Saga - Legends By Any Other Name [OC Missing Scene Challenge] Missing scene from Traits of Descent

I've been wanting to add this extra chapter ever since I originally wrote it. This is part of my epic Traits of Descent. I created the love between Lohl and Ciranna as an after thought to move the plot along. I always wanted to go back and revisit them before their tragic ends. This challenge finally gave me the chance. While writing this new chapter, I realized I kept the same theme as the main story. Our names are not our identity. I also realized by the end that I got a bit sappy, even for me. But, what the Hell. Sometimes we need sappy in today's world.
Hopefully you enjoy the beginning of their joy together. I have recently re-added the full version of Traits of Descent on here if you so desire to partake. As usual, enjoy and review as you see fit!

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By Any Other Name​

Lianna System 3 ABY
Lohl Ch’la gazed at himself in the reflector. He was finally free. Prince Xizor had been killed. Black Sun was being dissolved. He didn’t care how. He just knew that after decades of being in fear that no one would be coming after him. There would be no one left in Black Sun who would even remember him. He kept to himself on Lianna. The Jedi who sent him here all those years ago didn’t know the location. They didn’t even know his new name. That was designed. Lohl got used to hiding. He lived a lie under a false name. They gave him a dwelling that was far from Lianna City. Away from the public. He ate alone. He rested alone. He planted a garden alone. The grassy fields fit his mood perfectly. He wanted to pay for his crime privately.
Until he saw her. Ciranna.
He would go into the city for supplies occasionally. He never spoke to anyone if it wasn’t necessary. When he did speak, he gave his false name. He didn’t want to answer questions that he knew he had to make up for. That all changed when he saw a woman tending a booth selling citra fruit. She had chestnut hair with curls that flowed down past her neck and slender body. Ciranna was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen. He would buy her fruit, though he didn’t particularly even like citra. At first, the extent of his words to her were miniscule. A “Thank you” and “Your welcome” was all he could manage. About a standard month ago, he finally introduced himself to her. He did so with his false name. At that point, he was afraid that revealing his true self was still dangerous.
They became friends. They started to know one another. He may have given her a false name, but he kept to as close to the truth as possible with his history. He told her he was an accountant for a corporation on Coruscant. He barely had family there. He never had a relationship with his father. He had a better relationship with a bottle in his hand. His mother had died giving birth to him. A fact that spoke to why his father chose drinking over being a father. She told him that she had been married once long ago, but he died. She would spend time at Lohl's dwelling. They gazed up at the stars in the night sky of Lianna. He knew her soul. And he loved it.
Yet, he still could not tell her the truth. Until he could.
She was now sitting in the other room waiting for him. He exited the refresher and proceeded into the main room. She was sitting on the sofa where he left her. She was nursing the brandale he poured for them. She wore an elegant white two-piece gown that fit her perfectly. He made himself appear to her.
“Ah, there you are,” Ciranna said. “I was beginning to worry that you were trapped in the refresher.” Her voice was velvety smooth with a slight note of masculinity. It was music to Lohl’s ears.
He replied jokingly, “No such luck. You’re stuck with me.”
“Doesn’t sound like a bad thing.”
He went to sit next to her on the sofa. “Do you like the brandale? It’s a ’28 that I had for years.”
“Oh, yes. Very refreshing.”
“I want to thank you for coming tonight.”
“Orin, you act like I never come here. You don’t have to thank me for being here. I want to be here.”
Lohl cringed slightly at the sound of his false name. The name he gave her. The name the Jedi gave him. It may be the last time she addressed him with it.
She noticed him flinch and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Ciranna…there’s something I need to tell you.”
“Don’t tell me. You’ve killed someone. Haven’t we all?”
“Not exactly. Although, I have had to deal with some murderers in the past.”
“Seriously? I was joking.”
“I’m not.”
She shifted her position. “Well, now I’m concerned.”
“Don't be. Look, Ciranna, we’ve been together for about a standard month now. And something has come up that will allow me to tell you the truth about me.”
“The truth?”
‘Yes. You deserve it.”
“What do you mean, Orin?”
“Well, let’s start there.” He took a deep breath. “My name is not Orin. It’s Lohl. Lohl Ch’la.”
“Oh.” She paused. “Is Orin your pet name?”
“Not exactly. It was a name that was given to me, not my birth name.”
“Really? You have an alias? Who are you hiding from? Some kind of local trouble?”
He ignored her jolly tone and kept serious. “I told you that I was a former accountant for a corporation on Coruscant. That is true. What I neglected to tell you was that the corporation was Black Sun.”
Ciranna’s face was blank. No reaction.
It made Lohl realize that on an Outer Rim system away from Coruscant that many may not have heard of Black Sun. “You never heard of them?”
“Should I have?”
“It’s better that you haven’t. It was a crime syndicate involved with all kinds of illegal activities. Smuggling, piracy, and gambling casinos. Wet works, even.”
“Wet works? Is that illegal swimming?”
Lohl chuckled at her innocence. He smiled as he explained, “No. Wet works are assassinations. Anyone from political figures to innocents who got in their way.”
“I see. And you handled their money.”
“Yes. We’re talking multi-millions in Republic credits. I did that for years before the start of the Clone Wars. Over time, the job ate at me. It shredded my dignity year by year. I had to get out. Black Sun isn’t the kind of company where you can just tender your resignation. The Jedi gave me a solution.”
