.

Did their Uncle Obi always have to speak in such riddles?

But Leia figured she knew the correct response, “And what would that proposal be?”

Chapter Text

Skyguy and The Danger Words

Anakin Skywalker never believed in ghosts until Sheev Palpatine started to haunt her. He usually accumulated distant corners, just out of her line of sight only to disappear when she turned to combat him with a deadly stare. However, today turned out to be different. Sheev stood in the middle of the shop classroom, dripping wet. His fingers were bloody nubs from clawing his way out of where Anakin dumped his body. Dry blood crusted his graying lips and chin while he stood as still as a statue staring at Anakin while she waited at her desk. The sound of saws overpowered most of the conversations within the classroom and nearly caused her to miss her desk phone calling for attention. Luckily, Anakin managed to grab it on the last ring to answer without ever peeling her eyes away from Sheev’s ghost.

“Theed Public School, Shop Class, Skywalker speaking,” Anakin answered, hoping she said her usual lines right because her only thoughts lingered on Sheev’s death.

He died at her hands.

Sometimes she’d wake up in the middle of the night feeling his presence lurking in the corners of the room and find his blood still on her hands. She’d shower, scrubbing and scrubbing until her skin began to tear, and a worried Padmé calling out to him. She never told Padmé the truth about the last moments she lived with Sheev. For all anyone knew, Sheev was alive and alone, sitting back in Blackwood Manor, on top of that hill where the children no longer sang: ‘Ani,’ said Padmé, ‘would you like a cup of tea?’ ‘Oh no,’ said Ani, ‘You’ll poison me. Oh, how they all should've been singing about Anakin all along.

No other death haunted her like Sheev's. Even the Twins' supposed death. . .she buried that one so deep, so out of sigh, so far away, believing the grief could never manifest inside her.

“Ani, it’s me,” Padmé said, somehow causing the apparition of Sheev to disperse. His body sloughs away, gore peeling off onto the shop floor where he soaks up escaped wood chips. “I got a call from the school that the Twins aren’t at school today. Since you’re there, I thought maybe you could look into this?”

“Did they say where the students are located?” Anakin asks.

“No, they don’t know where they are. Can’t you go ask their friends or see if they even made it to any of their classes?”

Anakin looked up at the clock, knowing the bell would ring, calling most of the students to lunch soon, so technically, yes, she could, but she didn’t want to admit that she was sure the Twins didn’t have any friends. Well, Luke definitely did, but he never mentioned their names. He always made vague complaints whenever he was asked to do something always claiming that he had something to do with his friends. Meanwhile, all Anakin could recall was Leila dating Kier only for Leila to learn that Kier was dating her for either some kind of bet or blackmail or Kier hoped that either Anakin or Padmé could help him get a better grade.

“I’ll go ask around,” Anakin hung up her phone, believing Sheev moved closer to her desk, but instead, found Ashoka, her student teacher, present.

“Amilyn has a complaint for you,” Ashoka mentioned in a way that made it hard to tell if this was a real problem or a fake teen problem. It could easily be either in shop class when Anakin handed death tools to teens. "Over there."

Anakin looked across the room to see the one purple-haired student standing with her arms crossed by the ventilation where students were supposed to spray paint their cars. This was not the class Anakin excelled at in life. If anything, she preferred her little robotics club, but in order to run it, she had to lead this class. At least, that was life according to Padmé and Satine who helped her gain this position.

“What’s wrong, Amilyn?” Anakin should get up to see, but decided to shout across the louder classroom.

“This broke and now I might die!” the student yelled back.

“Go walk it off,” Anakin replied.

“Where?”

“I don’t know? Lunch? Class dismissed!” Anakin didn’t have to say it twice. Usually, students pretended not to hear her over the machinery, but that message was clear enough for everyone to stop what they were doing and not necessarily in the safest ways as they grabbed their bags to head out.

Ashoka watched them all go, looking surprised rather than matching the excitement of everyone else. “What was that about?”

“Do you know who Luke’s friends are?” Anakin asked.

“That seems like something you should know,” Ashoka replied, crossing her arms.

“Understood, but I don’t. So who are Luke’s friends?”

Ashoka rolled her eyes. “Biggs Darklighter, why?”

“Is that the weird mustache kid?” Anakin got up, hoping it’d be easy to find this kid in the cafeteria.

“Yes, the ‘weird’ mustache kid,” Ashoka replied with air quotes around the word weird.

Anakin headed toward the door, grabbing her keys to lock up all the dangerous equipment so nobody could blame child endangerment on her. The entire time, Ashoka was right on her heels, as usual.

“What was that supposed to mean?” Anakin mimicked the air quotes back.

“I just don’t think you should make fun of a kid trying to grow in some facial hair.”

Outside the classroom, Anakin buried her keys in her pocket. She needed to pause because just out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Sheev dripping in the hallway. The bell rang, causing a mass exit from all the classrooms. Doors vomited up children, and she stood there, hand deep in her back pocket, messing up her tucked-in shirt.

