Beyond - Legends Anarchists and Aristocrats OTP Challenge 20

Title: Anarchists and Aristocrats
Author: Anedon
Timeframe: 44 ABY
Characters: Ilona & Tobin Malek, Gaven Seral, Nev
Genre: Romance, Friendship
Summary: Tobin and Ilona are visited by Gaven and Nev, as they discover a bit of shared history between each other.

Notes: This story is kind of a crossover between my Jacen Solo Trilogy as well my more recent writings concerning the Malek Family.

Thanks to @Adalia-Durron for her help and support.


One

"So your uncle saved her parents?"

Ilona asked as she mustered herself in the mirror, she had no idea on how to meet these people, what to wear or how to act.

"Yes, well her father as I understand it," her husband answered as he leaned in the doorframe watching her put the finishing touches on her outfit. He had been contacted by the stranger only a week ago but they had quickly agreed on a meeting.

"Will admit I never expected we would hear anything from them ever again, my uncle certainly didn't." He lowered his gaze and Ilona knew he was thinking about the terrible price his uncle had later been forced to pay for saving these innocent children.

"So they where nobles, but their parents went against the Empire?"

Tobin nodded, "yes, house Grand, used to be a powerful family but the Tarkin's cracked down on them, the adults were executed. My uncle took the children in as family serves but not too longer after the Tarkin's sought to get them as well. So he spirited them away to the Teris Sector."

The Teris Sector, a place of lawlessness and chaos from all Ilona knew, far to the east of the galaxy was in many ways the complete opposite to what Eriaduans stood for.

"And after that he never heard of them?" Ilona continued her questions as she adjusted her dark blue silken top.

"No, he told me he wondered whether they had made it, wish he could be here with us today." Arien Redan had passed away a few years ago about the same time that Ilona had lost her mother. The two had comforted each other during this time and that comfort had finally gotten them to proclaim their love openly and get married.

"Any idea how they even found you in the first place?"

Ilona asked, now slipping into her skirt. Since she had become head of the family she tended to wear them more often. My little soldier is turning into a lady, she let out a sad sigh as she could almost hear her mother's voice in her head.

"I suspect they looked after my uncle," Tobin explained, where his wife had left the military behind her he still wore the black and gold ORSF dress uniform. With his lengthy hair and beardless less face, he looked didn’t look like the perfect soldier the propaganda had turned him into.

"Her boyfriend is a Jedi Knight if I understood that correctly, guess he might have been able to access a few more sources." Ilona rolled her eyes, her pervious experiences with the Jedi order had been pretty mixed and she didn't necessary looked forward to meeting yet another member.

"Okay, but she didn't say more?" Ilona finished slipping into her shoes and took her coat.

"No, she said she would prefer meeting me in person over talking on the com." So they had booked a dinner for four in a fancy restaurant in Phelar so they would have time to meet and talk.

"Well then, let's see what kind of people your uncle saved back in the day shall we?" Ilona asked with a grin. "Besides I'm sure dad and little Ion can't wait to get their 'guys night' started."

Her father offered to take care of their son for the evening, something he was quite used to by now.



"Hello, I'm Ilona Malek, nice to meet you," Ilona said with a smile as they meet the woman called Nev.

She was about the same age as her and short dark blonde hair. She tried her best to remain calm as she already felt utterly overdressed compared to the simple clothes Nev and her boyfriend wore.

"Gaven Seral," the good looking man, the Jedi, introduced himself as he shook Ilona´s hand. She could see the lightsaber at his belt and asked herself if Jedi truly brought that thing wherever they went.

"So you are Tobin Redan?" Nev asked her husband who shook his head with a hint of a smile.

"No, well I used to, now I'm Tobin Malek," he gave his wife a warm look.

"You took her name?" Nev continued her questions.

"Yes, on Eriadu nobles usually take the name of the higher standing one if they marry. My family is more powerful than hers but I'm only the second son, while she is the head of hers."

Ilona could see the disgust on Nev's face by these words but the Smalltalk at least got them through the awkward introduction and lead them to the booked table. Looking at the menu Ilona found many things there she had never tried herself. Her parents had never adapted well with the noble ways to dine but had instead preferred to stay with the simple spicy meals of the lower classes.

