Just Like Old Times...

[Matty]

Uncharted Desert Planet, Outer Rim
1,012 ABY​

Apollo gave a satisfied sigh as he overlooked the harsh desert landscape. He munched happily upon a stick of dried and smoked bantha meat he had brought along with him. He surveyed the vast plateau before him and smiled. He glanced briefly at his chrono and continued to munch on his rations. It had been nearly six months to the day that he had first left the Order for his self-imposed exile. With the relations between the Sith and Jedi constantly deteriorating along with his own relationships with his Master and a few other select people, Apollo felt that a self imposed exile was his only option. His departure had been so sudden that he himself couldn't even think of the words to issue his final goodbye to his comrades-in-arms. Apollo had merely powered up his starfighter, punched in a random set of coordinates and hoped that he would or could leave his old life behind. Apollo forced himself into restless sleep and prayed that when he his landed he would be as far away from the strife as possible.

Apollo's first few days on the desert planet was pure bliss. Whether it was nothing more than good luck or even fate, Apollo was blessed with an uninhabited yet habitable planet. The planet, in which he would come to dub Cresh as it was the third moon in orbit around it's parent, was everything he could have hoped for. It was similar to the harsh desert landscape of Ryloth all the while only having minimal local fauna. Strange six-legged lizard type animals could be scurrying from rock to rock in vain attempts to find shade from the often overwhelming heat. With a beaming smile, Apollo knew that he had finally found his paradise.

Days would turn into weeks which would then turn into months. Apollo lived each and every day as if it was his last. He thrived in this new environment. His Jedi training only heightened what he had learned back on Ryloth. He easily found water sources, animal burrows and the few cactus-like plants that managed to grow in the harsh landscape. Apollo felt nothing but joy as the days went on. The nightmares from Jabiim seemed to all but fade away.

As his exile entered its sixth month, a gnawing emptiness began to once again creep into his subconscious. It was the same feeling that he once had while waiting for a Jedi Master back upon the Will of the Force all those years ago. Apollo could only hope that the joy he felt would be endless. The growing emptiness soon became a plague upon his thoughts. The longing for companionship threatened to consume him. Apollo attempted to make friends with the local fauna but the lizard creatures could hold no capable thought. With extremely reluctance, Apollo pulled out the com link he had hidden away and dialed a familiar frequency.

"Cat..." He said with a hollow voice "I'm sending you my coordinates, feel free to stop by."

 

[Prancing Yawn]

((Padme is not joining, I told her I just wanted it to be the two of us))

"Well, this goes here, uh.. no! my ass it does, this is completely NOT going there.. it goes HERE! Yes, alright. That's a good fit."

The Knight rolled out from under the belly of the starfighter with his back on a metal board attached to some wheels, the exact name of the device escaping him completely. His hands were covered in grease and oil and some sort of spaceship grime had permeated his cheeks. All to fix.. something. He lost track of time, as well as exactly what he had been trying to fix underneath his starfighter. With a groan, he lifted himself up and sat down on a crate.

Inside the cockpit was some kind of incessant beeping. Someone was comming him here on the Light, and on his starfighter channel? Most contacted him on his new commlink. The starfighter communicator was connected to the channel of one that had broken.. intrigued, he popped the hatch of the ship and hopped into the pilot's seat, flicking around with the communications dials to see what the transmission said - the quality of which was incredibly garbled and static.

Cat.. I'm sending you my coordinates, feel free to stop by.

His heart instantly sunk. He thought he forgot about that voice, but it was painstakingly recognizable by the Jedi Knight. Apollo had disappeared, literally.. Cat had tried tracking him for weeks, yielding no results. His Padawan had completely collapsed after what he had gone through, and his master - who was no more than a kid himself - wondered if there was anything else he could have done.
He flashed, from these thoughts, back to reality.

Cat flipped a headset on and returned to the dashboard of the starfighter. The transmission was too far away to trace, but it was in the general vicinity of the Outer Rim, and with a bit more help from his astromech, was able to trace the system that it had come from.

"Arseven, jump into your dock. We're taking a little ride to these coordinates."

The droid cheerily beeped in reply, locking itself into the wing dock of the fighter and popping close the ship's hatch as it did so. In a moment - following the clearance procedures - the fighter had zoomed out of the protective mattershields of the Jedi warship, and had blipped into hyperspace.

---

Cat jumped off the wing of the fighter, landing on the hard earth of the planet with a dusty stomping of boots. Apollo was here, he could easily feel it .. he was a mix of emotions - overjoyed to find his apprentice again, but a little worried as to how he would react. Would he come back to the Jedi?
He reached back into the cockpit, flicking on the comm device on the dashboard with a thumbprint.
"Apol- "

He stopped midsentence. Cat had developed some considerable sort of bond with Apollo. Reaching out with the Force, he shot a telepathic wave out into the wilderness, which held a message for the Twi'lek.

Apollo -

my brother,
I'm here.

 

[Matty]

Apollo gave a soft smile as Cat's words reverberated in his mind. A voice in which he had come to recognize as both safety and security. Apollo gingerly hopped down from the ledge in which he had been sitting and set upon his way towards Cat. He bounded from ledge to ledge, easily stepping or jumping over the entrances to their bottomless caverns. Completely elated, Apollo slowly but surely began to pick up speed. Mere seconds had passed before he was in a full on sprint towards his only friend. As he ran, shame once more found its way into his subconscious. Apollo knew full well that he had abandoned his only friend and much worse, he had abandoned his only true friend. He let the emotional and physical toll of the Jedi overwhelm him. He faltered under the constant pressure and instead of acting like a true Jedi, he fled. Apollo had let his terror and uncertainty taint his status as a Jedi.

