The Edge of Reason

[Malon]

Reason only exists,
for those who cling to it.
So, shall we proceed,
to the edge of reason?​

The moment Leon's ship made the jump to lightspeed, bound for the Unknown Regions once again, Kalen felt a wave of anxiety rush over him. Leon was next to him in the captain's seat; behind them were Natalia, and Eve, and Giles, the latter of which was distinctly angry. The Jedi did not need the Force to see that.

Leon was tense. Kalen could see that. It made him want to reach out and comfort the pirate in some meaningful way, but he resisted. In private, Kalen could be what Leon needed him to be; in public, they had yet to define their boundaries, and now was not the time to address that. There were more important matters before them, which is why he wished Giles would stop fuming long enough to hear them.

"When we get down there," Kalen began, "we'll use my powers of psychometry like a bloodhound uses scent and trace them to their source. The Inferius, even in their prime, weren't a technologically advanced species. They took over the minds of those species that were and used them to spread their plague. We won't find anything technological that will tell us of their homeworld, but their memories might serve us. And the memories of their joiners." He paused and let the information sink in. "Someone will need to remain with the ship. Keep the engines hot in case we need to make a quick get-away."

He looked to Leon and gave him a small smile, meant for encouragement. Then he looked to the rest of the pirate's crew. "Any objections?"

@Deviant

 

[Deviant]

“My powers of psychometry,” Giles mocked, his arms crossed and lips pursed in an imitation of Kalen’s typically brooding nature. Behind him, Genevieve slipped out a soft giggle, which only grew after Natalia slapped the side of his head. He twisted around, cheeks puffed angrily, before slumping back into his seat. Leon, meanwhile, let loose a faint smirk, though remained restive and uneasy as the ship sailed through hyperspace.

“No objections on my end,” he finally answered. “Sounds like a solid plan. Not as cool as setting the whole planet on fire, but it’ll do.” He flashed another terse smile back to Kalen. As unsettled as he was about this whole mission, he wasn’t one to completely show it. If anything, he was glad to be with the Jedi, this time with no secrets and no looming shadow of the past. He had finally come clean with Kalen back on Ord Antalaha, and rather than casting him off, he forgave him. Something Leon had never expected.

Still, while he was at last relieved from the mistakes of his past, he was worried. He found peace in Kalen, but also apprehension. The Jedi gave him everything he could have asked for, but what would happen if he were to lose it all? What if he died here, today? Leon shuddered at the thought. He loved Kalen, regardless of consequence. Though if he lost him today, he wouldn’t know how to bear it. He might have finally found his everything, but should he lose it, then he feared he would never find the strength to be whole again.

As the ship exited out of hyperspace, his hand reached out to Kalen, intertwining his fingers intertwined with his own. Giles shuffled around uncomfortably, though before he could speak his mind, he was met with another threatening glare from Natalia. He knitted his eyebrows and turned his attention elsewhere, like to the lush planet below. Eve, on the other hand, paid no heed. Instead, she peered over the dashboard and through the windshield, eying her homeworld with a mix of unease and worry.

Leon turned to her, sympathy woven into his gaze as he placed a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’re here avenge your family and take back your home.” Giles piped in with a cough. “And our crew.” Natalia shot him another glare before she returned her focus back to Leon. “So, where did you want me, Captain?”

He raised an eyebrow. “You stay with Eve and the ship. You’re a good shot, but you’re my second-best pilot. Next to me, of course.” A chuckle. “And Kalen, Giles and I will track down the Inferius. Alright?” Giles let out a half-hearted grunt, though made no objection. Rather, he only glanced at the Jedi with a nasty look.

“Let’s get started then.”​

 

[Malon]

Leon wasn't the only one thinking about what was about to happen. Kalen was torn up inside at the thought of something happening to the pirate. He held Leon's hand until the two were well out of the cockpit. The ship was on descent into the planet's atmosphere and Kalen could already sense the death in the Force. The planet below was not the same one they left. Something terrible had happened down there. A sudden lurch in Kalen's gut drove him to action; he dragged Leon into the cargo hold by the hand and sealed the door with a thought.

"There's something I need to tell you before we go out there again," Kalen said, ignoring any look of confusion Leon might have given him. "And I don't care how crazy it sounds, because we don't know what could happen down there." He paused and took a deep breath. "I love you."

