Today's Survivor request is 'Fire' for @flammabel
Cal is on fire. His body burns with pain, so much he can’t begin to figure out what hurts the worst. But nothing, absolutely nothing, his body protests about compares to the firestorm consuming the Force. The last time he felt something like this was on Nur.
Nur, where Vader lurked beneath an ocean.
He’s here. Cal knows that darkness, even five years removed.
If Vader is here –
He can’t finish the thought. He can’t. He has to get up, get back to the base, find Cere, find…
Get. Up.
It takes everything he has, every last dreg of adrenaline and the ragged remains of his Force connection, to get himself upright. He knows he’s hurt, that things are broken, and other things are bleeding, and a few more on top of that are burned, but he doesn’t have time to stop.
He steps outside of himself, the sands of Jedha shimmering blue, the Force giving him what he needs to get up, get moving through the sand, to a little gathering of spamels, one of whom bows low and lets him scramble onto its back, leaving his blood across its tough hide. He nudges its mind, asks it to take him to the base, the base screaming out to him, dragging him back with the surety of a hook burrowed into his chest reeling in.
The spamel takes off, fast and confident, and Cal ignores the bodies it crushes beneath its hooves. He can barely recall the chase, couldn’t say how many he took down in his futile attempt to catch Bode, stop Bode…
Bode, a Jedi, all along.
No, not a Jedi anymore.
A liar. A betrayer. A murderer.
The fire moves inward, igniting in Cal’s chest, leaving him with little room to breathe.
Bode, stealing the compass.
Bode, slaughtering Master Cordova.
Bode, leading the Empire here.
And now, the absolute certainty that Vader is here and even though she told him to go, go after Bode, Cal left Cere to fight him alone.
Cere, Merrin, Greez and BD are all back at that base, and he’s out here.
Now who’s the abandoner?
He urges the spamel to go faster, even though every jolt sends fresh pain cascading through every part of him. He doesn’t care. It doesn’t matter. He has to get back, he can’t let anyone else die because of his mistakes. Because this is his fault. All of it. He brought Bode here. He trusted Bode, and –
They reach a ridge and there, on the horizon, Cal sees fire, great gouts of orange and red spewing smoke into the sky.
He can’t breathe. He can’t. This can’t be real. It can’t be. He nudges the spamel, the beast running once again, and Cal is suddenly back at the base, the journey lost in his memory. He’s in the base, moving through fire, not caring that it burns, that he can’t breathe, he still can’t breathe, he has to get to the Archive. He must. Cere is there. Cere will be fine. She’s Cere. She’s so much better than he is, more powerful, more…
He steps into the Archive.
Fire.
Everything, lost. The ashes choke him.
And Cere…
Cere is…
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