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fanfoolishness · 1 year

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Greez and Merrin talk about Cal after Nova Garon. Found family, family feels, We Need to Talk About Cal vibes. ~1500 words. Thanks to @gerundsandcoffee for feeding my feral Jedi feels with the prompts Merrin, Greez, Nova Garon, and rage! Spoilers for Jedi: Survivor.

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Greez let out a sigh of relief, hearing the familiar clatter of Cal and Merriin climbing up the gangway. He poked his head out of the cockpit to greet them, grateful to have them back so they could get off this blasted base. “Oh, finally! I was worried sick. Glad you both made it back in one piece,” crowed Greez, a split second before he did the biggest double take of his life. “Cal, what the kriff are you wearing?” He turned to Merrin. “Don’t tell me. He was fighting the entire base, wasn’t he?”

Cal slammed the controls to the gangway, retracting it back into the ship, and brushed off a smudge of blaster bolt residue on his uniform. His Imperial white, officer-level IS-freakin-B uniform. He gave Greez a wild look and smoothed the hair back out of his eyes. “What?”

“I assume you needed a disguise? Well, it looks terrible on you,” Greez said. Cal’s face, already paler than usual, drained until it was an unhealthy white. He looked abashed for a moment, but quickly recovered, his mouth hardening.

“Don’t worry about me, Greez. Worry about Bode. He got away. Again.”

BD-1 beeped sadly, popping up from over Cal’s shoulder, still in one piece.

Merrin clucked her tongue. “Do not despair, droid. There is always hope. Isn’t there?”

“I don’t know,” said Greez. “We got no Bode, we got no compass. Now tell me the truth, Cal, I can take it. We’ve lost, haven’t we?”

Cal ignored him, striding to the holotable and inserting a disk. Santari Khri filled the view.

“What’s this?” Merrin asked curiously. Greez watched as the holo said something about the compass, the one and only, the one Bode had made off with. But Cal shook his head.

“This isn’t just the last goodbye,” he insisted.

The recording continued, showing schematics. A map. Cal paced to it, examining it keenly. “There’s a control center here. If we align the arrays we can create a flight path through the Abyss.”

Greez snorted. “Let me get this straight. You want me to fly the Mantis through a ship-eating nebula using a tiny tunnel carved out by two-hundred-year-old tech?”

The kids were nothing if not predictable. “Yeah,” said Cal at the same time as Merrin saying “Yes.”

Greez shrugged. “All right, I’m in.” What else was there for it? They had to do what they had to do. As he headed to the cockpit, he turned back to Cal. “You gotta get out of that uniform, kid, it’s freaking me out.”

“I agree,” said Merrin. “Better a man of many ponchos than an Imperial.”

“Oh, so now you’re coming around on the ponchos,” said Cal, but it was without a smile. He nodded. “I’ll go change. Set a course for Koboh. We’ll finish this.” He and BD took off for the engine quarters, leaving Greez and Merrin alone. She punched in Koboh’s coordinates and joined him up in the cockpit, taking Cere’s old seat.

Cere…

Greez sighed, climbing into the pilot’s seat and getting the ship off the ground. He’d be happy to see the last of this awful place. He piloted the ship up and through, and got her safely into hyperspace before he at last relaxed. He turned to Merrin, considering.

“You all right? You’re awfully quiet over there.”

“I am fine, Greez. As usual,” said Merrin, but she seemed distracted. Distant. Merrin was always aloof, even at her most social, but this distance felt accidental, out of her control. Greez frowned.

“‘I’m glad you’re okay, Merrin. It’s been good to have you back, you know.”

“It is good to be back. I have missed your jokes, Greez, as bad as they are.”

“Now that’s a backhanded compliment if I ever heard one,” Greez laughed. He paused a moment, then hedged, “And Cal? Does he seem… a little off to you? Like, driven, even for him.” He avoided the word obsessed.

Merrin crossed her arms. “I do not know. But something happened out there, Greez.”

“He didn’t seem hurt,” Greez began, but Merrin shook her head.

“Not like that.” She looked thoughtful, as if trying to choose her words carefully. “He showed a side I have never seen before. Powers I have never seen him use before. He was so angry. I could see it, I could feel it.” She let out a long breath, and Greez felt a sick swoop in his stomach that had nothing to do with the motion of the ship. If Merrin was unsettled, then he, Greez, was scared shitless.