There. He'd said it. It'd been on his mind since that moment in the brothel, but now he could voice the words. His vision was haunting him now more than ever. As if in answer, some voice, disembodied and traveling across time and space through the Force bubbled forth from the center of his consciousness: Always in motion, is the future. And, in that, he found some measure of hope.

"I love you," he repeated, "and I don't care about green dreams or fate or destiny. I will fight to my dying breath to ensure that vision doesn't come true. I will not lose you, Leo. The whole Order be damned, I will not lose you—nor you me."

He had never been so serious about anything in his life.

@Deviant

 

[Deviant]

He had never cared for anyone more than he did Kalen.

Fingers still interlaced in the other man, Leon squeezed his hand tightly. A smile, heartfelt and sincere, simmered across his face. “I couldn’t have said it any better,” he said as his head dipped low, smile still in place. Then, out of nowhere, he leaned forward and hugged him, arms snaking under his own and hands reaching over his back. He pressed his chin to his shoulder. Voice low, he continued. “Kalen— don’t. Just don’t.”

His eyes pinched shut. “Don’t be a hero. If I’m going to die on this damned rock, then let it happen. Don’t sacrifice your life for my own. Don’t dive headfirst into a horde of spiders if I’m in trouble.” His arms stiffened around the Knight. “You have to live, no matter what. Don’t throw your life away like it’s nothing.”

Leon inched back and held one hand to Kalen’s chest. “Because it means so much more than that. If I die, then there's just one less pirate for the galaxy to deal with.” A pause. "And you may have forgiven me, but that doesn’t make me any less responsible for the crimes I’ve committed. But you— you can be the ray of hope this galaxy needs. To Eve, to the Jedi. I say that because since we’ve met, I don’t think I’ve ever been any happier, or any more hopeful, than with you.” He stepped back now, farther from him and closer to the ship exit. “So, just don't. Okay?”

Before Leon could hear an answer, though, Natalia and Giles slipped out from the cockpit. The latter coughed awkwardly and cocked his weapon. “Are we going?” The exit ramp descended into the ground as Leon glanced to Kalen before nodding. “Yeah.”

 

[Malon]

Kalen pushed ahead of their group and stood on the landing ramp of Leon's ship. Then, taking his lightsaber into hand, he allowed the rough winds outside to lash at him a few moments before turning back to Leon (and the others behind him) and offering a smile. "'tis a funny thing about Jedi. We're trained to be heroes."

A blue blade burst from the Jedi's fist; he turned back and stepped further down the ramp. On the planet, it was raining. Endless gallons of cold water fell in sheets across the dark landscape. Just like in his dream. In his vision. The village where they had made their last stand weeks ago was to his left, in ruins, and empty of monsters. Kalen could sense as much.

He used his lightsaber as a trooper might a headlamp, to guide his way through the watery darkness. The ground was soft as he leaped down onto it. He wondered how long it had been raining like this. Was the planet weeping for its lost inhabitants? He couldn't be sure.

"We first encountered those things in the woods west of here," he shouted over the storm. "Chances are, that's where their nests are. And that's what where we should start." Then he glanced at Leon, "We should give Eve a chance to say goodbye to her home when this is over. We cannot heal any scars she will have from this. But we can offer her closure."

@Deviant

 

[Deviant]

He rolled his eyes with a smirk. Of course you’d say that, Leon thought to himself as the three exited out from the confines of the ship, only to meet with the onset of a violent storm. Lavished with rain, he tightened his headpiece around his hair and frisked over his outfit to make sure everything was secure in place. There would be no going back once they journeyed into the shadow of the forest, not until the threat of the Inferius was washed clean from this world. Then, he could return. With Giles and Kalen, to Natalia and Genevieve.

If I survive, the back of his mind whispered, a fearful echo from the Jedi’s warning and his own uncertainties.

Winds lashed against him, and his fingers clenched around the cold brace of his weapon. Sheathed at his side was his blastsword, his single-most prized possession, just in case the damned nightmares got a little too close. Unlike the last time Leon was bottled up on this rock, he wasn’t going to get caught off guard. Had it not been Kalen, he would have died along with the rest of his crew. Likewise, he was already indebted enough to the Knight, so if there was any time to start paying his dues, it was now.

