Chapter Text
Chapter 1
"Do you remember Master Polkit?"
Jaune groans, throwing an arm dramatically over his head. His throat is scratchy, his sinuses heavy with mucus and eyes burning. He feels his pulse throbbing through his skull, a dense headache encircling the back of his head.
"Do we have to do this right now, Serra?"
She shifts underneath him, his head resting on her lap as rain crashes down outside their makeshift den. The downpour has been a steady and oppressive companion for a week.
"Not much else to do. And since you refuse to sleep-"
"I can't sleep, Serra."
"- And since you refuse to sleep, Padawan mine, I'll just have to distract you well enough for you to fall asleep on your own."
Silence drapes over them like the heavy rain, drenching Jaune in uncertainty and unease, then-
"I'm not your Padawan."
Jaune feels Serra shift again, and then a cool hand- calloused by years of wielding a lightsaber- comes to rest on his forehead. Jaune opens his eyes, meeting hers. Pale blue framed by olive skin and raven hair.
"You're mine in every way that matters, little brother."
Jaune waits a beat, then:
"I remember. I think. She used to watch over us in the observatory. She taught astronomy, I think."
Serra chuckles. "It's funny- I used to think that she was wasting her time. She was a veteran Jedi Master, and there was so much she could do with her years of experience, but she chose to hang around and stare at holos of stars. Makes you wonder, I guess."
"Wonder what?"
"If she didn't have the right idea."
They can hear the marching of soldiers now- Clones, droids- it doesn't matter. Either answer spells death for them. Jaune shifts uncomfortably, opening bleary eyes to try and get a glimpse out of the den to see any sign of an approaching force, but there is just darkness.
"You think she did?" He slurs out, struggling to keep his eyes open.
The marching gets louder, and Jaune can feel Serra tensing beneath him, her hand resting on the silver hilt of her lightsaber.
"Maybe."
They don't speak again after that.
There was never any time.
Jaune holds his breath as his little rustbucket of a freighter drops back into realspace. He can feel the hull straining as the hyperdrive's reality field finally collapses, seconds after that eventuality would have turned the Far Reacher into a flameless ball of twisted durasteel. His right hand shoots up involuntarily to grip his ribcage, and it comes away wet and sticky.
One of the Judicial officers that had flagged him on Axxila had gotten off a good shot, and Jaune hadn't had time to treat it- busy as he was keeping the ship together as it fell apart mid-hyperspace. Now he seems to have a bigger problem.
Namely the green and blue landscape that is getting larger and larger by the second.
Jaune curses as he grips the yoke, twisting it and fighting to level out the clunker- but too little, too late. In what are literally odds of billions- possibly trillions- to one, Jaune has managed to make an emergency jump that landed him just outside the gravity well of a planet, one that he was now caught in. Fighting it is useless, and Jedi though he is, Jaune was never as great a pilot as his peers. He manages to get the ship to angle out, but far quicker than Jaune could possibly anticipate he is skipping across vast plains like a stone over the still surface of a pool in the room of a thousand fountains. He can feel the ship begin to turn like a discus, and the g-forces drain the blood from his head. Darkness creeps at the edges of his vision, but he doesn't dare reach out with the force to keep himself from blacking out.
Not after Corellia.
The Far Reacher jolts, hardened durasteel straining and wrenching as the ship's chassis is battered by the force of rock and dirt, doing its utmost not to shatter itself across the surface of the planet. Eventually- eventually- the ship comes to a stop, teetering and settling in the dirt, and Jaune finally exhales. He can hear a sharp ringing in his ears, (normal for him, he hadn't thought he'd need ear protection early on in the war, and by the time he'd realized the mistake it just hadn't been worth it to use,) and something hanging behind him is banging against the back of his head. He looks down, chin scrunching against his collarbone as he checks himself for newly acquired holes, gingerly passing over his blaster wound which is now leaking profusely. He extracts himself slowly from the crash harness he'd somehow had the foresight to fasten, weak knees protesting as he limps painfully away from the now smoking cockpit. He feels a sharp protest well up- not pain in his body, but a long suppressed warning in the force.
A loud whining seconds later makes his blood run cold.
Jaune begins to run, ignoring the pain and panic and letting his adrenaline surge as he dashes down the main corridor of the Far Reacher, eyes wide with panic as he realizes what the warning is- like a combustion engine, the ship is forcing fuel into the reactor at a high rate, and he can hear the reactor running away and melting down simultaneously as he rockets towards the exit. The ship's interior blurs past him as he dashes to the emergency hatch, pulling the detcord and ducking as the air pressure abruptly changes, and throwing himself as far and as fast as he can from the hatch.
