No Such Thing As Coincidence

[Tionne Thanewulf]

A Jedi should have no possessions. An important, omnipresent tenet of the Code that was enforced over the aeons, in an attempt to strip candidates of selfishness innate to sentient life. Still, citizens of the Republic had a constitutional right to own property, both monetary and physical – a right defended by the Jedi. Tionne Thanewulf always found this dichotomy rather hypocritical, but rarely voiced her opinions on the matter; she was already considered unorthodox, threading territories many of more traditional Jedi deemed hazardous to the Order’s morale. Her grandfather’s blood that ran through her veins ensured a connection with physical reality far beyond the scope of the spiritualist view of the Sage Masters – the Coruscanti had formidable insight into politics, economics and social hierarchy – her framework thus differing from the other-wordly realm of the more Force attuned, Temple-residing colleagues.

To expect to wake in a world where the Jedi were still on the payroll of the Republic would have been utopia, given the state in which the Knight left the galaxy. A sense of self-accomplishment overwhelmed her upon realizing her projections were correct; investing in the Imperial-occupated planet of Ralltiir was a far-sighted, potentially most prudent decision the redhead had ever made. One credit invested in bonds turned into ten thousand over the course of twenty five years; when bonds matured, the secret Thanewulf account thickened several billion credits. And a quarter of a century later, Tionne was there to collect the fruits of her sapient investment.

‘’Requesting permission to dock. Authorization code – twenty thousand seventy seven zero alpha.’’ the Coruscanti spoke into the comm on the mainboard of her ship floating in space, surrounded by the space debris that littered the expanse around Ralltiir, all the way to its twenty eight or so moons. Gray eyes skimmed the viewport as Tionne awaited for a reply that took a few moments too long, the time sagaciously used to mull over the junk that hovered around her precious vessel, threatening to damage the hull.

‘’If people keep dumping their stuff around like this, the entirety of known space is to become clogged with old toilet seats and other spare parts…’’ she commented to herself, mumbling with chin pressed against her knee as she readjusted the buckles on her boots, tightening them up. Finally, the incoming beep was to be heard, a female voice sounding from the speakers.

‘’I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but the code you offered is quite outdated. We are browsing our old database to find your entry. It may take a few minutes. So I kindly ask for some patience.’’
The Knight snorted, leaning back in her seat. Her arms crossed over her chest in disapprovement, ginger brow furrowing.
‘’Procedure, bureaucracy,protocol…’’ the redhead grumbled quiescently, rolling her eyes in annoyance.
‘’Ma’m?’’ the voice inquired, seemingly puzzled by the choice of words.

‘’Fine, I’ll just sit here…and enjoy the view.’’ Tionne retorted with a subsequent sigh, gaze elevated to the flying junkyard she found herself in. With one flip of the fingers, the engines of Crimson were silences and slowly, but surely, the entirety of the ship began spiraling, harmonized with the planet’s gravitational field into perfect synchronicity with interstellar scrap in orbit.

[Klo-Ude Jinn]

The Force, some say, could easily be likened to a high-fidelity frequency. It was constantly passing around, between, and through everything. Even if you couldn't hear it, you were a part of it, and every action swayed the broadcast.

The Jedi, the Sith, and all in between were no different than any of the other transistors in the galaxy. It just so happened their antennae were bigger. Some could pick up the equivalent of a short-wave transmission from a backwater planet and subsequently warn the galaxy of impending doom. Others were in a constant crossroads, having trouble discerning which stream went where.

Klo-Ude, on the other hand, felt as though his antenna had been snapped off passing through a sonic wash station. Crackles and hisses, faint whisperings of the Force were all that kept him from losing his mind within his mind. He'd stopped counting the sun-cycles at around seventeen thousand. It didn't matter, anyway. He wouldn't age a day in his carbonite living tomb.

So many lives lived, so many times worth sharing. And yet, the one person he wanted to share them with was no longer here. It had been centuries since he saw her face, but could remember the crease in her cheek from the times she smiled. Empires had risen, fallen, returned to prominence, and faded into vesitgal pomp and circumstance. And from his nest atop 500 Republica's adjacent structure, he watched the banners flap errantly in the tropospheric Nothing.

At times, he'd close his eyes and imagine himself corporeal once more, trying to find some semblance of will strong enough to exert his consciousness back through the Force, even if only to say "Help! Over here! Shiny brick with a face in it!" But the closest he got was a brief moment of weightlessness and the sensation of having had his legs clipped from beneath him in a low-grav atmosphere. If there was a way to vomit while frozen, he would have.

Instead, Klo-Ude Jinn, Jedi of the Old Republic, floated errantly through the refuse surrounding Raltiir, the third turn of lap 1,287,536,072.

