sparky // a padawan story

chapter 68. an old flame.

"What do you mean I need a chain code to book a transport?"
The old twi'lek lady rolls her eyes at me in annoyance. "It means exactly what you think it does. You need a chain code. I don't know how you've gone so long without getting one, but you need it, and I can't help you otherwise. Sorry, but also, I'm really not."
I let out a frustrated huff as I walk away from the lady's desk and begin down the sketchy streets of Corellia. I try to keep my head down, but still stay aware of my surroundings. The streets are crowded, filled with hushed whispers of shady dealings, and...
"Did you hear they tracked a Jedi to Corellia?"
"Really? I'd be damned! There a price on 'em?"
"A million."
"That much? Kriffin' stars!"
Uh, yeah. "Kriffin' stars" is correct. I try to not think of it as I continue down the street. But it seems that every conversation being held is talking about this wanted Jedi. Me.
In a slight panic, I turn down a dark alleyway and hide myself behind a pile of crates. I take off my backpack and open it, rummaging through it until I pull out Waxer's helmet and Boil's shoulder pauldron. This will have to do. I graze my fingers over the names painted in black on the plastoid pauldron before I secure it to my left shoulder, then I look thoughtfully at the helmet of my old friend, little Numa painted on the head among the countless tallies of destroyed clankers. As I'm about to put it on, I'm stopped.
"Not too good at hiding from me, are you, Just?" I hear the voice of the Grand Inquisitor speak from behind me, followed by the sound of his double-bladed saber igniting. I turn to face him, igniting my own golden saber to challenge him. "I hate to be the one to break it to you, but this isn't a game of hide-and-seek back at the Jedi temple. This is your death. You can run, but you cannot hide from it."
"Eh, I'll admit, not my greatest hiding spot. Oh well. But this time you should go hide, and I'll come find you! I'll count to twenty. One... two..." Before I get to three, a blaster unexpectedly fires from behind me, and just barely misses the Inquisitor's head. "...Oh shit." I put away my saber and Force push him away from me into a wall before grabbing my helmet and backpack and making a run for it. I slip the helmet over my head as I pass by the nearly-unconscious Inquisitor and turn a corner.
"Wait! Stop!" I hear a voice yell, but it's certainly not the Inquisitor's. It must be whoever shot at him. I ignore them and keep running. But sure enough, I hear footsteps following me.
"Kriff," I curse under my breath as I continue to run as fast as I can. There's gotta be a shipyard somewhere around here, somewhere that I can get a ride off of here.
"Wait, hold on!" the voice following me calls as I keep running away. "I'm not here to hurt you, please!" I finally reach the end of the alley, and skid to a stop before I fall over the edge of the dead end. I look down and see lines of speeders flying below. I get a sense of deja vu, back to Coruscant, running away from the police with...
"Don't!" the voice shouts. I hear footsteps come up behind me, and I whip around, igniting it the golden blade and pointing it towards the mysterious person.
A Mandalorian, tall, with a navy blue helmet and armor.
And he doesn't flinch.
Not one bit.
It's like he knew I was going to do it.
He chuckles under his breath. "You know, I don't think I'm ever gonna understand your fascination with freefalling off ledges, Arlo."
I notice a small, braided bracelet tied to the end of his blaster, resting in the holster on his hip. It can't be...
"...Korkie?"
He takes another step towards me as he takes off his helmet. "Who else would know to stop you from jumping into moving traffic off a dead end?"
I turn off my saber and slip my helmet off as I run up to him, immediately embracing him as I let out a laugh of relief. He hugs me back tightly with a small chuckle of his own.
As we pull away from each other, I get a better look at his familiar face, now just slightly more grown up. He let his reddish blonde hair grow out a bit again. Instead of the neat cut like the last time I saw him in person, it's messy from his helmet, though it's still out of his eyes. Speaking of, his eyes are still blue as ever, and his smile is, as usual, quite charming, and a small, hardly noticeable stubble adorns his slightly more defined jawline.
He grins as he examines my own face. "You're okay. You're really okay." He speaks it softly, as if to assure himself that I really was, in fact, standing right in front of him.
"So are you," I reply with a smile.
"Stars, I was so worried. Once I heard about the massacre of the Jedi, I couldn't believe it... so I started looking for you. Aunt Bo thought I was an idiot, she was sure you and the rest would be dead, but I went looking anyway. I've been looking since the war ended, and I never found you, but you know how fast word travels around the galaxy. When I heard word of an apparent Jedi with a gold lightsaber that they had tracked here, I knew it was you. Karking hell, I am so glad I found you."
"You... you've really been looking for me for that long?" I ask, genuinely touched.
"Of course I have, Arlo."
"But, Korkie, for all you knew, I was dead—"
"Like I've told you before, hope is all we really have. It's all I had. I, uh... you know I care about you a lot, Arlo. I wasn't going to lose hope until I had proof you were gone. And, besides, you obviously are not dead."
