sardaukar ships speed into the atmosphere before coming to an abrupt stop above the arakeen palace, or, above where house atreides peacefully rests.
paul and mili lie fast asleep, legs still intertwined with eachother. the two felt nothing but peace.
until there wasn't.
two harkonnen men break down the door, storming in to collect their now unconscious bodies.
-
paul wakes up after the medicine wares off. he looks around in confusion, not being in bed, not being in his room, or even arakeen in general. they were in an ornithopter with both his mother and mili tied up.
"i've never had a white eyed fremen. you?" the harkonnen asks another.
"fremen ain't got no white eyes." another responds.
"she's fremen enough for me." the second one says.
"let's feed the mother and son to the worms, i give her a long goodbye." the deaf harkonnen says gesturing to the unconscious girl.
"don't you dare touch her." paul says darkly.
the harkonnens, however, did not care for what the boy had to say as they punched him in the stomach causing him to gag. "don't talk!" the deaf one says.
paul looks at his mother for reassurance for what he was about to do. she shook her head and signed with her fingers, 'don't! you're not ready yet!'
but paul didn't care
"remove her gag." he says normally but sternly.
the harkonnen stands up, walks over to paul, and punches him very harshly in the throat causing him to cough.
"shut up." he says walking away as paul pants, recollecting himself.
"we're far enough, let's throw the boy out." the one harkonnen says.
paul closes his eyes, focusing. he tightens his jaw and once the harkonnen grabs him by the collar he lets out in a distorted voice, "remove her gag!"
seemingly in a trance, the harkonnen walks over to jessica, and does as told, removing her gag.
"kill him!" jessica orders in the voice.
the harkonnen does as told walking over to the deaf one and slicing his throat before tossing him out to the desert sands.
"set us free!" she then orders him. he, again, does as told. removing the rope which held their limbs together.
the harkonnen driving the ornithopter covers jessica's mouth. speaking something in harkonnen to his friend which cannot hear him.
jessica bites the man causing him to pull a knife on her
"stop! give me the knife." she orders using the voice again. he does as told before jessica kills him then moving to kill the third one.
"you're pitch was too forced!" jessica tells paul as she cuts his ropes. once she's done so, she notices a bag under paul's seat. "it's a fremkit!" he yells picking it up seeing dr yuehs symbol engraved in it.
suddenly, the ship reaches ground level. indicating that the ship has been scuttled by the harkonnens. leaving them in the desert alone.
"they've crippled the ship." paul says at a loss.
jessica runs out of the ship and paul picks up the still unconscious mili bridal style before following suit.
they hear bombs in the distance and run over the dune to see what it is. once they reach the top of the dune they see arrakeen in shambles.
fire engulfing the majority of the premises and bombs still raining down with each breath they take.
paul looks at mili and kisses her forehead, comforting her though she is still unconscious.
paul then looks behind him, seeing an endless horizon of sand dunes. jessica just stares at arrakeen.
paul looks back down at mili and checks her pulse, silently praying to anything and everything that she is okay.
he feels a calm thumping. she's alive . suddenly, as if on cue, she coughs harshly, awakening herself.
"mili." paul whispers desperately as he puts her on her feet and engulfs her in a hug. "paul." she whispers back wrapping her arms around his waist.
-
paul, mili, and jessica sit in a fremen tent, exploring through the fremkit dr. yueh left them.
"it's a thumper." mili says as paul pulls a thumper out of the kit.
"but no stillsuits.. the one thing we actually need." paul whispers back. as he digs through the kit he finds a little silk bag.
as he opens it he sees his fathers ring. the ring that leto once pushed into wax less than a month ago. the ring his father wore all day, every day.
his father was dead.
"oh." mili says. "jessica. paul. im so sorry." mili says to jessica as they began to cry.
jessica put her head in her legs, hiding her face as she cried softly.
paul just looked at the ring and held it tightly. mili then put her head on paul's shoulder, giving him a gentle consolation he desperately needed.
-
they've been in the tent for almost three hours by now, paul digs through the fremkit again, finding an atreides beacon.
as he turned it on, it revealed all the spice that was lingering in the tent, resulting in paul's cough. mili lifted her head off his shoulder from the sudden jolt from him.
"there's spice in the tent." he lowly says to her.
as she looks at paul, she notices him looking as if in a trance.
-
he sees mili, walking elegantly in a white dress toward something.
voices whisper indiscriminately as he notices something, a conflict, happening over the dune. people fighting.
mili smiles at him, then turns to face the war in front of them.
the vision focuses on him in fedaykin armor, fighting sardaukar.
after killing one, his helmet opening to reveal his blue eyes.
then it morphs.
revealing the knife he was only talking about the day prior.
then it morphs to piles and piles of house atreides bodies being lit afire
-
a tear falls from his eye "that's the future it's coming." he whispers
jessica, still crying narrows her eyes at him.
-
mili, standing atop a large dune with a bloody knife. then it switches back to caladan, his home world.
-
"a holy war spreading across the universe like an unquenchable fire" he whispers again
-
fremen soldiers, covered in blood, waving the atreides banner to two people. paul and mili. paul's eyes are blue yet milis are still white.
everything's in fragments
-
"paul you're scared i can see it" mili whispers, holding his hand. "tell me, what do you fear."
"somebody help me, please!" paul wails. mili tightens her grip on his hand
"paul." jessica whispers
"it's coming." paul says pushing himself against the wall, gripping milis hand bone-breakingly hard. "i see a holy war spreading across the universe like an unquenchable fire. a war in religion that waves the atreides banner in my fathers name." his voice grows louder.
"paul.." mili says going to hold his second hand too.
"fanatical legions worshiping at the shrine of my fathers skull! a war in my name!! everyone's shouting my name!" he shouts
-
"paul." mili says in his vision.
-
he immediately calms at this. jessica comes forward to him "paul atreides. you are your fathers son. you're my son. you are the duke paul atreides. you know who you are. you know who you are-" jessica says before being cut off by paul.
"get off me!" he shouts, using the voice.
"you did this to me! you 'bene gesserit' made me a freak!!" he yells causing her to gasp and cry more.
"paul, please." mili whispers, tucking her head in his neck and leaving a chaste kiss. he leans his head on her head as he cries.
"my father is dead." he sobs in her arms.
-1275 words-