#un'hee | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

astheforcewillsit · 1 month ago

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Title: Old Eyes ao3 link

The Chiss take desperate measures to protect their Navigators, and Eli Vanto's parents end up with a new Chiss granddaughter. or Eli's sudden appearance in Lystara after nearly two years of radio silence gives the Vantos both a granddaughter and a chance to confront their son on his decisions since meeting Thrawn.

Elijah Vanto knows enough about the sky to pick out a cloaked ship in plain sight. It’s the odd way it's warped that gives it away for him. He sees one of them now. It’s been up there since this morning, and still hasn’t left the orbit nearly into the evening. The clouds are strangely elongated as he stares at the blue, like someone’s put a small piece of the sky through a glass bottle.

It's advanced cloaking technology, alright. And had Elijah not owned his own shipping company, he wouldn’t have even recognized what it was.

It’s moved a few times within orbit since they noticed it this morning.

Elijah looks at his wife, who sits in her rocking chair on their front porch. For her part, Eiliyah–Liyah–Vanto has been tracking it’s movements and exact coordinates on her data pad. She’s made a pattern of it that’ll serve two purposes: to tell them if its movements are hostile (Maker knows Lystara’s been attacked by enough to compare the data) and to create some intricate embroidery piece that she’d give to her friends.

She used to give them to Eli. Sew them into his clothes or make bags for he and his friends. Star patterns and hyperspace lanes all compacted into the loving fabric of a mother. He took some of them with him to the Imperial Academy.

Last they’d heard, the Chiss–Thrawn–had commented fondly of them. After that, she began sending pieces to the Admiral when they’d lost touch with Eli. Occasionally, the Admiral would respond in great thanks or include his observations on Liyah’s unique artistic style. But that was far and few between, especially as the Rebel threat grew stronger.

Though contact with the Admiral occurred more often than it did with Eli, and the Vantos was thankful for that.

“What do you think, Liyah. Friend or foe.”

“Friend, I think. Though it doesn’t move like an Imperial ship or any ships I’ve seen before,” she clicks her tongue, and lets her data pad fall to her lap, “cloaking device doesn’t seem like anything i’ve seen, either.”

“Well, we’ve had stranger, I’m sure. Probably just someone passing through.” Elijah doesn’t dwell too much on what a newcomer to their planet means. Regardless of his own personal feelings about his planet’s Imperial occupation, there’s not much that can be done. The Empire’s been kind to them, kinder than it’s been to most.

“Maybe it’s the Admiral’s people. The stories I used to read to Eli when he was younger, well the ones that weren’t blown outta proportion said they usually just wait in the sky. Wait for us to make a move first before they blow us up, or send someone to come get us.” She stands, project back in her hands as she hops off of their covered porch and into the front yard, “maybe it’s Eli.”

Elijah wants to hold onto hope, but it’s no more than a fleeting thing. Had been since his son had decided to gamble his life with the Admiral and send himself to Maker knows where. It had been difficult for all of them at first. There had been some harsh words said out of concern, tears from Eli and his mother. Fear and sadness soothed over by the end of the night and over a warm bowl of Eli’s favorite soup, a parting gift for the new path in front of him.

It was going on two years since they’d heard from him.

Two years since he’d disappeared from the Empire and went to the Unknown Region.

Two years since Elijah had come to terms with the fact that his only kid could die out there, and he could do nothing to stop him. He had hoped Eli would see reason before he boarded an alien vessel and never looked back. He had hoped that he’d realized that leaving the Empire to give his loyalty to a species that hadn’t made contact with Imperial space in thousands of years was an idiotic move. He had hoped that his son would choose them over Thrawn, who’s own track record had endangered Eli’s life on more than one occasion.

But that hope did nothing but hurt the Vantos in the long run. It served as a crutch that prevented them from seeing the harsh reality of Eli’s decisions.

Now Elijah just hoped Eli would make it back to them in one piece.

“Or maybe it’s just someone passing through.” It hurts a bit, to see the light fade in Liyah’s eyes. It’s as if he’s dimmed the small candle she’s left burning for their son. But better to dim it than to let it catch fire.

“He said he’d come back to us, Elijah. Promised us,” she lets her voice drawl in an Lystarian way, shielding her eyes with her hand as she looks up at the warped sky, “you just gotta have some hope and trust in him. You taught him how to keep himself alive out there anyway. Filled his head with survival skills instead of the numbers and smarts I gave him.”

“Well, maybe he should’ve spent more time with you then.” Elijah kicks the dirt, “I taught him how to fly. Not how to be stupid.”

“Don’t call our son stupid. Now get in here and help me make dinner.” Elijah doesn’t protest. He gives one more narrow eyed gaze at the ship above him, then takes off his wide brimmed had and follows his wife inside.

