Private Roots and Ruin

[Lily Rhodes]

Tags: Acier Moonbound

Daro was quiet.

Not in the true sense, but for Lily it was blissful. For the first time in months the guards she held up in place didn’t have a dozen minds or more pressing against them. She could stretch for miles and find nothing more than some lumbering predator seeking its next meal. It was a freedom she didn’t realise she needed. Even with Vess she had a wall up to stop herself intruding on her thoughts.

The Hidden Path had chosen a good spot. It had taken her an hour to hike from where she’d set the ship down, not that she’d needed to walk but if truth be told she’d wanted the walk, the time without another mind lurking close by, without wondering if her emotions were actually hers.

She paused at the base of a mountain, pulling the data pad out of her pocket to check her location before backpedaling enough to look up through a gap in the canopy. A few hundred meters above her, the edge of the once perfectly concealed landing pad jutted from the rock; vines, desperately trying to reclaim their territory, had worked metal sheeting loose.

The only reason Lily knew to look for it was because she had asked Vess. She hadn’t told her why or what she was looking for but Vess had been willing to tell her, her loyalty had never been to the Path, it had been to Valery Noble and Val was gone.

Tucking the datapad away she studied the cliff before shaking her head. “Fuck that.” she muttered and folded the force around her teleporting up to the landing pad. It let out a groan beneath the new weight but the structure was sound enough. Solid hangar doors that nature had not managed to crack through rested in her path and she sighed.

Lily turned, admiring the view from above the canopy, eyes tracking a flock of birds that burst from beneath the trees. In her years since leaving Coruscant, she still had difficulty believing that places could be so green. Smiling to herself, she moved for the hangar doors, popped open the panel, and set to work.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Daro

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

The climb had long since become routine. Hand over hand, boot finding narrow shelves in the weathered stone, Acier worked his way toward the concealed landing platform carved into Daro's mountainside.

Tic clung comfortably to the harness across his shoulders, the little BD-unit chirping as another vine slipped loose beneath Ace's grip.

"I know." Ace muttered between breaths, pulling himself onto another ledge. "Could've brought climbing gear."

The droid answered with an indignant series of whistles.

"Yeah, yeah." A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Would've made too much sense."

Since helping Lorn break Her out of Jedi custody... he'd needed something to occupy himself. The Vanguard had no shortage of work, but Ace found himself gravitating toward the remnants of the Hidden Path. Old supply caches. Forgotten listening posts. Safehouses abandoned during the collapse. Places the Empire, the Covenant, or scavengers hadn't reached yet.

Every crate recovered meant medicine the Vanguard didn't need to buy, or every encrypted terminal recovered meant one less piece of history left to rot. Every mission gave his hands something to do besides wonder if he'd simply traded one certainty for another. He'd spent far too much of his life believing he knew exactly what the right path looked like.

Nowadays, he preferred tangible work. Daro was simply the latest stop. He'd known this outpost existed during his time with the Hidden Path, but never had reason to visit it himself. Whether there was anything left inside was another matter entirely.

His fingers reached another handhold, and suddenly someone stepped into the Force. Ace froze, this wasn't gradual. One instant the mountain felt empty. The next, a familiar presence snapped into his awareness with enough clarity that he instinctively turned his head toward the summit.

Teleportation. His brow furrowed.

"...Lily."

Tic tilted his head, letting out an inquisitive trill. Ace remained still for another second before exhaling quietly through his nose.

"Nothing." He resumed climbing. "Just another person from... that time."

Moments later he hauled himself over the edge of the concealed landing platform. His forearms burned pleasantly from the climb, shoulders tight as he straightened to full height and rolled the tension from his neck.

Nature had begun reclaiming the old installation, but the massive hangar doors still stood stubbornly closed.

And standing before the access panel... was Lily. Ace watched her for only a moment before beginning the walk across the landing pad. His left hand rested loosely near the hilt of his lightsaber, close enough should the conversation take the wrong turn.

