Montegue: Origins - Genesis

[Hugo Montegue]

Some backstory on how the Montegue family came to be so royally screwed up and dysfunctional.

Coruscant - 22 BE

Hugo dug his fingers through his hair, still plastered to his scalp with sweat after far too many hours spent wearing that god-awful helmet, lacking the open face that made the uniforms of a Senate Guard marginally more tolerable than those of their Senate Commando cousins. Of course, his Commando status allowed him to neatly avoid the ostentatious plume and unwieldy cloak that the Guards usually had to wear, so he was counting his blessings.

He'd been back on Coruscant barely an hour, and in his haste to get home to his wife and boys, had forgone the decontamination ritual that usually followed the removal of his armour. As a result, he stank like hell, but at that precise moment he couldn't have cared less. Three weeks this last assignment had taken, helping Palpatine and his new order to clear up the mess he'd created with this whole declaration of the Galactic Empire business, and his little war against the Jedi.

Their latest assignment had been a bust; off searching for some rumoured Padawan who'd managed to dodge the Clones and go underground. They'd tracked him to some crappy little backwater world, and had managed to flush him out. Of course, the kid had put up a fight; the Clones they'd taken with them played 'saber fodder for a little while the commandos managed to flank him. They'd managed to pin him from several angles; even his fancy laser sword couldn't block a full three-sixty degrees of blaster fire.

It had been Hugo who'd taken the final shot. Caught the kid square between the shoulder blades; shot in the back. They congratulated him; kudos for taking down a Jedi, and all that. But he'd just been a kid. Powers or not, something about it just didn't square up right with him.

Right now, he wanted his boys; his nice, harmless, ordinary kids. And his wife. God; he'd missed her this mission. Hadn't spent a single spare moment where she wasn't lingering in his brain somewhere. Damn her and her "Here's your insentive to come home to me" sex. Damn you, woman. I can only run so fast.

* * *

The streets of Coruscant were carnage; fortunately he'd managed to fight his way through, images of the kind of welcome home that Emaryn would have prepared flashing through his mind. Most of them were particularly improbable of course, given the presence of young ones in the house. Maybe he should've taken the opportunity on the way back to comm a sitter; get Em alone to make up for the past few weeks.

Probability was that by the time he'd taken the shower she'd insist upon, and after he'd managed to stop Vitt clambering all over him and wrestled the little tyke into bed, one or other of them - maybe both - would be too tired for any kind of athletic exploits, and they'd simply crash out together, falling asleep in each other's arms. A smile broke across his face. Funny how the worst case scenario was also the best.

Thumbing in the access code that would allow him entry, he plastered his most endearing smile onto his face, and stepped inside. The house was strangely quiet, only the dull mutterings of the holobox in the front room making a sound. This time of day, the kids should be going crazy; Cambrio should be making noise about how hungry he was, Vittore should be making noise about how hungry he was, and Em should be yelling some threat or other at the both of them that probably began with the phrase When your father gets home...

But there was nothing. The house was practically empty. He stuck his head around the door; Vitt sprawled across the couch, eyes glazed over as he stared non-focussed at the flickering images of a rerun of Republic Rangers. He reinforced his smile, but Vittore didn't react; didn't even notice he was there. Hugo considered calling out, but something compelled him not to. Where was Emaryn? She would never have let him rot his brain with holomovies at this time of day.

He continued down the cramped corridor that tied the rooms of their appartment together, and stopped at the threshold of the only closed door. An indicator showed that Cammy's bedroom was locked, from the inside no less. Again, something stopped his voice from producing a sound; instead he dropped to one knee, tapping in the override code that he'd memorised.

The door slid aside, and Hugo froze, disbelief flooding his mind. He'd found her at last; Emaryn was there, towering over Cambrio's crib with what looked like a med injector in hand. Cammy meanwhile lay there unphased, the same glazed and vacant look as Vittore in his eyes. It didn't take many of Hugo's instincts to conjure up the concern and anger that finally battered through his silence. His body hoisted him back to his feet, a scowl mixed with desparation sweeping over his features. His voice came out as a cracked growl. "What the hell are you doing to my son?"