Naboo's Open Terrain

“I don’t know, Lucy. I really do not know.” Replied Forcias with a faint sigh, granted he did not clarify for what question he had answered, but even there were things that were obscure to him. But one thing was certain; it was a possibility for Rodrek to go to Umgul considering what he had said in those caves. “Rodrek said or actually he did not say anything of essence, he just said ‘the same way as you, I am guessing.’ Fact is, I did not even know that it existed to begin with until I was told about it.”

Forcias paused when he heard the knock on their door; he kept his mouth shut for the time being and wondered how he could explain a few more things. . . Then he remembered something. It would fit since from what he recalled; Lucy was there when Andros had asked something of her.

“Tell me, do you remember that day before a certain press conference?” Asked Forcias thoughtfully, but for that he knew he had to expound because there had been so many press conferences. “When Andros asked you to coordinate a platoon to clear the raceways from that family, the Horica, was it?” Forcias removed the tray from over his meal while he had been talking although he knew that he wouldn’t eat just yet. He had even poured some wine into her glass and his. “Do you remember the Jedi leaving with a few things from the casino’s vault, or is that hazy for you?”

From what he had understood, that had mostly been forgotten by most of the Jedi from the Mist Order but not from Mace since he remembered her requesting from Horsea to get that in her office after Mistal released that said container.

“Bottom line, Lucy, just the promise of power is within those vaults. I do not know what exactly because only the descendants of those families have access to it, and Rodrek may try to sway someone, or even anyone to help him out. Anyone from those families can open that vault that belongs to his or her ancestors, and Rodrek might get a hold of one piece of the puzzle. . .”

Finally Forcias began to eat his food since he didn’t want it to get cold, so he just ate and waited patiently to hear if Lucy had any further questions really.

Forcias knew that everything he had said insofar was either hard to grasp or even hard to comprehend. So he was explaining the best he could even though he knew that there were things that he ought to keep unspoken but he just couldn’t do that. Lucy had the right to know after seeing that place in Eleuabad. He also had probably said too much so a little more, what would happen to him really? After all, Lucine had been the first one to question things, at least the first one that he knew of.

“Some obscure texts were in the raceways’ vault. The Jedi did not know what those were but upon seeing those Mace knew.” Explained Forcias before looking at her thoughtfully and finally asked. “What do you know about Umgul’s history?” That question of his was meant as no offense at all, but he did not hesitate to explain a bit that would interest her and why those findings in the raceways had interested Mace in particular. “Despite the Jedi Order back then getting a hold of most of those texts, some were left behind along with a fragment of a wall.” Said Forcias with a faint sigh. “A certain Murk Lundi who taught on Coruscant and focused mainly on darksiders and maybe how to obtain power or whatever, I really don’t know but trust me when I say that there is a reason why Raan Jade picked Umgul and why also Mace headed there to help him out.”

Maybe all of his words insofar were obscure or still hard to comprehend but he was certain that Lucy would understand either now or even later, for now he just resumed eating his meal knowing that for the time being he had said what he needed to say at least until the two of them were done with their dinner.

Forcias could tell that Lucy was pensive and even with the two of them standing right there at the balcony and his arm wrapped around her, he held her close to him glancing at the distance. “I probably should. . .” Agreed Forcias about comming Mace but still he had his gaze onto her and he looked at her thoughtfully. He should probably soothed her or something considering that she looked like she was brooding but he decided against it and just leaned over to kiss the top of her head before he released her and returned inside of their room.

Finding his comlink and anything else that he may need to be connected to Mace via videocom, Forcias input her comm frequency and waited for a few moments until he finally was connected and he also saw her image and also that place he recognized immediately.

Forcias. . . Finally said that familiar tone although it was laced with surprised and curiosity and it showed on her current frown right now. She was about to tell him something but she noticed his serious expression. What happened?

Not only Mace was there but he had also noticed that she was with Ayla along with Horsea and the three of them were standing side by side with a concern expression for two and a dubious one for the other.

Is Lucy alright, Forcias? Asked Horsea this time before seeing his nod, which made her sigh in relief because after all she was concerned for him and for Lucy too considering that the Lieutenant meant a lot to Forcias.

“Yes, she is fine. And if I am comming now, it’s because we are currently in Naboo.” Said and explained Forcias with a frown before adding on soon after since he knew that everyone right there preferred a straight to the point conversation. “Lucy and I were in Eleuabad this very afternoon, and we encountered a dark sider named Rodrek who knew about those vaults in there.”

I see. . . Said Mace through gritting teeth before she took a deep breath and closed her eyes momentarily. Just what we needed right now. With everything that had also been occurring in Umgul and now that matter on Naboo, it was getting preposterous. Could you describe him or show me a sketch of him, please. Asked Mace before she took a deep breath and looked at Forcias again. What does the Lieutenant know, maybe I should speak with her, please put her on, Forcias and sketch the man’s face.

