Private Refuel

[Starlin Rand]

Starlin was startled to find the holographic image of Tammuz Hoole standing in the cockpit when he arrived. He quickly deduced what it was, spying the holocron it was projecting from, and relaxed. No, he was not being visited by a ghost.

As Eli turned off the holocron, he said, “Tammuz was the one who told me it was time to be knighted.”

He’d met the old dreamwalker right before that fateful battle, the one that had decided the fate of Lao-mon. The one in which Tammuz was killed by friendly fire, a single direct hit from a disruptor fired by Nimdok’s old bodyguard, Jaina Grayson. The one where the good guys lost, and the cost of their defeat was genocide.

Starlin sighed. “I’m feeling a lot better. You, on the other hand, look like you’re about to pass out. I came in here thinking we could have a conversation, get a few things straightened out, but you need to sleep, man.” He nudged the boy out of his seat with the Force. “Go get some rest, then we’ll talk.”

Lief​

 

[Lief]

"You met him?" the boy asked, before remembering who it had been and realizing that it wasn't entirely unbelievable. After all hadn't Nimdok helped Starlin along his journey? Why wouldn't he have met his Master?​

​

Starlin then stated that as much as he wanted to chat and clear things up Eliphas looked far from capable of contributing. He wasn't exactly wrong, so much so that the boy didn't even try to argue. Instead he let out the yawn he'd been holding in and nodded his head. Nudged from his seat, it wasn't as though he had much of a say in the matter anyway.​

​

Luckily he caught the holocron through the Force before it could drop away. The fact that it happened so instinctively and without thought made his eyes open wide. Had he really done that? He hadn't even meant to...​

​

Reaching out he took the device back into his hands, then turned to Starlin.​

​

"Alright... I'll be back" he said, another looser salute this time, before lumbering off to find some place to rest his head. His own pillow, he hoped, but at this point he wouldn't rule out maybe just collapsing in the lounge. Wherever he ended up, sleep came fast.​

​

Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

“Yeah. Once. Right before battle.” Starlin sighed. “He was the leader of the Shi’ido rebel forces in the invasion of Lao-mon. We tried to take the planet back from the Maw. We lost, Tammuz died, and the Mawites unleashed a chemical weapon that targeted the native Shi’ido. Was called the Wretchedness. It made their bodies melt upon skin contact. They’d lose shape, turn into a puddle, and suffocate due to the pressure on their organs…”

Whoops. Didn’t mean to have a war flashback. Not exactly a nice bedtime story.

Eli managed to catch the holocron with telekinesis. “Nice job,” Starlin called to him on his way out.

While his Padawan slept, Starlin whipped out a pazaak deck and started playing with it. He was absolute trash at the game, a real disgrace to his distant ancestor Atton, but at least it gave him something quiet to do while his palps were recovering.

Lief​

 

[Lief]

"Ugh" the boy said, his expression devolving into a crumpled variant of a frown, "I don't... Why... Ugh"... His head hurt. Like, more than just because of all the stuns and the rattling around. "Such destruction, it's senseless. You can't do anything with ashes, yet they just... They insist on burning and scorching and leaving nothing in their wake."​

​

Even Starlin's enthusiastic congratulations did nothing to make him feel better, and as he wandered off to find somewhere to sleep - in truth he legitimately did pass out in the lounge on his way back to his bunk, sprawled out on the sofa or something - those thoughts deepened some. To other things...​

​

His sleep was not its usual dream-filled fun. No, this time they were troubled and fused with snippets of reality. Memories he couldn't recall in his waking hours coming to the forefront of his mind, of a girl in a mess hall, that infectious smile... Then the room went red, and sirens blared, and--​

​

Wherever he lay, as that nightmare continued, the boy tossed and turned and soon enough was coated in a thick sheen of sweat.​

​

Might be that he even called out once or twice.​

​

Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

Red, blue, green… Did he just hear something?

… Nah.

Blue, blue, green, red… No, no, wait. That was definitely something.

Starlin turned in his seat, looking down the corridor. It sounded like Eli. What was Eli making noise for?

Another sound, like a muffled cry. Starlin’s eyes darted, puzzled by it all, then he got up from his seat and left the cockpit.

He found Eli not in his quarters, but sprawled on the couch in the lounge. Starlin crept toward him cautiously. The kid was twitching in his sleep. It reminded Starlin of a golden retriever dreaming of running. Funny.