So instead she turned to Tobin who had grown up in this posh world for advice on what to choose. As he gave her advice she noticed how both Gaven and Nev listened in closely on them apparently seeking to get some advice as well.

When they had finally made their orders a moment of awkward silence rose between them before Nev started the conversation.

"So Arien Redan was your father?"

Tobin said nothing to this for a moment before he answered. "In a way he was but not actually, he was my uncle. Second born are often raised by their aunts or uncles, to ensure the family can´t be taken down in attack."

"So you where a spare?" again Ilona noticed disgust on Nev's face. Whoever she is, seems she has a poor opinion of nobility. Not that she herself agreed with the things the nobles of her homeworld did to increase their power.

"You could say that," Tobin explained. "The duty of every second child is to be prepared."

"So you are nothing but a tool to your parents?" Nev asked and Gaven placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Nev..."

"What? It's true, what shouldn't I say it?"

Gaven let out a sigh. "You must forgive Nev, she... she is very blunt and says what she thinks, sometimes a bit rash."

"She is right," Tobin said calmly, while Ilona allowed herself a smile at her husband's direct nature.

"The first child is the heir, the second the spare, if at all its only the third child that Eriaduan parents will allow themselves to love."

He looked away and Ilona knew he thought of Garth. With Tobin and his older sister being prepared for duty their entire lives Garth had been spoiled to no end by his parents, which probably was the main reason he had turned out the way he did.

"So your uncle was a spare as well?" Nev asked.

"He was, and like most second child's he had to take a military career." Tobin responded.

"And that's how he ended up serving the Empire?" Gaven asked the question Ilona had been dreading would come.

 

Super details of past events and all the awkward undertones

 

Thanks, nice if you can picture it.

It defenetly is, and might get even more akward...



Two

For a while, the young man said nothing and the Force told Gaven how hard this question was for him to answer.

"Yes," Tobin said after the pause. "He was a high ranking officer in the ORSF, the Eriaduan military by the end of the Clone Wars, with the coming of the New Order he was promoted to the position of commander." Gaven felt the admiration Tobin had for his uncle, and the other mans worry things could escalate over this.

"He was a collaborator?" Nev asked bluntly, ignoring Gaven's warning gaze.

Again a moment of silence followed. This time even deeper. He and Nev already knew this, they had read up a bit on Arien Redan and what they had learned wasn't pretty. But as his own interactions with Jacen Solo had taught him the official version wasn't always the full story.

"He was," Tobin admitted. "Early one he tried to think of himself as just a servant of the Eriaduan people, but yeah he did aid the empire for many years.... though its doubtful if he had much of a choice."

"You always have a choice," Nev shot back. "We Terians would rather die than to bow to a tyrant."

"And how many lives does that mindset claim?" Ilona said, and Gaven felt she was getting heated. "How many senseless deaths does it cause every year? I heard you people even murder your own children if slavers attack you."

"So they don´t have to live as slaves," Nev said firmly and Gaven was glad she was at least trying to stay calm. "If I had children I would do the same to them if there is no hope of escape."

"Nev," Gaven said slowly, placing a hand on her shoulder. He understood her mindset but now, having adopted a girl himself, he felt he wouldn´t be able to do this. And he doubted Nev truly would as well.

To prevent this from escalating further he instead said, "but he did work behind the Empires back? Saved lives?"

"He did, I think at first mostly to placate his own conscience, but over time he began to actively working against the empire. He saved your mother," Tobin addressed directly at Nev. "Her family, they had caught the ire of the Tarkin's who wanted them all killed. My uncle managed to save the kids."

While Nev thought about this Gaven decided to continue the conversation. "I assume he eventually fully turned on them?"

"In a sense, but not in the way you might think. He did not join the Rebellion, in fact I doubt he ever had much faith in democracy, he had grown up in the twilight years of the old republic after all. What he focused on was Eriadu, and throwing the Empire out, nothing more, nothing less." Tobin explained.

Gaven felt that there was probably more to this story but whatever it was it seemed to pain Tobin and thus prevent him from speaking about it.