He feels it before he hears it, a sudden cold blast of air and then searing heat- and then Jaune is on the ground, lying face up and staring at the sky. He blinks and time elapses, the sky is dark and the sun low. He thinks he can see Serra for a second, standing over him and smiling- telling him that she's proud of him- but he blinks and she's gone.
In her place is a young humanoid woman with startling golden eyes. She's mouthing something, her captivating gaze wide open and panicked, and she's shaking him. By nothing but chance, his gaze travels down to her hip, and through the ringing in his ears and the pulsing in his head, he can feel it calling out to him like singing insects on a hot summer's night.
On her belt, hanging there like it belongs only one other place in the world- the wielder's hand- is a lightsaber. He stares at it in wonder, and the realization that it doesn't scream like the one on Corellia hits him like a truck. He wants to ask where it came from- who she is- how she got here, is the Empire here? He opens his mouth to do so but it's sluggish, and he can't get out more than a choking gasp-
And then he passes out.
When Jaune finally comes to, it's dark. He can hear a fire crackling nearby, but when he rolls over to look, it's obscured by a well dug fire pit. His gaze tracks over to the sole other occupant of the spartan camp, memories of the crash flooding back. The ringing in his ears has abated- thank the force- but the pain in his side has become a dull ache that spikes every time he so much as breathes. The girl turns, her stunning eyes reflecting the dim glow of the fire from across the camp. She's noticed his change in consciousness quickly, and shifts towards him as she tends the fire.
"You're awake," Her voice is a rich and lilting thing that reaches out and tickles his ears, and he can't help but try to sit as she speaks, to get a better look at this woman, (a girl near his age, he thinks) who has saved him. "Wasn't sure that was ever gonna happen, between the head trauma and that burn on your side."
"Uh- yeah. Right." His gaze once again latches pointedly on the glinting silver that adorns her waist, and she must have exceptional sight in the dark because she follows his eyeline down to it. He tries not to be accusing, but the "Where did you get that?" that comes out of him is less of a question and more of a warning, like the hiss of a viper in the sand. The girl's ears- feline ears, he realizes, sprouting out from her head- flatten back at the tannins of his voice.
"I built it," She crosses her arms, abandoning the stick she's been using to tend the fire. "My parents took me to the caves in northern Mistral when I was a girl. Where'd you get yours?"
Her question isn't so much an accusation as a rebuttal, and her answer is confusing enough to Jaune that he deflates. He has no clue what she's talking about. Only a Jedi could construct a lightsaber- but if only that were true.
"... It was my sister's," He answers finally, and technically he isn't lying. "Sorry. It's just, trust… doesn't exactly come easy anymore. You know?"
"I guess…" She seems a bit confused, and Jaune can't help but feel like neither of them are on the same page- about anything. She looks back to the fire though, and Jaune catches a powerful wave of regret and pain. He supposes that maybe she does get it after all.
"Where… Where are we, anyway?" He turns, awkwardly shifting his legs under him as he turns fully towards her.
"About 60 clicks outside of Vale city."
"And that is on…"
She blinks at him. "Vale."
"Vale…?"
She scoffs. "Vale. The planet Vale."
"And what system was that in again?"
The girl seems to reboot for a minute as Jaune- again- feels hopelessly lost and not on the same page with her at all. She shakes her head as if to ward off her confusion. "Great. I had to go and get saddled with a wreck victim with brain damage. Just great-"
"Woah- hold on! I don't have brain damage. In fact, I would say that my brain is markedly not damaged, thank you very much. I didn't exactly have a choice in coming to this system, wherever the sith hells we are-"
"Hold on," He hasn't really ever had much interaction with girls his age outside of the creche, and Serra was Serra, so the rush of… something that he gets from the cute, scrunched up look the girl gets on her face is definitely a new feeling. "Are you saying you're from outside the Remnant system?"
Jaune shakes his head, incredulous. "Considering I have no idea where that is, I'm inclined to say yes."
She stares at him for a minute after that, and Jaune honestly would have started to sweat if he wasn't so dehydrated. She just stares, and Jaune shrinks in on himself, feeling much like a chastised crecheling. A nagging, elusive tendril reaches out and brushes against his subconscious, and belatedly Jaune realizes that she's definitely had some training in the force, and no shortage of natural talent- shaky as the investigation is.
"You're not lying," she decides, and Jaune watches as she rests a hand on the hilt of her lightsaber. "So you're delusional."
