Ascension - Jedi: Fallen Order (Fanfic)

Chapter 31: Partner

The rain continued to beat down on the hangar roof, not at all succeeding in drowning out my thoughts as I continued to put together the ship in front of me. It hadn't even been twenty minutes since our conversation. I fully expected Cal to say something after I'd yelled at him, to do what he usually does to start up a semi-convincing argument until I relented and gave in; This time there was nothing. 

With a sigh I leaned away from my work, tossing my tool back into the box. I froze, unanticipatedly raising a hand to my chest as an unsettling gut feeling began to rise, something unloving and repulsive. I could sense someone else's pain...suffering at the hands of that unloving and repulsive feeling. 

"Cal..." I breathed. Sprinting into the dusk lit rainy atmosphere I made a beeline straight to my hut, nearly wiping out in front of my open door. I grabbed the doorframe, propelling myself inside and slapping a hand on the switch by the door that lit up the room. 

There Cal lay, unconscious and trembling on the floor with my Inquisitor lightsaber in his grasp. I fell to my knees at his side, wrenching my lightsaber out of his weak grasp and throwing it across the room under my bed. 

Pressing the back of my hand to his forehead, it was chilled and covered in a thin layer of sweat.

"Dank farrick!" I swore.

"Cal!" Cere entered through the doorway and saw me hovering over him. "What happened?"

"He touched my Inquisitor lightsaber. It must have knocked him out." I explained as she knelt on the other side of him. "You felt that too, I assume."

Cere nodded toward my bed. "Come on, help me take him over there." Helping each other, we lifted him up into a standing position and dragged him over to the bed before setting him down. I grabbed my lightsaber from under the bed and placed it back in my satchel.

"What in the world would make him touch that lightsaber?" She questioned.

"Him and I had a bit of an argument not twenty minutes ago. I'll spare you the details, but it was about my position here on Ralltiir. He wanted me to become a Jedi Knight. It seemed that my retaliation led him to be rebellious, to figure out why..." I couldn't finish, a pang in my heart making me stutter.

"Why you couldn't become what he wanted," Cere finished, "that's Cal."

"You fully understand why I cannot be what he wants, yes?" I replied, folding my arms across my chest.

Cere nodded. "It's for the best."

Both her and I glanced at Cal when he shifted as though he was close to waking up. 

I turned on a toe, making my way toward the door. "It'll be better for you to be here, not me."

It wasn't a good idea to stick around when he woke. There wasn't any part of me that wanted to see his face when he would look at me. I went back to the Hangar, soaking wet from head to toe once I got back to dry ground and out of the rain. To distract myself from what had just occurred, I continued to work on the X-wing until the rain had stopped and it was dark outside. Too tired, and not wanting to run into Cal, I lay prone on my back on the left wing, staring up at the ceiling until my eyelids grew too heavy to keep open.

Images flashed in my dreams. Familiar faces, injured cries, explosions, ships on fire, enemies, blood, death.

I jerked awake with a gasp, sitting upright and nearly falling off the side of the wing to the ground. Gripping the metal beneath me, I focused on relaxing my breathing, wiping sweat that had accumulated on my brow. After collecting myself, I slid off the wing grabbing my toolbox and threw on my grey cloak before marching into the Tyrant. I needed to find that K-2SO droid that had disappeared during the quarrel between Khosuh and his now deceased master.  Firing up the engine, I lifted up off the grass, shooting up into the sky taking a hard left toward Grallia Spaceport.