DEFECTED | cal kestis ✔️

xix. don't you dare!

"Cal! Cal, come on!"

TN remembered dragging Cal through the Dathomir temple through the ruins, the boy clutching her hand looking as if he would pass out. She remembered the fear and horror in his eyes when she would glance back. He was unsuccessful in getting the Astrium and TN didn't understand how. He didn't explain when she showed up nor did he want to. He took too long in the temple and TN went to go get him. She just didn't expect dead witches to chase them.

"Use your lightsaber, dammit!" She had shouted at him in frustration as she used a blaster. A witch scratched her face but she ignored the stinging sensation. Her blaster killed the zombie witch in one shot as she ran.

The two got back to the Mantis in a rush and Greez went into hyperdrive immediately. Cal wouldn't talk or even look at her. All he did was collapse on the floor while clutching his broken lightsaber. He and Cere had a moment together while TN crossed her arms and waited for him to explain himself clearer to her.

"Tell me what happened!" TN had demanded when she got him alone. Cal seemed irritated by her.

"No." The boy replied coldly.

"I can't help you if you don't trust me!" TN pleaded but he just continued to ignore her. BD-1 tried to convince him to tell her what he experienced, but he shot up from where he sat in his room. The girl in front of him kept her hard gaze on him as he towered over her.

"It's doesn't concern you!"

"Oh, so you're going to keep secrets after I told you mine?"

TN remembered the way the Force felt. First it was a small pressure in her neck where it made her uncomfortable. She frowned as she felt her neck, the invisible fingers clenching harder.

"Cal, stop! Cal!"

"You want to know what I saw! I saw my dead master! I failed him and the Jedi! And then, I saw you dressed as a Purge Trooper and you said all these horrible things to me. You said I was...I was a coward!"

The pressure built up in her neck but TN kept her face as stoic as possible. She knew he was angry with himself, but she was angry that he believed whatever dark version of herself said to him.

"You know, TN..."

"Cal...Cal, please calm down!"

"If I knew that the Force would use you against me--"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence! Don't you fucking dare!"

+ + +

TN-0237 stood stoically beside Cal, her gaze set ahead of her as he waited for Cal to repair his lightsaber. The cold of Ilum did nothing to her and or even made her harsh exterior break. Her body was tense as the fight she and Cal had replayed over and over in her head. The words exchanged and the harshness in their tones left the two in a tense silence.

I wish I didn't know you or even have met you, was what Cal had said in his angered state. He was angry. TN knew that, but the words stung and it brought her back to square one: being a stormtrooper. That's what she was anyway. Expendable...an enemy...unknowledgeable of emotions...not cared about or even missed...TN would always be that way. It didn't matter if she fell in love. It was evident her and Cal were just different.

Or were they?

Both came from pasts where they were taken from their parents and trained to be people others wanted them to be. Both were trained to defend their beliefs and their respected sides.