[Video]

[out_of_order]

[A flare of light, a glimpse of sky. A groan in pain and a perhaps familiar if panicked beeping.

There's a brief glimpse of the little bipedal droid as he dashes by while the tablet settles, still propped up at an angle, although at most they only capture the edge of a pair of boots.]

-ow, ow... Great timing as usual. Yeah BeeDee, I'm fine, I'm-

[The boots shift, accompanied by an off-screen hiss as Cal sucks in a sharp breath, and for a moment he stills, a thoughtful silence settling in. It's broken by BD-1's scrabbling about, pausing before his boxlike head dips down to peer directly into the communicator's camera. He hoots inquiringly.]

...Hm? What is it, buddy?

[Those boots drag themselves off-screen, and then the camera moves as it's picked up. Cal frowns a moment before his brow eases with a weary smile.]

Hey Temba.

Comments

[out_of_order]

He was much, much worse.

[And really, there's only one thing that black-clad figure could have been, now that Cal has time to think on it.]

...pretty sure it was a Sith.

[only_an_echo]

Sith? I thought there weren't any more.

[Echo feels like he should know this already, but most of his experience has been around the Jedi.]

[out_of_order]

That's what I thought, but I'm not so sure anymore.

[He shakes his head.]

Whatever he was, it was on a completely different level than the Inquisitors. It didn't look like he made any effort to bat away our attacks. He was tearing up the walkway I was running on and I'm not even sure how he managed to get to the lift even after that because I was pretty sure I left him on the other side.

[only_an_echo]

[His mouth forms a hard line to keep himself from fully grimacing at the thought.]

Having to see that kind of destruction firsthand, I wouldn't want to know either. How were you able to get away from him?

[out_of_order]

It was a pretty near thing. I thought we'd managed to get away once BeeDee activated the lift, but somehow he still caught up with us. That's about when this happened.

[He glances down at his wound.]

But Cere arrived just in time before he could do worse. ...she was struggling though, with the Dark Side. Being back in that place... Well, it was a lot. And she was using that anger to fight back against this guy. I couldn't let her lose herself, so I broke the glass, let the water come pouring in. When the Sith was distracted, I grabbed Cere and we escaped through the opening.

[only_an_echo]

[Echo visibly winces, refraining from doing anything more than a bowed head movement and drawing his free shoulder up a few degrees. Even with the helmet on, his masked expression is pretty obvious.]

It's hard to imagine what that struggle feels like. But you did what you had to do.

...It's a good thing you two got away or else this would have been a completely different story.

[out_of_order]

I know it's a lot of trying to keep your emotions balanced. It's too easy to lose yourself to that. The Dark Side...it thrives on the negative.

[Cal breathes out a laugh, not without a wince, but he nods.]

Yeah, I'll say. Merrin came to our rescue once we were back in the water. I wouldn't have managed to make it up with Cere and BeeDee, otherwise.