Private Through Ash and Smoke

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily had told herself once, when she’d clawed her way out of the undercity and stowed away on a transport ship, that she would never return to Coruscant, that she would never set foot on a planet that had been nothing but unkind to her. But she was here. She was here because she let her feet carry her, she let the force lead her.

She stared up at a sky filled with ash and smoke, the dark clouds of the force storm that had ripped across its surface still lingering, something heavy on her chest. Lily had been trying to help, overwhelmed by the noise, her defences torn open by the same device that she’d seen on Echnos when the Alliance had attacked. Bile rose, burning on its way up and she heaved the piece of rubble from her chest, rolling to her hand and knees and vomiting.

She pushed herself upright, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and looked around. The building that she’d grown up around was gone, split by a lighting strike and torn asunder by the cyclones. Sound returned slowly slowly to her, soft cries and shouts of pain. People were moving among the wreckage, injured limping their way to safety, others scrambling to move rubble and help.

The noise was still there, loud in her mind, a thousand voices overlapping, making it impossible to find her own thoughts.

Is it over?

Help

Where’s my sister?
​

Please help me.​

I can’t feel my legs.​

I'm going to die.

Please let it be over. ​

I can't breathe.​

I need to help these people.

There's so much blood.​

Everything hurts.​

Somebody help me.​

The orphanage is gone.​

How could they.

I don’t want to die.​

Lily groaned, fingers sliding through silver hair layered with dust and blood, digging her fingers into her scalp and trying to close them out, despair rising in her chest when all they did was get louder. She was an exposed nerve.

Pushing herself to her feet, she began to walk. No direction in mind, just away, away from the death and the fear and the crying of souls she couldn’t save. She should have stayed away. Why couldn’t she stay away? She focused, one foot in front of the other, her hand caught a wall, or what was left of one, using it as guidance to keep her steady. Something soft shifted under her boot and her stomach twisted. She didn't look down, too afraid of what she might see. She lifted her foot, taking a longer stride and began picking her way out of the rubble.


Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Hours. That was all it had been since Coruscant had fallen. Again. Since the Empire had finally lost its grip on the planet it had bled dry for months. Victory, apparently, came with a mop and a body count.

Ace moved through the wreckage. The fighting was done. Now it was clean-up... stragglers, holdouts, orders that hadn't filtered down fast enough or had filtered down wrong. Stormtroopers who didn't know when to stop.

He'd already done what he'd come for. The ISB had folded like wet paper. Files ripped free. Names, locations, contingency plans, everything Arris had wanted, hand-delivered and bloodless.

After that, there'd been nowhere to put him. So here he was. Prowling the bones of the capital, boots crunching glass and duracrete, senses stretched thin across a city still screaming in the Force.

Ace slowed and tilted his head back. The sky was still wrong. Ash and smoke churned beneath the remnants of the Force storm, lightning crawling through the clouds with no sign of it breaking. A wound refusing to close.

What a mess.

The sensation hit him a second later. Movement. Intent. The cold, ugly shape of violence lining itself up with bureaucratic precision. Ace turned, eyes narrowing. A small platoon of stormtroopers emerged from between the wrecked buildings, armor scorched, movements tight and purposeful. Their rifles were raised. On a single figure picking her way through the rubble. Silver hair, dulled with dust and ash, catching the sick light as she moved.

That fucking purge order. Ace moved and blasters were wrenched off line with violent precision, muzzles dragged aside an instant before they could discharge. One trooper dropped with a sharp, bone-deep crack as Ace passed him, another slammed backward into duracrete hard enough that he didn't slide down - he just stayed there.

The Force pressed where he told it to press, tightened where he needed it to tighten. Armor dented. Breath left lungs and didn't come back. Bodies hit the ground in a sequence too fast to be followed, too deliberate to be chaotic. By the time the echo of the first disrupted shot finished ringing through the street, it was already over.

Ace straightened, exhaled once, and turned toward the woman - already preparing to leave. Another threat neutralized. Another wrong corrected just enough to keep the city from tearing itself apart a little more.