But that didn’t change the fact that the kid was sleeping on the couch like a dumbass when he could’ve walked ten feet to his bed. So Starlin told him so. “Eli, you dumbass, your bed is like ten feet away,” he said, before reaching down to scoop the kid up and carry him into his quarters. Afterwards, he wished he hadn’t bothered. Kid was heavier than he looked…

Lief​

 

[Lief]

The act of being moved really did not help matters.​

​

In his frightful dream that translated into the swiftly descending ship. The way in which it had his stomach dipping, the pure and unabashed fear, the way they clung to one another. She was crying, he could hear her screams echoing around his head, her sobs, her anguish. Afraid... Oh so afraid of what was to come.​

​

Eliphas became fitful, no doubt making it even more difficult for the poor man who was trying to carry him. Without the Force. Like a fool.​

​

Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

Whoa, whoa, okay. Eli didn’t like that. Starlin stopped, nearly dropping the boy. He was still asleep, yet flailing around this much?

Releasing his hold, he handed over the reins to the Force, levitating the kid into his room. Whatever was going on, let him sleep it off in a proper bed.

Lief​

 

[Lief]

And so it was that the fitful Smeliphant was brought to his bed, and allowed to rest... The nightmare didn't relent for a little while after, though eventually he transitioned into a completely dreamless sleep.​

​

When he eventually awoke he was still sweaty, and some of the remnants of that hellish nightscape lingered within his mind for a short while. Things he wished had remained hidden and forgotten.​

​

He rose up, feeling just as drained as he had been when he came to bed though physically more awake, and gathered up a fresh set of clothes, ready to hop in the refresher and hopefully feel better for it.​

​

Then? Well then they could talk as had been the plan.​

​

Starlin Rand​

 

[Starlin Rand]

After dealing with Eli, Starlin had lingered around for a bit, sitting close to the door of the boy’s room. What? So he was a little worried about his apprentice, crying out and tossing and turning. Especially after an ordeal like the one they’d had at the refueling station…

Eventually Eli seemed to have calmed down, his sleep no longer so fitful. Starlin quietly made his way to his own quarters, where he turned on the holo and watched whatever was on until his eyes grew heavy again.

He was awoken by the faint, muffled sound of water running. Eli was up, and that meant it was time to have the Talk™. Stretching, Starlin stood and shuffled into the main area of the ship. He knew better than to try and talk to Eli while the kid was in the shower—Tom Kovack had done that to him once, it scared the living daylights out of him. Tom, who had later been revealed to be Professor Nimdok in disguise, no less. Oh, what a crazy world Starlin lived in…

Taking a seat on the lounge couch, Starlin tried not to make it look obvious that he was waiting, but the moment Eli stepped into view, his eyes would flick towards him with a slack-jawed, stupid expression on his face. His mouth clamped shut and he quickly looked away, pretending he was reading something on his datapad while stealing occasional glances the boy’s way.

Lief​

 

[Lief]

As he exited the refresher, Eliphas wondered idly to himself if he did indeed feel better.​

​

Truth be told, it wasn't something he readily knew. Maybe..? Maybe he felt better? Certainly his hair wasn't stuck to his forehead anymore, and a fresh set of clothes did wonders for removing some of the visible traces of what they'd been through. The strange coloured blood from the droid, mixed with his own, mixed with a little bit of Starlin's...​

​

Yeah, no, he was glad to see the back of that. Heck if it was up to him he'd burn the shirt entirely and start fresh. First though... First he'd at least try and see if it could be cleaned.​

​

He became all too aware of Starlin's gaze on him when he exited and stood in the hall, yet when he turned to look his way his Master tried to feign interest elsewhere. The boy wasn't feeling up to challenging such, so instead he approached the lounge space and found himself a seat at the dining table, or what constituted as such. His hands fidgeted slightly before he lay them palms facing down on the table.​

​

Well, this was awkward.​

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Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

“So…” Starlin dragged his eyes away from his datapad, looking up at Eli. “You okay? You seemed like you were having a nightmare earlier.”

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Well...​

​

That certainly wasn't the conversation he thought they'd be having. His lips thinned, and he glanced away from Starlin to a spot elsewhere in the lounge. Now he was roused and clean he only had very vague impressions of what he'd endured while resting, more feelings than memories in truth.​

​

"Uh..." He swallowed, and then shrugged his shoulders, "I don't really remember." It wasn't entirely a lie, but it certainly wasn't the whole truth either. After a moment of avoidance, he glanced back toward Starlin; not directly at him though. Drummed his fingertips against the tabletop.​

​

Did he want to talk about it?​

​

Did he need to talk about it..?​

​

Eliphas wasn't sure.​

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Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

Starlin seemed to study Eli for a few seconds longer, then he pressed his lips together and nodded. “Okay.