The last time they'd crossed paths he'd realized she was Arris' apprentice, and the anger she'd carried on Jakku hadn't exactly been subtle. He had no idea who she'd become since then.

Stopping a comfortable distance behind her, Ace glanced from the exposed access panel to the telepath working away at it.

"And here I thought you'd have moved past petty theft by now."

His tone was dry, a quiet easygoing observation of someone unexpectedly running into an old acquaintance in the middle of nowhere.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Tags: Acier Moonbound

People were noisy. Certain people made certain noises, like Arris Windrun for example, she was an angry buzz, though that was more the firewall than Arris herself, but it was the noise she associated with her. Vess on the other hand was a soft murmur, like quiet words uttered after the sun had long set.

Acier was the rush of air you felt before a door slammed in your face.

Her fingers paused on the panel, her jaw tightening before she shook her head, withdrawing her telepathic web and rebuilding her walls. He was a problem that instantly soured her mood. She pulled wires from behind the control panel, connecting them to her datapad.

She didn’t even look round when Ace pulled himself over the ledge focused on the task at hand, exhaling an annoyed sigh watching the decryption programme run.

“I see you’re still a judgemental ass.”

The datapad chimed, and a locke behind the durasteel let out a deep resonating thunk before the doors groaned and slowly began to open. Lily pulled the wires free and tucked the datapad away, finally turning to look at him.

“Theft implies an owner. You and I both know there isn’t one. This is salvage and you should find your own.”

Lily turned away, shrugging the pack off one shoulder to pull a torch free as she stepped through partially open doors into the dark hangar behind them.

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Daro

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

A dry scoff escaped through Ace's nose. Beside him, Tic reacted far less diplomatically. An indignant stream of binary spilling from his vocabulator that required absolutely no translation to understand the sentiment behind it erupted from the little BD-unit.

Ace raised a hand before the tirade could build any further. "It's okay. Had it coming."

The droid let out one final, grumbling chirp before settling down, though the occasional muttered beep suggested he remained thoroughly unconvinced.

Ahead of them, the old hangar doors shuddered. A deep mechanical groan echoed through the mountainside as neglected servos protested years of disuse. Dust drifted from the seams while the doors slowly parted, revealing only darkness beyond.

Ace took a few measured steps forward, his eyes lifting briefly to watch the enormous slabs of durasteel retract before settling back onto Lily as she finally turned to face him.

One corner of his mouth curled upward. It wasn't really a smile, it was more the faint, cocksure smirk of someone quietly amused by circumstance.

"Funny you should say that." He tilted his head toward the yawning hangar. "I used to run with these guys back in its heyday." The smirk lingered another moment. "So actually..." He gestured vaguely toward the installation around them. "...I've got more claim to this salvage than you do."

His tone remained conversational and easy. Then the amusement softened just enough for something more genuine to show through.

"Let's not make this a thing. I'm tired of fighting people I don't want to fight."

Without waiting for an answer, Ace stepped into the cavernous hangar. Tic immediately hopped down from the harness onto the durasteel deck with a metallic clink, scampering several paces ahead before switching on the bright white spotlight mounted to his head.

The beam swept lazily across abandoned crates, dormant machinery, and dust-thickened walkways. Ace followed behind at an unhurried pace, the silence settling comfortably between them save for the soft mechanical taps of Tic's feet echoing through the enormous chamber.

After several moments, he finally broke it. "This for Arris then?"

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Tags: Acier Moonbound​

The tirade of binary beeps from the droid on Ace’s back went utterly unanswered, If lily started worrying about droids liking her she was doomed. “Understatement of the century.” she muttered as his statement settled the little thing back down with one final chirp of indignation.

Something about Ace had changed. He seemed lighter, like whatever weight he’d been carrying every other time they met was gone. Lily eyed him suspiciously for a moment, like she was looking at an imposter. He was using full sentences, not monosyllabic answers and had an air of amusement about him.