—

Dinner finally comes around, and Elijah is reminded once again of just why he thought his wife was a Jedi when he first met her. The sun has set and that damned ship is still in the air. And all she can talk about is Eli. Part of it is coincidence. The entire dining and living room is lined with holos of their boy. In fact, their entire home serves as a near shrine, and Liyah feeds it every day with her stories and musings on Eli. As if speaking about him will bring him back faster.

If at all.

Today is no different. But the appearance of the ship puts him on edge.

“I just feel it’s him.” She says, over her pot on the stove.

“I can sense our boy.” She adds, as they set the table together. And finally, as they sit to eat the stew she’s made–Eli’s favorite, “Eli’s coming, I just know it.”

“Liyah, I’m telling–”

They jolt at the all too familiar sound of a code being keyed into a keypad. Elijah is up from his seat at the table immediately, and makes a move towards his hunting rifle that’s leaned against the wall. In proper Lystara fashion, Liyah should be doing the same. But she waits patiently at her seat at the table, an ear to ear smile on her face as she keeps her gaze forward.

“Liyah, why are you just sitting there. Go get–”

Elijah’s grip on his rifle falters just slightly. The gun hangs loosely in his hand, and clatters to the ground the moment his son emerges into the dinning room. There is a pause, followed by a question. Followed by the all to eerie sensation of his wife accurately predicting an event before it happened.

“Eli–what in the Maker’s name are you doing here ?”

As he speaks, Elijah does a quick up and down off his son’s person. He’s got on a strange, alien uniform. He looked ragged. His eyes are puffy, like he’s been crying and his hair’s a mess. That last bit is enough to wipe the smile off of his wife’s face.

And he’s got a sack slung over the front of his body. A sack that moves. A sack that’s got blue legs and black hair and has it’s very blue arms flung around Eli’s neck. And it’s whimpering.

That’s enough to wipe the smile off of Elijah’s face. Not that there was one to begin with.

Because his son, who he hasn’t seen in almost two years, has just come into his dining room with a child.

All he can think of is, Maker my son knocked up a Chiss (and small part of him fears the one he knocked up is the Chiss who wears white, but tells himself that Thrawn's career is too important for that. And besides, Elijah's no expert in Chiss biology), and now he’s running away.

“Eli–” Eli puts his hand up, panting.

“Hi Mom, hi Dad. This is Un’Hee. There’s people after her, and you’re the only ones I trust enough to keep her safe.”

He deposits the girl onto the ground with some reluctance. Her safety blanket–both figuratively and literally–falls to the ground, pooling around her tiny ankles, revealing dark blue skin and watery red eyes.

Eli swallows thickly, wipes her tears, and speaks to her in Sy Bisti.

“These are my parents, they’ll take good care of you. You can trust them like you trust me,” he stands, clearing his throat. He opens his mouth to speak, but notices the bowl of soup on the table. His face softens, “You still cook my favorite food, mom?”

Elijah looks at Liyah, who’s expression now mirrors their son’s. Pained, sad, and relieved all at once.

“Never stopped, Eli.” Liyah answers, barely above a whisper, “Now come over and give your mother a hug.”

Elijah watches, too stunned to speak, as Eli leaves the little girl–Un’hee– on the floor to go to his mother. Un’hee stands there rigid and stiff, pulling on her hair as her eyes follow Eli. She looks uncertain of what to do with herself, and Elijah cannot blame her. This situation is progressing faster than his brain can process.

“You are Eli’s dad?” She addresses him, her voice high and uncertain.

Elijah blinks, her tiny accented SyBisti grounding him to his new reality. He’s unsure of whether he should approach her or not. He doesn’t know her and she doesn’t know him. And she looks uncomfortable

“You look just like Eli, but older and with hair on your face.” She rubs her bare face as if to emphasize the point, “Eli grows hair on his face sometimes too. But he took it off. The Chiss do not grow hair on their face.”

“Well, Eli looks like me actually.” He corrects her. She tilts her head, confused, “I was born before Eli, so he looks like me…nevermind actually, you’re right. He does look like me.”

Thinking he’s made a fool of himself, Elijah stoops down and grabs her blanket, putting it over her in an attempt to give her some sense of security. She gasps, the blanket moving back and forth comically as she looks around.

Elijah is reminded of a younger Eli, barely up to his parents' knees. Dressed as a ghost for a Fall Festival, he'd thrown his new bed sheet over his head and torn holes in it. That had been one of the many instances that Elijah had been reminded that he was not his father, and had reacted with laughter instead of anger.

He stifles that laughter now. Clearly Un'hee isn't Eli. And it's not like it calms her, not if the sniffling beneath the blanket tells him anything. He looks towards the head of the table where the rest of his family is, hoping his son can come over and make some sense of all of this.

