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[out_of_order]

Hey guys! Got some good news for you.

[Cal smiles as he turns the communicator's camera about to show the Replicator sitting on a worktable within the salvage shop. BD-1 stands on top of it, poking a foot at the light indicators.]

Finally got this thing fixed. It's running apart from the main power grid though, so the output might not be as much as it was before, but it's working now. I can have this thing moved back to the um... "Whale Comb Sent Her" unless anyone has any suggestions for somewhere else.

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[out_of_order]

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."

[in_extremis]

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.

[out_of_order]

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."

[in_extremis]

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?"

[out_of_order]

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."

[in_extremis]

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.

[out_of_order]

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."