Then the Force snagged. A Thread, it was raw, frayed, and screaming under the surface without meaning to. Ace stopped. Slowly, he turned back, his dark gaze settling on her again. His expression shifted, calculation giving way to something tighter, more serious. She was Force-sensitive.

He took a step closer, just enough to be heard over the distant noise of collapse and cries.

"You can't be here."

Lily Rhodes ​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Bootsteps coupled with the rattle of armour made her blink. Stormtroopers moving through the rubble, blasters lifted in unison towards her, the moment passed in a slow breath as her hand moved to her waist seeking a lightsaber that wasn't there as fear coiled in her chest. Something else moved, colliding with the platoon with a ferocity and speed she'd couldn't fathom. A single shot rang out, cracking harmlessly into ruins and it was over, her rescuer already moving on...until he didn't.

Until dark eyes locked with hers and he stepped towards her. One whispered thought echoing from him, splitting through the noise of the rest.

Force Sensitive.

"No." She recoiled, stepping back rubble shifting under her feet. Wide eyes scanning a landscape that was suddenly alien to her, seeking escape routes she'd plotted on her way in and finding none of them. Her hand still rested at her belt, still seeking that which wasn't there. Malum's lightsaber was gone, lost in the rubble. She turned to look over her shoulder scanning the wreckage, her stomach twisting again. Back wasn't an option. It was gone, just like he was.

Lily looked back at him, mind trying to work around the noise, to thread thought and logic between the fear riddled thoughts that weren't her own. He'd attacked the stormtroopers, her gaze flicked once to the wreckage of them, armour crumpled like paper, bodies flung like the were nothing. Then landed back on him, drawn conclusions etched on her face and anger twisted with fear.

"You're one of them."

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace didn't react right away. He just watched her. Dark eyes stayed on her face, unreadable, expression locked into something neutral enough to pass for calm.
One of them. She'd said.

For a brief, private moment, the thought echoed. He'd heard worse. From enemies. From allies. From people who'd watched him move and decided the answer for themselves. He wasn't Covenant. He'd never been. He was inside their walls, wearing their shape, speaking their language because it got him closer, closer to rot, closer to truth, closer to where real damage could be done. That was the line he'd drawn for himself.

And if someone on the outside looked at him and saw Covenant? Then the cover was working. That was the point. Still… the question lingered, he fought with them, killed for them, tore cities open in their name, even if the reasons were his own. Separation was a comfortable fiction when you were standing far enough back from the blood. But was he really any different at this point?

Ace buried the thought. There was no time to indulge it. His attention settled fully back on her. He didn't confirm nor deny her statement.

Instead, he said quietly "They're going to find you. They're going to take you and force you to be one of them too."

His gaze drifted, just briefly, to the ruined street around them: crumpled armor, scorched duracrete, the aftermath of violence still hanging in the air. Faces flashed through his mind, Force-sensitives dragged here against their will. Jedi broken down into tools. People who'd never chosen this life, pressed into service because someone stronger decided they had to.

Even his own story, his cover, rested on that truth.

He looked back at her. Maybe this was all he was good for. Destruction. Violence. Making things end. But ultimately, he was here to weaken and kill the Covenant. Helping this woman? Preventing them from claiming another? It was something.

"You need to get off-world." He said, voice firm now, leaving no room for debate. "Let's go."

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily's hand still rested on what was left of a wall, the noise pressing against her skull, unrelenting. She watched her accusation land, his expression said nothing, but Lily never read a person's face. A face didn't tell of intent, a face could mask something far more sinister. Focus was hard, with a thousand minds calling out around them, and more beyond. It was like she was standing in an amphitheatre and everyone was screaming.

Thoughts about the Covenant, about its shape and where he fit within it. Then a brief twist of guilt before it all vanished. Compartmentalisation. It was all she could glean between the screaming that made the back of her skull throb. She swallowed, defiance shining in her eyes. Lily could hide, she'd always been good at hiding...

But the Sith always found her, determined to press a name upon her that she refused to wear.

Whoever this man was, his intent was not to harm her, but to help her. She was reminded of when she had first met Velok Brokentusk , of how he had gone out of his way to help her, in more ways than one. She cast one more glance back, guilt settling in her chest. She couldn't help them. Maybe she was never meant to. "Alright." she said quietly, stepping forward, feet unsteady as she left the safety of the wall.