She paused as he stepped past her, watching the droid hop down to run ahead, tiny feet clinking with every step as he illuminated the hangar. Lily dropped the torch back into her bag with a sigh and pulled it back into place on her back, his request to ‘not make it a thing.’ going unanswered.

Lily still hadn’t decided if she wanted to punch him or not.

Quiet settled, and Lily began to chew the inside of her lip, scanning everything the droid's light illuminated. Her gaze snapped his way studying him for a moment before she came to a stop, clearly trying to decide how much, if anything, she wanted to tell him.

“No.” she said and then her head tilted slightly “Maybe.”

She shook her head and started walking again. “I haven’t really decided yet. Vess used to run with them, I found out about this place from her. I figured I’d check it out and go from there.”

Maybe, if she gave whatever she found to Vess, it would be enough to pull her away from the Covenant. Or maybe she’d give it to Arris and damn the consequences. Or maybe she’d do nothing. If anything she was here because it gave her something to do away from both of them, space to clear her head.

At least it was supposed to be.

“Since when did you use full sentences and give a shit about what I’m doing?”

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Daro

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

Lily's uncertainty lingered in the air between them. It didn't sound rehearsed. There was no carefully measured pause or subtle shift in her breathing that suggested she was hiding something. If anything, she sounded genuinely unsure herself. So he left it alone.

The beam from Tic's spotlight swept across another bank of abandoned storage lockers as they continued deeper into the outpost. Then she mentioned Vess.

Ace's eyes remained fixed ahead. Vess... Recognition came slowly. The woman from Humbarine and Jakku. Arris' other new apprentice. So she'd once been Hidden Path too? He supposed it shouldn't have surprised him. The organization had spanned other worlds, safehouses, and operatives. During his own time with the Path he'd barely scratched the surface of everyone involved. Entire cells had existed without ever crossing his. Still... it was another reminder of how tangled everyone's pasts had become.

His thoughts drifted only briefly before Lily's question pulled him back to the present. Silence settled again.

"...Perspective, I guess." Ace's voice was quiet. "Or self-reflection. Whatever you want to call it."

That was all. He never mentioned what came after someone walked away from the dark side. The implication could stay unspoken.

The corridor opened into another chamber, every corner unfamiliar despite the Hidden Path insignia that occasionally peeked through the dust and creeping vegetation. Ace had never set foot in this particular outpost before. Which meant he was navigating it no differently than Lily was.

Tic wandered a few paces ahead, spotlight drifting methodically across stacked supply crates, rusted workstations, and sealed blast doors.

After another stretch of silence, Ace finally spoke again. "What're you looking for in here?"

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Tags: Acier Moonbound​

Lily’s eyes slid towards him, watching his face in the low light as his answer came quietly. He had walked away from the Covenant, from Arris. Where he’d gone to she didn’t know and she’d never asked Arris what happened. Partly because that felt like a relationship she shouldn’t touch yet and partly because she still had not revealed his part in her escape. Doing so still felt like a betrayal of what they’d gone through.

Beyond that, there was something else underlying his words. The implication that he had turned from the darkness just as she had stepped into it, that he was better for it. Her forehead creased slightly and she looked away, silence settling again.

The quiet wasn’t uncomfortable per say, but there was something underlying it that Lily couldn’t quite put her finger on. She shifted away from him as they entered a new chamber, running her hand along the supply crates, scanning the worn labels. Rations and medical supplies, among other things that a base like this needed to keep working. Valuable if this was a simple smash and grab, but it wasn’t what she was here for.

“Information.” she answered simply. “Supply routes, other locations, whatever looks like it might be useful.”

She paused in the centre chamber, scanning the doors leading away before picking the most central one. Logic said a control centre would be in the middle somewhere and if she couldn’t get anything from there, service corridors would likely run beneath it with servers somewhere among them.