Feel free to come...Master He said through their bond with a hint of joy "I'm at my camp. Surprisingly close to your location. Just hone in on me and you'l be fine."

Apollo forced himself to well down his negative emotions as he reached his camp. The area, no more than ten feet across was what he had called home for the past six months. The remnants of his starfighter stood in the far corner while a multitude of olive colored crates stood opposite. A small cot occupied the center of the camp next to the lingering remains of the previous night's fire. Apollo quickly walked around the camp, using the force to either throw or hide any trash the remained. He came to a slight jog as he arranged and cleaned the perpetual dust pile that he called home. A brief bout of panic washed over Apollo as he struggled to find his twin shotos. Apollo once more, forced himself to calm down and with a small breathe, he held out his hand. The twin blades quickly sprung up from a pile of dusty clothes from a corner of his makeshift camp. With determination, Apollo clipped the twin blades to his belt and settled into a Jedi calming technique.

 

[Prancing Yawn]

I'll look for a penthouse rising out of the depths of this dustbowl...

Cat always found a way to be funny, even if a Star Destroyer was about to glass the planet he was on - well, perhaps that is a bit drastic, but, to put it lightly, perhaps he joked more than he should have, sometimes.

"Arseven, watch the ship, huh?" - and with that, he broke into a mad sprint towards Apollo, his legs being carried by not only the Force, but his own physical vigor. With a leap he'd clear two or three of the cracks in the ground, jump over a hill here . . he could barely see the camp now. His heart was pounding out of his chest, not from the running, but from the sheer excitement of seeing Apollo again. He leaped over another large crevasse and now stood several feet in front of Apollo, slowing his pace to approach his former apprentice one step at a time, who looked to be in some sort of
meditation.

Smiling, Cat flicked some sort of dust off of his shoulder and looked back at him. He was finally here, standing in front of someone he cared for very much, who he hadn't seen for months now.. and now he'd pound his ass for running away! Coughing, the Jedi banished that thought.

"So are you going to sit there or come over here and hug me? Or something. Whatever they do in those sentimental scenes on the soap operas. . "

 

[Matty]

Apollo couldn't help but grin at the sight of his old friend. Grinning from ear to ear, Apollo sprang up from the ground and embraced Cat. He gave the man a rough pat on the back and motioned for him to sit down on a couple of discarded crates serving as chairs. Apollo walked over and set down on the dusty grey crate with a slight sigh. Apollo rubbed the back of his head, causing his lekku to twitch slightly. A wave a relief instantly came to Apollo as he sat next to his former and possibly current Master. Apollo gave another contented sigh and forced himself to smile, trying to banish the shame he was currently feeling along with the relief.

"I'm sorry" He managed to get out, voice wavering "Ever since Andrea's death aboard the Will, I shut myself off and everyone out"

Once more, Apollo opened himself up to the Force and allowed his emotions to flow freely. He shared his past love for Andrea, his anger at her death and now the overwhelming shame he felt in leaving the Order behind. Apollo knew that he was emotional, brash and even a bit quick to anger now, but his willing desertion of the Order was unforgivable. The aftermath of the Will's destruction had left him cold but in no way did it call for his desertion.

 

[Prancing Yawn]

Grinning, he sat down on one of the crates Apollo gestured to, swiping off any and all dust that might have corrupted his clothes. This little hideout, wasn't exactly award-winning.

Intently, he listened to his friend as he explained what he would. At the time, he wasn't incredibly surprised that Apollo had ran away. He saw how he was acting with all those things pressuring down on him. It was a fair reason to run away . . if it was anyone else's Padawan. He expected more resolve, more resilience from Apollo. That's how he thought he trained him. But, he wouldn't tell him that outright. Wouldn't want to be a jackass at their glorious moment of reunion.

He glanced off at the sun of the planet, which was setting.

"Well, I'm glad I found you. You could'a atleast picked somewhere more tropical to hide out. . "

He paused for at least a couple minutes.

"Do you want to come back?"

 

[Matty]

Apollo gave a small chuckle and a nod of his head at the Jedi before him. What Apollo wanted more than anything was to come back to the Order and redeem himself. He knew that Cat had trained him to better, that Cat had expected better of his padawan, of his brother. Apollo turned his head slightly away from Cat and gazed absent minded at the vast vista before them. A single tear began to well up in his right eye which was quickly wiped away. Apollo took in a breath and exhaled hoping that the right words would come to mind. He knew that he couldn't keep blaming his past experiences with the Order as his reason for running. Andrea may have meant everything to him at one point, but she like everything else was in the past. Jabiim, Muunilist and the eventual conflict on Trandosha were all in the past. The nightmares that they brought to him would only continue to affect him as long as he let them. Apollo took in another series of breathes. He knew that if he had the actual resolve of a Jedi Knight, this situation would never have happened. If he had behaved like he was supposed to, Apollo would be back on Tython with an apprentice of his own to mentor. Apollo looked away from the seemingly endless savanna and towards the orange-tinted sky. A light breeze kissed his turquoise skin, eliciting smile from the Twi'lek.

"I would like very much to come back Master" he said with a nod "I need to prove to myself that I can be a real Jedi"