deercountry | (no subject)

Luke smiled slightly at that, happy to hear her laugh, even if it was at his expense. He leaned forward slightly, as if to draw in the fact that this was a for real story, and not anything he made up... because honestly, he was still trying to figure out everything that had happened during all of this, and if they hadn't collectively hallucinated the whole thing.

"So, there was an archeologist that used to be contracted out to my father -- her name is Doctor Aphra, and she's still alive, last I checked," he began. "After she split from my father, she got in contact with me. She had a crystal that had the consciousness of an ancient Jedi inside, and said she knew someone that would be able to unlock it and allow me to use it."

He paused, making a face at himself. "I was desperate for a teacher; Obi-Wan had died a year ago, and my efforts to try and find relics of the past and teach myself were only marginally successful. Learning from an ancient Jedi sounded like it was the best thing I could ever hope for, so I accepted."

Reasonable enough. Ariadne nodded. "I would have done the same thing, if someone offered me an Alastrian relic." No matter who they might have been aligned with. But she decided to ignore that part, because Anakin had already interfered enough with her day. She needed space from him and his horrible shadow.

She took a small sip of her tea, settling down, tucking her feet under her.

"I take it things did not go according to plan?"

"Oh, they went according to plan, just not my understanding of the plan," Luke replied, that sourness creeping into his voice again. "We needed to go to this place called Ktath’atn; the queen there only saw people once every year, to see if people could please her interest with something new and exciting -- Aphra put it she was 'very old and very bored'. Considering how scarce Jedi had become, she thought presenting me would get an audience with the queen."

He made a face; now that he was saying it out loud, he was seeing all the red flags that he should have back then. Hindsight and all that.

"It was the first time I had ever worn a suit, and even then, Aphra presented me as 'a farmboy from Tatooine' just because she knew it would get a rise out of people and lead to me demonstrating my abilities in order to protect us, even if it was by accident. It worked way too well; everyone was immediately dismissed except for the two of us."

She reached across the table, absently touching the back of his hand. "Well, I know what it's like to be a curiosity," she said. Alastrians were probably as rare in her world as Jedi were in his. "That's never very fun."

Although, having seen him in a suit, she thought he would dazzle any crowd.

And he just smelled so good.

"So once you were alone with her?"

"That didn't come until later," Luke replied. "We had breakfast with the queen the next morning, where I found out the intent of my being shown off was to be kept as a pet."

Again, he made a face at that. He really should have gotten up and walked out then and there.

"The queen tried to get me to demonstrate my powers again, to make sure last night wasn't a fluke. I was supposed to lift the lid off of a dinner plate, but the Force was not cooperating with me -- I didn't have the training to realize it then, but it was because there was something highly dangerous under that plate. Fortunately, Aphra realized what was going on and set off a small detonation, and we ran for it.

"I've told you before there are all manner of strange things in my galaxy, but what was under that lid took the cake. It was a parasite -- a highly dangerous parasite that completely takes over its host called an Abersyn Symbiote."

Well, at least he would be a very cute pet.

"A parasite," she said, her eyes widening slightly. Although the name itself meant nothing to her, there were plenty of horrifying stories about parasites back in Valeria. And she was relatively sure she knew what a 'symbiote' was, in the most general sense.

Although she didn't know they liked to steal cake. She would have to ask him about that later.

Ariadne loved cake.

"I'm glad Aphra was there to protect you!"

Luke nodded at that, grinning slightly at her reaction.

"To give you an idea about how dangerous Abersyn Symbiotes are, both the Old Republic and the Empire's response to reports of their appearance is to bomb the location from orbit and hope it's enough," he continued. "The queen and everyone in her Citadel -- it was one massive hive of them that had gone unchecked for decades, maybe even a century. Not only had it developed into an advanced hive mind, but the queen had also found a way to grow more, without the need to kill the host in order to breed."

A frustrated breath escaped from him, and he paused a moment to sip at his tea, trying not to make a face at the memory of what came next.