"Can I at least know your name, first?"

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace felt the touch. Careful. Searching. Mental fingers brushing places that weren't meant to be shared. Anger sparked, quick and sharp, before he buried it just as fast. Not at her. At himself. He'd been sloppy. Distracted. Too busy managing the city, the storm, the bodies, the calculus of aftermath to bother sealing his own thoughts the way he normally did. A rare lapse. A stupid one.

He didn't look at her when she said alright. Instead, Ace turned and started walking, already angling toward a route that avoided the worst of the patrol lines, toward somewhere quieter, narrower... places smugglers and ghosts still knew how to use. He hoped. He didn't check to see if she followed. He assumed she would.

When she asked his name, he slowed just enough for the answer to reach her.

"Acier."

There was no invitation to reciprocate. Her name wasn't a thing he needed to carry. This was temporary. A correction. One more loose end cut cleanly. If she wanted to give her name, that was her choice.

He glanced back once, dark eyes steady, voice low and even.

"Don't ever look into my mind again."

It wasn't a threat, but a warning.

Right now he was operating with limited information. He'd never been to Coruscant prior to today, or was even aware of where even the best place to go was. One that was still standing at least. Ace was completely out of his depth.

It was a shot in the dark, but it wasn't like he had any other options "Do you know anywhere we can go?" He asked, focus still pointed ahead.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

He wasn't wasting anytime, leaving Lily to scramble over the rubble as he started moving, her ankle rolled the pain sharp cutting through the noise for a heartbeat. She drew in a sharp breath but carried on, casting a final glance at the Stormtroopers bodies before limping to catch up with him. "Hey! Slow down." she complained, using the beat he slowed for to catch up with him.

Acier.

He didn't ask for hers. That in itself told her more than any delve into his mind would. She was just something to offset whatever blood was on his hands, helping her was not for her, it was for him. That annoyed her.

"I'm Lily." She would burn her name in the back of his mind out of spite before she got off Coruscant. She ran a hand over her chest, feeling the bruises swelling beneath her clothes. The adrenaline hadn't worn off yet, but she knew when it did, she'd be in for a world of pain.

Her jaw tightened as her glanced back again, his dark eyes carrying the warning more than his tone did. "Don't give me a reason to." she retorted before she could stop herself. On a scale of one to ten, pissing off a man that had just flattened a platoon of stormtroopers was not high on the list of good ideas, but something about his attitude towards her was igniting the side of her that did stupid things. Like break into Lord Inquisitors space station without an escape plan.

"nerf herder." she muttered.

She'd take kicking a sleeping Whiphid over this any day.

"There's a hangar about ten blocks that way," she nodded ahead of them "My ship is docked there but its...noisy. More so than here. We're better off laying low, waiting for the panic to settle. I can take us into the undercity."

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Lily.

Ace registered it, lodging itself somewhere it didn't belong. He ignored it, and he ignored her. He clocked the limp, the way she pushed through it anyway. Clocked the pushback too, the reflexive defiance in her voice when she snapped back at his warning. Then the muttered insult followed, barely under her breath.

Nerf herder.

The corner of his mouth twitched despite himself. He smothered it just as quickly.

Without turning to look at her, he said evenly. "You've got a lot to say for someone who's out of options."

He kept walking, listening as she talked. About a nearby hangar, ten blocks away. Her ship was there. Then, as she continued on: about lying low in the undercity, Ace slowed. Then stopped.

He turned to face her properly for the first time since they'd started moving, eyes flicking over her stance, the way she favored her ankle, the bruising she hadn't started to feel yet. When she finished, he held her gaze for a moment, then nodded once.

"Yeah." He said. "That works."

His eyes drifted outward, not fixing on anything in particular, just the broken skyline, the lingering storm, the sense of pressure that hadn't let up since the fighting ended.

"The undercity isn't any better right now." He added, quieter, thoughtful. "But it's better than being topside."

He looked back to her, expression flattening again into something professional.