The door controls didn’t respond, whatever residual power that had been left in the system had been eaten by the hangar bay doors. Lily clicked her tongue in annoyance and stood back, chewing her cheek in thought. They had options to get through; She could teleport them behind each door they wanted to pass, or she could get ahead, find the power and turn it on, making it easier for them to explore overall.

Lily realised there was a whole lot of ‘we’ in the thought process. It was almost second nature, because every time she had seen him they’d been on the same side. Sort of, anyway. So why would it be any different now? She turned back to him, extending her hand, the force slowly collecting around her as she prepared to teleport.

“You coming?”

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Daro

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

Tic's light swept across the new chamber as they entered, illuminating rows of crates beneath a thick layer of dust. Some still bore faded labels identifying rations, while others contained medical supplies that had apparently been left behind when the outpost was abandoned. Ace wandered toward one of them, brushing grime away from the markings with his thumb as Lily answered his question.

Ace glanced over his shoulder at her. "Know how concerning that is considering you're with the Covenant now?"

The words carried enough dry humor to keep them from sounding accusatory, but there was truth beneath them. Supply routes were one thing. Other Hidden Path locations were another. Those locations and the secrets within finding its way into Covenant hands? Could spell disaster long term.

Ace moved on to another stack of crates while Lily turned her attention toward the doors, his gaze occasionally wandering across old markings and faded inventory codes. There wasn't much here worth taking. Not for what he needed, anyway.

Lily's voice caught his attention once again He looked back, eyes dropping first to Lily's outstretched hand, then slowly lifted to her expression.

Teleportation. Fantastic. Ace hated teleportation. Something about being ripped out of one point in space and deposited somewhere else offended every survival instinct he'd spent nineteen years developing. He preferred transportation methods that involved remaining physically present for the entire journey.

Still, a faint half-smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. He glanced toward Tic and the BD-unit seemed to understand immediately, scampering over before hopping up and climbing onto Ace's back, settling himself securely against his shoulders.

Ace crossed the remaining distance toward Lily and slipped his hand into hers.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Tags: Acier Moonbound​

With the Covenant…

The accusation, smothered by humour or not, was still there and it made Lily’s stomach twist. She knew what the sith were capable of, she’d seen it first hand before the Covenant was even a concept the rest of the galaxy was aware of.

“I’m not with them.” she said softly as his hand slipped into hers, though even that sounded uncertain. A frown creased her head briefly and the chamber vanished as she folded the space around them, teleporting them just the other side of the blast doors and into a long corridor with a dozen or so doors coming off it in both directions.

“I’m with Arris.” Lily let go of his hand, her words more certain. “I trust her, she hasn’t lied to me yet.”

She shrugged, moving down the left branch. “Honestly, I’d be more concerned about my inclination to find the highest bidder. Stealing pays better when you know your consumer base and information on the Jedi is far likely to get me a better pay day if I sell it to someone in the Empire.”

Lily stopped at the first door, glancing back towards him. “If you think the Jakku was bad, you should have seen what they did to the Enclave on Hapes.” She shrugged the pack off her back, digging through it for the datapad again, before slipping it back into place the datapad tapping against her palm as she eyes the door then stepped back to look down the corridor.

“I have maybe enough juice on this to open three of these smaller doors, otherwise I’m teleporting behind each one." She turned to face her, gesturing to the droid on his back. "Unless your little friend can help?”