"Also, don't be so quick to give Aphra credit," he continued. "Oh, she helped me escape at first, but that was only because she could have been taken over by a symbiote in that moment too. Once she had enough leverage to get the queen to do what she wanted, she handed me right over."

Ariadne made a face, immediately disappointed in this stranger she'd never met. "She did?" It was sometimes very difficult to believe the best in people, when they did such selfish things.

Obviously, whatever it was hadn't worked out in the doctor's favor. After all, Luke was sitting there now, drinking tea with her.

Still. What was the phrase Dean had once used?

"That's...not cold."

...she hoped she'd gotten it right. Maybe it was supposed to be cool?

Luke tilted his head in confusion, not sure what that phrase was supposed to mean. He shrugged it off after a moment -- different worlds had different saying after all, and he was pretty sure it was a comment on how it wasn't very nice of Aphra to do that to him. Which, yeah, it definitely was not "cold".

"Well, it was worse," Luke replied. "By the time that happened, my friends had appeared as well. Han got captured along with me, and I got to watch as he was implanted with a symbiote and forced to join the queen's guard."

He let out a breath; he had the unfortunate opportunity to hear his friends scream in pain a lot over the years, and that especially hadn't been fun.

"The queen had a different plan for me, though; apparently the 'essence' of a Force sensitive is practically a drug for Abersyn Symbiotes. She was... essentially eating my soul, I guess? It's hard to describe what she was doing, outside of the fact that it hurt."

His friend Han seemed to get in an awful lot of trouble. Perhaps he was the Dean of Luke's universe.

Didn't matter.

Ariadne's forehead crinkled in concern as she listened, her fingers growing a little tense. It sounded truly awful. There was no feeling worse than feeling helpless. Listening to suffering.

Poor Luke.

And then the idea of his soul being disturbed. Well, that hit close to home, in light of all of the chaos that the Winchesters had brought into her life. "Oh, Luke," she said softly. "That's...a nightmare."

"It wasn't fun," Luke admitted, as if that had been the least of the things he had endured in his life. Which... as much as he hated to think about it, it kind of was.

"I didn't know how we were going to get out of that one, but then Aphra snuck back in," he continued. "She explained to me how the hive worked, and... well, basically, the strongest person in the hive controls the hive. If I let a symbiote infect me, I could interrupt the queen's control.

"So that's what I did."

"Because you were the strongest."

Which probably had more to do with the Force than with Luke as an individual. But all the same, she gave him a proud, little smile. As if to say, 'but of course.'

She gave the back of his hand another light tap, before picking up her tea again.

"It's a little hard to figure out that Aphra, though. In the end what, exactly, did she want out of all of this?"

"She wanted that Jedi consciousness unlocked, though I'm not sure what for," he replied, frowning slightly. "I remember a report of a massive underworld gathering for some weapon, but nothing came of it that I remember. Either way, I got to see first hand what that 'Jedi' was like."

He shook his head. "I managed to freeze the queen, trying to take over the hive, but I was trying to keep my own consciousness separate, maintain my own sense of self. That consciousness intervened, showing me how I could take control of the symbiote, and with its emotional drive and control, make myself the most powerful Jedi that ever existed.

"But I didn't do that. I killed it instead, and I killed the queen as well."

It wasn't exactly a happy ending. Ariadne didn't like any confrontation that ended with death, especially the kind where there was no coming back. Still, she was relieved on Luke's behalf. It sounded like quite a lot.

"Well," she said, taking a sip of her tea. "What about your friend? The one who's always getting into trouble. You were able to rescue him, right?"

The Dean of his universe.

Luke grinned at that.

"The strongest in the hive controls the hive," he replied. "With me destroying my symbiote and the queen dead, that left Han in control. He ordered everyone to, as he put it, 'quit these people,' and that disrupted all the symbiotes, destroying them and freeing an entire planet of people."

He let out a faint laugh, taking a sip of tea.

"His inability to commit to anything at the time saved us all."