"If we run into any Covenant..." He said "Don't say anything. Let me handle it."

There was a time that would've been a risk. A gamble. Now...? Now he was an apprentice to one of the Triumvirate. He answered to no one but Arris Windrun. Not patrols. Not enforcers. Not whoever thought they still had authority over him.

Ace turned and started toward the route she'd indicated.

"Lead the way." He said.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily gritted her teeth against the sharp pain lancing up her leg, a derisive snort escaping her when he said she was out of options. "Just because you're my best option, doesn't mean you're my only one." There was always a choice, an angle or something to work with, you just had to look hard enough. Besides, the more she talked, the more she focused on him, the easier it was to ignore the fear driven thoughts and dying moments of the thousands around them.

When he stopped to look at her, to really look at her she had to fight hard to to press against his mind. She was off her game and despite all the bravado, she'd by lying if she wasn't just a little bit afraid of him.

The undercity was familiar, she knew its darkness, she knew where the worst of the worst gathered and she knew how to avoid them. It never mattered what flag flew over Coruscant, the undercity ran on a different set of rules and that never changed. "Maybe not," she replied "but there's a difference between people who've suddenly realised they're in the chit, and those that have always lived in it."

His words about the Covenant gave her pause, mental fingers stretching on instinct rather than with intent, brushing gently, not seeking to invade, but simply to understand that she wasn't walking into a trap, that she was safe with him. A beat passed. "Fine."

Lily limped forward, taking the lead, her feet carrying her rather than her guiding them. It didn't take long for her to find the old paths, the dark alleys that took them off the main road and began sloping down.

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace let her have the last word about options. He didn't bother contesting it. To survive in places, you needed other options and sometimes they existed, and other times? Believing that there were was the only thing that kept you going.

He followed as she took the lead, adjusting his pace without comment when her limp worsened. He listened when she spoke about it, about the difference between panic and permanence, and this time he didn't disagree.

Then he felt it again. Not as blatant as last time shove. But a brush: careful, tentative, testing the air between them. He didn't snap at her. Didn't lash out or throw up a wall to prove a point. He simply closed the space, not violently, not aggressively. Just enough that her searching fingers met resistance. Not a lock. A door, calmly shut.

His voice was low when he spoke, pitched so it carried only to her.

"What did I say about being in my head?" He reminded her. Not cold. Not raised. Final in a way that didn't need teeth.

Ace exhaled once and moved again, falling back into step behind her as the streets narrowed and the light thinned. The silence stretched as they descended, the city closing in around them. The slope leveled out into debris and old glowstrips flickering like dying stars. He began to feel the undercity settle.

Ahead, there were two paths. One path dipped into deeper shadow, humming faintly with power. The other was choked with collapsed plating and the distant clatter of movement. A lot of boots and organization.

Ace slowed, lifting a hand once, caution. He crouched, brushed aside a panel with two fingers, and exposed a maintenance hatch marked with faded syndicate sigils he didn't recognize. Local syndicates most likely. He set his metallic palm to the seam and tested the latch: a manual mag-seal, half-dead that still responded to pressure instead of code. With a subtle shift and precise twist, the lock sighed open, releasing a breath of cool air from below.

"Down here." He said quietly. "Service veins."

He may have been a stranger to Coruscant, but he was no stranger to ecumenopolises. They all worked in similar ways. Ace nodded toward the open hatch.

"These should drop us a few levels lower. Past whatever sweep they're running."

He glanced back at her, giving her the space to decide without dressing it up.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily felt the door close, it wasn't aggressive or defensive, it was just a simple boundary. What was there was not for her. Whatever doubt lingered about her safety with him evaporated, that he had been gentle in his resistance, that the door was not slammed and the reaction was calm to her that there was something softer underneath the hard edge her displayed with. Her lips curled into a small smile, the tension easing from her shoulders just a little.

"Just making sure your not luring me into the shadows so you can kill me." she said lightly, "Seeing as you could squash me with your pinkie finger."