[Tionne Thanewulf]

Both the rotation and subsequent serenity of the orbital trajectory contributed to a nap-like state the Knight found herself in as she awaited for permission to dock. She munched and slurped like a dormant cub, lulling herself in the conformity of her seat; sinking into the warmth of her jacket, Tionne was just a step away from dreams. Just before she drew in a final, prolonged breath, a dampened thud sounded from outside. Something had hit the hull.
Clank. Clank. Clank.
The sound of scraping indicated friction between metallic surfaces, a shriek typical of construction works. It persisted long enough to immediately wake the redhead, a small flashing lamp also alerting her of a potential hull breach.
‘’Just great…Frell…’’she cursed under her breath, leaning forwards to reach the controls.
Clank. Clank. Clank.

And then the malicious din perished. Tionne’s eyes leveled with the viewport as her gaze met the object that dared to collide with her precious vessel. A rectangular sarcophagus of some sort kept spinning like a corkscrew, still unsettled by the collision with the hull just a few moments ago. As it made one full turn and the light of Rallt hit it under just the right angle, a contour became visible, albeit shabby, but familiar. The Knight just blinked at first, dumbstruck.

‘’No.’’ she said, then blinked again, just to make sure her eyes were not deceiving her.
‘’No, no, no.’’ the redhead repeated, shaking her head in discredit. Being quite aware of the statistical probability of finding this specific piece of cargo in the vastness of deep space, it was hard to believe chance had anything to do with it. The Force indeed worked in mysterious ways, but Tionne would not question them for once. After all, it was insignificant how it came about. All that mattered was – he was here. Without a moments thought, she wordlessly adjusted the afterburners for minimum thrust, then opened the hatch of the cargo bay to simply let the carbonite bulk to slide in. After maneuvering the ship back to horizontality, Thanewulf rushed to the cargo bay area, hopping on her toes as it repressurized. The door slid open, revealing a solid block of dark matter on the durasteel floor. Her lips parted in awe when she witnessed the extrusions on the surface of the block firsthand; leaning over, Tionne inspected facial features that were imprinted in her memory since the very first she had met her student in front the Council of Reassignment.

Over the years and with experience, boyishness was lost at the detriment of ruggedness, but also maturity. Her heart pounded in her throat when she fell to her knees, fingers idly fiddling with thawing controls that were to be found on the side. Short of breath and words, Tionne watched Tibanna gas boil away from from the surface, turning black mass of carbonite into a viscous liquid. Her jaw dithered in anxiety, her mercury eyes turned liquid under the influx of emotions bulging on the inside. She had found Klo-Ude Jinn, Jedi of the Old Republic, her apprentice and friend.

[Klo-Ude Jinn]

For the first time in five thousand years, Coruscant shuddered. Plates long dormant and satisfied with their relative positions beside, atop, and below one another, suddenly found themselves restless. Permacrete grumbled with the tremors, and durasteel buildings screeched in terror as their flesh-and-blood occupants did likewise. Klo-Ude found his once-stable overlook had now split into craggy outcroppings of tile and masonry.

Another jolt bent the galaxy on its side, and Klo-Ude suddenly found his sense of up had shifted ninety degrees. The ground was a cold realization, smacking him in the face as if to wake him from his shocked lull. Jumping to his feet, now standing on the wall, Klo-Ude saw the walkways of the entertainment district rushing to embrace his penthouse. With a leap of effort (and faith), the Jedi caromed off the wall of a local t'bac shop, watching - and feeling - in pained regret as thousands of terrified Coruscanti plunged to their demise.

Loosing his Force-webbed plant on the shop's wall, Klo-Ude scanned for the closest stable point that would support his weight, and landed upon the edge of an arched bridge. Cries for help mingled now with the terror and pain, and Klo-Ude forced himself to bear it. Shutting down his connection to the Force, even if only to silence those red frequencies, would limit his abilities. And, given the span between his position and the next hardened pillar, he was going to need all he could get.

And then, it fell. The glory that was 500 Republica passed by his eyes as if laying down to slumber. Klo-Ude squeezed shut his ice-blue pools, encasing himself in a bubble of protection. There were many people watching that tower plummet towards them, and he could do nothing to stop it. The residual impact wave almost sent the Jedi to meet the denizens' fate.

Opening his eyes, Klo-Ude watched the world wobble and turn gel, then liquid. Surely, the earthquake was of massive magnitude, but to change the consistency of matter? Something else was at play here. Looking to the stars, he scanned for the latest and greatest planet-destroying superweapon, and saw none. What was happening here?

When the next building fell, a pillar of white light took its place. A terrified Ishi-Tib scurried past, and left a blanched strip in its wake. Bewildered, Klo-Ude watched as, brick by brick, Coruscant turned to snow and nothingness. The cries grew farther away, and not from the curse of gravity and misfortune combined.

So this is what it is to die, the Corellian mused. To be at peace...I feel the Force now, stronger than in a long while. It's as if I'm awake for the first time in...

