Chapter Ten

My friend must be a bird, Because it flies! Mortal my
friend must be, Because it dies!  Barbs has it, like a bee.
Ah, curious friend, Thou puzzlest me! -- LI -- Emily
Dickinson

  I didn't like the way he went away.  That smile! It never
came of being gay. Still he smiled - did you see him?-I was
sure! . . .I wonder how far down the road he's got.  He's
watching us from the woods as like as not. -- The Smile--
Robert Frost

  Serena stood up in her seat as soon as the _Corellian
Sunrise_ came out of hyperspace. A cold shiver ran down
her back.  Her breath began to quicken.  She sat back down
in the leather pilot's seat.  'I can't believe this, not the
Academy. How could he? Unless he knew that I was
training.'
  "Ky -- Kyp! Shal!"   Serena began to lower the sleek
Corellian ship down through Yavin's atmosphere.  Already
she could see the damage that had been done.  'The temple,
it's okay, but, but the land around it . . .' Kyp ran into the
cockpit, Shal'lyindraa right behind him. Shal'lyindraa stood
on the tip of her toes; rocked back on her heals, and turned
around in one swift movement.
  "Yavin," Shal'lyindraa whispered, as she ran towards the
hatchway. Her silver dress flew behind her and Serena
watched it turn a corner and disappear with Shal'lyindraa.
  Serena quickly landed the _Corellian Sunrise_ near the
temple, on a clear patch of land.  She jumped out of the
seat, and ran straight behind Kyp out of the ship.  Serena
stepped out onto a burned patch of land directly in front of
the temple.  Shal'lyindraa ran inside it, and quickly came
out.
  Shal'lyindraa said, "No one's in there."
  Serena gasped as they rounded the Great Temple and were
surrounded in droid parts and large blasters.  Serena
crouched down by the destroyed parts and picked up the
head of a droid.  She stood back up and handed it to Kyp,
who was looking around himself at the piles of destroyed
parts.
  "Recognize this kind of droid?  I don't."  Serena said,
studying the droids head.  It was white and slanted with
mechanical eyes on each side of the head.
  Kyp studied it also, and took it out of her hands in the
process.  "Yeah, I do.  These are battle droids.  But," Kyp
crouched down and studied the places where the droid's
head had been ripped off its body.  "A lightsaber did this."
Kyp turned towards the jungle, fallen and burned trees
filled the jungle floor.  "This way.    They're hiding, in the
jungle," he said as he dropped the head of the droid and it
rolled away until it hit another droid's arm.
  He stood up and began walking into the jungle, not caring
if Serena or Shal'lyindraa were following.  Someone was
dead.  He could feel it.  He also knew that Luke was not on
Yavin, he was gone, as were all the strongest students.
  Kyp reached a burned clearing.  Smoke was slowly rising
from the ground mixing with the fog, which partially cut off
his vision of the ground below his waist.  In front of him
was a small temple, half of it destroyed.
  "Durron, Kyp Durron?"  a soft voice spoke out, as a
beautiful woman stepped out of the temple.
  Kyp quickly walked towards the silver haired girl, he could
hear Serena and Shal'lyindraa following behind him, they're
boots making the only noise throughout the jungle.
Everything, even the animals, were silent as if they too were
mourning the loss of one of the Jedi students.
  "Yes? What happened?"
  "A Star Destroyer and battle droids.  Brett, he's dead."
  A picture of a young man flashed through Kyp's head, he
nodded.
  "Everyone else is okay, but our communication is gone, no
one knows that this has happened." Tionne looked over
Kyp's shoulder at the two younger girls behind him. "You
need to go quickly to Coruscant. Master Skywalker is there,
find him. Tell him the temple wasn't touched and Brett's
dead."
  Kyp nodded numbly. Didn't that boy have a sister?   "We'll
go, do you want to come?"
  The girl quickly shook her head. "No, I can't, not now.
Exana and Melisa, and the others," Tionne's voice suddenly
turned bitter, "If this ever happens again, I promise you we