“The Jedi were around then? Oh, wait…..before the Clone Wars. I was barely a teenager then.”
“I was in my early twenties. The Jedi offered me a way to turn over evidence to prosecute members of Black Sun. In return, I had to sacrifice my home and name. A new identity.”
“And you chose to be Orin on Lianna?”
“To be fair, the location and name were chosen at random. I was given a sealed datapad that only I was given the passcode. The Jedi didn’t know my name nor did they know my new location.”
“Plausible deniability,” Ciranna said.
“Something like that.” Ciranna was silent for too long. Lohl said, “Say something, Ciranna.”
“Why now, Ori-..I mean Lohl. I will have to get used to your new name.”
“It’s my true name.”
“Well, it’s new to me. Why now? Why tell me this after we’ve known each other for a month?”
Lohl sighed. “Just recently I saw the news that the leader of Black Sun, Prince Xizor, was killed. Their organization is starting to crumble now. Enough time has passed that there are few in Black Sun who even remember me. I’m no longer a threat to them.”
“Were you ever a threat to them?”
“For all these years I’ve been here, I thought I’d face their revenge against me. It’s the reason I never got involved with anyone. I kept to myself. I lived here as a hermit. It was safer.”
“I still noticed you. I would see you wander in the market. I always thought you looked lonely.”
“I was. It hurt how lonely I was. That was my price for exposing Black Sun. The sad thing was that my evidence only managed to convict lesser figures. None of the Vigos could be touched.”
“Vigos?”
“Yes. That was the title of the higher bosses of Black Sun.”
“Vigo,” she said it as if she were studying the word. “It means ‘nephew’ in Old Tionese.”
“High marks.” He nodded to her.
She paused before stating, “I get that you were afraid of retaliation. But you were on Lianna for, what, twenty years and nothing happened.”
“That’s usually when they strike. When you least expect it. That’s when you get a visit from Skarce Voxan.”
She laughed but caught herself. “Oh…. you’re serious. I thought Voxan was a myth. A boogeyman for criminals.”
“No, he was real. I met him once. Scary guy.”
“Eww. Let’s not talk about him anymore.”
“Agreed.”
Ciranna took some time to gather her thoughts before she finally said, “All right, this is a little much to take in right now. But I’m getting a handle on it, Lohl. I mean, I remember all the times you kept watch on me and then started to buy my citra fruit. A lot of citra fruit. Should have known something was up because nobody likes citra that much.”
“I still have a huge stash in my fresher. I got tired of it after the first hundred vines.”
She gave him a wry smile. “Are you trying to sell my fruit back to me?”
“I can give you a discount.”
“No sale.” She reached for her glass of brandale on the table and gulped it.
“You want some more?”
“I may need something stronger.”
“I have that, too.” He started the motion of getting up when she held out her hand.
“Wait. I want to get this out before I’m too drunk to say it. A month ago, you did finally talk to me. Whether you realize it or not, you did overcome your fear of revenge. That was before you knew that Black Sun was no more. That was a risk that required courage. As I’ve told you, I married at a very young age. My husband died not long after that. In the short time we had together, we really didn’t have a connection. It was essentially a marriage of convenience. After he died, I also felt lonely like you did. I denied myself to be close to anyone. I had men come to me over the years, of course. They would offer me what they thought was everything. Material things and promises of riches beyond my dreams. I knew why they kept coming for me. I only have to look in the reflector to understand why. I refused them because they only saw my beauty on the outside.” She paused. “When you spoke to me that day a month ago, I just knew that you could see my inner beauty.”
“I did. I knew it each time we talked. But, Ciranna, I told you a different name. I lied to you.”
“Your name may have been different. But you were still you. You were always yourself. That was never false. Your name doesn’t define you, Lohl. You’ve shown me who you are in these past weeks. And I cherish every moment. I’m not sure yet, but I think we have something to build on here.”
He reached out to out his hand in hers. “I am so thrilled to hear you say that. I feel the same way. I’ve never felt this way ever in my life. I’ve been so alone for most of it. You know I never really had a family on Coruscant. I never had anyone else. Not even a girlfriend. It wasn’t until I saw you years later that I felt I needed to try to be with someone. After talking to you these past weeks I knew that it was possible.”
“Then what else held you back?”
“I’m not sure. I think it was that I felt you didn’t deserve to share my pain.”
“No, don’t think that, Lohl. Let me choose if I deserve anything that may cause me pain. That’s what a relationship is. Compromise and communication.”
“I get that now. Because now I want to share everything with you.”
“I’ll bet you have some stories.”
“Do I ever.”
“Still no stories about Voxan.”
“You don’t want to hear them, trust me.” He stared at her lovely face with a new sense of joy. “I wish I had spoken to you years earlier.”
“Maybe you spoke to me just at the right time. You shouldn’t have any regrets, Lohl. There, see I’m getting used to it. Can we still keep Orin as your pet name?”
“I think it’s high time that I retire that name. And I just realized something. I do have one regret.”
“What?”
“I regret not knowing yet how kissable your lips are.”
Ciranna smiled deviously and said, “It’s high time you found out.” She leaned closer to his face. He did the same to hers. They embraced and their lips touched. Then it became more than a touch. After a few minutes, Ciranna parted slightly away and asked, “So, what’s your assessment?”
“Oh, I’m going to need a lot more data to form a theory.”
“I’ll be your test subject forever.”
He eased her onto the sofa on her back and they kissed again. Neither of them wanted the night to end.

THE END​

 

SQUEE! Ciranna is a delight and she's right about Lohl sharing his true self with her even under a pseudonym.