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Daro

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

The world folded around Ace. He hated it. There wasn't really a better way of putting it.​

​

One second there was a chamber around him, the next reality seemed to twist itself inside out, his stomach briefly forgetting which direction it belonged in before everything snapped back into place.​

​

Ace blinked, and now they were standing in a long corridor. When Lily released his hand, Ace looked at her for a moment. Then he chuckled. Genuinely.​

​

"You understand how stupidly contradictory that is, right?"​

​

Not with them, but Arris. Sure.​

​

Ace fell into step beside her as they headed down the left branch, listening as Lily proceeded to explain that, actually, he should be considerably more worried about her willingness to sell information on the Jedi to whichever Imperial happened to offer the best price. Ace shook his head, he really shouldn't have been surprised anymore.​

​

By the time they stopped at the first door, however, the humor had faded. Lily's comment about Hapes went unanswered. Ace's gaze lingered on her for half a second before shifting toward the sealed entrance instead.​

​

He glanced over his shoulder. "Yeah, he can."​

​

Tic chirped from his perch before hopping down from Ace's back. The little BD-unit scampered toward the door, found the access port, and extended his scomp link into it.​

​

Ace folded his arms and leaned one shoulder against the wall.​

​

"Why the mental gymnastics, Lily?" His eyes returned to her. "Just own it."​

​

His tone wasn't particularly accusatory. If anything, it was frustratingly casual. His current worldview wasn't built around believing he possesses the answers anymore. So he wasn't about to tell Lily which choices she's allowed to make. But self-deception? That he recognized, and that he can speak on.​

​

"Maybe you don't think you're with the Covenant, but Arris?" Ace shrugged. "She is. No matter what she says, no matter how much she says she hates it. She still fights in its name, and she's willing to go deeper and deeper into it while dragging her 'family' along with her. Includes you."​

​

There wasn't much judgment behind the words. There couldn't be. Ace had spent too long constructing his own little distinctions to pretend he couldn't recognize someone else's.​

​

"No point in lying to yourself. Trust me. I've been down that road."​

​

Behind him came a mechanical chirp and the lock disengaged with a heavy clunk. Ace pushed himself away from the wall as Tic withdrew his scomp link and scampered back over. The BD-unit hopped up, catching Ace's offered arm before climbing the rest of the way onto his back.​

​

"Good job, buddy."​

​

Ace stepped through the newly opened doorway.​

​

"Be loyal to whoever you wanna be loyal to." He glanced back toward Lily as he crossed the threshold. "But just because she doesn't lie to you doesn't mean she's trustworthy."​

​

He turned forward again.​

​

"Or stable. Just watch your back."​

​

Lily Rhodes ​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Tags: Acier Moonbound​

Lily didn’t meet his gaze, resting her back against the wall as Tic set to work, eyes glazing as she stared at the opposite wall, the calm cadence of Ace’s voice washing over her as she chewed the inside of her lip. He wasn’t wrong. Arris was the Covenant, which by proxy meant she was too. She could argue that she had a choice every step of the way, that if she didn’t like what they were doing Arris would let her stay out of it, that the door to walk away was always open to her, but in the grand scheme of things it didn’t matter what distinction she made, the rest of the galaxy would simply see that she was with them.

No one will ever actually know the complete picture of Lily Rhodes... Or Marr... Except you.

That was their problem, not hers. She looked round meeting his gaze, she didn't bother to agree or disagree, she had her version of truth and he had his and no amount of attempting to justify it would make any difference.

"No point in lying to yourself. Trust me. I've been down that road."

“Well,” she said softly, the ghost of a smile on her face “I wouldn’t want to be like you now, would I?”

She pushed off the wall to follow him letting out a snort of derision. “Oh, she’s a fucking psychopath. There’s no other word for a person who wears their dead girlfriend's face.”

Her gaze flicked around the room as she stepped in beside him, desk lined the walls, holoterminals dead upon them a star map in the centre, she moved in, hand skimming the back of a dusty chair as she scanned star maps pinned to the walls.

“I’m under no illusion of what Arris is. I’ve been inside her head.” She paused looking back at him. “But my relationship with Arris is not your relationship with Arris. She has my back, and I have hers.”

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Daro

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

A breathy chuckle escaped through Ace's nose, one corner of his mouth pulling into a half-smirk.

"Right. Cautionary tale."