will fight back. _We will_."
  Kyp nodded, not able to say anything.
  "Go, now.  Hurry."  The young woman's lower lip
trembled. Kyp looked down to see a small dark haired girl
tightly holding Tionne's hand.
  Kyp backed up, staring at the girl as if she was a monster,
and then he quickly turned around. "Let's go."  he said
tightly, his throat was constricting more and more as each
second passed.  He walked past Serena, then Shal'lyindraa.
He stared at the ground, not letting them see his darkened
face filled with all the sadness of the galaxy.
  Serena watched as Kyp walked past her, and then
Shal'lyindraa followed.  Her father had done this.  She knew
it.  If not him, someone sent by him.  It was true then; her
father _was_a heartless man, beast.
  Looking around at the fallen trees and burned ground,
Serena wondered if this all wasn't her fault.  Yet, how could
her father know about her? Unless those men that had
attacked her and Han on Tatooine had been sent by Kayro.
He could have known from the very beginning, from the
second she had left Tatooine or Corellia, even.
  It seemed as if everyone she had met was hurt in some way
by her father, her mother included. In fact it had probably
been her fault that her mother was dead.  Shal'lyindraa's
family was dead.  Was it because of her, or just some
coincidence?
  Maybe then she should leave.  Leave the Academy, Kyp,
and Shal'lyindraa.  It would probably be the best thing she
could do.  Then, maybe, she could find her father, turn
herself into him, and beg him to stop hurting her friends.
Would that be the wisest thing, though?  'He might kill me,'
she thought to herself as a cold shiver ran through her body.
  Serena backed away from the small temple before her, and
turned around to face the disappearing backs of Kyp and
Shal'lyindraa.  She quickly caught up to them, pushing what
was left of large hanging vines out of her way.
  The trio walked silently to the _Corellian Sunrise_ and
boarded it.  Shal'lyindraa, and Serena lifted the ship off
Yavin Four and entered hyperspace, heading for Coruscant.
  Serena stood up and walked out of the cockpit, leaving
Shal'lyindraa by herself.  "Kyp?"  she asked the handsome
man standing at the door to the hallway which led to the
cockpit.
  Serena walked up to his back, and pressed herself up
against him.  "I'm sorry."
  Kyp turned around, and enfolded her in his arms. "For
what?"
  "It's my fault.  It has to be."
  Kyp held Serena tightly to him, enjoying the feeling of her
being close to him.  Her honey-brown hair smelled of mint.
It smelled beautiful.  Looked beautiful.  Beautiful hair for a
beautiful girl.  His beautiful girl.  "No, it's not.  Even though
he's your father, it's not your fault."
  "Maybe if I told Master Skywalker about it; we could tell
the Chief of State.  We could attack him . . ."
  "You don't have to tell anyone, Serena."
  Serena rested her head against Kyp's chest.  "But,
Shal'lyindraa, and Brett, oh the Academy!"  Serena half
wailed.  "It's gotta be my fault."
  "It's no one's fault, Serena, especially not yours,"  Kyp
said, lifting her face up and wiping her tears away with his
thumb.
  "I hate him!  I hate him so much.  He has no heart. He
doesn't even know what the word mercy means!"
  Kyp held Serena at arms length. "Serena, calm down. It's
okay. Just try and forget about him."
  "I can't." Serena shook her head. "I never will.  And I have
these dreams, they bring back so many bad memories of my
mother and, and everything. He's hurt so many people. "
Serena's voice cracked. "He haunts me, day and night. It's
so hard for me to sleep. His face will haunt me till I'm dead,
that I can be sure of."
  "It'll be over soon. The New Republic will take care of it.
They have in the past, and I have no doubt in my mind that
they, or we, will be able to take care of Kayro."
  Serena took a deep breath, and nodded her head. "You're
right."
  Kyp put his arm around Serena's waist.  "Now, you need
to need to work on your training, come on. It'll get your
mind off all this other stuff."