His heart stopped for a moment, and sent his blood cold. Or perhaps that was the scrubbed air as it touched his flesh for the first time in...how long had it been? His eyes, opened in slits against the harsh light of non-vacuum, darted around the whiteness for some semblance of dimension. His first breath burned, fire in his lungs. But he was alive! How he would thank the person who was doing this...when he could see them.

And then he felt it. He felt her. Those smile lines returned, the glimmer of her cheeks when she laughed at his boyish stupidity. The appreciation at what a good man he had become, resonating deep in her smoky gaze...he couldn't see her physically, but in his mind, she would always be the same. She would always be his.

His heart climbed up his throat, desperate to give itself freely to her. The air stung his eyes, already brimming with tears, and they flowed freely, unbound by still-slumbering lids. Words fought past the rapidly-pulsing muscle, choking his airways in an audible, if somewhat muted, cry.

"T...Tio?" his voice, its potency atrophied with disuse, was raspy and rattled. A hand, fingers splayed and dew-laden from the sudden thaw, reached through the last of the Tibanna, grasping for his anchor, his purpose, his friend. Disoriented and waiting for his age to wake up with him, his voice trembled with anxiety, the silence unnerving. "Tio, where are you? Is that you? Where are you? Tio? I can't see you...please..."

[Tionne Thanewulf]

As soon as his signature became palpable in the Force, scintillating through the field with unfaltering sheen, her prayers had been answered. There had been no other instrument, no other method of bringing them back together but the omnipresent will of the Force that defied all laws of probability. Tionne's rationalism left little place for faith, especially so far-fetched; despite exigency to question causality that led to this dubious event, no efforts were made to explain, no energy expended to divulge the divine mechanism that led to such a favourable, marvellous outcome.

Pushing reason aside for the time being, the redhead let herself be overwhelmed by sentimentality that was so meticulously suppressed before; in such a spellbinding moment no mental dam could contain the stream of emotions flowing through her being. Thus her hand extended only to gently grab his, her thin fingers affectionately intertwining with his. Her face moved closer to his, lips smoothly brushing against his cheek, while her other hand reached into the carbonite coffin to act as leverage so he could erect himself to sit.

''It's me, Klo. It's me....who else?'' she whispered into his ear, as her lips traversed the short distance along the line of his jaw and through the messy blond tufts that framed his face. Finally mustering the strenght to facilitate his egress, Tionne grabbed Klo-Ude under his ribs and pulled him up and over the edge of the dark casket. A muffled grunt left her lips as she struggled to keep him upright and prevent both of them from tipping over.
''I can't do this all on my own, sweetheart.'' she said, promptly regretting those words - ''But I'll need your help.''

[Klo-Ude Jinn]

Filling the void of an eternity of separation took mere seconds, her voice alone restoring vitality to him. The yearnings, iced over from long years of slumber, melted away at her breath. Indeed, who else? Should he ever doubt his choices, he need only remember this moment: the moment the Force showed its nature. An overloaded conduit, Klo-Ude's Force presence exploded with relief, joy, and love. Bright enough, he could have blended into the white of his crossover.

Two meaty smacks heralded the first steps in decades his body would take, and the stability resembled that of a newborn fawn. But the stern Corellian resolve thawed quickly, and muscles tightened, stabilized, and ensured that his heels would not topple from the deck plating. But the caress of her lips, felt to the point of being seen through the darkness of hibernation, threatened to usurp his strength.

Within moments of his certainty, however, he held her. Limp arms renewed their efficacy, enveloping Tionne in a gentle, yet hungry embrace. He would as soon spend another eternity encased in his static prison, should the process begin at this moment. "I never thought I would..." He choked for breath, emotions remaining on high and losing the battle to override his still-warming systems.

He leaned back, enveloping her still in his embrace, and he saw the darkness shift as his eyes darted about. He could see nothing yet. However, a raised hand found the smooth curve of her cheekbone, and it was all he needed to know where she was.

And then, once he was certain he was safe, standing, and stable, his body melted into hers, coalescing in a rapturous unity too long in the making. Some time before, should she have used that word, he would have burned the bridge with his overbearing snarkiness. But now...that word sent his heart nova, and even blind, he found her lips with his own. It was brief, by standards of galactic time. Yet eternity played in a different dimension on the ethereal plane, and what seemed centuries of unspoken or poorly-translated words crossed his latent lips in that short few seconds.

"I'm here, Tio..."

[Tionne Thanewulf]

No matter how right the brief encounter of flesh felt, it was wrong on so many levels. The Code, the fragile student-teacher relationship, years of emotional control and commons sense forbade Tionne to indulge in this authentic moment of revelation. A step back was taken, breaking the soft embrace and Tionne's back slammed into the durasteel wall.

