epidemiology | ( closed. )

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CHARACTERS: anakin and rey
DATE: sometime mid-month
WARNINGS: none for the moment
SUMMARY: episode 83764 in the ongoing saga

[ every so often he brings up the conversation had with lloyd. the arrangements to be made, hopefully, as soon as the mission is ended. anakin lacks any real proof he will have the help he wants — the infuriating lack of any other option is not remotely the same — regardless, he has all the reason he needs to see the mission through.

a chance run-in netted him company. their ride remains where anakin left it after they dismounted. so used to working with and among droids, anakin pays it no mind. instead he looks over their surroundings. the earlier earthquake aggravated already existing weaknesses. the biggest rock is easily the size of a small fighter. many more decorate the path, making it impossible to navigate except on foot, and then only with the greatest care. years of neglect, too, mean the vegetation has since reclaimed the land. naked branches threaten to snag clothes and skin alike. the feeling of life here is strong and wild in a way that was lacking in the mines or the town.

anakin unclips the lightsaber from his belt. ]

Keep an eye out, [ he warns rey. ] I sense we're not alone.

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They'll be able to corner us, if they want.

[ Rey makes the observation without reaching for her lightsaber—it doesn't register as 'hers' truly, for she's only holding it until she can get it back to Luke. Rather, she rests one hand over the canvas strap of her quarterstaff where it hangs across her chest. She'd dealt with bandits before without a lightsaber. She wouldn't need one now. ]

We should circle back to cover our tracks, then scout for higher ground.

[ let anyone try to corner them. anakin thumbs the activator of the blade. the bandits have proven to be no better than animals. turning their backs on their friends, their families, profiting off of the fear and suffering of working people. if they'll behave like animals —

the heat shimmers in the distance. the shape of the rocks acquire the look of a camp. anakin tears his eyes away. he's a jedi. he knows better than this. he is better than this. ( to his ears, and to his ears alone, comes the sound of a lightsaber slicing through the evening, one single burning point of light in the encroaching darkness. )

anakin nods to her. ]

Let's try it your way.

[ a short whistle; the "horse" comes trotting toward them. ]

Stay close, [ spoken to the droid. he put in a lot of "improvements" to his ride to have it stolen. never mind that he happened to steal it first. ]

[ For a moment, she can feel the tension in him, like a spring wound tight and pointed towards the horizon, so her whole body relaxes in relief when he nods in her direction and accepts the logic of her suggestion. She cannot put to words the unease she felt, watching him then, but she doesn't want to further reflect on it.

(She also feels a surge of pride, hearing him give some credit to her strategy. After all, Anakin is a Jedi, and a well-trained one by her layman's measure. It isn't outside of her intent to find a way to impress him.)

Without hesitation, she begins to track backwards, careful to mask the progress of her steps while Anakin sees to the metal horse he's cobbled into some form of legitimate droid. ]

If you're lucky, they might think it's one of their own. [ And not try to steal it, she hopes. But that reassurance doesn't seem necessary. She shields her eyes with one hand and peers out across the dusty horizon, then reaches out to point. ] Looks like there might be a path up that way.

I installed a safety measure just in case.

[ electric shocks. not just for temperamental astromechs. the horse isn't anywhere near r2-d2's intelligence ( or distinctive personality ), but it's useful. enough so, at least, to make replacing it a pain.

( and impossible. there's more to the metal beast than an easier way around. ) ]

I'll take point, [ he states after finding the opening she spotted. it

was never actually a question. ]

[ And there goes any wind from her sails. Reluctantly, she nods, and follows him up the uneven path she'd spotted up the steep edges of the valley. It takes some climbing, but she's sure in her ability to scale the rocks without issue; as far as she's concerned, it'll be a nice revisit to her skills in scaling the innards of hollow, broken Star Destroyers.

As they walk, it occurs to her that maybe Anakin doesn't realize that she's more than just dead weight for him to take responsibility for out of some debt to Finn or Luke. That she's capable. She opts to make casual conversation to fill the time, despite the poor outcome of her last efforts. ]

Were you a leader among the Jedi?

[ She catches herself using past tense and frowns. To him, they probably aren't gone. To him, there's still a hope. But regardless, he's here with ALASTAIR now, not with the relic of an ancient time that he'd fought for. ]

[ and the first attempt at casual conversation…hits a sore spot. ]

I'm a Jedi Knight.

[ he can sense her behind him. moreover, he can sense the intention behind the question. the choking frustration he used to feel when he remembered the council's insult… it's not gone, but it's flattened somehow. whether by time or knowledge of what follows…

it's enough so after a beat, he clarifies, ] It's the highest rank other than Master. Masters sat on the Council. Most Jedi served their entire life and were never considered for mastery.

[ a little pause. ]

I was supposed to be considered for it.

Before you were taken, you mean?

[ After all, as far as she could tell, he met all the requirements for mastery. She could hardly imagine anyone who was more adept with the Force than what she'd already seen Anakin do. Surely, if anyone could contest Kylo Ren and Snoke, it was he.

She struggled to keep up with the information. So the Jedi had a Council to lead them, and Knights. It made sense, given that they were supposedly protectors at one point. Rumor had it that they'd supported the Republic, when it existed in its truest form, before the Empire, but Rey was too young to know for sure, and she'd never met anyone who remembered anything before the Empire—or, if they did, they weren't willing to talk about it.

In a way, Anakin's personal experiences felt like a history that she felt she had deserved but never gotten, and she blamed the First Order and the Empire it was built from for denying her that. ]

…Yes.

