revivalproject | Retreat

"Call... wait, what?" Cal turned his head back towards Tony before laughing a bit. "Not a vampire," he insisted.

"Nightsisters are...what they called their people. From what I understand, they lived apart from the Nightbrothers. The Nightsisters use some kind of magick, I'm not really sure if it's some different aspect of the Force or something else entirely." He shook his head, shrugging. "Merrin's not undead, by the way."

That didn't clarify anything whatsoever, leaving Tony staring after Cal with a confused furrow of his brow for thinking that it did, lips curled in a teasing grin even as he raised one in speechless shock. So, they weren't vampires, they just sounded a lot like them and didn't really die, but Merrin wasn't there yet. Great.

"What did this other guy get out of lying to her?" Tony wondered. It didn't sound like a reasonable thing for a former Jedi to be doing, telling tall tales of his people that didn't exist anymore committing mass crimes. "And what is it about you that is inherently untrustworthy? That one, I gotta say, that's a cultural difference, I think mothers would trust you with their newborns on Earth."

He was only passingly familiar with the people of Dathomir so his vagueness wasn't without reason. Unsure of what to make of the grin Tony was giving him, Cal could only shrug.

"From the echoes I'd picked up, he must have crash-landed on their planet not long after the Purge. He won over the Nightbrothers by his strength, and he wanted to learn about the magick of the Nightsisters from Merrin." He laughed weakly, shaking his head. "I was trespassing on their world. Malicos had them all going after me before he found out who I was."

This was not a sequence of events that made any more sense to Tony, particularly not the quick 180 to recruit Cal presumably upon finding out his Jedi training, so after a moment Tony declared, "He sounds fantastically unhinged. And she was spending time with him? I've got to meet her."

The forest by then was growing dense, further from the city than Tony had been yet and blocking out the sunlight but for some glowing, dappled patches where the musky mushrooms shied away and more of those budding vines gathered greedily into tightly packed nests, some looking lush with the coverage of their new flowers. They had to skim tightly by them at times to wind their way around the trees, sending cascades of petals to the leaf-packed ground or leaving them clinging to their clothes. Meanwhile, Tony asked, "How did you go from that pit-with-teeth situation to pulling a B&E on a whole planet? That's the third life you're telling me about. I might have had three girlfriends, but you've been moving through identities."

Here and there BD-1 would hop down freely from his perch to skitter off and scan the interesting flora, or jump around in leaf piles while Tony and Cal continued to pick their way along.

"B and E?" Cal asked, but he supposed caught the main gist, and frankly he couldn't really say it didn't sound like another lifetime. "Same identity. Just had to dust it off and refine some things," he laughed quietly, shaking his head.

"After I gave myself away on Bracca the Empire was there and looking for me. But as it turned out, someone else was looking for me too. I was picked up by Cere and her pilot Greez. Cere said she'd used to be in the Order, and they'd been monitoring Imperial frequencies for survivors. She knew about an ancient vault that her old master hid away a holocron, one that has a list of Force-sensitive children. So we've been trying to find the 'key to the vault'."

Tony flapped his hand at the question, didn't matter, and besides, they were approaching the sound of running water that they were going to have to deal with soon. As Cal explained how he got from point A to point F, Tony swept down to drag a knotted branch out of the undergrowth, snapping it out of a loamy snarl of new roots and testing it with a few taps to the ground as they walked. He didn't expect this journey to include a list of secret kids, making him shoot a sidelong glance Cal's way, lip raised again with a new question that wasn't coming together easily.

"So you can hide it better?" he landed on. It sounded, from this brief recount, that it was quite thoroughly hidden and maybe exactly where it needed to be. "Listen, I don't--There's this thing, on Earth--" he tried, and heaved a sigh of frustration at himself, boxed in now by his own recalcitrance. The understanding the upcoming registration bill depended on a lot of context that hadn't even been enough for Tony's allies back home to understand his position. "We've got all kinds of guys'n'gals with superpowers, you know, Billy and...Cap'n...whatever, you know what I mean. And it works, we work, because we wear masks, we wear the costumes and put on a whole show to become someone else, so no one can follow us home," he tried, and tilted his head with a grimace, eyebrows raised and watchful for any recognition from Cal for the possessive form. "What makes you think it's better to find this list?"