“Anyway, uh, about all that shit that went down at the station yesterday… I figure you got a lot of questions, but before I spill my guts, I gotta ask. How is it that you knew that droid who looked like you? Percival, you called him. You mentioned a crashed ship—did you mean the Atale?”

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Welp.​

​

So much for not thinking about it. Starlin even went so far as to speak the ship's name into existence. He hung his head, then nodded.​

​

"Yeah."​

​

Yeah, that didn't cover anything but what the ship was. He sighed. "I told you about that, right..? About uh... How The Atale crashed?" He thought he had, at least. Back on Coruscant... "I um, I was the only one who made it out alive. And he was there, Percival, he saved me when the Drengir tried to eat me..."​

​

He propped his elbow up onto the table, then slunk his head into his hand. "I joined them as they hunted the beasts, and uh they helped me off world at the end of it. Dropped me off---" He couldn't even remember where he'd ended up. Why was that?​

​

His brain was hazy. Truth be told he didn't really want to think about any of it. He closed his eyes, shook his head, then finally looked at Starlin.​

​

"Anyway. That's uh, how I know him."​

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Questions, questions, questions... Yeah he had questions, but they weren't exactly springing to mind. Or they were but too many and too scattered.​

​

"Why were they after you?"​

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Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

Eli was obviously reluctant to discuss the crash, but Starlin was relieved when he did. It meant there were no pre-existing connections between Eli and House Io, aside from a single random encounter on a planet somewhere. Wait… “What’s a Drengir?”

But now it was Eli’s turn to ask some questions. Starlin couldn’t help wincing as he prepared his answer.

“They’re working with a woman named Darth Xiphos, also known as Laertia Io . Nimdok wrote an article about her, if you don’t know who she is, but the main point is that she used to be a Jedi. She and my master were romantically involved, at least until… Well, okay, let me back up a bit.

“You remember what I told you about Dantooine, right? My master sided with the Sith, and I followed her, and that’s how I wound up killing an NJO Padawan on the battlefield? My master was following Laertia, her lover. Laertia was the first to sign up as an ally of the Sith. Now she is a Sith, and she hates both me and my master. She wants us dead. Every once in a while I’ll have to deal with these weird assassin droids she makes and sends out to kill me, or any one of a variety of weirdos who have allied themselves with her. They call themselves House Io, and they’ve formed their own bizarre little society. She’s also got a sick sense of humor and a penchant for screwing with people, so that almost certainly means that Percival was made, or at least made to look like you, in order to feth with me. Because you’re my apprentice, and she… knows it.”

He drooped. “I know this is a lot, but I was really hoping that I wouldn’t have to involve you in any of it. I’m sorry, Eli. I should’ve…” Told him everything from the beginning, in case it made him not want to be Starlin’s Padawan? Maybe not even taken on a Padawan in the first place as long as he was being hunted? Great. Just great. Nice going, Starlin.

Lief​

 

[Lief]

"Big, sentient tree... thing..." he replied, with a grimace, "hive-minded, I did a little research after the fact. They're nigh on impossible to kill, any damage you do sort of just... undoes itself. They knit back together. Horrid... Really horrid."​

​

Soon enough he fell silent, and just sat and listened to the explanation that was given. More ties to the Master he'd never really spoken particularly well of.​

​

"Wait," he interjected somewhere around the mention of Percival and why he looked the way he did, "But you weren't my Master back then. I mean, we'd met sure but... There was no reason to think we'd ever meet again. I didn't even know I was Sensitive. Why would-- how did-- huh?"​

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If his head had hurt before now it really did.​

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Then Starlin was apologizing, and Eliphas' brows knitted together in response. "You've nothing to apologize for, it's not as though you asked them to hunt you down," he mumbled, palm laying flat on the table once more to keep from continually drumming. "But uh, thanks. For letting me know. Now I know what to keep an eye out for, at least."​

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He cocked his head to one side, regarding his Master with a softened gaze. "Are you okay?"​

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Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

“Big sentient tree thing? Sounds gnarly.” Starlin waited a moment for Eli to get it, then grinned.

