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Pausing in his steps, Cal lifted his head before he turned back. "That whole mess is something none of us want following us here. It wouldn't have had to even be specifically us. At the core, it's some thing between Jedi and Sith. Except the only real Sith I've met was here, and I was able to get along with him just fine."

He waved that subject away, it was only going to distance them from the main point. "Echo and Ben are the closest I've ever met to anyone from when I know. I've never met them personally, but I've seen and heard Echo's face and voice plenty of times. But even before I got here I'd figured the clones were as much a victim in what had happened in the war as we were. It doesn't stop the memories though. And there are so many bad ones that happened all at once when they turned on us. It's hard to separate that from the good ones."

Drawing in a slow breath, Cal walked back over to the counter again, resting his hands at its edge. "Which is why I didn't want to hold off on meeting Echo when Jon first told me there was a clone here. I didn't want first encounter to go wrong. It was hard, but necessary. We thought it was too abrupt for the clones to turn on us when they did. Ben was able to confirm that the clones have some kind of organic chip implanted early on." It bothered him to think about it and it showed on his face.

"They were made to fight alongside us, and then ultimately betray us. I know that wouldn't have happened if they didn't have that chip. The Jedi were the only ones aside from their own brothers who cared about them as people when we were all expected to fight."

Edited 2020-12-26 17:53 (UTC)

Tony's concerns that Cal was still unhealthily tangled in the rhetoric of the war he was raised for were easing the more Cal spoke about it. He wasn't fresh from the fight, after all, and already had some distance from it before being taken to Agra 10 to examine it from the outside. The uncomfortable anxiety that had tangled up in Tony's chest since his meandering attempt to goad Cal into revealing more was unwinding, and he reached for Cal's wrist as he returned to the counter to give an affectionate squeeze, his gaze a little harder to track then until he let go again. Cal definitely deserved to have the space to talk more about what he carried around with him, but the disaster happening because of some programming had Tony looking more sharply at him.

"Echo still has that, this chip?" he clarified. Definitely a problem, but ultimately a much easier one to deal with that a complicated emotional one, at least to Tony. "I might know a little something about programming the brain," he said, but it was less of an offer than a thoughtful musing as he considered how much he actually functionally knew, and how much he would need the help of a biologist for the wet work. "Much easier to install than it is to remove," he could offer confidently.

It would have been easy for him to relapse into the guilt he'd only recently managed to finally start easing away from. That in due part was ironically because of Echo. The past was a hard thing to escape even here, and the new details Obi-Wan had brought to their attention had not only prodded at old wounds but rubbed salt into them. But there was nothing to be done about the past, and at the very least, they could at least use what they knew to prevent anything more from happening.

Cal lifted his head at the gesture from Tony, following that hand up to the face of the man himself. Sensing Tony's tension ease helped in turn to help his own in turn. But his own concern in the matter regarding the chip was reflected on the padawan's face when Tony looked at him.

"He does. He's from earlier than me or Ben, so it was hard for him to hear about what happened, but I thought he should know. And I didn't want things to get awkward if he ran into Ben on his own. Not that it wasn't even with me there. Ben's...from right after the Purge. Just seeing Echo with his blaster had him pulling his own lightsaber." Cal was just glad nothing further had happened. "So Echo knows. And he's willing to get rid of the chip. But we know it's risky, and we'd probably need a lot more than just someone with the skills," he nodded as Tony noted the difficulty of removal as opposed to its installation. Another sigh. Too many of those, he thinks.

"So yeah... That's where we're at right now."

That sounded to Tony like Cal was about done talking about it, which was fair--that was far more information than Tony had come here expecting to hear, and a very different problem. On the plus side, Cal was obviously very capable of handling himself and the potential crisis of these new arrivals, though Tony wasn't sure that was enough assurance to stop him from worrying the next time Cal was potentially in trouble. There had to be a better way for him to anticipate these problems.