But Eli and Liyah are still occupied with one another. And by the looks of it, Eli is sucking up all the love his mother has been storing for him and more. He grabs onto her tiny frame and shakes like a leaf.

Clearly, this isn't a typical shore leave. And Eli has more to lose than he let off. Elijah swallows. Eli is a crier, but not like this. And even with his long stint in the Imperial Navy, risking his life for the good of the Empire, Eli never cried when he came back. Not like this.

Elijah feels a chill run up his spine at that very moment. He gets the feeling that Eli may be in more danger than he’s ever been in his life. No thanks to Grand Admiral Thrawn.

And Elijah has never hated Thrawn.

He was concerned, of course. He loves his son. He's all Liyah and he have. And Thrawn scooped him up from the safety that a stable career provided and thrust him onto a command ship in the midst of an intergalactic war.

Everybit of Eli's short leave since that has been an uncomfortable reminder that Eli could die the moment he went back on duty. Elijah’s sympathies for the rebels had died with that.

No one liked to acknowledge it. Eli was walking on borrowed time with every deployment.

But today, something is different. Where Eli usually took his gamble with mortality in stride, today, he looks worn. Tired.

Desperate.

And maybe its because for the first time ever, given Un’hee’s presence, Eli is fighting for someone other than an idea. Then his career . For something other than the vague idea of an Empire.

Today Eli looks scared. And Elijah may hate Thrawn just a bit for that

“Eli does the same thing when I am scared,” the sheet ghost speaks at his heels. Elijah blinks, shaken from his thoughts.

“Sorry, come again.”

He fears she'll ask him what that means.

“I said Eli does the same thing when I'm scared. He puts my blanket on me like this,” she lifts her blanket, wet eyes looking at his brown ones, “I think I can trust you just like I trust him.” He wants to protest. Because this seems like an outrageous, terrible idea. Why them ? How long will this arrangement be? Who exactly is she to Eli? And who is after her? What intergalactic rules are they breaking by allowing her into their home?

So many questions and so many thoughts on why this situation is wrong fly through Elijah’s head.

Yet, all he can muster aloud when Un’hee speaks to him is, “Well, I guess you can…kid.”

Eli takes that chance to detach from his mother, and wipe his eyes with his sleeve. It hurts Elijah even more to watch Eli attempt to compose himself. The boy fights to melt into a man before his very eyes.

Therefore, Elijah speaks to him like he’s a child. Soft and gentle, in hushed tones as not to disrupt Eli’s transformation.

“Eli, what is going on?”

“I…I can’t tell you, Dad. Not without endangering you and mom. Just trust me, please.” Eli leaves little room for argument, and instead barrels into his father, embracing him just as hard as he did his mother. It’s not for as long though, and when Eli steps away from his father, his eyes are dried completely.

Eli’s grown considerably since Elijah last saw him, and he finally he carries himself as such. Like a man torn out of Wild Space history, preparing to go on a journey he’ll never return from.

Suddenly, the comm on Eli’s side beeps. He answers it in a swift motion, answering in the affirmative in Sy Bisti.

The girl, Un’Hee, begins to wail. Liyah stands from her end of the table, walks over the girl, and scoops her up, blanket and all.

“She only speaks Sy Bisti, but you can teach her basic.” Eli says, clearing his throat, and standing to full height. The crying is bothering him. And not in the sense that it’s an annoyance. It’s agonizing to him. Like he’s leaving his own child behind.

Elijah knows the feel.

Yet, Eli’s face slips into a mask of impassivity. A mask of a soldier. A commander. Elijah recognizes it as a technique learned from Thrawn, and tries to curb his bitterness.

“Goodbye Un’hee, goodbye Mom and Dad. I'll see you soon.” He turns on his heel, and prepares to walk out. The door zips open and shut as their son enters the night.

There’s an elongated silence, interrupted only by Un’hee’s sniffles, and Liyah’s attempts to stifle them. Elijah stands dumbstruck, mouth agape as he stares at the closed door

And suddenly, he is hot on Eli’s trail. The door opens and closes, and suddenly he is thrust into the cool evening air. He is greeted with a chorus of insects, and a gentle summer breeze. He remembers nights like these as a youth in Lystara, the way the world seemed to be in the palm of his hands.

He misses those times now. Where he knew where his wife was, where his family was, where everyone was.

“Eli–Son–Wait! You have to tell us something.”

Eli turns on his heel. He looks shocked and relieved all at once, like he wanted someone to stop him. If just to give him a proper goodbye.

“Is Thrawn behind this? Does he have something to do with this?” Eli tenses. He’s very, very aware of his father’s well meaning concern regarding Thrawn, but the disappointment shows on his face. Elijah sighs. “Sorry son, I don’t mean to upset you. I’m just worried.” “I know Dad,” Eli slacks, shoulders sagging, “it’s just…I made this decision myself, alright. And I need you to trust me. And Thrawn. And you know I trust him with my life. Always will.”