"Great detective skills," Jaune cracks, and the girl tenses as he reaches down and takes his lightsaber from his belt. She had plenty of chances to take it off him while he was unconscious, but still he hesitates to part with it- with Serra's lightsaber. He gingerly sets in on the ground, and rolls it towards her. "If it makes you feel better," He explains.
She reaches down, two fingers gently brushing the burnished silver and brass colored durasteel. To Jaune's surprise, she rolls it back towards him, taking her other hand off of the hilt at her belt.
"Blake," She says, looking back up at him with apologetic eyes. "Blake Belladonna."
He blinks, looking back down at the hilt, before taking it and smiling awkwardly back. "Jaune Arc."
They speak little more that night, Blake seeming to have so many questions, and yet completely unwilling to contin talking- and so the next morning, they start walking. Jaune is still quite bruised and battered- not to mention a newly dressed plasma sear sending flashes of agony through his nervous system with every movement- but they make decent time. They make about 25 klicks before Jaune starts to really feel the weight of his injuries, and surprisingly Blake is exhausted as well- and in fact seems to be trying to compete with Jaune's steady pace.
"Let's stop here," He says once they find a nice shady outcropping, straining as he bends to sit down.
"I can keep going," Blake protests. "I'm fine."
Jaune shakes his head, gesturing to the bandage wrapped around his upper midsection. "I'm not. Thirty minutes, then we'll move on."
She blinks in realization, and flushes angrily as she takes a seat across from him. She watches him for a moment, huffing as she regains control of her breath, before:
"You've done this before."
He nods, leaning back against the outcropping. "Yeah. It takes some getting used to, but travelling by foot can be a necessity for a Jedi."
This gains her attention. "You're going to be a Jedi?"
"I am a Jedi," He tries not to protest, but it still sounds like a complaint in his ears. "I'm a padawan." Or at least I was…
She frowns at him for a moment, before she finally seems to gather the courage to ask: "Last night… You said a few things…"
"About not being from your Remnant system? Surprised you didn't ask sooner."
"It's kind of a hard thing to believe. You said you're a padawan. What academy do you go to?"
"Academy?" He frowns. "I'm not from an Academy, I'm from a temple."
This seems to get Blake's attention. "Temple? Like from the stories?"
Jaune's had enough, he decides. They're dancing around each other, confused and skittish, afraid to provoke the other for fear of losing their only companion on these vast plains, fear of the other trying to decide them. It's far past time that both of them got answers.
"I'm from a planet called Coruscant. Or, well at least I was raised there."
She stares, after that. Just stares. She looks at his singed and ratty Jedi robes, his lightsaber- Serra's saber- and then back at his face.
They sit in silence for a while, and Jaune can't help but feel that it's becoming something of a trend for the two of them. After a few minutes, Jaune just can't stand it any more.
"I'm not crazy."
"I didn't say you were-"
"You didn't have to!"
"You have to admit it's hard to believe-"
"No!" Jaune interrupts again, shaking his head rapidly despite protests from his body. "No. Look, Blake. I appreciate your help. Really, I do. But I have no idea why it's hard to believe because I have no idea where I am."
Blake stares at him owlishly, and Jaune crushes the feeling that he's just been incredibly rude, but really, did they want to be dancing around each other for the rest of their time together? Jaune is completely in the dark, and he doesn't know what he has to explain because he doesn't even know what he's missing, and Force forbid if he wasn't used to getting straight answers from his troops and fellow Jedi officers.
And wasn't that a sobering thought.
She leans forward. "Are you… Are you really from Coruscant? Like… really?"
Jaune maintains eye contact, despite himself. "I swear it, Blake. I don't know where I am. My ship crashed here by chance after an emergency jump. I have no idea where this system even is."
The girl gapes, blinks, and opens and closes her mouth. Again, Jaune crushes down the thought that she's just so damn cute, and grits his teeth as he waits for an answer.
"I… I didn't think Coruscant was real! I thought it was just a story to explain how we got here- a myth!" She's rambling now, and Jaune holds up a hand to stop her before she can get started.
"Blake. Please. What is this place?"
They rest for the remainer of the day, and when night falls they camp.
Blake tells him about the Remnant system, and Jaune listens intently.
"The way the story goes, 2,000 years ago a ship was pursued by the Sith at the outbreak of a massive war. It was carrying an army of Jedi, as well as soldiers of a great Republic. They were trying to escape an ambush and return to Coruscant, a great planet made entirely from durasteel and covered by an enormous city. It was the heart of the Jedi Order, where they resided in a temple from which all Jedi came."