[ it still hit him every so often, each time a surprise, how long he had been with alastair. eight months since he last saw a familiar system. thirteen months since he last held padmé. to him none of it was history. it was all too raw.

his life was split by events. before and after he met qui-gon jinn. before and after he was reunited with padmé. ( before and after his mother's death. ) alastair was only the latest. before: he knew what he wanted, what he deserved. after: he was left scrambling for the way to salvage the only thing that has ever mattered to him.

lately, it felt like the more he tried to hold onto something, the quicker it slipped through his fingers like so much sand. ]

There.

[ crouching near another piece of broken rock, anakin pointed to a rising dust cloud coming closer. his hand dropped to his belt, reflexively seeking a pair of scopes that had not hung off it in months. ]

[ He could answer the questions that plagued her, she thought. He would know what the Force was and wasn't. The hard, seething whispers that Kylo Ren thrust upon her, damned her with, did not need to be her only understanding of the Force if she could only convince Anakin of the necessity of sharing what he knew with her.

But even in her earnest, she hesitated, stared after him, trying to read all the words he wasn't saying in that simplistic answer. He seemed adrift. Distant, even. And he shared so little.

It was not time to brood on such things, though. Their time was cut short quickly by Anakin drawing a cloud of dust on the horizon to attention. Rey crouched beside him and watched, riveted, and instinctually snatched the scopes from him to get a better look. She passed them back off once she had confirmed— ]

Bandits. [ She turned to face him. ] All we need to do is give them reason not to come back here.

[ There was an implicit question there as she drew Han's blaster from her hip: right?, it asked. Unlike Achilles on the train, these bandits did not need to die to put their purpose to rest. ]

Scare them some.

[ a glint came into his eyes, sharp as anything else. but the small curl to his mouth that accompanied it was pure mischief rather than malice. that small gesture alone transformed his face, removing years so he looked closer to his age.

when anakin raised his hand in front of him, a pebble rose with it. palm up, the pebble settled on it. anakin's fingers curled shut around it. ]

Or scare them a lot.

[ Slowly, upon seeing the pebble, Rey's face broke out into a steady grin. It took its time creeping up, but once it was there, it looked like it was the only expression her face was rightfully made to make. ]

When we finish here, you have to teach me how to do that.

[ It came out before she could think too hard about it. For now, she could settle for real firepower—time crunch, and all—but his method would doubtlessly be more effective. It would do wonders if they could make the bandits superstitious of precisely what waited for them in Boneyard Junction. ]

[ anakin studies her, her sincerity, her enthusiasm. it's a far cry from kylo ren's groveling request to be taken on as an apprentice all those months ago. that had ended in an abrupt no. he is reminded, instead, of luke. anakin swallows and looks away. ]

We'll see, [ he offers instead. he regards her with wry amusement.

looking down, anakin tosses the pebble. with the force, it travels far enough to bounce off one of the bandit's heads. he pulls back on his ride, forcing them all to a stop. the wind carries snatches of their conversations: — felt something — crazy — no one out —

anakin's hand remains palm out before him. it doesn't move, but the rocks below do. behind them, the stones lift inches above the ground, unseen, then settle heavily, blocking their retreat. the small shudder makes them look around, more than aware of what the tremors might spell. the first to notice the rearrangement grabs his closest companion by the sleeve. anakin doesn't need to hear him to understand was that like that?

next is a symbol drawn by small rocks in the sand: one he had asked about in the mines and told to mean danger. and he settles back for a moment to let them find it, and give the unease time to start doing its work. ]

[ Despite the sober situation, the focus that she knows they ought to have, Rey finds herself in a fit of childish giggles when she peers out from behind the rocks to watch the bandits react to the danger symbol. One of them gets off his approximation of a horse, paces closer to it, and begins to look around like he expects someone else to have made it.

For a few moments, he argues with the others in his company, then they all circle around it, searching for tracks. They accept their disappointment after a solid five minutes of searching. ]

There's no way superstition alone will scare them off. [ Counter to the doubt in her voice, excitement flooded it, powered by the burgeoning hope that she might be wrong.

Fed up with searching, they start arguing again. Their voices raise, carrying more of it up the cliffside to where Anakin and Rey wait. Trying to make us out to be damn fools and I already told you; it wasn't out here last we came this way. ]

There's a solution to that too.

[ they are not the only things alive in these hills. anakin closes his eyes. he lacks none, however; his senses extend. he has the image of the bandits below as clear as if he were among them. he is aware of the girl next to him, vibrant in the force. and he finds the creatures holed underneath their feet to avoid the desert sun.

a juvenile spider emerges first, small for its species, still uncomfortably large by any metric. then another. then a grown adult. then more. one passes near where they are hidden, its chelicerae clicking, but it pays them no mind.

those below were too busy arguing to take notice of the intruders. the one who first took notice of the symbol, a skinny qorral with a sallow complexion, nervously looks around them. when he sees the first of the dark shapes, his mouth falls open. he nearly trips over his feet when he lunges back. his friend tries to throw him off when he seizes the other's sleeve, but his insistent pointing, and panicked jabbering eventually alert the others. by then, many of the spiders have reached the fallen rocks.

to the bandits' credit, they're quick to draw out their guns. but the spiders have an advantage over the ground. they break before long. anakin gives up any attempt at subterfuge. he slams rocks together, closing exits, further driving them into a confused panic until they escape through a small opening, pursued by spiders.

anakin opens his eyes. he looks entirely too pleased with himself. ]

I doubt we'll be seeing them around here.

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