''I know you are.'' she blurted out in a disoriented tone, kicking out any residual emotionality out of her being - ''I taught you better than this. See what happens? I show a little emotion and you cling onto it like a mynock. You will never surpass the cravings of flesh like this.'' the redhead lectured, her eyes pasted to the floor despite knowing he could not see her yet. There was a need to exercise prudence so that she would not need to process all the emotions that clogged her receptors. Consciously, Tionne had to push the Corellian away. Attachment anchored and Klo-Ude woke into a world where one needed to set sail.

''Come with me.'' the Knight commanded, pulling him out of the cargo bay by his wrist and dragging him along to the bunk chamber for a medical check-up. A horizontal position would ensure tactical advantage in avoiding future nuisances orchestrated by the blond Corellian.
''Let go of it, Tionne. It was a dream. Even Jedi are allowed to dream.'' the redhead mused upon placing her student to sit on the lower bunk bed that once belonged to him.

[Klo-Ude Jinn]

High on the reunion, the hands on his shoulders released a stone, dropping his state to a more level, grounded one. He recoiled, still blind and unable to see the physical reaction. But the shift in her aura was enough to make him visibly wince, the actions more open than he'd like to have imagined. Much in the way one speaks louder when their ears are ringing, the lack of perspective tended to skew self-discipline. That and he was still somewhat light-headed.

He felt her hand wrap around his wrist, and cinched the clasp with his own digits. The first few steps, unexpected, sent him lurching forward, and his doughy legs struggled to catch up. One desperate lunge of his left brough him in a stable line, and he walked along behind her, instinctively cowering through the corridor. No sense risking a low-hanging bulkhead at a time like this.

The Force resonated with his shame, but it was the satisfied sort, carefully masked to ensure self-control. He wanted to apologize, but felt to do so would be a betrayal in itself. Yet, he knew it was folly, what he had just done, and would just as soon take a quick vertical hop to try to knock some sense back into his foggy cranium. However, silence equating prudence at the moment, Klo-Ude let the engines do the talking. His emotions thrummed in tandem with those ionic turbines, however, and behind those cloudy-yet-clearing blue eyes, there was an internal war raging. This, however, he was able to clamp down on from sheer experience alone, like flipping off the glowpanel switch when leaving the room.

As he was guided to the lower bunk, Klo-Ude felt an inwardness to Tionne's presence, and opened his mouth to inquire. But it was snapped shut by a durasteel blow to the back of the head. Teeth clacking together in a painful hint, Klo-Ude looked blindly up towards the ceiling, as if to acknowledge the not-so-subtle hint the Force was sending his way. He was sure his attunement to the Force would normalize in time, but now, he was a raw slice in the flesh, and the wound was still flushing.

It was obvious to him, however, that things were...different. The currents spiraled with...unrest. And not just in the immediate vicinity. He grimaced again, this time reducing the outward display to a twitch of an awakening eye. Fool...he mused. She found you, you ninny...and what do you do? Ignore everything she ever taught you...all the things that brought you so close...

Well, at least she didn't send you back out the airlock...right?

[Tionne Thanewulf]

''Lie down.'' the redhead instructed, aiding him to slip into the confined space containing the bunk bed he usually slept in. An average sized adult could barely fit in it, but the mattress was anatomically adjusted to maximally exploit the lack of space. Everything on The Crimson was optimized for utility and functionality, the ships interior bearing no hedonistic outlines - a flying laboratory rather than a luxurious yacht, it was well within the bounds of conformity nevertheless.

A woven woollen blanket was casually tossed over the Corellian, ends tucked in under his torso to compensate somewhat diminished ability of heating units to maintain a suitable room temperature. Upon making sure her student was warm enough, Tionne pulled a small crate closer to the bed and sat on it, her left hand rummaging through the side pocket of her cargo pants to find the medical scanner which would verify his physical condition.
''What, you are all out of words now, huh? First time I hear you actually shut up after I give you a speech you deserve.'' the Knight remarked bitterly, whilst her attention diverted to the screen of the instrument that was now to be found in her palm. She elevated it over his chest, fingers pricking against it to set up scanning parameters.

''You were so eager to prove yourself to me, prove that you are an adult. Well, what you did back there does not prove that. Refraining from such things does.'' the Coruscanti lectured at lenght, with equipped hand hovering over his torso as the instrument took readings - ''There is only one thing in the universe I love more than you, Klo-Ude. And that is the Code. Please respect that.''

Her plea was meek, stripped of any scolding undertone. Tionne let her frustration dissolve into serenity, excess energy dissipated and absorbed into the Force to leave nothing but disappointment as its acerbic residual. The scan progressed, displaying nothing but the customary symptoms of carbonite thawing.
''You should have your eyesight back in a few minutes. But expect nausea.'' she commented neutrally, as if Klo-Ude was her patient and not her soulmate.

[Klo-Ude Jinn]

In the decades of aimless drifting, meandering in a frozen brick of solitude, Klo-Ude inevitably met various states of debris. He wasn't sure how long he had been out there, but had no doubt his orbit coincided with that of other bits of discarded materials and refuse. But he could imagine nothing like the scolding barrage sent his way by Tionne. All his body could do to process the remarks was give the chemical equivalent of "Incoming! Incoming!"