Forcias inclined his head and looked at Lucy asking her to stand closer to the device before he went to take a piece of paper that was lying around in the hotel room and a pencil to sketch the man they had seen in the caves of Eleubad.

Lieutenant Lyn. Said Mace very placidly before inclining her head. Please tell me what happened from the beginning, and also what did Major Kes tell you about Eleuabad? Maybe Mace sounded strict there, and maybe she sounded annoyed but none of it, she most of the time spoke with a dry tone when things were happening at the same time and clearly that event in Eleuabad had come at a bad time when someone was trying to frame Andros back in Umgul for crimes that occurred in the City and with those gang members being the victims. . .

As Mace waited for the answer from Lucy, she had that impassive expression on her features. It’s how she always was, in Umgul, in a visiocomm, everyday she had that expression whenever she was talking to people. Maybe it looked like she was uninterested or maybe it looked like she preferred to be doing something else but one thing remained the same, it was the fact that she was still standing there and if she really did not care she would have simply walked away. Although right not she wasn’t standing alone, Ayla and Horsea were by her side and she was in the middle. . .

Nonetheless when Lucy began her briefing, Mace listened attentively with that same expression but towards the end of the Lieutenant’s statement when she clearly stated that she had disregarded Forcias’ request to stay behind, a faint smirk tugged on the corner of her lips. Maybe it had something to do with one of Horsea’s thoughts and maybe it was Ayla’s, either way, yes Mace was smirking.

Lieutenant Lyn. . . Began to say Mace as her posture slightly relaxed, she waved her hand once and shook her head. You were curious, and I cannot fault you for that, after all, I do know Forcias and he cannot lie to a person that he. . . Mace was about to say ‘loves’ but instead said something else. Cares about, and I also trust in his judgment, he trusts you therefore it’s why he told you. But I do have one request from you, whatever you might have seen or come to know, do not let anyone else know.

Mace knew that it might have been a questionable request from her but fact was, not everyone knew about those things yet, the Solaris did not know just yet because for the time being their father was MIA, just like the Drakes, although the fact that Forcias had conversed with Lynx and Lyna Drake, maybe she would get some answers there.

Lieutenant, thank you for your honesty and please rest assured that nothing will happen to Forcias. Said Mace sincerely with a smile this time until she turned her head in Horsea’s direction when she heard a datapad sounding off and noticed the content of that message she had just received. Reply to your brother later about Forcias' whereabouts, but also let him know that I am the one that granted the Major his leave, so if he has a problem with that, tell Honoros to come and find me.

Mace shook her head and gritted her teeth soon after before pushing that petty problem away. At least that was a petty problem to her compared to what was going on in Umgul but also in Naboo. Forcias. . . Mace called out to him, wondering if he was done with the sketching.

Forcias was putting on the finishing touches on the sketch and stood up from where he was sitting before presenting himself next to Lucy, he was completely oblivious to everything that had been said, because he wasn’t paying attention to that.

“I am done.” Said Forcias, before he lifted the piece of paper and turned it around to show off Rodrek’s portrait. “It’s the best I could do, but he looks more or less like him.”

Horsea was the first one to look at that auto-portrait and furrowed her eyebrows upon finding who that supposedly Rodrek was. It can’t be. . .

“What?”

The Vice-Governor blacklisted him, his name is not Rodrek that is Lincoln Baltzersen, the man who managed to once turn Andros into a Sith. . .

“How would he know about that place?” Asked Forcias with a confused expression before sighing almost inaudibly and he crumbled the piece of paper out of frustration before adopting a hardened stare.

Forcias. . . Said Mace softly to calm him down and she lifted her hand before shaking her head slightly. What did Lord and Lady Drake tell you when you spoke with them?

Taking a deep breath to control himself, he closed his eyes momentarily looked back at Mace’s figure with a faint frown. “They said that you all weren’t ready and that only when the seven are standing there will it make sense until then, they’ll keep protecting that place. They also told me that Lara and Keith had to be found, but they gave no location to where they currently were.”

Closing her eyes momentarily, Mace shook her head and looked upwards. . . Things were never easy. Very well, look, the two of you, do not return to Eleuabad under any circumstances at all. We’ll keep tracking down the fraternal twins but in the meantime, you two be careful but do not approach that man under any circumstances. For now, we have to go, there are other things occurring here on Umgul, be safe.

. . . And with that the communication between Naboo and Umgul was cut. Forcias went to sit on the bed and couldn’t believe that the man they were against earlier that day had been the same man that had turned Andros in the darker side a while ago. It was just something he just couldn’t believe, and something that just left him confused. Finally, Forcias picked his head up and looked at Lucy dubiously. “What do you want to do now?” Asked he, he wouldn’t blame her at all if she might have wanted to go back to Umgul or something, he really did not know but it felt like several bombs had been dropped on them and more on her. . .