Above them the starry night is still distorted. What Elijah presumes is the Chiss ship hangs silently above them, waiting to take Eli back. It’s a bitter pill of realization, because Elijah so desperately wants his boy to stay. Stay with them, on Lystara. But he won’t. Never will.

He’d go even if his mother got on her knees and begged him not to. They’ve lost the battle with Thrawn. Lost it long ago. And fighting more would make them lose Eli, too.

“I know, Eli. I know. I’m just worried, is all. You’re all we’ve got–Liyah and I. And now you’re going to fight for these…blue people–” “Dad–” “Chiss, sorry Eli. These Chiss who are gonna get you killed. How am I supposed to deal with that?”

“You're supposed to trust me, Dad.” Without another word, Eli walks over to his father and stops when they’re a foot apart. He grapes the back of his father’s head and brings their foreheads together. Just like they used to do when Eli was young. Just like Elijah’s father did with him.

They hold each other’s gaze for no more than a second, but to Elijah it feels like a lifetime. His son has grown, and Maker not by choice. His eyes tell Elijah that Eli’s lived a lifetime in the past few years than Elijah lived in his fifty.

And suddenly he feels young in the presence of his son. Like his own father has crawled from under the earth and inhabited the body of Eli, his namesake, and come back to speak to him. That’s what they believed in Lystara anyway, right.

Elijah never gave much thought to the Lystaran version reincarnation, but now, with his son demanding he trust him despite Eli’s shady track record, he looks so much like his grandfather that all Elijah can do is nod.

“I know how to keep myself alive, Dad.” Eli whispers, eyes glistening with unshed tears, “Thrawn taught me how.”

Elijah’s breath catches in his throat. He swallows thickly and nods. Then closes his eyes, which threaten to spill over with tears. It’s time to say goodbye now. Because Eli speaks with such conviction that it would be an insult to keep on questioning him.

And Elijah may dislike Thrawn for many things, may even hate him for one. But he appreciates him for the man he’s sculpted his son out to be.

“Alright kid,” he brings his hand up around his son’s head, squeezing it tightly, and pressing his forehead deeper into Eli’s before pulling away, “I know. I know. You get going then, those folks are waiting for you. We’ll take care of Un’Hee.” Eli nods, a boyish grin on his face. He turns back to the brush and tall crops, where his shuttle presumably waits for him.

Though before the vegetation takes him, and Eli is lost to his family forever, he turns over his shoulder.

“And dad…you and Mom taught me too, you know. I’m a Vanto before anything else. Have some hope in your son.”

At that, Elijah chokes. And when his son’s footsteps cease to crunch above the grass and gravel, and the sound of the parting crops falls into an eerie silence, Elijah sobs. He sobs for a good while, until above him the cloud fades into normalcy as the Chiss ship leaves their atmosphere. He gasps. He hadn’t even heard Eli’s shuttle rejoin them.

The realization that his son is out there amongst the stars, and will be there for a very, very long time in very different circumstances weighs heavy on his heart. Because a part of it has now left him, and gone to a place he can’t follow. A place he doesn’t know.

To his surprise, he is joined by a small visitor. The sound of her sniffles tips him off that she’s there, and he nearly jolts when she leans against his leg. Un’hee has managed to sneak beside him. Her blanket is loosely wrapped around her shoulders, it’s bottom no doubt collecting the dirt and dust below her. She looks up at the sky with glowing red eyes. Elijah wonders what that gaze can see that his cannot.

“He told me he would take care of me,” Un’Hee says, cool fingers wrapping around Elijah’s, “but he also said I had to take care of you too.”

Elijah chuckles sadly, wiping his eyes with his sleeve. Of course. What a true Lystarian man, his Eli is.

“You hear that, Liyah. Eli left this one to watch us too.”

Liyah is on the porch. The light catches her tear stained cheeks, as well as her embroidered handkerchief she uses to dry them. It’s got a pattern that she once made for Eli.

“Well,” she says, walking off the porch and joining the two who look hopefully at the stars, “ I guess we’ll just need to take care of each other then, huh? Until he gets back.” “Like a family?” Un’hee asks, hesitantly, “that’s what he said you all are. A family.”

“Yes ma’am,” Elijah squeezes her fingers tightly, “Just like a family. And lucky for him, I’ve always wanted a grandkid.”

He doesn’t expect his son to come back anytime soon. So he’ll get his chance to eventually ask Un’hee, when she’s older, whether or not the Admiral is her other dad.

#eli vanto #un'hee #thranto #grand admiral tharwn #star wars #thrawn treason #thrawn trilogy

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