“Earth to Skyguy.” Ashoka waved a hand in Anakin’s face.

“Stop calling me that.” She brushed Ashoka’s hand away from her. “And I wasn’t saying his mustache is weird; he is weird with or without the mustache.” She headed down the hall with the flow of students. To be honest, Anakin had no idea what Biggs' personality was like, it was just an assumption.

And, of course, Ashoka followed. She was probably expecting they were on their way to their own lunch. “Why?”

A sharpness cut into her voice when Anakin turned into the cafeteria hallway. She ignored Ashoka as she walked along the glass wall to the lunch room trying to get a better view of everything. Kier spotted Anakin, ducked his head and darted out of sight on the inside.

“Luke and Leia skipped school again so I hoped he’d know something.”

“There he is!” Ashoka accidentally jabbed her finger into the glass as she pointed out Biggs sitting at a round table in a corner with a few other students that looked familiar. They all did. Anakin saw them all the time, after all. “Maybe I should ask for you?”

It was Anakin’s time to bluntly ask, “Why?” She already headed inside, not accepting Ashoka’s offer. When she arrived at the table, she said, “Can I speak to you Biggs?”

All the present students started mocking Biggs as he looked left and right before cautiously standing up. “Am I in trouble?”

“Oh, no.”

Shoot, maybe that was why Ashoka needed to speak with Biggs instead. Anakin’s fingers curled into her palm as she chewed on her lower lip. She needed to invoke her safety words before asking Biggs about the Twins' whereabouts because there was a chance they were in danger and she could still protect them. That morning, she chose the following three words for protection:

ChapStick

Menagerie

Hurdy Gurdy

“We just got a call that Luke isn’t here and I was wondering if you knew where he was at,” Anakin mentioned, attempting a wry smile, which did not help. Her profound anxiety infected the present students, especially Biggs. “. . .I mean, you know his sister, she’s always getting him into trouble so. . .”

Biggs gulped. “I haven’t seen him, but we had some. . .studying plans. . .later. . .at-at the Menagerie Coffee and-and nowhere suspicious at all.”

Menagerie

Anakin ran a hand through her hair knowing no good could from that. Out of all the places to mention, it wasn’t even one that the Twins frequented and she selected at random on her morning commute, thinking it was present enough to be said but would likely go unsaid throughout the day. Nobody went to that coffee place when Alif was right on the same corner.

“You are making this sound very suspicious,” Ashoka commented.

“Really, I have no idea where he is,” Biggs replied, his words coming together all fast.

Without further comment, Anakin left the cafeteria, forcing Ashoka to say something to the students in her absence. She waited for Ashoka in the hallway, her hands folded behind her back while she chewed on her lower lip, keeping a steady beat that she inside her mind.

“What was that all about?” Ashoka asked.

“I need you to take over my last classes today,” Anakin replied.

“Okay, not the explanation I was looking for, but I have a feeling you're not about to answer my question anyway.”

“You guessed correctly.” Anakin abandoned Ashoka in the hall.

There were a few locations the Twins revolved around outside the school building, and she was about to check all of them. She entered the office, wondering if she should act sick, but it was already too late seeing that her entrance was so forceful, the front desk woman yelped, dropping something in the process.

“One moment!” She dropped down, picking it up. “Dropped my Chapstick.”

Anakin winced.

The woman sat up holding up her ChapStick, wrinkling her nose. She’d been in the process of applying it to her lips when she dropped it and now the thing was covered in dirt.

“That's unfortunate,” she muttered.

She honestly had no idea.

ChapStick

“How can I help you, Mrs. Skywalker?” the woman tossed it in the trash.

“Migraine, going home sick. Ashoka is in charge.” Anakin didn't provide space for the woman to tell her no or anything else as she walked out, having a sinking feeling that she knew where the Twins were.

As much as Leia liked to cause trouble, she certainly wouldn't cause extraneous trouble such as speaking to the one person Anakin forbade them to speak to.

Chances were the Twins were both hanging out at the old arcade, Tosche Station. It was a place they frequented, with or without friends. Yes, that was where they had to be.

Anakin marched outside the school to find Sheev standing there and staring. For a moment, she prepared herself to hear his ghost whisper the final danger word, but Sheev never flinched. Not a muscle moved as he stood there dripping, and Anakin walked around him to the car. In hindsight, she should've let Padmé know she was leaving the school's premises in search of their children because Padmé would talk her out of it. Remind her that kids don't listen. Anakin started the car, the radio chugged to life with it. The disc jockey rambled about his name and how he was signing off. It was the end of the day for him and he announced the final song of his session, Hurdy Gurdy Man by Donovan.

The danger word repeated again and again, buried in the odd velvety goodness of the song meant for the good times when you were high. Too bad Anakin sat there underneath a dark cloud of her own making because each utterance of Hurdy Gurdy mocked her because she knew, she knew without a doubt the Twins were with Obi-Wan.