Tony had quite the array of expressions, but what bothered Cal was that he never quite knew what to make of them. What he did know was that there was always something loading up behind them. So he held back from responding right off the back at the leading question, waiting to see what more Tony would say.

He was passingly familiar with the idea of superheroes- it was impossible not to be when you were here among some. But in this light, he had to wonder more of this world, this Earth that they lived in. To hide who and what you were under a different identity? But they were still doing what they could. Maybe he could only understand it a little better for having to go into hiding himself, but there was still some confusion coloring his own expression. It didn't make sense to have to hide if you were doing good for other people. But then people were afraid of what they didn't understand, wasn't that the case?

The padawan lets out a slow breath, brows knitting as he met Tony's gaze.

"The Empire has a key, Tony. They found out about the holocron. They got to the astrium before I could. There's another one on Dathomir- that's why we went. That's why we need to get the vault open, before they can get their hands on that list. I don't want to know what they'd do with it."

That did change things somewhat, though Tony repeated under his breath, "Astrium," trying to place the word in context. A secure server, maybe. Not that it mattered, Cal was here and the vault was a distant problem, but Tony still pointed out, "You're wasting your time." Not that the concern was a waste of time, and he gestured to dismiss that heartless read that he could hear very well now that the phrase was out of his mouth, charging on through the snarl of trees to retreat from it until he was standing at the mossy bank of that river he could hear.

"You know where the key is already, this Empire has it," he continued as he considered the water. "And, presumably, you know where they're going to be. It's not like they're going to be expecting you." That looked to Tony like it would be the most direct route to solving the problem. The river, meanwhile, was wide enough that he considered its length, looking for a narrower crossing to the other side where the trees looked to be thinning once more, perhaps to an alluring clearing beyond. It must have fed into the ocean, and that made Tony throw a puzzled look over his shoulder, back toward the city that, as far as he could tell, hadn't been built on any major waterway like this. He would have to ask Reeve. Using the stick, he carefully tested the depth and pull of the current.

The words almost felt like a slap in the face, but Cal swallowed back an objection at Tony's gesture, forced to follow after him out past the trees.

"We've been trying to avoid the Empire," he said, which was a weak argument, but it was true. "Not that it's done us much good. They've either already established a presence where we need to go or aren't too far behind when we arrive." At least there'd been a distinct absence of Imperials on Dathomir, but then there'd been enough other problems on that planet.

Cal stepped towards the riverbank, watching as the water flowed along, keeping an eye on BD-1 as the droid ran up to its edge and dipped the tip of a metal foot into it. "If the Empire gets to the vault, security isn't going to be light. Greez isn't a fighter, and Cere's cut herself off from the Force. It'll just be me." He shook his head.

"...Merrin said I completed my mission. I guess she's joined us, however far ahead that might be from what I know. I haven't asked about details though. It's still weird to think about."

Whatever logical plan Tony thought was the most obvious was a particularly pointless thought experiment if Cal was destined, or whatever, the get the job done either way, so Tony made an aborted gesture of mild frustration, sure, okay, and raised the stick for Cal to see how deep it had been submerged in the few inches within Tony's reach. They were going to need a way around.

"Billy and Tommy think they're from my future, too," he said, sounding skeptical of the concept but pursing his lips sympathetically, because he knew how uncomfortable that suggestion was. "I don't know how likely that is, but--" Now might not have been the time to insist he didn't believe in these possible future states, because it sounded like Cal's propose future had gone pretty well and the alternative was bleak. Tony's voice was slightly higher as he concluded, "Listen, you know, it's possible. Hey, you've got that to look forward to, get the list, get the girl, what more could you ask for? Get out of here, I guess."