"So where to, Kalen?"​

 

[Malon]

Kalen thought a moment. They could search the village for clues. He sensed no life there. No ambush in waiting. Still... A dark cloud hung over the nearby forests. He could sense that clearly. It was cold, colder than the rain lashing against his skin and causing his lightsaber to sizzle. If he focused hard enough, his stomach would twist; it was the sensation of death. Lots of deaths. So many that they had left an impression on the Force. A wound.

Concern gripped him. He wanted nothing more than to tell Leon to go back to the ship and remain safe, yet he knew he couldn't do that. Not only would Leon not agree, he wasn't a damsel in distress. The pirate was tough... and the future was always in motion. Perhaps the vision wouldn't come true. I won't let it come true, he thought defiantly. I won't...

"We encountered those things shortly after we first met, right?" he asked. "Near where you guys first landed. Do your or GIles remember where that was? If so, lead the way... and be careful. I'm sensing a lot of death in there. These things have been busy while we've been away."

@Deviant

 

[Deviant]

“Giles?” Leon said, looking back to the ironclad pirate.

“Already got the coordinates,” the man answered before sending the other pair the location via the hologear wrapped around their wrists. Leon brought it up into view, the blue light flickering against every drop of rain and every lash of the wind. He murmured into his comlink, “Hundred meters. North. We’re not far.”

Twisting his armored heels into the mud, Leon marched forward into the thick of the forest. While the cover of the canopy and the veil of the trees shielded the three from the worst of the storm, he didn’t feel any safer. Quite the opposite, in fact. In any moment, those same nightmares from before could jump them, or sink their fangs into his neck— or worse, into Kalen.

He glanced back to the Jedi, concerned. “Fifty meters.” He readied his blaster. While they weren’t certain of the Inferius just yet, Leon wasn’t going to let his guard down anytime soon. Not for me, not for Kalen, his thoughts whispered, followed by another murmur. “Thirty meters and closing.”

 

[Malon]

Kalen's mind was sharp. The woods were alive. Plant life and other smaller lifeforms were clouding his ability to sense danger more clearly. All the same, he recognized their surroundings now. They were closer to where he and Leon first met, in that clearing—weeks ago, he realized, though it seemed like an eternity. His lightsaber. His lightsaber barely kept the path ahead of them lit; the rain made visibility an impossibility even with the saber's sapphire glow.

"I don't like this," he thought aloud. "The Force is clouded and the planet itself is silent as the grave. It's as if everything just packed up and left, but we know that's not true from the lifeform scans we took in orbit. If I didn't know better, I'd say we were walking right into..." He stopped cold. "...a trap."

The alarm bells went off just as the attack came. Kalen whirled and generated a Force wave that was meant to send Leon and Giles flying backwards out of the path of the ambush. One of the creatures ate mud between them as it crashed into the ground, hissing angrily at its loss. That's when Kalen heard the chittering all around them and knew that more were coming. He dispatched the ambusher with a swift slash of his lightsaber, but then dashed to help Leon up off the ground.

He extended a free hand to help the pirate up. "Light them up!"

Once Leon was on his feet, he then whirled to bifurcate another monster emerging from the trees. Only then did he appreciate their cunning. They were luring life to them to feed, banking on the natural curiosity of the human species to lure them into a feeding frenzy. Kalen had never appreciated their predatory behavior until then. He vowed not underestimate them again.

"Can either of you raise the ship on your commlinks?" Kalen shouted above the storm and the noise coming from the woods. "Tell Natalia to take off! Tell her to scan the area, if she's able, to pinpoint where they're coming from. We need to find the nest!"

He cut another down and realized how insane he sounded. But it was the only way... and that made him despair.

@Deviant

 

[Deviant]

Knifelike nightmares scrambled out from the woods. Out from the corner of his eye, Leon saw the twitch of a silhouette, but before he could react or it could claw him into two, he was thrown back by an invisible force. Kalen, his mind whispered. His ass hit the mud and he scurried into position, raising his blaster into the air and blindly firing. Plasma bolts shot forward, illuminating the shadows of a horde of spiders before smacking into their pronged fangs.