"After Palpatine's death Eriadu was taken over by a Warlord, a member of a local noble family." Tobin continued. "But his rule was short lived and Eriadu soon rose up. My uncle leading the ORSF in the fight. They were victorious in driving the Imperials out, but after the war many wanted to put Arien on trial. Of course all Eriaduan nobles had collaborated with the Empire in one way or another and dare I say most did far less against them then my uncle did. But he was the face of collaboration, and thus quickly became a scapegoat for every crime the Imperials had committed on Eriadu." He made a pause. Maybe to give the others time to ask questions.

"My father was pushing it," Ilona admitted. "He wanted Eriadu to be cleansed of collaborators at the time. But mom, she had served under Arien. She convinced him to be more understanding, for in a way, she was a collaborator as well."

"In the end a 'compromise' was reached," Tobin said, lowering his head. "He wasn't put on trial, but instead 'stepped down' from his position and was send into exile to Coran VI. An Ice world, with temperatures so low organic beings couldn't survive outside of complete exo suits."

"It makes Hoth feel comfy trust me," Ilona said with a smile. She had calmed herself down again as Gaven noticed. "The work there is done by droids with a handful of humans overseeing it from a shining spire of technology. It a desolate, lonely place."

"They send Arien there to command the local guard force, possibly the most pointless job in the galaxy as with a population of only 400 people most of whom aren´t permanent residents there is virtually no crime," her husband continued. "I know cause I grew up there. I think I was what saved my uncle in the end, from his own depressions. I gave him a purpose, a way to make right where he had failed himself. He raised me to be the man he wanted to be, the man he should have been."

Gaven noticed how tears appeared in Tobin's eyes.

"I'm sorry to tell you that the man who saved your mother was not the hero she might have thought him to be," Tobin then said firmly. "He was my uncle and I love him, but we can't ignore his past."

"The past doesn't matter," Nev said firmly, and Gaven was surprised how clam she was. "What counts is that he raised you to be an honest and upstanding man. That he overcame his past."

"But..." Tobin said, in disbelieve.

Nev allowed herself a smile, "in the Teris Sector we care about the person you are in the here and now. Your past doesn't matter, its important who you are. Jacen did many terrible things in the past and yet that never mattered to me at..." she almost swallowed her drink as she realized what she had just said.

"Jacen?" Ilona asked, her eyes widened as she exchanged a glance with her husband.

Gaven instantly knew of whom she was thinking, and for a moment his brain searched for an excuse, to craft a lie, to talk about a different Jacen. But he knew it was too late for that. So he decided to be honest, at Tobin had been.

"Jacen Solo, we have met him."

"That monster lives?" Ilona asked, rising from her chair.

"If you can call it 'life' it's a sad, broken existence, a shadow of the man he was, and yet, not fully lost." Gaven said sadly.

"Do you even know what he did? How much suffering he caused?" Ilona shot back.

"I do," Nev said, staying calm. "It doesn´t matter to me. He is my friend, I don't care who he was before. But believe me, he hasn't forgotten. What he did, it torments him every day."

"It really should," Ilona said as she slowly sat down again. Gaven felt that with all her justified anger, she was still reasonable enough that she wouldn't cause a scene.

"Only very few people know he is alive," he said slowly. "I would ask you to keep this between us. But given what you've gone through, I can't demand anything of you."

"It's less me," Ilona said. "But people I care about that he hurt. If you say he is suffering that's enough for me. But it probably won't for them. So I'll keep it a secret, as to not extend their torment."

"Thanks," Gaven said quietly. This evening had turned out so much worse than he had thought, but at least they had prevented a major fight.

"Can you tell me more about this world?" Nev asked Tobin and Ilona. "I would like to know about my family, were we came from and how we lived."

They talked for a few hours and during it their heads cooled again. So that when they left the restaurant they left with a promise of another meeting, one day in the Teris Sector...

 

Intensely moving conversation.

 

Great job on this! These are some really intense conversations between the four of them.

Oh, those awkward silences - those are just the worst!

I loved this part.

And glad they came to an understanding at the end! Awesome job.