Silence stretched between them and the noise pressed in harder. Lily focused on everything but, the pain in her ankle, the ache slowly beginning to spread across her torso, the sharp pain that came with each breath. Anything but the voices. fingers found a button on her jacket, rubbing it absent minded as she began to chew the inside of her mouth. She needed quiet, she needed somewhere safe to pause, to put her barriers back up. No where was truly safe below, not for long anyway. But she didn't need long.

She stopped as the way split, feeling the malicious intent of the boots just beyond. For a moment she said nothing, drawn in by it without meaning to as her eyes glossed briefly. Images flashed, the butt of a gun cracking against the head of a civilian, a woman shielding her child begging. She pulled back, eyes dropping to the service hatch. "They're just killing people." she said, her voice quiet. Not moving. A distant blaster shot rang out making her twitch, another voice crying out in her mind.

Lily didn't speak, she just moved. Stepping to the service hatch and lowering herself slowly into it, her ankle protesting with each rung of the ladder it bore her weight on, but she didn't slow. She needed to get away from it, away from the dying thoughts, from the minds who dealt death like it was just another Taungsday.

Who would have thought she would ever seek safety down here, where she had been made.

Her foot suddenly met air as she reached the bottom, the sensation bring her back to her body with sharp clarity. She glanced down, checking the ground was clear before dropping the few feet to the grimy floor and stepping back to give Acier room to follow.

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Her joke earned a quiet huff of breath from him, almost a laugh, if someone were being generous. He didn't rise to the bait.

"If I wanted you dead." He said mildly. "I'd have just done it. I'm not going through all this effort."

When she froze at the split, he didn't rush her. When her eyes glazed, he knew why and he didn't need the Force to figure it out. Instead, he gave her a moment. Allowing what was happening to settle.

"It's a purge order." He said quietly without elaboration, trusting she understood his words.

The distant blaster fire cracked through the air. Ace's jaw tightened, but he didn't turn toward it. When she moved for the hatch, he followed immediately, one hand braced against the edge as she descended. He didn't rush her, didn't tell her to hurry, but he stayed close enough that if her ankle gave out, she wouldn't fall alone.

Once she dropped to the bottom and stepped aside, Ace swung down after her in a smooth motion, boots hitting the grime with a dull thud. He reached up and pulled the hatch shut behind them, sealing out the worst of the noise.

Ace took a slow look around, then glanced back at Lily.

"We won't stay long." He said, quieter now. "Just long enough for you to get your feet back under you."

Then he turned, scanning the shadows ahead, already moving them forward.

"Why were you here?" He asked, curiosity getting the better of him. "You're Force-sensitive. Why were you in the Imperial capital?"

After the Empire had taken Coruscant months back, they began hunting down the scattered remnants of the New Jedi Order. Even if you weren't Jedi, being Force-sensitive and in the Core, let alone Coruscant, was dangerous and stupid. What possible reason could Lily have for being here?

Lily Rhodes ​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

A purge order.

Lily understood death, she knew that sometimes there was no other option, that survival of the fittest often meant kill or be killed. But this wasn't that, this was mindless. Murder for murders sake and it weighed heavily on her heart. Not just because it was without purpose, but because she knew she'd carry those last thoughts, those moments before death took them, they'd come back to her when it was too quiet or when sleep took her. She let herself lean against a wall, a respite that was all to brief when Acier started moving them again.

She pushed off it with a heavy sigh and followed, quiet filling the space following his question as she tried to find a way to answer it, trying to decide how much of herself she wanted to give away. "I grew up here." she said quietly, nodding towards an alley approaching on their left and leading them down it. "I got good at pretending I didn't, that whatever happened here didn't matter to me because I wasn't here anymore."

The alley narrowed, forcing them to turn sideways to get through it before it opened onto another wider path. Lily took a beat to register where they were before moving on. If they were lucky, there was shelter she'd used as a safe point before. Somewhere she could catch her breath, and if she was lucky enough that someone hadn't found her stash, she might even be able to strap her ankle.

"The guilt caught up with me, along with a few other things, so I traded in for a lesser evil." she cast him a sideways glance "Until you showed up."

The Covenant. A force of warlords that burned unchecked through the Tapani sector, now held the Core.

"Why are you with them?"