"But you weren't my Master back then. I mean, we'd met sure but... There was no reason to think we'd ever meet again. I didn't even know I was Sensitive. Why would-- how did-- huh?"

“Oh yeah, I already thought about that part. I know one of Xiphos’ allies is a seeress. Her precognition is so good, she can see visions of the future. Er, well, she sees visions all the time—it’s driven her a little mad. Her name is Darth Themis.” He shrugged. “I can’t say for certain, but if I had to guess, she probably saw in a vision that you would become my apprentice and told Xiphos about it. Maybe your encounter with him after the Atale crashed was planned too—although I dunno, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me.” Mainly because he couldn’t figure out why. Did they want to make sure Eliphas survived the Drengir, just so that he would live to become Starlin’s apprentice?...

Eh, whatever.

Eli assured him he had nothing to apologize for, but Starlin shook his head. “Kid, would you have agreed to become my Padawan if you knew a nutcase with an army of assassin droids and Dark Side cultists at her disposal was hunting me?” he asked bluntly. “I gotta admit, I wasn’t thinking about it when I signed those forms at the Temple… but it didn’t take long for me to remember I was being hunted. I was selfish. I wanted to be a Jedi again, a proper Knight, and that meant taking an apprentice—no matter how much it would endanger you. You don’t deserve this chit, Eli.”

Lief​

 

[Lief]

It was... a lot.​

​

Visions of the future, droids built specifically to look like him so that it would, what, unnerve Starlin? Maybe they were hoping it would catch him off guard, that he'd be less likely to fight him, that at a glance he'd confuse him for his student. Such an oddly specific long con, though. Simply put, to the boy it made no sense.​

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And yet here they were, sitting down talking after fleeing precisely that. A mechanical copy.​

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Visions of the droid being all cut up and shot through with metal knocked around his head, and he grimaced. It was so easy to imagine it as himself...​

​

"The whole thing is crazy" he mumbled, smoothing some of his hair out of his eyes in the process. Then Starlin doubled down on his apology, seeming genuinely uncertain whether or not he'd made the right decision. Well, to that Eliphas stood up from his chair and shook his head more readily.​

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"Please don't do that," the boy requested, soft in volume yet firm in tone, "I'm glad it was you, even with all the madness that's now unfolding. I think I'd still be sat in the Room of a Thousand Fountains if not for you, or I'd be stuck inside my own head worrying over everything, or heck I might have even turned tail and ran back to Empress Teta. But I didn't, and I'm not, because you stepped up. And I'm grateful for that... The rest of it be damned. You're my Master, I'm your Padawan, and I'll be damned if I let you try and face all of this alone. So uh, yeah. You're stuck with me, and you would have been even if you told me back then."​

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Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

To be fair, maybe it was less of an impractical long con and more Xiphos just liking Eliphas’ face enough to make a droid out of him. Or maybe it was a con, and she didn’t care how impractical it was. She was a little mad, after all.

Maybe more than a little.

“Okay, okay, I get it.” Starlin looked a little flushed, as if he were embarrassed by Eli’s words. He was unused to people talking to him this way. Most people he knew, he felt like he disappointed or failed them in some way. “Thanks, I guess. Do you have more questions about this, or…?” He shrugged, figuring he may as well hint at the lesson plan. “Which would you rather learn first, how to create portals made from sand, or how to control the weather?”

Lief​

 

[Lief]

It took the boy a moment to recover from his impassioned speech, and then he slumped back into his seat and nodded once. At least Starlin wasn't planning to fight him on it any longer, so that was something.​

​

Though he did look a little embarrassed. Eliphas chewed the inside of his lip, he hadn't been meaning to to do that.​

​

"I don't think so" he replied softly, "I uh... Do want you to keep me in the loop about it though. Please. I meant it when I said I'd face it with you."​

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Then came the lesson plan, and he sort of just stared at the man like he'd spoken Rodese or something. Not even, because Eliphas happened to know some Rodese. Epicant? Sure. We'll go with that. "Uh... Are those real things, or are you messing with me again?" he asked, though when he said it he realized that the man hadn't actually ever lied about such things. They'd always been serious, if admittedly weird, things.​

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"The... Weather? I guess..." The more he thought about it though the more excited he became for the prospect of learning to control the weather.​

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Force, he hoped Starlin wasn't messing with him.​

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Starlin Rand ​