He consistently opened his mouth to apologize, finding himself not only prone, but cornered. As if beating himself up wasn't enough, he was being teamed up on by the one person he never wanted to...blast it. He wilted into the cloth covering him, fault lines appearing in the fabric as his body and the bunk coalesced into one weary, despondent individual. He looked not for sympathy, only found the strength to choke back his regret waning.

Where was his will? Did the carbonite absorb the Corellian out of him? He was simply tired...but it rushed back to him, as if her candid, almost errant indication of her feelings were a mnemonic trigger, and his body visible swelled with a rediscovered potency. "I do, Tionne. I-"

His explanation, which likely would bring another admonishment, was stifled by the rising retch in his abdomen. He felt a stirring, a heavy weight in his stomach being hurtled around in the maelstrom of his reorientation. The familiar honeycomb of metallic weave began to sift through the haze of hibernation sickness, and Klo-Ude felt his body bolt upright instinctively. Hardly in a position where he intended to make a greater fool of himself, the Corellian succumbed to nausea far clear of Tionne's person. No sense in leaping the spectrum of reunion impressions, after all.

The heave was a dry one, and burned every inch coming up. But it burned for far too long to simply be an empty stomach relieving itself of its dormant digestive fluid...it continuously burned, as if something was clawing at his esophagus, digging in and tearing its way out of him. His body shuddered, shivered, and wound up vibrating violently against the strain. What of his voice he had cried out around the escapee, emanating in a hoarse, strained groan, as if an invisible fist was clenching his solar plexus, forcing the air out of him.

Tears rolled down his boiling cheeks, and Klo-Ude's half-vision lent him the fantasy of the fluid dissipating into steam from the strain. But that was merely a mechanism to take the mind off the pain being inflicted upon his throat. In one final, body-racking heave of desperation, he felt the object erupt from his mouth, bouncing whimsically against the durasteel deck plating. It was only now, once he had his faculties and wits about him again, did he remember what happened to his lightsaber.

Fortunately, his dormant status had placed his vital systems on standby, elsewise the smoky blue focusing crystal now rolling to a stop on the floor may have been damaged beyond functionality. Klo-Ude heaved a sigh of relief, a forearm coming to smack wet against his brow. "I forgot how sharp those facets were..." he said, coughing at the recent, painful memory.

[Tionne Thanewulf]

Placidly, Tionne watched her student strain himself in inhuman agony to regurgitate the shard he ingested prior to his congealment. Not one single gesture was made to indicate she would help him if the situation in his esophagus should become more complicated. She seemed rather content with the prospect of him choking himself with the crystal. Of course, it was a mask, a display to serve a pedagogic purpose - teach him to deal with the consequences of his sometimes daft ideas. Curiously picking up the gem, the redhead returned it to its rightful owner.

''Thankfully, it got out the same way it got in. Don't even think about the damage this might have done to your colon, my dear.'' she commented cynically, quite aware of how distasteful her comment sounded. Still, this was no time for pity. The crystal was preserved, ready to be inserted into a casing once again and used as the instrument of the Light.

Sitting back on her crate, the Courscanti eyed her now fully awaken apprentice. Focus returned to his icy irises, attesting of his eyesight reinstalled. With arms instinctively crossing over her chest, Thanewulf decided to quit beating around the bush. Him kissing her meant only one thing; continuation of their dream that her apprentice translated into reality. It only meant he remembered. And so did she.
''So, how did you sleep?'' the ginger-haired Jedi asked at lenght - ''Dreamt of anything?'' she continued casually, her eyes slightly narrowing to milk out the truth from him.

[Klo-Ude Jinn]

Oftentimes, levity was found in the most awkward of spots, if only to compensate for an underlying tension. This being the case to her crude commentary, he bit back a chuckle in mid-snort, letting the familiar trappings of three dimensions settle back into place. A hand reached up to idly finger the space between the metallic weave above him, and he felt his finger slip through an opening on the third try. Pretty good for someone who was blind mere minutes before. Nodding in satisfaction, his eyes made that treacherous walk to hers, feeling the daggers boring into him.

Years of experience told Klo-Ude that the red-headed judicator was sizing him up. He could have still been suffering from hibernation syndrome, blindfolded, in an escape pod with no lights in the Maw, and he would still know her eyes were on him. The Corellian was as sure of that as he was certain there existed a sizeable indentation or four somewhere on the back of his skull from where her palm had so frequently straightened him out. Casually, he slipped a hand between his head and the bunk, idly searching for said divots while returning her gaze.

A brow rose cooly, questioningly at her baited inquiry. The squints at the corners of his eyes, however, betrayed the confusion that overtook his thoughts. Yes, I dreamt...he mused. What else could I do? He pushed the sarcasm away, and fought to recollect...something of his time in slumber. It was akin to having a word on the tip of his tongue. It was there, he knew it...but whatever he dreamt had decided to leave him at the station for the moment.