He wasn't going to argue with that. If anything, Lily had summarized his point for him.

As they entered the room, Tic hopped down from Ace's back, landing with a light metallic clink before scampering off to investigate. His spotlight wandered across dusty desks and dead holoterminals while Ace's attention remained loosely on Lily. Until she mentioned the face.

His head turned. "Yeah. That was... something."

There weren't many other ways to describe Arris walking around wearing the face of her dead girlfriend. The day he'd found that out on Corellia was something he'd never forget. Because that was also the day she'd convinced him to leave.

"Glad she worked through that."

Ace wandered toward the star map occupying the center of the room, his gaze drifting across its dormant surface as Lily continued. She'd been inside Arris' head.

That gave him pause. Not because it suddenly made Arris safe, but because Lily had a point. Whatever Ace's history with Arris might have been, whatever experience told him about the woman, Lily's relationship with her wasn't his.

Ace had been her apprentice. Lily was something else. And if she'd seen what existed inside that profoundly fucked up head of hers and still decided Arris was someone worth standing beside... that was her choice.

Ace reached toward his belt, pulling his lightsaber free.

"You're right." There was no reluctance in the admission.

Her relationship with Arris wasn't his relationship with Arris. He'd said his piece, Lily had heard it, and there wasn't much else to accomplish by trying to convince her that he knew better. He didn't.

But it didn't mean he couldn't hope she'd eventually find her way out of the environment she'd chosen. The same way part of him still hoped Arris would. Varin. Calyx. Anyone else still caught up in the Covenant who might one day decide they'd had enough. But that decision belonged to them.

Ace ignited his lightsaber and blue light flooded the darkened room. Then, with a single sweeping motion, he carved the blade through the star maps mounted along the wall. Old displays split beneath the strike, circuitry spitting sparks as whatever surviving information they contained disappeared beneath molten lines.

Better not to leave anything useful behind.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Tags: Acier Moonbound​

Lily turned away surprised at how easily he let it go, getting away from the Covenant had done him good, she idly wondered if they had met under different circumstances-

Snaphiss

Lily whirled as the blue glow illuminated the room seconds before the sweeping strike demolished it all. She brought an arm up to shield her face, stepping back from the carnage shock freezing her features as she stared at it blinking briefly before anger rose up to replace it.

“What. The. Fuck.”

If Acier knew a damn thing about intelligence and information he would know that these would not be the only copies, that somewhere in this base there would be a mainframe or a server room with back ups. All he had done was delay her.

For a second time, she had spoken to him like a friend, she had let herself trust him just a little too much. Hurt flickered beneath the anger and she closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and shaking her head.

“You are a piece of shit, you know that?” she said softly,opening her eyes. “I keep Coruscant a secret and you walk away clean. To this day, for the record. I helped you on Bonadan. Definitely didn’t have to. Fuck, I didn’t even have to help you get in here but I did and this-”

She gestured at the mess. “This is what you chose to do? Why? Because I let Arris take me in? You didn’t even-” she caught herself, hands reaching like she wanted to throttle him and let out a noise of frustration before letting her hands fall.

For a moment she said nothing, just looked between the mess and him trying to get her anger to settle.

“You really think that if I wanted to give anything we found here to Arris, that this would stop me?” she asked finally, giving a small shake of her head. “All you’ve done is reminded me that you are never going to give me a chance to be anything other than whatever picture of me you have painted in your head.”

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Daro

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

Ace's lightsaber remained ignited as Lily's surprise rapidly hardened into anger. He'd expected that much, what he hadn't expected was why.

Coruscant. Bonadan. Helping him here. Suddenly she was dragging up a ledger Ace hadn't even realized she'd been keeping, each encounter apparently carrying considerably more weight for her than it ever had for him.

When she finally stopped, Ace glanced toward her.

"No. I didn't think it'd stop you." His voice was level, sincere. "But I knew it'd delay you. And I'd rather do that than have to kill or hurt you."