The smell of coffee does wake him up but he still did not move because he wanted to just sleep in for a moment but when she started kicking the bed, he grabbed the pillow she had been using and threw that in her direction but in return he got something thrown onto his body.

“C’mon. . .” Playfully muttered Forcias before burying his face under his pillow this time. “You are worse than a drill instructor,” Peeking his head out from the pillow to look at her with an amused smile on the corner of his lips. “You know that, right?”

Pushing that pillow away, Forcias sat up on the bed and leaned against the headboard for the time being before grabbing that folder to check the numerous activities that were present here. Now he had to plan, okay. . . So that better be a good thing, obviously he was going to avoid cave diving since they did that yesterday already. But today, well that was a conundrum. . .

“You know what?” Asked Forcias rhetorically as he got out of bed and picked up his shorts to put those on, he walked closer to her before placing his hands onto her waist.
“I say we just do nothing today and be lazy at the beach, if you want we can even do some kite surf, but right now, let’s just play it by ear. Please?”

Like he had said before he wasn’t the planning type and he did things as they came, simple as that. Although right now he looked at her teasingly before glancing at the ‘fresher. “You could have at least woken me up for that, I wouldn’t miss a shower if that implied you being there.”

Rolling his eyes playfully before capturing her lips for a kiss, he soon let her go to go take a shower and he walked back out from there with a towel wrapped around his waist with hopefully breakfast already being there. Although the entire time he had been in the shower, he wondered what had been going on in Umgul, as he clearly remembered what Mace had said yesterday.

He knew he was on leave but still it did not change the fact that he sat at the table there pensively. . .

Lifting his head up, Forcias looked at her with a faint smile. “Yes there is still that,” Replied he before shaking his head from side to side and he still wondered about some other thing. “But also the fact that, yesterday she said that something was happening on Umgul. So it’s making me wonder what.” Forcias explained as he scratched his rubbed jaw, he looked at Lucy thoughtfully and took a deep breath.

“There are only two reasons why the three of them are together in Horsea’s office, or maybe three.” One of those reasons, actually he did not want to even think about it, it concerned the Deputy Director’s older brother, and clearly the message that Horsea had received wasn’t even the reason why they were together. Two it concerned that thing about the three families and finally, it really meant that something bad was happening in Umgul. . .

Again, despite the fact being on leave, his first automatic reaction was to see if there was anything he could do, but right now he wasn’t there, he was here on Naboo and he was with Lucy, so he should probably just push away those thoughts. It was why he looked back at her and took a deep breath, “I know, I may be overthinking it, so I should probably stop and just enjoy the day. . .”

Forcias grabbed a fork and just began to eat his breakfast without saying anything further about that matter right now. He guessed that for both of their sakes, he should stop brooding and he should be living more in the now. Also he figured that if he really was needed then Mace would have ordered him to come back, right?

Right. . .

“I’ll come jogging with you, if you’ll have me of course?” Speaking after he had swallowed his mouthful, he stood up from his seat to find his jogging pants into his bag but also a shirt to put those on. Returning to his seat and finishing his breakfast along with the coffee he had there, he wiped his lips and looked at her grinning.

“Shall we then?”

Forcias looked at Lucy with uncertainty not because he did not believe her but more because he found that expression to define Mace very perculiar. “The shizzle?” Repeated Forcias with a faint chuckle as he tied made sure that his shoes were tied up correctly. “You, Lieutenant Lyn, proud member of the UDF, are very peculiar.” Said he very teasingly as he looked back at her as he stepped out of their room and straight onto the beach.

Stretching for a bit to make sure that his muscles were warm enough, Forcias looked up at her since he was crouching on the ground when she told him that she wasn’t the chatty type. It wasn’t a problem to him quite honestly since usually he wasn’t the talkative type around people but like everything there were many exceptions. He spoke without being prompted with her, and others. But when it came to jogging or just overall workout, Forcias never spoke much anyways. . .

Watching her just start off jogging without a warning, Forcias stood up to his fullest and finished warming up with knees before setting off in her direction and catching up in the process even. At first he followed her pace which wasn’t difficult to him, he was actually used to worse but he figured that if he started showing off, where was the point in jogging anyways? Although for a short distance from time to time, he sped up and return to the previous one.

And that went on and on, until. . .

He was sitting down on the sand, his shirt was wet from the sweat but he had a satisfied grin on the corner of his lips. He definitely had temporarily forgotten about those issues happening on Umgul and also what had happened here. Breathing evenly soon after, Forcias looked in Lucy’s direction with an amused grin.

“Not bad, Lieutenant, really not bad, could do better, but. . .” Forcias was probably inviting a beat down from her but he guessed he just liked teasing her from time to time and maybe it was one of those ways he could get back at her, maybe, potentially. Who really knew?