The padawan nodded as he observed the river's apparent depth, turning his head to look further along its banks for another potential crossing, but not without taking some time to appreciate the surroundings.

His thoughts turned briefly inward as Tony admitted his doubts about future time flows. "There are still things that I'd rather doubt when it comes to the future, like the continual fighting going on." The Empire's eventual replacement by something else? He didn't want to think about things like that, lest he start to wonder what the point of anything they did was for.

Glancing back at Tony, Cal's smile looked almost like it wasn't sure if it really wanted to come out as a wince. "At the risk of sounding careless about the future...would there really be any hurry? Knowing at least to a point that things turn out okay. I've had...maybe a year to think about things, to do things I haven't been able to do. It's true that the reasons we were even brought here in the first place are because of of something terrible, but it doesn't mean nothing good has come out of it." He scrubbed a hand through his hair, letting his gaze fall back towards the river again.

"...I guess what I'm trying to say is I'd rather focus on the now. On what we can do and have to do here, and the people that we're here with. That's not something I want to lose."

The close press of the trees dampened their voices, and those of the birds roosting above, leaving them quiet next to the sound of the bubbling river like the forest was protecting this thing that Cal didn't quite want to say. It put Tony on edge, scratching restlessly against his heart at that apologetic smile and watching Cal sidelong like he was ready to quickly give his dismissive gesture the moment Cal said something difficult. The defensive tension melted slowly as Cal spoke, at first a familiar enough sentiment that Tony turned his gaze down to the river again in relief, only for his brow to knit with a new concern. Cal certainly wasn't the only person Tony had talked to who had expressed a reluctance to return to their home world, largely out of the relative security that this place offered instead. And focusing on the people they had the chance to share it with, Tony didn't miss that sentiment, reaching for Cal's shoulder again to slowly pat with appreciation then squeeze like he was just trying to get his attention, indicating some of the vines lashed around a tree at his side. "How strong are those?" he muttered with an impish flash in his eye.

With his hand back on his heart to watch Cal make his assessment, Tony cleared his throat awkwardly to start, "The twins, they won't tell me what happens for me next, not exactly--not all of it, anyway, but I know that it's something bad. And it's my fault." He licked his lip between his teeth, looking back out over the river, tapping a rhythm onto the hollow drum of his chest. "I haven't wanted to go back since I kind of...I figured that out," he admitted, though this was a vast simplification of what exactly Tony had figured out from talking to all of the people who seemed to know some version of him. When he could draw his gaze back to Cal, it was with an inquisitive raise of his eyebrow, testing if he was also influenced at all by that kind of guilt. They both had a lot of people relying on them at home, it sounded like, and for Tony, that meant weighing the amount of good he could actually do against his potential for destruction. "I'm trying to do better, while I'm here," he added hurriedly, before Cal was left thinking that Tony was just infecting this planet with his influence instead, but it did sound hollow.

It seemed to Cal a bit cruel to bring people here and send them back on a whim, more so if they had nothing they brought back, as though their time here was meaningless. Which wasn't true, he supposed, not so long as people were here who remembered, and their efforts would pave the way to restoring the Agrii's home. That reasoning didn't quite soothe his thoughts, and Tony's hand on his shoulder was both appreciated and a bitter reminder of one such bond he'd lose.

He allowed for the distraction, looking over to the vines, a faint smile tugging at his lips. That was a method of transport he was well familiar with. Reaching out with his hand, he used the Force to tug a vine free and let it virtually fly to his hand, giving it a tug in testing.

As Tony spoke of his own concerns in the future of his own timeline, Cal hesitated in the testing of the vine's tension. He looked over his shoulder and back at him, lips pressed in a thin line, but he nodded slowly. That was valid enough reason to relish being in a place even like this. If you couldn't carry certain knowledge back with you, you were essentially locked into whatever timeline of events you were a part of. Was it fair? Hardly.