“You’re scaring me, Merrin,” said Greez slowly. “Talk me down, here. That doesn’t sound like Cal. I mean, I know he’s hurting about Cere and Cordova, the compass, the Archive -- we all are. But Jedi are supposed to be careful with that sort of thing, right? I don’t know much about the Force, but that sounds -- it sounds --”

“Dark,” she said quietly. “In his eyes I could see something that wasn’t him -- except that it was. I have heard him and Cere discuss Jedi and the dark side many times. It is the same and yet different from the magic of my sisters, but it holds a danger for them that it does not for me. I do not understand it, Greez, but I know Cal fears it. And yet… if you had seen him…”

“What did he do?”

“I stopped him -- or, he stopped himself -- before he crossed a line he should not cross,” said Merrin. She did not elaborate further, which was ominous; if Cal could spook a Nightsister… “But I fear this may be a door that once opened is not so easily shut.” She gazed at him, troubled. “I do not doubt we will succeed in finding Bode and Tanalorr. We must. But we must not lose Cal to do it.”

“We’re not losing anyone else on my watch,” said Greez. He blinked back sudden tears. “This family’s been through enough, dank farrik.”

“Agreed.”

“Look, thanks for telling me. Not sure what exactly a Latero pilot can do against the dark side of the Force, but I can keep after the kid to take care of himself, I’ve got that one down.”

Merrin chuckled, relaxing a little as he’d hoped she would. “It is sweet to see how you fuss after him like a mother nydak.”

“I’d be offended, but the kid inspires fussing,” Greez said, shrugging all four shoulders. “What am I gonna do, leave him to his own devices? You shoulda seen the state of him when he first showed up in Pyloon’s a few months back. Overgrown hair, way too skinny, clearly living off of caf and Turbo Dogs. Looked like he’d been wearing the same clothes for weeks on end. Without washing ‘em, mind you.”

Merrin laughed, leaning back in her seat. “That sounds about right.” Her laugh dwindled to a small smile. “Thank you, Greez. My heart is more at ease. We will look after him together, you and I.”

“Look after who?” asked Cal.

Greez swiveled around, wondering how much he’d heard. Cal was back in his regular clothes, with a dark blue jacket that reminded him a little of the clothes Cal had been wearing back when he and Cere had rescued him, years ago. But he wasn’t a scared scrapper kid anymore, fresh-faced and uncertain; this Cal was far more sure of himself.

Which made Merrin’s information that much harder to understand. Cal, using the dark side? It was still hard to wrap his brain around. He hoped, looking into Cal’s green eyes, that Merrin had somehow been mistaken.

“You, of course,” said Merrin.

Cal raised his eyebrows. “I’ve been on the run for a decade. I think I’m capable of taking care of myself.”

“Are you kidding me, Cal.”

“You come close to death on a daily basis.”

“Brrrooop beep.”

“Really, Beedee? You too? That’s a low blow, buddy.” Cal sighed and sank into his seat, leaning back and closing his eyes.

Greez reached out and patted his shoulder. “Hey, you know we only get after you because we care, kid.”

Cal looked over, giving Greez a small, careworn smile. The kid looked tired up close, his eyelids reddened and puffy. It put an ache in Greez’s chest. Yeah… the strain was starting to show.

“I know, Greez,” said Cal. “Thanks. All of you. I couldn’t do this without you.”

“Breeep!”

“We are in this together, Cal. Always remember that.”

Hyperspace shrank and stilled before them, stars leaping back into pinpoint form. Koboh and the Abyss swam into view. Greez only spared a glance at the seething, roiling maw before firmly fixing his gaze back on the planet below. One problem at a time.

“Come on, let’s regroup at the saloon. It’s getting awfully emotional up here,” said Greez, trying to keep it breezy. “Let’s get our plan of attack in line and get on this. For the Hidden Path. For Cere.”

“For Cere,” said Merrin.

“For Cere,” Cal echoed. He watched their approach intently, his eyes sharp, his face drawn. Greez shared a glance with Merrin.

We’ll look after him.

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