For now, he was just enjoying the moment. . .

Finally standing up, Forcias looked at her playfully and gestured in the direction of their hotel room. “Can you still even walk and take a dip into the ocean?” Forcias asked teasingly before he wrapped his arm around her and walked back towards their room to grab their beach gears. He really wanted, needed just a lazy rest of the morning and even afternoon, even if he knew it might drive him crazy he guessed.

Despite the fact that the beach was filled with women who no doubt were appealing to look at, Forcias only and always had his eyes on Lucy while he had been laying on his back on his towel. They talked about random things; it was never a dull moment with her. He had even stopped thinking about those other things that were on his mind, like how he would manage to stop Honoros from being pissed off because he had defied his order, like how the heck that Lincoln or Rodrek managed to find out about Eleuabad, also what the heck was happening on Umgul. . .

All of that, there were just out of his mind right now.

Something came to his mind which caused him to look at Lucy with a dubious expression, “I just had a thought,” Began to say Forcias before furrowing his eyebrow and smirking, “I know what you are going to say, something along the lines, hey that is a first.” Rolling his eyes playfully before shaking his head, he finally let his sunglasses sit on top of his head and he looked at her with a warm smile.

“Yesterday, we did do something that I liked,” Which was the diving and all that and despite the setbacks and the things that had happened there, it was still something he liked, and now he was thinking that it should be her turn definitely. “How about we go hiking and then climbing tomorrow or the day after?” Forcias suggested genuinely, he knew that climbing was something she liked, and it was also something he wanted to test out with her.

“What do you think, of course, that will mean that you will have to postpone your overall tan for the time being.”

Forcias was pretty sure that by now he had tanned to the max. Either way he was also certain that he was going to get his shorts’ outlines and it was something that he wasn’t really looking forward to seeing once they got to their room. . .

Although the moment they did get to their room, Forcias completely forgot about his tan issues and just followed her for that said shower. . .

Later on, Forcias emerged of the bathroom wearing black pants and a shirt that he rolled up once before looking at her dubiously. He could see that she was concentrated on her tanlines and he purposely stood behind her with his hands on her shoulder.

“Semi-dressy and semi-casual.” Replied Forcias before leaning to kiss her neck while he briefly wrapped his arms around her. “For the record, your tanlines are better than mine but I am sure you’ll get that fixed once we get back to the cabin, and I’ll even promise to try to avoid touching you while you are tanning.”

Chuckling briefly, Forcias finally released her and grabbed the gel to fix his hair correctly while it was still wet at least and he put some cologne on. “I am treating you tonight, so this is me officially taking you on an official first time date.”

Winking at her playfully before he continued to fix his hair in front of the mirror, which was really that surprising for him because when he thought about it, it really was the first time that he really took care of his appearance this way. . .

Forcias looked at her with a faint smirk when asked where he was going to take her for their first official date. “You’ll see. . .” Replied Forcias somewhat mysteriously and no matter how hard she would try to get the answers out of him, he wouldn’t give the answer at all. Focusing back onto his hair, he just applied some gel all over it and just fixed it in a somewhat disarray, not that he cared much but this would do. It looked fine to him anyways. Picking up his wallet and making sure he still had his lightsaber on his right calf, Forcias headed out and wrapped his arm around her shoulders to lead her to one of those fancy but not so fancy place to eat. . .

Eat they did and even drank some wine with the waiter’s suggestion considering the dish they had ordered. They spoke about everything and anything in particular without going into any type of SERIOUS CONVERSATION and the more he had been talking to her, the more he felt like he was really falling for her, but he still did not find that courage to tell her the truth so he just kept it light for now, maybe until later, who knew. Once they were done with their dinner, like promised Forcias did pay for the entire meal as he did tell her that it was his treat and the moment they were out of that restaurant completely satisfied with the meal and the dessert he had eaten, Forcias wrapped his arm around her again and led her someplace else.

That someplace else was a bar/ nightclub. . .

Standing right in front of her, he took her hand and looked at the place’s entrance with an amused smirk. “Night is not over.” Said Forcias with an amused grin before chuckling and kissing her back of her hand. “I was thinking maybe we should hit the club, as after all, it more or less somewhat started there for the both of us.” Sure it was a bar back then, or a bar with a few drinks and him approaching her during Crystal’s birthday and him telling her to let go of the surveillance.

“Unless, you’d rather we go back to our room now and have our little own celebration there one on one. . .” Said he teasingly as he moved his hands to her waist this time and pulled her closer to him before nipping her lower lip teasingly. Either way, he did not care although the thought of heading to the hotel now was tempting since he did want her but he also figured that after that somewhat romantic dinner, they could just have a good time at the bar and get back to their room clearly intoxicated, in any case both ways worked perfectly fine for him.