“Eat laser!” Leon hissed through his teeth, unleashing another wave of bolts. Beside him, Giles was also letting loose several taunts and ripples of gunfire, painting the forest in red light and shadowy corpses. “I’ll tell her!” He said, reaching for his comlink. Just as he hailed for Natalia, however, a wayward spider launched forward and pinned him into the muddy ground, fangs snapping.

Leon turned to Kalen, too far and too focused on the surrounding Inferius to help. “Kalen! Giles!” Was all his voice could muster until another Inferius jumped ahead. The pirate slid to the side, inches away from its razor-sharp legs. With his weapon overheating and the nightmare turning to throw a fatal attack, Leon unsheathed his blastsword. As the spider shot its leg toward his arm, he connected the blade to the limb, cutting it clean off. Before the nightmare could react, however, a plasma bolt shot out from the sword and shredded the spider’s head apart.

He smirked. “Bantha fodder.” Flourishing his blade, Leon readied himself for another attack.

@Malon​

 

[Malon]

Kalen was a blur of color. His lightsaber sung through the air as it carved a destructive path through the spider-things. The Force invigorated his sore muscles and kept him in flight. If he let up for even a moment, he knew the things would take advantage and that would be the end of it. "Giles," he screamed out over the storm and the carnage. "The sooner we get those coordinates the sooner we can get the kriff out of here!"

He knew he couldn't speed the man along. The scan wasn't even within his power to conduct. He could only hope to the Force that Natalia had not been overrun back at the ship. Without her mechanical eyes, there way they would find the source of the Inferius attacks. Without the ship, there would be no escape. He chanced a glance back at Leon. The pirate was still standing, which made his heart calm despite the very real danger they were still in.

And the attacks kept coming. The second wave was smaller than the first. After failing to overwhelm their opponents in the first, the Inferius sent in a smaller force to probe for weaknesses. Kalen could sense their intent through the currents of the Force and was again astounded at their intelligence. He needed to get them out of this... fast. "Leon, if you see a pathway out of this mess, shout it out! They're probing for holes in our formation. Whatever you guys do, do not get separated from the group."

@Deviant

 

[Deviant]

Giles scrambled back to his feet as Karen jumped to his aid. Streaks of blue light carved through several of the attacking spiders, turning innards to paste and shadows to corpses. The older pirate clutched at his weapon, and for the first time, a faint trace of gratitude burned behind his eyes. “You saved me,” he said, surprised the Jedi had risked his life for his own, despite all the scorn and taunts he had forced Kalen to endure. Before he could even rouse a “thank you,” lightning thundered across the sky.

Instead, the man nodded and returned to hailing Natalia, no doubt beside herself as the storm outside worsened. Meanwhile, Leon continued to cut through the other lingering nightmares. For a moment, he wondered if that was what it was like to be a Jedi— not only by severing limbs in the most badass way possible, but to do it without wrath or wrongdoing— a position in which he had least expected to find himself in. Not that he was complaining, though. In fact, his smirk had not left him since he had first flashed his blade.

Nevertheless, Leon was wrenched from his excited frenzy by Kalen’s distant voice. His head twirled around to catch the other man, still cleaving through the Inferius, before scanning his surroundings. Then, as lightning illuminated the forest, he saw it. A narrow opening lodged between the trees. A familiar trail. “An opening!” He clamored, pointing to the potential escape route. “Might just be our ticket out of here. Come on!” His boots mashed through the sludge, beckoning Giles and Kalen to follow.

@Malon​

 

[Malon]

Kalen saw exactly what Leon was referring to and his switched off his lightsaber a moment later. The swarm was coming. He saw their way out. Now he needed to make sure it happened. The Force entered him like a powerful gale. It was almost as though the very storm itself was powering him. And, when he was full to bursting, he threw out his hands and unleashed a massive Force wave on the remaining creatures. Those nearest the blast were vaporized on contact. Those further back were thrown into the woods, where they likely faced mutilation if not worse. Those that survived would be coming, though. Kalen knew there wasn't a moment to lose.

"Run!" He wheezed.

The Force blast has sapped him of tremendous stamina, yet he ran all the same, following closely behind Leon. He could hear the chittering in the distance. The Inferius were beginning to regroup. It was only a matter of time now. Winded, he rested a hand on a tree's trunk and tried to recenter himself. "Giles... Did she send you the coordinates? Where are they coming from? Leo..." His breaths were becoming shallow. "...need to kill the queen."