"Hey, why does he get a lightsaber?" sounded like a light enough complaint that still might prompt Cal into revealing more. "You've been here for a millennium, you've earned it, and he just gets to waltz in with one. This place is rotten to the core, he paid someone off."

Cal laughed a little at that, which helped to disperse any remaining tightness that had built up in him with the earlier exchange. "Wouldn't have done me too much good at the time if I'd had mine anyway. The emitter was crushed, the kyber crystal with it." He picked up the pieces he'd been poking through earlier. "I think we don't get much choice with what gets brought along with us when we're pulled in. In my case, BeeDee seems to be who was chosen over the lightsaber, and that's hardly something I'd get upset about."

From the small pieces yet on the counter, he started setting them in a line, spaced out as he considered the layout, swapping components here and there. "I've had a lot of things to work out, things to think about. After that last storm..." The frown lasted but a flicker as he shook his head, moving on, "...after that and taking some time, talking with Echo, I feel like I'm really ready to try making one again. A lightsaber."

He glanced at Tony, then fiddled open one of the pouches at his belt and produced a couple of small shards even less than half a finger's length when put together. One piece he set near one end of the line of components, and the other at the opposite.

That did sound like a reasonable trade to Tony, but he still pouted and grumbled, "I didn't even get socks," so it should have been just as fair that Cal got to bring all of his cool shit for Tony to examine. He sat up to watch Cal, though, slowly spinning back around to face the counter and Cal's work, and shot him a sidelong look with a raised brow, almost less intrigued that a lightsaber might be build here, and moreso that it was that traumatizing storm that prompted Cal to try it. Being out in that rain must have left him feeling incredibly vulnerable, and the guilt was enough to keep Tony from poking restlessly at what Cal was arranging, clutching his hands between his knees instead. It was not enough to stop him from blurting, "Where'd you get those?," despite not really knowing what he was looking at.

It had been a lot of things on top of the storm, really. It had been a painful process, but necessary, Cal felt, to really get him to the point he was at, where he felt he was finally ready to move on.

"These? I replicated them on Risa. Feels like a lifetime ago, huh..." He'd always had the thought of rebuilding a lightsaber. The components were easier to come by than what actually made it a lightsaber, however. "But these," he said as he picked up one of the power crystals, which bore a faint glow, "I found in the caves by the beach here. I think they're like the raw version of these power rods. I can't even say how I actually got these- most of what I sensed and saw was embedded in the walls. But it felt like... I don't know. Alive, somehow. It made me think about what Cloud talked about."

There was only so long that Tony could keep his hands still, and he poked curiously at the other crystal, watching how the light reacted. "Is that not how your thing usually works?" he asked, not clear on the difference between the magics of the two groups, and pretty sure they hadn't conferred about it, either. "Lifestream," he confirmed. "That's how Reeve said Mini works, but they also said it's dangerous to use. You should ask him about it." Not that this was any reason to slow down any progress here.

"What I know about kyber crystals is that they're attuned to the Force, somehow. When we take our test to find one, we have to sense and feel it call to us. We can't just choose any crystal. So yeah, they can kind of be considered alive in some way."

Had these called out to him in the cave? Cal had thought he'd sensed something, but he'd gotten overwhelmed within the caverns. But he still felt there had to be something special to these crystals.

"There might be similarities," he nodded at Tony's cautioning. "But it could be something different too. The caves themselves- have you been there? Down the deeper tunnels... Maybe it's the concentration of the power from these," he says as he tips the crystal before setting it back down again, "but they react to things. It made BeeDee glow, not like, his lights, but his whole body. Seemed to boost his power a little too. And then the Force..." He closed his hands and then opened them again with fingers splayed wide. "Everything just opened up to me. I couldn't shut it out."

"Only briefly," Tony muttered about the caves, examining the array Cal made to complete the rest of his lightsaber. "So they're conductive," he concluded. "But over--like magnetic fields, creating their own feedback loop, feeding on anything else compatible around them. Ley lines, I don't know, who else around here can sense stuff like that?"