That should've been obvious. Apparently, it wasn't. Frustration finally slipped through the cracks in his composure and his blade disappeared with a sharp hiss.

"Why do you take everything I do like it's some personal attack?" His expression tightened. "What is this weird thing you have with me, Lily?"

He stepped toward her. There was nothing threatening in the movement, his lightsaber remaining lowered in his hand.

"I'm sorry that every single thing I do rubs you the wrong way, but look at the facts here. You're with the Covenant. Arris. Whatever the fuck." He gestured vaguely with his free hand. "I'm against them. What am I supposed to do? Just ignore that because me and you talk nicely now?"

Somewhere deeper in the room, Tic had stopped investigating. The little BD-unit stood perfectly still beside one of the dormant terminals, head turning toward Lily. Then Ace. Then Lily again.

"Why do you care so much?" The question came genuinely. "We barely know each other. I helped you out one time on Coruscant." His brow furrowed deeper. "I'd have done that for literally anyone in the same boots you were in."

It wasn't meant to diminish what he'd done for her. It was simply the truth. Lily had been vulnerable, overwhelmed and in danger of being swallowed by the same machine Ace had stepped into himself. He would've helped anyone.

"We met, what, three more times after that?" His head shook. "You don't know me enough to care about what I think of you."

And yet clearly she did. That was the part Ace couldn't understand. Even now, with frustration creeping into his voice, some part of him recoiled at the hurt he'd seen beneath Lily's anger. Sympathy, maybe. Guilt. He wasn't sure. He just knew he didn't want to keep hurting her.

That didn't mean he understood the attachment she'd formed to him. He hadn't understood it on Bonadan either. Every attempt she'd made to talk to him, to spend time around him, to turn whatever existed between them into something more than circumstantial cooperation had confused him. Eventually, it had annoyed him.

Back then, he'd simply stopped caring enough to wonder why. Now...?

Ace exhaled and some of the tension left his shoulders.

"...I'm sorry." His gaze settled on her again. "That you met me at a point where I couldn't be..."

He trailed off, searching for something he didn't have a name for. A friend? Whatever Lily had seen in him all those months ago? Ace shook his head slightly.

"...whatever it was you wanted me to be."

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Tags: Acier Moonbound​

Lily fingers twitched as he stepped towards her inching towards her own saber, uncertainty flashing across her face before his words aggravated her more. Since when was trying to make a friend a weird thing? She opened her mouth to reply but he continued and she snapped it shut.

Emotions roiled beneath the surface and Lily found her swallowing against the lump in her throat, blinking hard against tears as every question tore aside everything and stripped it down to simple logic. They were on opposite sides. He would’ve helped anyone. She didn’t know him.

Lily couldn’t explain it. She couldn’t tell him why she cared. How did you explain the connections you felt when someone didn’t feel them, didn’t reciprocate them? She took a deep shuddering breath turning away as he apologised, a hand running through her hair, the ache in her chest far deeper than it should have been.

“I just wanted a friend, Ace.” she said softly, collecting herself enough to turn back to him, though her voice was dangerously unsteady. “You know, that thing that happens when two complete strangers decide to trust each other?”

“And yeah, maybe I pushed that boat a little hard, but when you spend years running from what you are, when you've been alone for as long as I have..." she let out a hollow laugh looking down at her hands as she dily picked at her nails "Then you meet some nerf herder who might get it…someone who cares enough not just to save your life but gives you a means to quiet the nightmares, however briefly…”

She shook her head, silent tears finally escaping.

“I guess it doesn’t matter now, does it?”

Because she was with the Covenant, and he was against them.

“I’m going to find the mainframe, and I’m going to leave this place with the information on it so I can give it to Vess. Maybe it will be enough to encourage her to leave before it’s too late for her. You can either trust me to do that, or you can try and stop me.”

