Location: D'Qar
The sun had only begun to rise over D'Qar. Ace sat near the edge of the overlook as the first light crept across the forest below. Mist clung between the trees, turning gold wherever the morning touched it. He'd been there long enough to watch the last stars disappear.
Thyferra had fallen. There wasn't much else to call it. The Sith had the planet, and with it the bacta countless worlds depended on. They had gotten people out, but not enough. Never enough.
Ace stared toward the horizon, flexing the fingers of his cybernetic hand. That feeling wasn't new. For years, he'd carried an almost compulsive need to fix things. Every mistake demanded correction. Every person he failed became another reason to try harder the next time. After the Covenant, that instinct had become something heavier. A debt he wasn't entirely convinced could ever be paid.
Maybe it couldn't, but the thought didn't frighten him as much anymore nor did he feel any kind of self condemnation. There were just things Ace would never be able to put back the way he'd found them. People he couldn't return to their families. Choices he couldn't unmake. Thyferra joined that list now, another scar left behind by a galaxy that seemed to collect them faster than anyone could heal.
He couldn't fix all of it, but there was a difference between accepting that and doing nothing. He got that now. Tic came from somewhere behind, shifting against his leg. Ace's fingers found the droid's head, and moved absently across it as his gaze lowered toward the trees.
Trusting himself felt different now. Once, it had been instinct. Bonadan hadn't left much room for anything else. Make the choice and deal with what followed. Keep moving. That certainty had carried him further than it should have. Then, for a while after the Covenant, even the smallest certainty had frightened him.
He didn't want either version back. Ace wasn't always going to be right. That seemed painfully obvious now. He'd get angry. Misjudge people. Make choices that looked different in hindsight than they had in the moment. But he could live with that. More importantly, he could trust himself to choose anyway
His lightsaber rested against the rock beside him, its metal catching the first edge of sunlight. Ace looked at it for a moment.
Jedi.
Funny. He'd spent years correcting people on that one. He wasn't a Jedi nor was he interested in becoming one. He'd trained with them, fought beside them, argued with them, learned from them, and yet the distinction always mattered.
It still did, but not in the same way. The Jedi Order wasn't his home, probably never would be. But Jedi? That was different. The Council hadn't decided it for him, a Jedi Master hadn't bestowed it. There wasn't a ceremony or some final test waiting at the end of everything he'd survived. The choice was just simply his.
Ace looked back toward the horizon as the sun finally broke above the distant ridges. There was still work to do. On himself. With the Vanguard. Beyond it. Probably more than he could finish in one lifetime. For once, Ace didn't need to know where it ended.
Tic chirped beside him.
"Yeah."
Ace smiled faintly and gave the droid's head one last rub. For another minute, they watched the morning come. Then he reached for his lightsaber, turning it once in his hand before clipping it back at his side. Tic rose with him, little feet scraping against the stone.
Ace took one last look across the valley and turned back toward the base. Before long there would be something that needed fixing, someone looking for him, another problem waiting to be solved.
