Beyond - Legends "Red Eyes" (AU; Tahiri/?; sort-of-crackship, humor)

A/N: Just a wild little tidbit, written for a friend ... nothing serious meant here, nor is it part of the main AU I'm working on. Assume this is around the time of TJK, minus any Killiks.

DISCLAIMER: Everyone belongs to Disney (well, now, anyway). No money's being made off of this, yadda yadda.

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It was, as far as swamps went, not quite on par with Dagobah, Tahiri thought.

At least it's not too humid, the blonde supposed, squishing her toes in the bayou as Bangor nibbled moss from a nearby tree. Tahiri's Force-sense could detect quite a bit of life, but no sentients - some blind spots, but they didn't feel like Yuuzhan Vong, either. And her Vongsense was just plain quiet.

The young Jedi Knight had been on a mission to the Western Reaches when a pirate interdictor had attacked her freighter. And while her teleporting bantha had gotten her and her astromech out of danger, they were quite lost.

"Fre-teweep?" Fiver chirped, waddling through some tall grass as a cool breeze brushed Tahiri's hair. She double-checked her survival tent and the water purifier, then patted the droid's dome, grateful for her companions' presence.

"Yeah, I miss him, too, Fiver," Tahiri agreed. She smiled sadly - she'd kept Anakin's astromech, despite the difficulties R7-series droids had with linking to non-E-Wing craft. For maintenance and other duties, R7s were just fine.

Assuming we had a ship, Fiver could've at least fixed it. Bangor could pull an Aing-Tii stunt and 'port the whole ship - I can't just ask him to jump blind, she considered, checking her bantha's fur. They might be stuck here a while.

"SNORT," Bangor replied, nuzzing Tahiri and radiating - not warning, exactly, but she could sense his sudden alertness.

"What is it - no, wait, I sense it too, now," Tahiri agreed, her hand on her lightsaber as she focused on a nearby thicket.

The underbrush parted, and Tahiri raised a critical eyebrow as she saw a humanoid male stumble forth, dressed oddly.

He wore what could charitably be called a duster, over what looked like a black bodysuit with a purplish chestplate and blue and purple stripes. The 'suit actually covered parts of the new arrival's head, but left his face, ears, and brown hair exposed - not exactly armor, then. His thoughts were hard to detect, almost as if he was generating mental static.

But the rakish grin and facial scruff were purely Corellian - it was his eyes, black with red irises, which made Tahiri tense.

"Hey, chere," the man - who couldn't be much older than Tahiri, really - said in a heavy accent. "Int'restin' critter, dere."

"SNORT," Bangor responded, still wary but not hostile. Tahiri took note of the bantha's attitude, and moved her hand away from her 'saber ... but still watched the man as he sat on a log near her campsite.

"We're from ... out of town," she allowed, sitting on an overturned rock (all she'd had time to grab from the freighter had been her emergency kit and her duffle bag, which was inside the tent). "I'm ... Riina."

"Ah. Dey call me Gambit," the man said, taking a deck of cards from his coat. He shuffled them, then held up one of them, and Tahiri watched as a pinkish energy flowed from his hand into the card - then, he flicked it off into the distance.

A mild POP, followed by an explosion of water much like a large stone plunking into a pond, echoed, and Tahiri blinked. "You don't feel Force-sensitive ... do all people on this planet have that ability?" she asked, curious.

Gambit laughed, but it didn't sound mocking - if anything, it was warm, asking nothing but friendship (although it could've been more, Tahiri thought before blinking fast). "Non. I'm part of a special breed - genetic quirk, late starter. How I got de eyes," he said, returning the cards to his coat. "Dat, an' a good helpin' o'charm."

Tahiri shook her head clear, starting to scowl before the native held up his hands and said, "No offense, chere. Gambit not lookin' for trouble. You want t'find a hotel, maybe a farm f'r your furry friend?"

"And how would I pay for it all?" Tahiri replied, raising an eyebrow again. Fiver tweedled, and she nodded at the droid, before translating, "He's a mechanic, maybe we could -"

She looked, then - really looked, at Gambit, tracing the outline of his jaw and his muffled Force-presence, and he blushed.

""Ah. Uh, wow," he said, dropping the terrible accent as he patted Fiver's dome. "You kept him ... it really is you."

His shields dropped with that fake accent, and Tahiri's hands flew to her mouth, as they stood and met halfway.

"... how ... ?" Tahiri whispered, taking his hands in hers. "You were ..."

"Well, when the Force - pulled me into it - it really pulled me into it," he said, embarrassed. "All the way - here."

"The new powers and the eyes just seemed to come with getting recorporealized. Same body, though ... 'Ri."

Tahiri blinked back tears - then slugged Anakin in the upper arm and yelled, "DUMMY! That's the LAMEST accent!"

"Ow! Well, you sure didn't lose any combat skill," Anakin Solo tried to joke, looking hurt until Tahiri hugged him.

"Sorry - but the next time you get stuck in blorash jelly, duck," she whispered, holding on tight as they reconnected.

"I don't plan on repeating that mistake any time soon," Anakin promised, and they grinned as Fiver chirped happily.

"Khapet," Tahiri retorted, her grin turning playful. "I don't plan on letting you go any time soon."

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Now, that was freaky! In a good way. With the little that I know about Anakin Solo's death and the events of the Killik books, I was almost fooled that a) this wasn't him; b) that this was him, but that he had begun the joining process...and, come to think of it, I'm still not 100% sure of the later. Good fun, either way.

And this is the first time that something - Bangor in particular - prompted me to have a quick read read about Tahiri's earliest years and...I think I'm intrigued. If anybody ever manages to make me a post-ROTJ Legends fan, it will be you. And the woman who wrote "Fragile". But mostly you.

 

Ewok Poet: Thanks. I'm honored.

I can say that this Anakin's come nowhere near Killiks (not that I have a lot of his backstory figured out here ...

Bangor's a fun bit of Tahiri's past; the poor kid went through so much even before the YV War, and we never did see her bantha again after JJK. While, obviously, canon!Bangor can't teleport, I like to think he could've helped Tahiri get to a somewhat better place than she ended up at ...