  Kayro sat at his steal desk, his eyes centered on his data
pad, watching a small tape of the attack placed long ago on
Tatooine.  That girl was his daughter, Serena.  Her eyes
were, of course, exactly like her mothers.  Those two
women were the only women Kayro knew that had those
kind of eyes.  The gray-green ones with a blue circle around
the pupil.  No one had those kind of eyes except Belle and
Serena.  After watching the recording over and over again,
Kayro had finally realized that that girl was his daughter.
She was not Serena Maldrin, she was Serena Inin.  When he
got hold of her, he would have her head.  She would regret
the day she ever joined up with the Republic.  Kayro smiled
to himself.  He would make her regret it.
  Kayro knew that Serena was aware of him.  He knew that
she was aware that he was the one attacking all the planets,
and Kayro knew that she would be blaming herself like she
always did.  To her, anything that went wrong was her fault.
Most of the time he agreed with her.  Except for this one
time it was not solely her fault.  Serena's emotional barriers
were falling quickly.  The only thing Serena did not seem to
know was Darien was still about.  Darien did not seem to
know that Serena was running about either, he would have
to tell the boy that his beloved sister was running around as
a Jedi -- something Kayro had feared would happen ever
since he had rid himself of her.
  Pretty soon, if not already, someone would know that
Serena was related to him.  It would be funny if the
Republic locked her up.  Kayro allowed himself a bitter
laugh.  He could not wait to see his daughter again.  He
could not wait to punish her and set her straight.  Everyone
needed to be set straight, every child especially.  Kayro just
had an easier way to do it.
  He hated children, and to Kayro, Serena was still a small,
annoying child.  Belle had always loved her daughter dearly,
but Kayro could not stand the thing.  The only way his
daughter could be of use to him was if she joined the
Empire, after all, she did have the Force and she would soon
be a Jedi Knight.  Would not it be the most interesting thing
if she just happened to turn to the dark side?
  Kayro grimaced as he remembered the way he had almost
given up at letting the older girl take over his home and
money.  Thank the stars Darien had come up with his ship-
crashing - sister -dying plan.
  Kayro swivelled around in his high-backed chair and
leaned back.  Eon had completely and mysteriously
disappeared.  He had not contacted Kayro since the time he
had attacked Unisosia, and Clenicis.  In fact that message
had been short. It had said 'mission complete, successful'.
  Eon should have arrived in the Kanat system days ago.
This angered Kayro, he knew that he should not have
trusted Eon.  That man had probably told the New Republic
exactly where Kayro was.  Which wasn't that much of a
problem, except for the fact by the time Darien, and Gerem
arrived, all of the New Republic forces would be against
him and would have probably destroyed his Star Destroyer.
  Yet, Kayro wasn't worried. 'Let them destroy my ship, I'll
get away, and I'll come back, stronger.' Kayro smiled. Yes,
they could destroy the _Evening Death_, he did not mind.
He still had his other four Star Destroyers.
  Kayro had been taught to not worry about the future, to
worry about the present. It was also said to not linger in the
past, but he did both, yet right now he was not worrying
about the future, he was looking forward to it.  Even if the
_Evening Death_ was destroyed, he could still continue his
revolt against the New Republic.
  In fact, maybe he should _let_ the New Republic destroy
this ship.  It would make them more naive than ever.  They
would start to believe that if one Star Destroyer was so easy
to destroy, then four more Star Destroyers should be
simple.  Yet, Kayro would not make it simple. His plans
might be simple, but the New Republic would be surprised
at how un-simple his ships were at being destroyed.
  'When the New Republic enters the system, I'll lower the
shield power, and fire a few shots; barely damaging a
thing.  Then, I can cut all power but life support and turn
the shields on to maximum power.  Then the _Evening
Death_ should slowly begin to fall towards Deneratin's
atmosphere, and then . . . everything will be perfect . . .'
  Kayro stood up and threw his data pad across the room. It
hit the wall and fell to the ground, broken into a hundred
pieces.  'Don't get too naive you little rebel scum, if you
do, your government might just collapse.'

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