Again Cal reached out, pulling free another vine from the tree, giving it the same test as he appraised its strength. "All the more reason to make here count, right?" he said, smiling faintly back at Tony. He passed one of the vines over. "These'll do. You need some pointers?" One end of his smile ticked up just slightly higher at that.

Tony met the challenge with narrowed eyes and argued, "Okay," with an exasperated tug of his own at the strength of the vine before starting to loop it into a bundle. "That could have been nice, we could have acknowledged you patience or--emotional maturity, or whatever, that you had to impart on me, and instead you question my ability to make this look incredibly cool." Not that Tony had that much experience improvising a Tarzan scene, but it was easy math, surely, and improvising was a talent. So was raising a hand in surrender and leaning expectantly back on a tree, inviting Cal to demonstrate his abilities with a gracious wave.

Cal laughed, at the look he was given, at the mock-indignation, either way it helped to release whatever lingering tension had built up in the past few minutes of their conversation. "Hey, you can still impress me," he suggested, before flashing his cockiest grin. He waited for BD-1 to hop aboard, as apparently swinging from vines was another familiar venture for the two.

Readjusting his grip on a higher portion of vine as he looped it around a hand, Cal tugged it along as he stepped back, keeping it tight before he started to sprint a few steps forward, throwing himself and his feet ahead. He let the loop loosen from his hand once momentum carried him closer to the opposite bank, letting the vine slide in his grip a bit until his feet touched ground. Well, it was Tony's turn now. Waving, Cal took a step to the side to give the man some space, and while he was still open to being impressed by him, Cal was ready to help pull him over if things didn't quite pan out the way either of them intended.

"That's not fair, you've got...a counterweight," Tony insisted to manage expectations, gesturing vaguely at BD-1 even before they made their jump and sure that made some kind of sense in easing the trajectory. Cal's cockiness was not unfounded and their practice at vine-traversal was obvious enough, leaving Tony at something of a disadvantage; he did most of his feats of daring in a flying, armored suit. In fact, he probably wouldn't have done that very smooth-looking sliding of his weight down the vine thing that Cal did, absolutely prepared to swing as close as possible just to launch himself the rest of the way across the river, so maybe it was trying to be less explosive for the first time that made it go wrong.

The run and jump was smooth enough, but as Tony reached the apex of his swing, he twisted more than he slid down the vine, turning his shoulder toward the water and leaving him kicking blindly for the riverbank with some panic, mostly knocking loose stones into the rushing depths.

Vine swinging was tricky- that was something Cal wouldn't argue. He wouldn't be able to say which was more difficult, starting from a stationary position or having to grab on for dear life and just go with it because the alternative was a very long drop, at least in his experience.

The vine seemed to go rigid as though someone had grasped its end to keep both it and Tony from flopping back the way they had come. Cal had a hand outstretched despite being several feet away from them, steadying the vine through the Force so Tony could find his footing while still having something to hang onto as he reasserted his balance.

Scrabbling up the splashing bank and away from the water, Tony stumbled between a few trees as he managed his footing and his very cool persona before he took a deep breath and gave Cal a loose salute of thanks for his service. Swinging back probably would have been way less alarming than the vine coming to a sudden stop in the air, and a much more damp experience. "I would have figured it out," he insisted, then gave a short laugh, energized enough by the adrenaline to take Cal by the shoulders and spin him around to urge him on impatiently through to the clearing.

The lift of the padawan's brow suggested he wasn't too sure about that, but his grin showed he was teasing as he allowed himself to be propelled onward to their original destination.

"It's nice out here. We get caught up so easily in being stuck in a ruined city that it seems most people forget there's a whole rest of the planet beyond," he said as they moved past the few trees that marked off their own sort of border to the clearing itself. BD-1 had hopped off again to speed ahead, hooting excitedly at bushes of brightly colored flowers that sprouted along their path.