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace didn't slow when she said she grew up here. He glanced toward the alley she indicated and followed without comment, turning sideways when the walls forced it. Close quarters. Tight angle. He kept his shoulders squared, one hand brushing the wall lightly for balance, eyes tracking ahead and behind in turns.

He didn't respond, but he heard the weight in it. Like something survived, not cherished. He understood that tone. Ace listened as she spoke about pretending it didn't matter, about not being here anymore. Ace didn't need her to spell it out. You didn't get that good at hiding unless there was something worth hiding from.

When she mentioned guilt, trading in for a lesser evil, and then added: Until you showed up, he let out a quiet, dry hum in acknowledgement.

"Hmm."

That was all he gave her. But her words settled deep in his thoughts. Lesser evil. Survival. Choosing sides because the alternative was worse. He didn't like how familiar that sounded.

When she asked why he was with them, he didn't hesitate. The answer came smooth, automatic... well-practiced. The same line he gave to those that weren't in the know.

"Survival." He said simply. "Got a better chance of living through this by being by their side. Until the next big power comes along."

Ahead, through a break in the structures, something half standing caught his eye, a recessed alcove built into the undercity's spine. Damaged. Burn scarred. But intact enough to offer cover.

He nodded toward it. "Maybe there's some supplies in there."

He shifted course toward the structure, scanning for movement as he approached, unaware that he was walking them toward something she already knew.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

His answer was too smooth, too quick, spoken in a tone that said he'd told himself or others it a hundred times. and it was a lie. Her eyebrow arched upwards as her head snapped round to look at him, as if looking at his face would tell her that the bantha crap that had just come out of his mouth was in fact true, but no such luck. A bark of humourless laughter escaped her.

"Wow, you are a terrible liar." She shook her head, moving them towards the alcove tucked tightly between two buildings, she had to duck to get inside, one hand pressing on the wall for support as she did. "You might want to work on that if that's the bantha crap you're feeding them."

Inside was dimly lit, a low makeshift cot rested on the far wall, a tipped over crate acted as a table. the air was damp, the stale smell of mildew lingering in the air. How many times had she slept here? Or used the table to ration whatever food she's managed to steal? She tried not to think about it, limping to the cot she kicked it once. The scream of a panicked rodent responded before scrambling claws took whatever it was under their feet and out into the alley.

"Somethings never change." she said softly, lowering herself to sit at the top of the cot, pulling a utility knife from her belt, she began working it into the edge of a panel, gently easing it away.

"You don't have to tell me anything, the less of a connection you make, the easier it is to walk away at the end, right?"

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace wasn't a terrible liar. Unfortunately for him, he had a habit of surrounding himself with people perceptive enough to make that irrelevant. He didn't defend the line. Didn't adjust it. That was the story, and it would stay the story. Changing it would only invite more scrutiny. If she didn't believe it, that was fine. Suspicion was safer than curiosity.

Inside the alcove, the damp air settled against his skin. He took it in without expression: the cot, the overturned crate, the mildew, the way the space felt used rather than abandoned. Lived in, once. He noticed the limp again as she moved toward the cot. Noted the kick, the rodent's panicked scramble, the familiarity in the way she occupied the space.

Some things never change.

Ace stored that away. He absently rubbed at his side, fingers brushing the fabric where the graze still burned beneath it. It hadn't been properly tended to. Arris's handiwork. The shock lingered, and the ache was starting to settle deeper now that the adrenaline had thinned.

When she started working the knife into the panel, he watched for a moment, silent. Her last comment lingered between them, about connections and having an easier time walking away when there was less of one.

"Sounds like you know a little about that too." He said, tone neutral.

He moved away from the cot, scanning the alcove more thoroughly now. A rusted storage bin near the back wall caught his eye. He crouched, pried it open, rummaged through whatever hadn't rotted through. His fingers closed around a small solderer: old, but functional.

"You used to squat here?" He asked, glancing toward her briefly before returning to his task.

He pulled off his glove and rolled up his sleeve, exposing the chrome prosthetic of his forearm. The scorch mark along the plating was unmistakable, metal warped slightly where Arris's energy wrapped slug had struck. Beneath the casing, faint flickers of faulty circuitry pulsed irregularly. Arris's Mechu-deru had left more than a cosmetic reminder.