The chittering was moving. The infestation was on the move again. Damn, he thought. I didn't buy us as much time as I'd hoped.

He reached for his lightsaber. The weapon blazed to life once again.

@Deviant

 

[Deviant]

Leon glanced back as he dashed for the opening. Thunder roared again, but this time it clamored out from Kalen himself. The uproar swept forward, evaporating the swirling rain and the oncoming shadows that carved through it. Those further from the blast sailed backward, either into one another or into the treeline. Although the moment was certainly cause for celebration, there was no time. Kalen’s move would have cost them only another several seconds, and Leon had to put them to good use.

So, he ran. Weaving past trees, snaking beneath the branches, his silhouette only a flicker by every strike of lightning. He ran until he felt his lungs beat against his chest and his legs clenched like lead. He ran until he staggered into a narrow clearing, where the rain no longer bled through the pitch-black canopy. Placing one hand on an adjacent tree, he gazed back to recognize Kalen, similarly exhausted. He tried to offer a smile, a hint of gratification— a feeling of hope. But it faded when his eyes fluttered over to find no sign of Giles. Only the void, and the shadows that still lurked within.

“Shit,” he said, fingers tightening around his own blade. “Giles…” He squeezed his eyes shut and backed away from the tree. By every moment, the horde came closer. He could feel them teeming throughout the forest, cutting off any chance for escape. His left heel gnawed into the mud as Leon spun around to scan the area. In the umbrage, he found only eyes. A thousand, glowing eyes burrowing right into his skull.

“Kalen,” he whispered, raising his sword up high. However, none of the nightmares advanced. Instead, they lingered in place, enveloping the small clearing the pair had stumbled into. Thoughts flew into his mind— who, what, why? Then, Leon felt it, another set of eyes sinking into the back of his head. His neck tilted back, looking closer at the black canopy of the giant tree. Except, there was no canopy. Just a massive silhouette, wrapped in thick webs and branches.

“Ka…” His voice faltered as the hulking shadow slumped from its nest. “…len.”

 

[Malon]

This is it, Kalen thought as Leon's voice made him turn, whereupon he saw the monstrosity that had driven the wind from the pirate's lungs. This is my dream.

The creature was massive. The source of it all. A queen Inferius, in all her horrible glory. Kalen had never dared imagine what she would look like; a monster spider that would have sent any arachnophobe into a coma. Her presence within the Force was... hungry. Primal. And there was rage, fueling the dark side—the presence that had clouded Kalen's senses. It was only then that he made the terrible connection; she was sensitive to the Force as well. His presence here had drawn her out; and now she had sprung her trap.

A memory flashed behind his eyes. His vision. His dream. He saw Leon dying and it forced him to take action. No.

"Get on your comm," he said to Leon. Another flash. The village. The slaughter that he had led them out of weeks ago. No... "Get Natalia to bring the ship here. I can give you an opening."

The queen clicked her mandibles and began to advance down her massive web towards them. Her children advanced with her. Kalen's body tense and he experienced another flash. Hoth. The villagers. Dead. No! He sensed Leon's hesitation. Perhaps the pirate would refuse to leave. He was certainly stubborn enough. "You have to trust me. I have no intention of dying." He shouted back to Leon. "But I'm not going to let you die either. Get on the guns. Cover me. I'll take care of ugly, here."

Or it'll be the end of us all...

@Deviant

 

[Deviant]

As the behemoth of a spider descended from the canopy, Leon struggled to find his footing. Fear coursed through him like poison, but still he rendered a brave face. A sedated glare, as if he could stare down the beast into submission. Obviously, it did nothing of the sort. Instead, the eight-legged nightmare simply drifted toward the ground, graceful but all the more terrifying. Her fangs clicked, eyes dilated and limbs shuddered. And as Leon watched, wavering back to Kalen, he saw them. Wrapped inside the twisting webs, he saw the drained, decayed bodies of his crew. Even in death, fear remained.

Still quite a way from Kalen, he lumbered carelessly toward him, toward hope. His eyes dropped back to the Queen, who had followed his gaze to his crew, and his brave face sank beneath his skin. Then, a voice echoed through his head, a whisper that seemed to waft out of the furthest parts of his mind. “They were fit for a Queen,” it said, dark and terrible. “They would have made a fine addition to the swarm, but I simply could not help myself.” The spider’s fangs chittered again, except this time it sounded like laughter. Bloodcurdling and cruel, it rang through the now silent clearing.