Blake's eyes flicker as she speaks, her voice passionate as she recounts the tale. "The Sith and the Jedi were caught in Remnant's gravity well, as it was an uncharted star hidden by a great cloud of cosmic gas. The two ships battled, and the Jedi ship managed to destroy their Sith pursuers by tricking them into getting themselves caught in the star's gravity well. However in order to do so, they had to sacrifice their hyperdrive as a makeshift torpedo, sending the Sith to a fiery oblivion. These 30,000 Jedi, soldiers and crew members became the basis for our society, and they spread out across the remnant system. Now, Remnant is split between four planet states. Mistral, Vacuo, Atlas, and Vale."
"Where we are."
"Where we are," She nods. "Three of the planets have at least one or two habitable moons. Mantle is the exception. It has an orbital station- Atlas, where the council of Mantle rules from."
She scowls as she says this, and Jaune gets the sense that she doesn't exactly like these Atlas people.
He looks down, processing the information. "So you haven't had any outside contact with the larger galaxy… for around 2,000 years?"
"Give or take."
"And the Jedi?" Jaune looks at her again, leaning as far forward as he can without causing stress on his blaster wound. "They're still here?"
Blake nods, fingers dancing idly on the bronze and steel of her lightsaber. "Four academies. Beacon, Haven, Shade, and Atlas."
Jaune examines her, doing mental math. The Rusaan reformation- an accord that limited the Jedi in their ability to build a standing army, have families or personal holdings- occurred little more than a millennia ago. That meant…
"Your family, your parents. They're Jedi?"
"Not exactly," She corrects. "My Mom's parents, they were. Fought in the unification wars against Atlas-"
"Hold on," He resists the urge to stand, waving his hand as if to ward off his confusion. "Unification wars?"
"Oh yeah." She blinks, mouth forming a small 'O'. "Basically, Mistral and Atlas- which was called Mantle at the time- wanted to ban Force users in an attempt to reduce the spread of Grimm-"
"Grimm?" Jaune was getting tired of having to interrupt Blake, but honestly he was lost. And judging by the look on her face, Blake was getting pretty tired of it herself.
"Creatures of darkness. Nobody knows where they come from, only that they hunt people exclusively and are otherwise completely mindless. They're on every planet in the system. I'm guessing you don't have those?"
Jaune shakes his head, grimacing. "No, that… that sounds pretty horrifying."
"You're not wrong. Honestly, I'm surprised we haven't seen any yet. They're attracted to negative emotions, and you're not exactly in good shape."
He blinks, glancing down at his midsection and then back up to her. "How dangerous are they exactly?"
"Depends on the type," She leans back, stretching her arms back above her head and Jaune flushes as he averts his gaze. Thankfully, it seems her attention has been diverted to the stars above. "Anyways, Mantle wanted to ban force users. Round 'em all up and throw them in camps. Mistral went along with it and Vale and Vacuo banded together along with most of the Jedi Order to put an end to it. After a pretty bloody conflict, the Council decided it would split itself among the four major planetary powers in order to keep the peace and face the Grimm evenly across the system. Atlas- the government that replaced Mantle- is the biggest military power now, and the Atlesian Council is heavily involved in their government."
She's looking back at him now, eyes watching closely as he takes in the new information. He can tell she's waiting for him to make a judgement on these Atlesians, and it makes him uncomfortable since he has a very limited grasp of the facts.
"Sounds like you have your own opinions on Atlas," He says instead. "You've got experience with them?"
The sneer she develops in response to that would be cute, if it weren't for the disdain he feels radiating off of her in the force. "They're not exactly fans of Faunus."
Ah, more things he has no understanding of. "Faunus?"
"Uh-" She sits up at this, face scrunching up again. Her feline ears press back flat against her head, and she points at them stiffly. "Me? You don't have Faunus on Coruscant?"
"Oh." Jaune nods at that, pressing his lips flat. "Your species. I've never heard of Faunus, but there are a few other humanoid species I've met that are similar. So Atlas has speciesist leanings then?"
"You could say that."
"Then I guess that makes sense," He huffs. "It doesn't seem very Jedi-like to judge based on species."
She laughs bitterly at that. "It doesn't, does it? The Schnee family has a pretty big effect on that." She shakes her head at the look of abject confusion on his face, "They're the owners of the premier Tibanna mining companies in Remnant. They also happen to be a major Jedi Legacy."
Jaune leaned back at that. Jedi Legacies had disappeared when the Jedi began to forbid marriage at the onset of the Rusaan Reformations- and wasn't that the insane thought. Jaune shook his head again.
"You know Blake, I'm beginning to regret asking any of this."