That these crystals could be the raw source of the rods was worth exploring independently, making Tony prompt softly, "But the power rod doesn't feel the same way?," not really looking for those answers yet. That theory would make the giant hole in the middle of town that Tony had been assuming was some kind of mine far more baffling, unless the Agrii (or their mysterious invaders) were mining something else that Tony hadn't taken notice of yet. The opposite of these crystals, perhaps; suppressive, like the storms.

With a sharp breath, Tony continued, "You have to make sure you've got that output under control, don't want this thing blowing up in your hand."

The conclusions Tony drew were roughly about what Cal was thinking, although ley lines was an unfamiliar term to him. "Not sure. I can't say if it's just the Force or any sort of unusual attunement to some power in general," he admitted.

Looking over at the rod sitting in the charger, he shook his head. "I'm not sure how the refining process might have gone, unless there are different strains of this kind of crystal that they specifically sought to harvest. There's a mine entrance marked on the map, isn't there?"

Cal nudged at the pieces there on the table. "Yeah, I know. A lot of things to be careful with. But I think it might work." He sounded confident in that much at least. "But I'm going to need something to encase these pieces. That's the only thing I didn't replicate."

If there were 'different strains', it was worth considering that the Agrii didn't choose the one that was easily picked off of the wall, apparently; either it wasn't nearly as strong, which made Cal's account of just being in their presence unsettling, what the hell was in that mine?, or much too strong to harness. That, Tony had to see.

"You've come to the right place," he said, more than happy to take on the job where it counted; with a slick finish. He wasn't as convinced that it would work, looking a the components on the table, because they weren't really anything like his hard light experiments, but he hadn't been relying on mysterious space rocks. "Can I take it?" he asked, already reaching to gather the pieces. "Hey, by the time it's ready for pick up, maybe I'll be able to show you mine, too. We'll make it a whole thing, bring champagne."

In some way Cal was relieved that Tony was willing to help, even if he hadn't doubted that man wouldn't want to. He wasn't able to really relate how big a step for him that this was, but he knew Tony was capable of making things, and if Cal was going to make a lightsaber from scratch, he wanted it to be a meaningful one.

He laughed a little at the man's eagerness. "Connecting them all together to work will take a little something more than just plugging them into place, so the housing just has to be snug enough." He held up a hand if just to point out something before Tony gathered them up. "There's two emitters. Essentially, I'm thinking two blades. They'll disconnect here, so they can function as either one whole piece or as a pair."

With one pilfered component already in hand to bring for closer examination now that he knew better what he was looking for, Tony frowned over it to say, "I thought they were opposing charges, like the magnet thing--okay." That did sound very cool, once Tony properly figured out the magical rock part of this equation, and it was entirely possible he would have to call Cayde to get a little energy out on the weeds around the forge before he let Cal know that his very cool sword was usable. Tony knew the Exo must have been just as disappointed when Ren's wasn't left behind after his disappearance.

"Do you think Ben would let me take a look at his?" he proposed, looking hopeful that Cal would be the one to float that offer to the Jedi, since they seemed to be getting along so well, so that Cal could feel somewhat less anxious about leaving this project in Tony's hands. Tony hadn't made a lot for him, it was reasonable that he didn't know what to expect, so Tony was willing to put on the performance.

It had been a long time since Cal had first made his own lightsaber, and he'd lost that one aboard their ship the day the clones had turned on them. As it became more and more apparent that Tony thought to assemble the thing himself, the padawan had to wonder if it really mattered. They were using different materials, a different power source. For all that he'd thought he'd sensed and heard, he wasn't quite sold on the crystals from the cavern being exactly like the kyber crystals they'd had to seek out as younglings. No, that wasn't what particularly bothered him. It was the symbolism of it all. But he'd completed his test already. This was a replacement, and a step forward to remind him of what he'd trained to be and what he was supposed to be doing, even so far away from anything he'd known.