"I wouldn't call that sleep, necessarily," Klo-Ude mumbled, jaw still working out the kinks of not only a long time of rest, but the snakelike stretch required to usher out his focusing crystal, which now rested in the cross of his abdominal muscles. "I know I dreamt of...something. A lot of things. But it just isn't-" His head snapped, side-to-side, in an impulsive manner. The world flashed white temporarily, and a static screech invaded his senses - he could taste it - for that moment of blanched blindness. "I think a synapse is misfiring...maybe two."

The furrow in his brow, coupled with the clenched-fist stiffness pouring off his aura smacked of genuine frustration. Maybe it was all too much at once...no...that wasn't it. Something was stopping him from recollecting. What in the blazes happened in there? Did a space-sludge tanker crack his carbonited form in the forehead? He let out a deep breath, soothing his frayed nerves. Or trying to...it just seemed to knit them together into a tapestry of tension.

[Tionne Thanewulf]

Undoubtedly, the Corellian's words radiated in sincerity. Having spent almost all of her adult life with her student acting as her shadow, the two of them an inseparable entity - the Knight knew when the blond boy was lying. This was not one of those times. Acknowledging his explanation with a nod, the redhead offered some consolation, merely to loosen the tension she felt accumulate in his being. The immaculate mechanism of his mind had been clogged with indigestible information, fine cognitive apparatus breaking under the influx of illogical reveries.

''I dreamt as well. But I tend to forget what about as time passes.'' she said, as her gaze scraped against the floor to avoid direct eye contact.
''Or you made yourself forget, Tionne'' was her supplement that only echoed within her cranium, remaining unspoken. It seemed as if her student hardly remembered any of the contents of the dream - perhaps it was wise not to remind him for the sake of his emotional focus. The situation was complex without it, the road he endeavoured to walk having many serpentine turnings ahead.

''But it does not matter what we dreamt about, right? We are alive and well and we should make best out of it, right?'' she encouraged, leaning in to place her hand on his cheek, feeble motion producing the lightest, most affectionate of rubs.
''I've found you, it is all that matters now. We have to be Jedi, Klo-Ude. More now than ever. The galaxy needs us, other Jedi need us. Our time has come.''

Her hand was instantly removed as Tionne rose from her seat, giving him no excess emotion to cling onto. A few steps were made towards the cabinet on the other side of the chamber, metallic door creaking as she opened them, subsequently pulling out a black t-shirt and tossing it over her shoulder to the bed.
''But you better put a shirt on first. The galaxy needs not to see your abs, regardless to how astonishing they may look.'' the redhead commented, carefully wowing a complement into her statement. The best way to motivate a man was to pet his ego from time to time - Klo-Ude was no different.

With back turned to her student, the bundle of locks scattering over Tionne's back was gathered into a messy bun, revealing a portion of a nasty scar barely hidden by the thin white cloth of her tank top. New skin formed gradually, lesions and burns made by a lightsaber healing slowly without the ailing touch of the Force. A pang was to be felt here and there - especially if her upper torso was exposed to some unusual amount of strain - but the pain was far from the initial affliction that lead to inevitable congealment beforehand. Still, the lacerations on one's inside would take a thousand years to heal; wounds inflicted by friends were aimed at the soul, not the body.

[Klo-Ude Jinn]

Seemingly, the first thing Klo-Ude was working towards was being more open with his feelings. Honesty was something due his Master, undoubtedly, and she could sniff out the truth on him like a nekk on the hunt. The time for childish games was long over. Klo-Ude recalled many things from his last few days of consciousness prior to this moment. None of them were well-suited to add levity to. He saw many friends die, felt their presences wink out in the Force, almost all painful to feel and think about, even now.

Idly, he wondered if any of them had become one with the Force in the aftermath of the Purge. Quickly, he dashed the notion of attempting to contact anyone he knew. If Tionne's estimations were correct, the moment was hardly one permitting nostalgia.

And yet, her touch threatened to melt down the resolve he was steadily building with every breath. It was a guarded secret that he longed for her. Unfortunately, Klo-Ude had suspicions that said secret tended to sneak off under cover of darkness now and then. His eyesight had returned fully by now, and he looked to her features. Her beauty had not dwindled in the slightest, although it was clear her jaw was much more firmly set than he had recalled it in his younger years.

Some of that, he could take credit for. But there was a...determination to her body language that echoed her words. He had to smirk at her comment on his physique. "Hey, if it's as bad as you're making it out to be, the galaxy may need to see a little bit more beauty. And here you are, hindering it." He clicked his tongue in his mouth and shook his head, the smile spreading to his gaze. Then again, you make up for ten of me in that regard...such thoughts would remain, tempered and confined to his mind, but even his heart's smithy let a spark shine in his gaze from time to time.

