milliways_bar | (no subject)

(no subject)

[OOM: the end of The Swarm War. Big spoilers, if you care about that sort of thing. Angry/broken baby Skywalker.]

Ben Skywalker slams the door behind him as he enters the bar, ready to keep running down the corridor before he realises where he is.

Milliways.

No, he doesn't want to be here just now. He can't break things here, either, can he? So he spins round to leave, takes a step towards the-- wall.

There's no door. Why isn't there a door? He just came through a door.

Someone should help him out, before he loses control of the Force. Wouldn't want any broken chairs.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ray looks up from his book at the sound of the slam. "Something wrong?" he asks.

Ben whirls to face him, fists clenched. But Ray's all right, he's safe, so Ben can (calm down) talk.

"The door's gone," he says shortly.

Ray winces. "Oh, man," he says. "That happened to my friend Peter. I'm sorry."

Ben bites his lip, breathes silently for a moment.

"How'd he get out? I gotta go home--"

He doesn't know what he'd do at home either, though.

"Well..." Ray thinks. "He got mad for a while, and then he pouted for a while, and then he locked himself in his room and I had to go yell at him, and then he did some other stuff and eventually one day when he was sitting around reading a book he looked up and the door was back."

"I'm sorry. I know that's not very helpful."

Ben stares at Ray, and his anger fades a little, is replaced by desperation.

"I don't have that long! I gotta go home now. The war-- my mom--"

He falls into a chair nearby, almost curls up, clutching his hair.

"Everything's messy. I don't wanna stay here." He looks up again. "Is Jaina here?" Jaina's always been here when he's been here. Poor boy.

"Haven't seen her," Ray says, "but I wouldn't be surprised. And I don't think time passes back home if you're stuck here-"

He pauses.

"Which war is this?"

"It doesn't? But I still--"

Ben shakes his head. He could open up to the Force and check if Jaina's here, but it's hard to keep any sort of fine control at the moment. All or nothing right now. So he sticks with nothing.

"The Killik war, duh. It's-- I think it's over."

"I'm from Earth, Ben," Ray points out. "Backwater planet, piss-poor communications. Didn't know if you guys had skipped on without us or what."

"Oh yeah. Sorry. D'you know about the war and Killiks and stuff?"

He doesn't particularly want to explain it just now.

"Not that it matters anyways."

"Tahiri told me about it," Ray reassures him. "She's pretty good about keeping me caught up on that kind of thing."

"Yeah. Good."

A sudden thought.

"Is she here?" Not as good as Jaina, really, but almost. "Dad sent her to Dagobah. But you can get here from anywhere sometimes, even when you don't want to."

"I think I heard her voice earlier," Ray says. "I've been a little distracted, so I didn't get to go over and say hi. Why'd your father send her to Dagobah?"

"Umm..."

Ben has to think to try and remember this, which is good, because it stops him thinking about Gorog.

"Cause she and Tesar and Lowie told someone something, I think. Mrs Thul. About how they were gonna beat UnuThul and stuff."

Not that Ray recognizes the names, except vaguely, at kind of a distance.

"UnuThul... He's one of the Kiliks, right? Technically, I mean? Even if he wasn't born one?"

Ben nods. "He's in charge of the Colony--"

He pauses, and stares at the floor for a moment.

"Was. I dunno if he's still alive now. And yeah. He went to the Academy with Jaina and Zekk and Tahiri and stuff, I think. 'fore I was born."

"Ah. Well, that's more than I knew before. I'm sorry to hear it got Tahiri in trouble, though."

Ben frowns thoughtfully and nods. "Yeah.

"But if she's here--" He stands, not with his usual sort of bounce, and looks round. "--I should find her. D'you think she's still here?"

"Sure, I don't see why she wouldn't be," Ray says. "If you see her, tell her hi for me? I have some stuff I needed to show her or Master Qui-Gon."

Ben has no idea who Qui-Gon is, but he nods about Tahiri.

"Yeah. I'll tell her to find you or somethin'. Uh." He half-smiles, and waves. "Bye, Ray."

And he wanders off in search of Tahiri or Jaina.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only