Maybe he was overthinking things again.

While the quiet chuckle wasn't completely in response to Tony's proposal, it sufficed to precede his words all the same. "I'm not sure. Have you tried asking him? Although if you're thinking of taking it apart, he might object."

It hadn't occurred to Tony that Cal could have meant anything other than having Tony assemble the lightsaber on his own, very not used to any other possibilities. Instead, it was a problem for him to gladly solve, gathering more of the pieces to start considering the logic, and finally have something to give to Cal who seemed to come from somewhere so much more advanced, not to mention the Force stuff. "Don't worry about it, he'll be cool, he's into me, I can tell, we had a moment, and, you know, look at me," Tony insisted, but was getting quite used to not being allowed to deconstruct his great curiosities, and Cal had already given him the important pieces anyway.

Back on the subject that Tony had been fretting about, though, Tony slowly lowered the components he was examining to ask, "How is it that you two survived, anyway?" Then, more searchingly, piercing calculation locked on to Cal, he added, "What happened to the clones?"

It had just been easier to trust people here because most of them weren't from where he'd come from, and there were no expectations, no misinformation or reasons anyone would look at him sideways or come after him. It was starting fresh. But then the past followed him here, proving Cal couldn't step away from things. Then again, the storm had been proof enough of that.

Looking at Tony, he smirked a bit as the man tried to state his case. Tony was someone he'd come to trust, and so he made no attempt to explain traditions and meanings that had little place here. The man knew his way around technical things, and Cal was interested to see what sort of design he'd come up with for a lightsaber hilt.

"I'll ask him," he promised. That was the least he could do, anyway.

He'd thought that they were getting past the heavy topics. The question caught him off guard, and there was obvious hesitation in answering. "...my master saved me. He died trying to protect me when we were trying to get to the escape pods. I couldn't do anything to help him." Cal's gaze drifted towards the ground as he spoke. Those moments were always so fresh in his memories. "He'd overloaded the reactors on the ship to mask our escape in the explosion. My pod landed on Bracca, and that's where I stayed until recently. At first I waited, thought maybe the Council would send word or something, that we'd regroup and do something. That never happened."

He shook his had. "I'm not sure how Ben survived. I didn't want to ask. It's been longer for me and it's still hard to recount." He'd only gotten the impression that it had been a similar story with him, and with all Jedi that day, once the clones had gotten the order. "The clones... I think they became the start of the Imperial Army. Some of the Purge Troopers I've come across were clone troopers, trained specifically to take down surviving Jedi."

The answer about the clones was much broader than the one Tony was looking for, but he muttered, "Purge Troopers..." with a nod of understanding, gathering what that 'purge' must have been for and the wider implication of what the Jedis lives must have been like since this betrayal. No wonder Kenobi had been so weird about it.

Cal's caution around telling his story had Tony cringing cautiously away at first, not sure he was prepared to handle any emotional fallout he had just incurred, but even that brief recount resonated with Tony in a way he wasn't sure he could properly relate--was it even the same, watching Yinsin die for him, after everything he already did for Tony?--so he leaned closer instead to slide a commiserate hand up Cal's back. He knew what living with that guilt was like, anyway, and how many of his choices were informed by it, like being prepared so it couldn't happen again. "This thing'll be done in no time, you'll be embarrassing Jon again before you know it," he promised, twisting another piece of the lightsaber in his free hand.

There really didn't seem like anything to be said. The guilt would always be there, but Cal knew that he couldn't let it keep eating at him, and he'd been reminded by Echo of all people not to take the sacrifices of those lost for granted.

Actions spoke when words couldn't be found, and even as Tony pushed on in his usual fashion, getting some distance from the subject was an appreciated one. "What, that's not your job?" he laughed. "Thanks Tony. I look forward to seeing what you come up with."

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