Lily brushed the tears from her face, sniffing as her feet shifted. She made no move to draw her lightsaber, she’d be gone before he could complete a swing with his own anyway.

“What's it gonna be, Acier?”

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Daro

Equipment:
Vanguard Robes | Lightsaber | Shoto | Cybernetic Arm | Tic

She wanted a friend. That was all it was? Ace's expression softened almost immediately. His eyes lowered, drifting sidelong as some of the tension left his shoulders.

"I didn't..." The words died before they could become anything.

There was nothing he could say. She had wanted a friend. And at the time, he'd been too wrapped up in his own descent to even realize that was what she'd been reaching for. Too consumed with the Covenant, with the lies he'd been telling everyone around him and the ones he'd been telling himself. Even now, with his head clearer than it had been back then, he hadn't understood.

"It's hard for me to--" Ace stopped again and shook his head.

What was the point? He could tell her about growing up learning that trust was something earned slowly and usually came with conditions. He could explain that forming attachments had never come naturally to him, that sometimes he didn't understand what someone meant to him until they were already gone.

None of it changed anything. That same inability to understand what people needed from him had already cost Ace the love of his life. Probably forever. He'd broken Fatine's heart trying to protect her from himself, and somehow managed to break his own in the process.

Explanations didn't undo consequences.

Ace's gaze remained lowered until Lily mentioned the mainframe. His attention snapped back toward her, fingers twitching instinctively and hand hovering near the lightsaber at his side.

Then he saw the tears and heard the name. Vess. Something clicked.

"--Her two apprentices are some girls in love."

Ace stared at Lily. She'd built those walls around herself well enough that he couldn't reach through the Force and feel what was happening beneath them. But it didn't matter, he could see it.

The unsteady voice. The tears she'd tried to hide. The way she hadn't reached for her weapon despite giving him every opportunity to reach for his. Lily wasn't lying to him.

Ace understood her desire all too well. Wanting the best for someone. Seeing them somewhere you knew would eventually destroy them and knowing that, if there was even the smallest possibility you could pull them free, you'd take it. No matter how small.

His dark eyes stayed on hers for another long moment. Then his hand relaxed, dropping away from his lightsaber and returning to his side.

Ace sighed. "Go."

There was no threat attached to it and, for a moment, that seemed to be the end of it.

"...What about you?"

Ace's brow furrowed slightly. He didn't elaborate. If Lily understood that Vess shouldn't be there, that whatever the Covenant offered wasn't worth what it would eventually take from her...

Why wasn't Lily leaving with her?

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Tags: Acier Moonbound

She watched him fumble, stumbling over unfinished sentences as he tried to find words to explain, to justify how he had treated her. He didn’t need to explain, the galaxy had chewed both of them up as kids and spat them out at different points. He was guarded, untrusting of everything and everyone, certain all would come with a cost…

And she was so very desperate for it not to be the case.

She might have drowned in the hurt that her desperation had delivered her had it not been for Vess. Had it not been for Arris.

Lily didn’t move, not when his hand twitched towards his lightsaber or when the silence stretched for longer than it needed to as Acier set her on his scales of judgement. Even as the dread twisted in the pit of her stomach.

Then he relaxed and his hand fell away, and Lily nodded, exhaling a long breath as tension eased out of her own shoulders. Fighting him was the last thing she wanted, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t or wouldn’t.

She sniffed, wiping away the last of her tears, glancing around the room once more when his question drew her attention back to him and for a moment she said nothing.

What about her?

She let out a breathy laugh and shook her head.

“You remember that conversation we had, about the Force and free will?” she said softly. “How its will guides us to the people and places it needs us to be?”

"Maybe it's not about dominance, or wanting anything in particular. Maybe it's about finding balance. Maybe the 'pawns' it picks aren't part of some grand plan, but instinctive selection of a something trying to keep a ship from listing too far over."

“For better or worse, Ace, I’m where I need to be.”