He looked down to his comlink, limp and broken, no doubt from all the fighting. “I can’t, Kalen, I can’t,” he murmured, as if finally overcome with despair by the Queen’s taunts, still echoing through his thoughts.

Every man would have collapsed into the mud with horror. Every spirited pirate would have scrambled back into the forest. Every dauntless captain would have resigned themselves to death against such odds. There was no escape nor hope left now, and even Leon, as stubborn as he was, could see that. So, at a standstill, he glanced back to Kalen. “It’s my fault we’re here. It’s my fault the villagers are dead, that my crew is dead.” He paused. “I’m sorry, Kalen, I’m so sorry.” His fingers tightened on his blade. “I don’t want to die, not anymore...”

His voice hardened, and slowly, he raised his blade. “…but if it means I get to kill this shady bitch, then it’s a risk I’m willing to take.” And with that, Leon charged.

 

[Malon]

Leon charging ahead, knowing full well he was about to die, triggered something in Kalen. Ice flowed through his veins and, for the briefest instant, Kalen Gheer fell to the dark side. He threw his free palm outward, unleashing a storm of lightning that struck the queen spider. Her shrieks were monstrous, shredding at Kalen's eardrums. Then the shrieks of her colony joined hers and Kalen realized that she shared her pain with them through whatever force bound them together. The realization pulled him out of his momentary darkness.

"Their pain is connected!" Kalen shouted to Leon. "Kill her, we'll kill them all!"

Kalen was then presented with a choice. A choice he realized would change the course of his future forever. The light side of the Force bore now power capable of killing. It was a healing and assistive energy. Only the corruption of the dark side could produce enough killing lightning to destroy the queen Inferius. Could he risk that? He would be turning his back on everything he was raised to know. He would be turning his back on the very Jedi Order itself. For Leon. Any other Jedi would have accepted his fate.

He realized, then, what this had all been about. The planet. The pirates. Meeting Leon. The Inferius and everything that happened after. It was all a test. The Jedi or his passions. The Order or Leon. And that was the moment Kalen Gheer ceased to be a Jedi Knight. New lightning burst from the tips of his fingers and raked over the queen spider. He poured everything he had into the blast. All of his passion, all of his pain, all of his love. Each wave of emotion brought a new surge of electrical energy.

He prayed that would give Leon the opening he needed.

@Deviant

 

[Deviant]

Lightning flashed above him, but not the lightning Leon had expected. Instead, it shot forward a foot from his shoulder, and like a cleansing fire consumed the Queen. Her screams fell on his ears like daggers, but Leon didn’t stumble or hesitate. He hardly flinched. Rather, he pushed forward. The shrieks of the Inferius, the clotted mud at his feet, nor the fatigue that gnawed at his legs could slow him down. He was going to murder this godforsaken monstrosity and either toss its carcass into space or hang its lumpish face on some wall. Then we’ll see who’s laughing now, huh?

However, as much as he relished the thought of an easy victory, he was too far and too slack to get to the Queen in time. Her ass-faced babies and underlings were already surging to her aid, soaring toward him, toward Kalen. In moments, the two would be overrun by numberless fangs and claws. Leon, especially, would find himself shredded apart. Gouged, eaten, devoured. There was no way his blade alone could carve through the swarm, and then into the Queen, now looking to retreat even as she writhed against the lightning. This whole journey would be for naught.

Several of the Inferius vault into his path, fangs gnashing together with anticipation and fury. Outnumbered five to one, Leon still held his pace, pointing his sword in their direction. The odds were out of his favor, and the chance of leaving this clearing alive was next to one. At least, not until his very own ship emerged from the canopy and unleashed a hail of fire onto the oncoming horde.

Leon smiled. He was going to charge into the fray regardless of what happened, but now— now he had hope. Everyone was here now, placing their lives out on the line for his own sake. They were giving everything they had not only for a chance to defeat the Inferius, but for Leon to prevail. And all he wanted to do now was smile, laugh, or cry. He wasn’t alone anymore. He had Kalen, his friends, Genevieve, and a purpose: to live. Not for material wealth or for lusterless joy, but for them.