What pleasant, amorous thoughts bounced around his thrumming mind were dashed as she turned, and he was too late to clamp down on the alarm he sent through the Force. It flowed into a protective concern, and the Corellian was on his feet - albeit too quickly, staggering the first steps as his blood balanced - and to her instantly. He said nothing, the words that came to mind far too trite to be worth the extra effort the air scrubbers would necessitate from them.

Merely placing a gentle hand over the scar, uncertain of how raw a wound it may have been, Klo-Ude radiated empathy, regret that he had not been there to prevent it. The protection was beyond that of simple chivalry. He would see no harm come to her, should he be able to deflect it. Wookiees might look to him for inspiration when taking a life debt. But he steeled himself against the self-reprimand. Such things were in the past. If she said their time was now, best to keep the mind in the present.

[Tionne Thanewulf]

The Knight could palpate his regret. It poured out of every pore of his being, probably also radiating from the icy orbs of his eyes. Still, Tionne remained with back turned, not wanting to be pitied.His touch was hardly curative, but it soothed her wound, purely on an emotional basis. Sometimes, it felt nice to know at least somebody cared.

''One of ours decided I should live no longer after I declined his offer to join the Empire. We had been friends for over twenty years and yet he was prepared to stab me in the back. I have trouble believing people change overnight. And now I have this scar as a constant reminder.'' she commented dryly, stepping to the side, subsequently slipping past her student. His hand would have remained hovering in the air as Tionne pulled her black leather jacket over her shoulders, zipping herself up all the way to her throat.

''He would have killed you, Klo. I froze you to protect you. And to make sure you continue your training when the time is right. I've promised the Council I would make a Knight out of you. And I don't intend on failing them, especially now that we have their undivided attention in the Force.'' the redhead encouraged him with a small smile casually tossed over her shoulder.
''Let's go. I'll explain everything on the go. We don't have much time.'' she added, motioning the Corellian to follow her back into the cockpit.

[Klo-Ude Jinn]

The hand, left to float in the tidepool of emotion created around its gesture, clasped in a soft fist as she stepped away. He felt no rebuke from her, and took no ill bearings from the hasty withdrawal she gave to his touch. Yes, the aftermath of the Clone Wars had possibly been the galaxy's darkest time. But, apparently, the circumstances of which Klo-Ude had been frozen were deeper than he had believed.

Maybe he needed to inherit some of that level-headed realism his Master was so notorious for. He turned to her as he felt her presence neutralize, and caught the last wisps of her smile, veiled behind a curtain of red-gold silk as she turned her head forward. Uncharacteristically silent, he nodded once, taking stride to follow her to the cockpit.

"Ow! Stang, that hurt..." a few light thumps could be heard from the sleeping quarters, Klo-Ude hopping on one foot and inspecting the damage dealt by the forgotten focusing crystal. A few moments later, a stone-on-metal scrape as he picked it up. Another rustling of clothing indicated he was at least attempting to make himself decent for the space traffic controllers.

Klo-Ude finished adjusting the waistband of his procured leggings, and pocketed the crystal. "No more stepping on you..." he grumbled, setting off in long, determined strides to resume the familiar position on Tionne's left side.

"So we're the center of attention now, huh?"

[Tionne Thanewulf]

Just as Tionne slumped down into the pilot seat, the comm sounded again.
''You are clear to land, mrs.Fotzekotze. Enjoy your stay.'' a pleasant female voice announced from the speakers. The redhead merely elevated her gaze to the ceiling and the controls that were to be found there, refraining from commenting on the way the officials of Ralltirr had addressed her. Klo-Ude was a smart boy, he'd figure things out.
''On the contrary, mr.Fotzekotze. We are as scarce as Corellian whiskey in a pilot's bar. There are only a small number of Jedi left, floating about in deep space on a rag fleet called the Wheel. Together with a bunch of hippies calling themselves the Alliance. Not much, but it's a start.'' she explained, turning her head sideways to take one last look at her student before piloting the vessel into the atmosphere.

''Twenty five years had passed since the Purge. The galaxy we woke to is not too nice. The Inquisitors are numerous and omnipresent. We have to go undercover, like the good ol'days.''
The Knight nodded and placed her hands on the flight yoke, overriding the autopilot commands to stir the ship into the crystal blue stratosphere of Ralltirr.
''You must be asking yourself - what the frell am I doing on Ralltirr?'' the redhead quizzed, albeit rhetorically.

[Klo-Ude Jinn]

"Alliance? Inquisitors? Fotzekotze?" Klo-Ude's eyes blinked erratically in consternation. "Are you sure we're not still dreaming?" He slumped into the chair cat-corner to Tionne in the cockpit, preferring not to test his spatial reasoning with a face-first dive into an atmosphere just yet. But the planet was a marvel to look at.