I snicker. "Great observation, Kryze. How'd you figure that one out?" I question sarcastically.
He smiles as he shakes his head in mock disapproval. "Always a charmer, cyar'ika."
"And here we go with the Mando'a. You know I don't know what that means, I only remember the curses, shebs'palon."
"Hey, I'm not an asshole!"
"Oh, you know I kid, Korkie. I really did miss you. A lot."
"As did I. But, uh, Arlo, you're kind of being tracked down by stormtroopers right now, so we should probably get out of here."
"...We?"
"Yes, we, Arlo. You're coming with me. Obviously."
I frown. "Korkie, that's really sweet, but I'm wanted, and I can't put you at risk like that—"
"Arlo." He looks at me, almost pleadingly, and places his free hand on my arm. "I haven't been looking around the entire galaxy for you for over a year now just for you to run off again. Please. Besides, it looks like we could use the company. And the backup. Don't you think?"
I sigh. "...You're right. But—"
"No buts."
"But you're not a, you know, wanted criminal. Not that I should be, but I am, and if they catch you helping me—"
"How many times do I have to imply that I want to help you, Arlo? Because I want to help you. And I don't really care if I'm putting myself 'at risk' by doing so, because either way, I've got other risky stuff going on now, too."
"What do you mean, 'risky stuff'?"
"I'll tell you later. But I think you're gonna want in. What I can tell you now is that, well, there are still some people who are not happy with this Imperial rule. And it's not going to be put up with for much longer."
I smirk. "Defying authority? That rings a bell, doesn't it, Kryze?"
"Yeah. Got it from you, actually," he snips back.
"Hey, now. I never once told you to break into a government warehouse—"
Suddenly, multiple sets of footsteps come running towards us. We freeze.
"Stop right there!" a stormtrooper commander orders as him and his squad hold up their blasters to us. "It would be in your best interest to surrender, Jedi."
Korkie and I share a knowing look. He knows exactly what I'm thinking. I slowly move to clip my lightsaber onto my belt, then put my hands up in surrender, helmet still in my left hand. Korkie follows my lead.
"What are you waiting for? You have nowhere to run to! Surrender!" the commander demands once again.
"Nowhere to run... but somewhere to fall. See ya, fellas!" With that, Korkie and I make a break for it, putting our helmets back on as we sprint to the edge. I take Korkie's hand as we jump out into the open and begin to fall into the traffic stomach-first.
And it feels great. I feel free.
I can't help but laugh. A pure, joyful laugh.
Because I may be constantly running, but I'm not hiding. I'm not trapped.
Korkie squeezes my hand a bit tighter. Now I'm reminded that I'm no longer alone.
"How are you enjoying this?" he asks frantically. "This is not fun!"
"Oh, yes it is! I feel so alive!" I shout.
"Yeah, and I feel like we can very much possibly die right now!"
I notice we're falling closer and closer to a speeder, a taxi, specifically. Korkie notices, too.
"You trust me, Korkie?"
"Of course I do, obviously, 'cause if I didn't, I wouldn't have let you drag me over the ledge with you!"
"Perfect, then let go of me and catch onto the speeder door! And hold tight!"
"Wait, what?"
"Just do it!"
He sighs and lets go of my hand as we continue to rapidly fall, and as we near the speeder, he reaches out both of his hands and latches onto the speeder. I, however, continue to fall, and grab onto his foot, using it to fling myself under the speeder and use the Force to flip myself back over on top, on the opposite side of Korkie. I help pull him back up into the speeder.
I brush off my shoulder. "I'd say I handled that quite nicely."
"Then we have two different definitions of nice," Korkie quips.
The taxi driver looks back at us as if nothing weird at all had just happened. "Where you two goin'?"
"Shipyard," Korkie answers him, before turning back to me. "So, let's catch up a bit. When'd you get a tattoo?"
"A few days ago. Back on— nevermind. I promised that I wouldn't— kriff. Forget I said anything. You heard nothing."
"Hey. You can trust me, too, Arlo. You know that."
"I know, I know. But if I tell you where I was, assuming the worst, what if you were to... I don't know, get tortured? They can draw that kind of information out of you if they know you know me. I still have people there that I need to protect. That's why I'm here to begin with, after all."
"That's fair. So you left to protect someone?"
"More than one. It's a pretty long story. But the gist of it is pretty much that I confronted that Inquisitor you just shot at, got a ride off the planet from a pilot, and ended up here to steal spice to pay him with."
His eyes widen. "You stole spice from the Corellians?"
"Well, in my defense, it wasn't my idea. And I had help. But it worked out, because I managed to save all my credits."
He sighs with a chuckle. "You really are crazy sometimes, you know that?"
"I know. And you still like it."
"Yeah. I guess I do."
—
this was fun to write, i've missed these two together 😭 in the meantime, i would like to apologize in advance for the next chapter because, well, it is very much cliché. well, parts of it are, at least. oops.
thanks for reading! -a 🪐