Ace set the solderer to life and began temporary maintenance with steady precision, reseating a connector, sealing a split seam just enough to hold.

"Let me know if you find any medical supplies." He added without looking up, focus locked on the exposed circuitry.

Lily Rhodes​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

The panel gave with a small pop and Lily set it on the cot, reaching in the recess it uncovered to pull supplies out. Ration bars that were past their sell by date, trinkets that she'd picked and stashed in case she needed to make a trade in a pinch. "I used to." She replied checking the state of another ration bar before tossing it aside. "But that was another life. One I don't really want to return to."

Her fingers wrapped around something cool and cylindrical, she pulled it free relief escaping her in a sigh as she set the bacta spray in her lap. she pulled out two more, along with carefully sealed bandages. She looked round as he exposed his prosthetic arm, eyes flicking over the damage as he worked. her lips tightened at the word squat. Not because it wasn't true, but because it painted a raw picture.

"Yeah. This is one of three places. Being predictable got you killed. Here." She tossed him a bacta spray. "Might be outta date, but it'll do the job."

She tugged her boot off her ankle, wincing at the pain that shot up her leg as she did, swearing softly. She set to spraying and wrapping it watching Acier out of the corner of her eye, curiosity about him growing. He had flinched from the idea that she'd slept here, which could mean one of two things. He'd met enough street kids that it didn't phase him, or he was a street kid.

Maybe she'd figure him out before the day was done.

Sliding her boot back on she tested her movement, the bacta was cool of her skin, the wrap already easing the swelling. At least she'd be able to move quicker. Lily lifted her top, ugly purple bruising peeking from beneath it before dropping it and deciding that that was not something she was going to be able to tackle here.

Shifting back in the cot, she let her back resting her back against the wall she watched him for a moment before closing her eyes and focusing on her breathing for a moment, letting everything else fall away. Though even here the noise was almost unbearable. "Do me a favour," she said without opening your eyes. "Talk to me. About anything. I need an anchor to rebuild what the fething phobis device stripped away."

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

He kept working as she spoke, steady and precise, solderer hissing softly as he reseated the connector. But when she spoke "another life", about not wanting to return. Something in it resonated deeper than he allowed his face to show.

When she answered his question about squatting there, the panel finally gave under her knife and she tossed something toward him. Ace's eyes flicked up at the last second. His metallic hand came up and caught the bacta spray cleanly, fingers closing around it with a muted click of servos.

"I know." He said quietly. Acknowledging what she'd said about predictability.

He set the spray beside him and finished sealing the split seam in his forearm. When the solderer cooled, he flexed his prosthetic hand open and closed once, twice. The response lag was minimal now. Good enough.

As Lily subtly watched him, he was aware of her too; of the way she measured him, the way she guarded even in exhaustion. He lifted the bottom edge of his gi without ceremony and pressed the bacta nozzle against the graze at his side. The cold sting bit first, then the familiar tightening as the compound set. He didn't flinch.

Two survivors in a hole in the undercity. Different roads. Same architecture.

When he lowered the fabric again, she was on the cot, leg propped, eyes closed. Resting? But not fully. She asked him to talk, to say anything, his brow lifted slightly.

The Phobis device stirred an old memory. Ryloth. Dust in the air. The first time he'd met Aether Verd . The first time he'd understood he wasn't alone in the galaxy. Aether had been chasing the same thing back then. Felt like a lifetime ago.

He didn't ask her why she wanted to hear it. Not yet. Instead, he leaned back against the wall, eyes drifting to the cracked ceiling.

"The Force is… strange." He began, voice low but steady. "It's real. No denying that. But does it actually have a motive? A will? Or is it just… something ambient. Living in us. Around us."

He rubbed absently at the back of his neck.

"Maybe it is real, the cycles. Light and dark. One dominating the other over and over. Makes you feel like some kind of pawn."

His gaze unfocused slightly, drifting somewhere inward.