Compared to Coruscant, such lush worlds were a soothing sight. The planet lacked the globe-wide metropolis so familiar to the Corellian, and was replaced with clear, obvious climate and ecological zones. Where the tans and greys dominated on Galactic City, lush green and deep blue thrived here. The planet itself thrummed with a Force presence suggesting a stronger unity, a commonality of all living things; nothing like the barrage of competing, dominating presences overwhelming him on the descent to the Temple.

Shielding his eyes with his hand, thumb and forefinger rubbing his temples, he started weighing in on the flash-learning Tionne was talking him through. If what she said was true, then the galaxy was in dire need of ther combined wit and wisdom - his and hers, respectively. Another lightsaber or two in the mix wouldn't be so bad-

A flash of light interrupted Klo-Ude's thoughts, and his hands snapped to the armrests, instinctively bracing for an impact that had already passed. The sound of durasteel scraping against a graphite tablet, condensed into a singularity of tumult, exploded in his ears. What was that? Klo-Ude's head snapped up, looking out the forward viewport to see...nothing. Calming the alarm in his presence, he let it settle.

Suddenly, his face paled, and he almost shot up out of his seat. Why hadn't Tionne mentioned the catastrophe on Coruscant yet? Or had she not felt it? At least the Empire had been dealt a harsh blow in that regard...but was it worth the suffering of so many? "Have they started plans for recovery efforts yet?" His question was rather matter-of-fact, dropping dead-center into a conversation that wasn't being had. Klo-Ude radiated concern and curiosity, and his eyes gazed, unfocused, out the viewport once more, trying to make sense of what she had told him...and how he knew 500 Republica was lying at the bottom of a skyscraper valley.

[Tionne Thanewulf]

A puzzled expression overwhelmed Tionne's fine features, her attention shifting from the controls towards her visibly unnerved apprentice. The shift in him could be felt, no matter how hard he tried to can it. She knew him far to well.
''Recovery from what, Klo?'' the redhead quizzed in confusion, trying to make out a meaning of the scrambled signals the Corellian projected through the Force. Gray eyes returned to the motherboard as the elegant towers of Cambrielle embedded in icy mountains dominated the viewport. One could not navigate a ship and decipher at the same time.

''Nothing significant has happened in the past 25 years, apart from the rise of the Empire. I've checked the news archives as soon as I woke. I don't think we missed anything important to begin with.'' the Knight stated, words laced with encouragement. A guttural feeling warned the Coruscanti his inner turmoil could have something to do with their dream - certainly, a subject to be avoided until further notice. The conversation had to be stirred in another direction, to focus on here and now.

''Once I froze you, there were a few things I did. First and foremost - number of artefacts were saved from the Temple. The Circle of Watchmen arranged their scattering across the galaxy, so a fair deal of the Archives is intact somewhere. Secondly, I invested all the money from my father's fund into Ralltirr securities. One hundred thousand credits as principal. Bond yield soared to almost two thousand percent during the initial Imperial occupation of the planet.'' she explained, allowing the vessel to plummet through heaps of dense white clouds and towards the Financial District of the Ralltiir's capital.

''You know, in case my apprentice wanted to go shopping when he wakes.'' the redhead added, throwing in a brief sidelong glance equipped with an affectionate smile that showed some of her pearly white teeth.

[Klo-Ude Jinn]

Another rustle of his lengthening hair straightened out the hovercars in his head. After a lifetime or ten in a manufactured reality, it seemed the difficulty in discerning the difference between it and the true, tangible life he was brought back to was going to remain for some time. The static that had overwhelmed his presence began to clear, like adjusting the cable feed on a HoloNews Network program.

The view was staggering, and Klo-Ude half-believed he was looking at a travel advertisement for the planet. But his attention was stolen away from the view as she spoke to him. He drank in the information Tionne provided, his mental sponge long dried out and soaking up any news on the galaxy it could. Invisible ticks began to check off in his brain as pieces of the puzzle began to fall in place.

He risked a wry smile as Tio mentioned their...her unbelievable fortune. Glancing down at his hodgepodge attire, he said, "Well, I could use a more coordinated outfit or two. Someone with a name like Fotzekotze is going to have to compensate somehow..."

The Corellian settled into his seat once more, the tension relaxing in his shoulders and causing the muscles in his back to conform to the somewhat-uncomfortable chair. He wouldn't complain for centuries, if he lasted that long. Anything was better than being cargo.

"Alright, so the Empire is in power, and the Alliance is fighting an underground war, and the Jedi are trying to help, but have essentially lost their keys. And now we're here to save the day, with your bottomless pocket and my good looks. Does that about sum it up?" Whereas the last time they were together, such a comment would be supplied with a cocky smirk, Klo-Ude remained fixed on the approach vector. He hadn't lost his confidence, that was for sure. It seemed a passing acceptance now, rather than a blatant attempt at attention.

"I get to pick out something for you, too, right?"