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Tenshi ran through darkness. She had no clue where she was; all she saw was black. She wore an old-style Renaissance dress, a black chemise and red lace-up overdress. Suddenly, in the distance, she saw a familiar form. Blonde hair flowed in an unfelt wind, and he smiled, and his aqua eyes shimmered in unseen light. Tenshi reached out to him, but the faster she ran, the farther away he got. So she walked. He got closer. Then he started to stretch strangely. Gruesomely, he split in two, one half being the Dark Corellian Knight, his hair black instead of blonde and uniform of dark color. The other half was a redheaded man in a white suit. Tenshi turned away, wiping blood from her face. The red-haired man came over and hugged her, but she pushed him away and ran.
Tenshi's eyes flicked open, and suddenly she realized it had all been a dream. She glanced at her bedside chronometer. Two AM, Coruscant standard, Saturday. Oh no... Today's the funeral... Tenshi broke down and wept, using her sheets as a handkerchief to catch her tears.
It had been raining for several hours leading up to the funeral. It was on the Saturday after the conflict which took the life of Souru, the Corellian Knight. Almost everybody had turned out for the funeral, everybody from Annika to Zyta. Most had come and gone, while close friends had stayed behind to comfort Tenshi, Suta and Niji. Hundred of flowers lay around the casket, while the top stayed bare except for an eight-by-ten picture of Souru, framed with wood from Yavin IV. It was a closed casket, due to the fact that they were never able to retrive Souru's body after the explosion of Kai's ship.
"Tenshi, everything will be okay. He's not really gone if you remember him in your heart," Xarae comforted Tenshi.
"Thank you Xarae, but I don't know how I can go on without him," Tenshi told her, her voice full of pain.
"Tenshi, Don't even think of doing something drastic just because he's gone. You know he would want you to stay and watch after the kids," Xarae said in a raised voice.
"You're right, Xarae. I'm sorry, there's just so much going on now - I'm not sure what to do," Tenshi confessed.
As the two continued to talk, a man wearing a black, worn-out flight suit with long firery red hair moved up to the casket. He was locked onto the picture of Souru. He then turned towards Tenshi and said, "My sympathies, madam," as he passed her.
The man's presence hit Tenshi like a million stars exploding at once. To her, the man looked familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, as if she knew him before but couldn't place his face. The stranger walked off towards the gates which served as an entrance and exit to the cemetary. Tenshi watched him leave, still trying to put a name with his face.
"Who was that man?" Tenshi asked Xarae.
"No idea. He looked like he was lost," Xarae responded.
Tenshi got up from her seat and walked over to the casket. She stared at Souru's picture and was engulfed by memories.
Things were falling everywhere; minor explosions rocked the ship from every direction. Souru, in his transformed state, lay beaten on the catwalk connecting to the door Tenshi had escaped through. "TENSHI!!!! GO NOW - I'LL MEET YOU BACK AT HO..." was the last thing she heard him say before screaming out in agony as the flames from the engine-room explosion engulfed his body. She saw his right arm extend towards her, only to be surrounded in flames. Black feathers from Souru's wings burned before they had a chance to go anywhere. She could no longer see him or sense him.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Tenshi yelled as Sukiesu pulled her away from the door.
Tenshi burst into tears after recalling the last moments of Souru's life. She thought back to that man. She still couldn't understand why the man had looked familiar to her. It then hit her; he had looked like the red-haired man from the dream she had eariler. Could he be the same man?
I had returned from the funeral confused. I still don't know why I went. This man, Souru, who the funeral was for, had looked familiar to me for some reason. Everybody there had seemed familiar to me also, as if I knew them from somewhere. And then there was that woman, who I assumed was Souru's wife. When I passed her, I could feel her pain, but it wasn't sympathy - it was more like confusion, for both of us. It felt as if we knew each other from somewhere. She had reminded me of someone I never knew, of a song I may have never heard. This woman had brought out feelings in me I ever knew existed. What were they? I asked myself as I poured some boiling water into a mug of hot chocolate. Bringing the mug up to my lips with my right hand, I could feel the heat though the mug as it got closer to my lips. I proceeded to take a sip and was not ready for what happened next.
As the burning liquid hit my tongue, hundred of visions flew though my head. Images of Souru and his wife together, the dream I had where I was reaching out for a woman before being engulfed in flames, and the hospital I woke up in on Corellia, all came back to me. When the images stopped, I noticed I was now on the floor next to the broken mug of hot chocolate. I recalled how most of the images had Souru's wife in them and that woman from my dreams that I reached out to.
It hit me at once, I knew who that woman in my dream was. It was Souru's wife. But why would she be in the dream I've had since waking up in the hospital? I was confused, so confused... I put my hands on my head and yelled out, "Ahhhhhhhhhh, what's going on?"
From outside the man's apartment, a man with platinum-blond hair and beady red eyes watched the confused man. "Don't worry yourself. In time, you will have to remember who you really are, Souru," he said.