"What happens when you get an anomaly?" He continued. "Someone who wasn't meant to exist. Is that a glitch in the Force? Or just another instrument of whatever it wants."

Ord Mantell flashed through his mind. A conversation inside a cantina.

"Met a guy once." Ace went on. "Didn't see himself as a person. Just an extension of what the Force wanted. No agency. No choice. I was younger then. Dumber. Couldn't imagine not having my own free will."

He looked up, expression blank. He remembered how he used to fight so hard against the prophecy, against being Darth Metus's son, how he wanted to be more than the shadow he was born into. And now, he was living in it anyway. For the greater good.

There was something harder edged into his tone now, almost a kind of bitterness..

"Maybe Thalen Dhorain was right after all."

Lily Rhodes ​

 

[Lily Rhodes]

Lily focused on the cadence of his voice, his tone low and soft but it was enough. Brick by brick she began to rebuild her defences, raising the wall that Velok had taught her to build, it didn't just shut out the noise, but it kept invaders out, or at the very least made her aware when they were worming their way in. The despair and fear was still there, there was no escaping that but the voices? They fell away, becoming little more than an annoying hum, like the buzz of a raptor wasp swarm.

Only then did she start listening to what Acier was saying, slowly opening her eyes. Her shoulders had dropped, the last of the tension she'd carried bled away giving way to the heavy exhaustion that always came after an adrenaline spike. She chewed the inside of her cheek thoughtfully. Her true potential in the force hadn't been torn open till she'd been older. The Nagai Telepaths who had caused that awakening had never really discussed philosophy, they just taught her how to use the force, like it was a tool.

Velok had told her it was an extension of her own instincts, but he'd also been careful what he showed her, careful not to corrupt. And her family? Her family only saw it as the path to power. Feth, she wouldn't have been surprised if some of that family had been here, if they had helped Coruscant fall. It wouldn't have been the first time she'd been caught in their storm.

"Maybe its not about dominance, or wanting anything in particular. Maybe its 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." she shifted wincing slightly at the swell of bruises beneath her shirt. "It's not so bad, if you think of it less like it taking your free will and more like...guidance to places and people. If you had ignored its pull, there would be people in your life that you wouldn't have met."

She went quiet, contemplating for a moment, sorrow flicking across her face briefly. "There would be a world of pain I would have probably avoided too, but I'd be lying if I said no good had come from any of it."

Acier Moonbound

 

[Acier Moonbound]

Location: Coruscant

Equipment:
Acolyte Robes | Lightsaber | Cybernetic Arm

Ace didn't interrupt her, simply staying where he was with his back against the wall, eyes tilted toward the cracked ceiling as she spoke. He listened not just to the words, but to the way she framed them. Balance. Instinct. A ship correcting its own tilt instead of plotting conquest.

He absorbed it quietly. Not agreeing or rejecting it, he turned it over the way he turned over everything else: testing its edges, weighing it against what he'd seen.

Balance sounded cleaner than dominance. Less violent. But the galaxy didn't feel clean right now. It felt like something constantly breaking and correcting itself through fire. If the Force was guiding anything, it had a brutal way of doing it.

But when she mentioned pain, how good came from it. His thoughts shifted, to blood, prophecy and inheritance. Of being born into something he hadn't asked for. To some, maybe his entire existence could be described as pain. A shadow cast long before he had a say in it. To him, it had just been… life.

But she wasn't wrong. There had been good in it. People worth tearing the galaxy apart for. Bonds he would not trade, even if the cost had been everything else.

"Yeah." He said at last, voice quiet, acknowledging the truth in what she'd said.

Silence lingered a moment longer. Then his eyes lowered from the ceiling to her.

"What was that?" He asked. "Needing me to talk. A Phobis device."

Even after Ryloth, he still wasn't entirely sure what they were. Not really. He remembered what Aether had told him instead:

“What I chase requires strength of mind, not just skill of hand. I do not say this to insult you. I say it because you are not ready. Not for this. I am not even certain I am. But the burden is mine to carry.”

Ace studied her more carefully now, gaze sharp but unreadable. For a moment, he wondered how much she was holding back. How much power she kept buried beneath all that noise.

Lily Rhodes​