His path clear, Leon blasted ahead and drove the full length of his blade into the Queen’s blackened chest. A plasma bolt fired through, exiting clean out of her back. Her screams, enough to wake the dead, reached its peak. With one of her legs, she slashed down into Leon, throwing him back with a savage tear. Still, the work was done. With a searing blade cemented into her chest and an overwhelming wave of electricity frying her nerves, the Queen collapsed into the side of the tree— dead, as with the rest of her army.

Leon swaddled through the mud, struggling to get on his feet. “Is it done? Did we win? Is the bitch dead?”

 

[Malon]

Kalen was recovering from his momentarily lapse into darkness when he felt the queen's death in the Force. The deaths of her colony echoed with her, jolting him out of his trance and granting him a small vision. These Inferius were but a small portion of the numbers the species still held... but the rest were somewhere far away, deep in the Unknown Regions. As the vision ended, he hoped they stayed there. He hoped he never saw their kind ever again.

Even so, he couldn't believe it was over. The proceeding weeks had felt like a long nightmare—specked with small moments of brightness and warmth. Kalen felt... changed. Different. In a way, his actions a few moments ago had been a culmination of that. And he knew it was an irreversible change. And... in way, he was okay with that.

He said to Leon, "Yeah... Yeah, it looks like we did it. You did it."

Feeling more liberated than ever, he stepped over spider bodies and joiners; his lightsaber hissed off and clattered from his hand to the ground; and, when he was in range, he grabbed Leon by the coat and pulled him into tight hug. One of his visions, he thought gratefully, didn't come true. He didn't think he could bear seeing Leon as lifeless as the queen's body behind him. Leon was sweating from the exertion, but Kalen didn't care. He kissed him anyways and then, with more conviction than he ever had before, said:

"I choose you. The Order... the Code... none of it matters to me. The Force brought us together. I'm not letting anything tear us apart. I choose you, Leo."

He never went back for his lightsaber. The weapon was a relic of who he was as a Jedi and so it found its final resting place among the scattered corpses of the Inferius. Not at who he was becoming. Leon's ship was a welcome sight as Natalia piloted it to the ground in the clearing. And, as he smiled at Leon as they waited to board, he hoped he never saw the galaxy's Unknown Regions again. Anywhere else, though, so long as he was with Leon, sounded alright to him...

@Deviant

 

[Deviant]

Leon smirked as Kalen poured out his undying love. “God, you’re so corny.” Rather than mock the other man, per his usual charm, he instead pulled him into another, more heated kiss. Now, he was never one for the cliche, nor was he much of a hopeless romantic— but with Kalen? He couldn’t help himself. All he wanted then and there was to rest at his side, to watch as the starless clouds finally gave way to daylight and admire the coming dawn.

Leon withdrew from his fantasy though, and followed Kalen back to the ship. There, a relieved Natalia and a grinning Genevieve waited at the ramp. Behind them, a bandaged Giles also emerged, his typical grimace in place but nevertheless mixed with something else— gratitude. The man nodded his head toward the Jedi as he approached, but his lips remained locked together until Natalia bumped in, “The storm was interfering with our communications, but Giles here fought tooth and nail to get a signal out to me.”

She crossed her arms and nudged the man. “I found him up in a tree, bruised and bleeding to death. If it hadn’t been for him, I don’t think I would’ve found the two of you in the first place.” Leon raised an eyebrow before Giles likewise interrupted, “It was the least I could do.” The man glanced to Kalen. “I owed you one for saving me earlier, anyway.” He turned away, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. “So, uh, thanks for that.”

Natalia smiled again, as if she were proud of Giles’ surprising, unexpected courtesy. While it certainly didn’t wipe away the bad blood or the resentment he had for the Jedi, it was still a step in the right direction. Then again, Kalen was no longer a Jedi. Now, he was part of the crew.

“Kudos for teamwork, then!” Leon clapped. His laughter was faint. “I guess this is the part where we all have a group hug and ride off into the sun, right?” He chuckled again, only to be cut off by a short, dry cough. Looking into his open hand, he saw blood. Then, his eyes moved down to his chest, recognizing a deep gash. The Queen, his mind echoed, before he whispered, “Ah, shit.” With that, Leon caved in on his legs and collapsed into the ground.