As relaxed as Tony was now with a little bit of excitement to sustain him, Cal did leave him pouting skeptically then arguing, "I think that's generous. No one's forgotten about the whole planet, but it's easy to assume the rest of the shop is just as wrecked without anything better to see. Or to be scared. It's not comfortable in the city, and everyone might be a literal alien, but at least you know that Tommy's going to be making a stew 'n there's your smiling face to look forward to when the sink breaks." That wasn't the point Cal was trying to make, Tony could tell, but he knew worrying about being paralyzed by some unknown insect bite kept him from wandering too far into the forest, and he wasn't the most thoughtful member of the community by far. If he had come out here alone and saw the flowers bending curiously toward the droid of their own volition, the breeze too light to bend them so much even if it could explain their irregular twisting, he would be deeply regretting not spending his time with Cal on some familiar slab of cracked concrete instead.

Cal inhaled in preparation of a sigh, huffing out a quiet laugh instead. "Fair enough. But it's not as...quiet, as in the city, which is a weird reverse, but out here you can hear the wind in the leaves and the sound of whatever creatures are out there, the water from the river..."

BD-1 tensed a little as he noted the moving flowers, offering a cautious beep as he began to step back. He'd seen some a similar trend with certain flowers on Kashyyyk. Those plants were not very nice.

Hearing the droid's concern, Cal glanced back over towards his buddy, frowning a little as he started over toward him. He maintained a careful eye on those plants.

The bushes seemed to realize that they had been noticed, and while some went back to idle, bushy rustling, others froze in place. Tony raised an uneasy lip, rocking back on his heels like he might find another way around, but snapped out of his hesitation to trot after Cal as he moved. "If this is going to turn into some hippie, communing with nature, life guru thing, I gotta say, I'm cool with nature as long as nature is cool with me," he said warily.

"I was just appreciating the atmosphere," Cal said, offering Tony a half-smile when he glanced in his direction again. It didn't take much coaxing to get BD-1 to come back and join them, the padawan looking pointedly at the suspicious plants as he picked the droid up. "But otherwise I'm pretty much with you on that one. I don't mind nature so long as it's not trying to attack or eat us." They'd had way too much experience on that end.

He started back in the direction of the clearing Tony had been making way for earlier, dotted by smaller flowers and patches of grass, and a large mound of mossy boulders lazily piled at its farthest corner. There was movement in the grass beyond that took form in the shape of a dozen or so tiny bird-like things that took flight at their arrival, flitting for the trees amidst a chorus of equally tiny peeps.

Small, chirping and flying things were much less alien than sentient plants, and Tony gladly watched the forms they swarmed in as they fluttered for safety and dispersed with curious precision throughout the branches. There must have been nothing else large enough coming through here to disturb them, which was reassuring, though what they might have been grazing on could have still been some treacherous ants, so Tony picked his way carefully through the grass.

"The cold is more predictable," he said after a slow nod at being attacked. "If you ask me, and thank you for asking, I am incredibly interesting, I'd tell you the only way to vacation is on a beach, palm trees, bikinis, you know. But if I'm going to do a hike, we've got a climb or a camp out or whatever, I'll climb Everest ten more times before I want to hang up a mosquito net. No spiders. Everything's really quiet in the snow, you can hear for miles."

Nothing was broadcasting itself as an impending threat through his Force senses, so Cal took it as a good sign as they made way further into the clearing. He grinned to himself as Tony began to relate his own preferences of a proper outing.

"No spiders is always nice." Especially of the giant, man-eating variety. "I've never really gone anywhere for...well, just to go for a hike or a vacation or anything," he realized. "Everywhere I've been has always been for a reason. Coldest place I've been to was Ilum- that's where we'd be taken to find a kyber crystal for our lightsabers so that we could become padawans. Was less hiking and more wandering through a maze of ice caverns before our way out got sealed off in ice."

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what happened to this? idk

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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