She smiled back. "Well, I'm glad to hear that part. Especially the 'freeing an entire planet of people' part." A pause. "Planets are big, right? Lots of kingdoms and continents?" Which meant a lot of people.

Ariadne set her mug down. She picked up the kettle, refreshing both of their cups. "You and your friends are real heroes, aren't you?"

It came out of nowhere and Ariadne was surprised at herself.

Still. She was right.

"I mean...real heroes. You save people."

"Yes, planets can be big."

Luke turned a bit pink at being called a hero, looking down at his tea cup.

"We try to," he admitted shyly. "We've fought hard to help the galaxy, to try and stop the Empire, to help the people affected by it. It isn't easy, and it takes a lot of work, but we do everything that we can."

There was a lot to admire in his work. More so than her own, if she was being honest. "I never got to go on lifesaving missions like that," she said. "My work with the resistance was always...I don't want to say 'less honorable.' But if I did it right, no one ever knew I was there."

And she wasn't looking for glory. Far from it. An Alastrian's safest protection was anonymity.

It was more...the idea of actually seeing the lives being changed.

She liked that.

"You must...you and your friends...you must feel so sure of yourselves, of what you're doing. Does...that make sense?"

Luke's expression softened, his fingers absently tracing the lip of the cup.

"I've had to go on missions like those, too," he admitted. "One on Jedha was... well, I learned a lot there."

He rested his arms on the table, leaning forward slightly.

"It's not easy," he continued. "There is so much that happens around the galaxy that we need to keep track of. So many people that need help, that need relief from the Empire. Yet at the same time, there are people that are so convinced the Empire is the only way to do things, that things were worse during the time of the Republic. There are times you question what you're doing, if you're doing the right thing."

Luke met her eyes then, his smile back, though it was a little sad.

"There are times it's not always easy to say, 'Yes, I'm doing the right thing'."

"I guess...those are the times when you need to believe it the most. So you can find whatever you need to keep going."

She pushed aside her mug, tracing triangles against the grain of the table's surface. Triangles were a sacred shape to the Elves. Mudorism believed in three great tenets: Strength, Knowledge, and Bravery. All three in balance. All three connected and flowing through each other.

Bravery was the easy part. The others were harder, sometimes.

And she wondered where self-confidence fell in that triad.

"I think you're doing the right thing. For whatever my opinion is worth."

Luke nodded faintly; she was right, of course. Finding out Vader was his father, after "knowing" him as a good man and Jedi Knight... that had definitely shaken his resolve, made him question if he was doing the right thing this whole time or if he was just being used. He learned the answer for himself, of course, but it had been a long road, and several hard lessons learned along the way.

He offered a smile at that last bit, almost reaching a hand out to her, before he stopped.

"It's worth more than you think," he replied. "Thank you."

Her eyes followed his hand. Forward, and then back again. And she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. Luke was the only boy she'd ever held hands with and...she kind of liked it.

She turned her own over on the table, palm up.

"All I ask," she said quietly, "is that you let me help. If...if you need help." With Anakin. Obi-Wan. Any of them, really.

He peered up at her almost shyly at the pretty clear offer, before he reached out again. His fingers gently traced the lines of her hand, marveling privately at how small her hand was -- smaller than Leia's even.

"I will," he said, his voice soft, like he realized what he was doing was intimate. "I promise."

It was, by far, the most intimate thing she'd ever done.

Even more than dancing. She realized how much the girls at court would laugh at her for that. But she tried not to measure her life by them. For one thing, they were all wildly unhappy. For another, they were Elves. Which was something that she could never actually be.

"I believe you," she said. He was too much like her not to. After all, when she made a promise, she always kept it.

Always.

The soft smile he gave her was a clear sign of his appreciation, before he turned his attention back to what their hands were doing. His fingers traced along her fingers, like he was trying to memorize every line, every dip, as well as the feel -- worn from hard work but no less soft. He felt his face turn a bit pink, before he finally peered up at her again, suddenly feeling very shy.

"A...Airy, I... um..."