All That We Are: A Star Wars Story

5

Mustafar

          Ark's shoulders fell and he let out a sigh at Rezu's presence behind him.

          "I still don't understand. Why you?" She growled.

          "Pleasure to see you before we leave, Rezu. Ropho already left without saying goodbye," He continued shoving the last of his cardigans in a small pack and turned to the Zygerrian. He sounded rather unfazed. "Funny how master says we're brothers and sister, but it feels as if we're enemies."

          "He said bye to me." Rezu chimed. "But why master is sending you of all people?" She clicked her tongue. "I'm not going to fight him on it though. I just wanted to come and say goodbye- to my brother," She held out a hand.

          Ark began reaching for it. Perhaps Rezu was getting over her petty ambitions after all.

          She leaned in. "- I hope that Jedi slaughters you."

          Ark paused, then took his hand back, offended. "Like I said, always a pleasure." His soft, yet thick accent contrasted with her grave tone. He gently pushed past his fellow apprentice with a sense of relief. Leaving the intolerable heat for a place like Alderaan would almost be as nice as leaving his "sister" behind. With his back turned to Rezu in the hangar, he smiled to himself. Scarif was beautiful, or so he heard, so why was Rezu complaining? Coruscant was simply a heap of trash, therefore, he understood Ropho's objections. Not to mention, the Jedi Temple might've been a warzone at the moment. Above all, Alderaan was the most exciting to him. In all his years of traveling before Mustafar, he had never been.

          He eyed the Delta-12 Skysprite in front of him. It was a sad excuse for a starfighter, he thought. At least, this one was. It was damaged near the beginning of the war and resold as a civilian ship with the weapons stripped away. He had a hard time picturing himself with any other ship. The wedge shape was also decent looking enough, painted black and sporting a white trim.

          Ark climbed over the edge, flicked the ignition on, and closed his eyes for a moment as the engines roared to life. The hangar doors split open to invite the deathly heat inside, but the modified air conditioning unit in his ship worked wonders.

          He couldn't believe he was finally leaving. It would have been an overstatement to say that his master and counterparts treated him better than the volcanic ash that spewed into the air, as toxic as it was on their side of the planet. He was glad to leave all of that behind. 

          The starfighter began to push forward with such speed that it lifted from the ground within seconds of reaching the outside. The volcanoes grew closer as he flew upwards, but slowly diminished in size the higher he got. Ark's vision was never perfect, by any means, but the enormous red glob that Mustafar became was similar to what he was already seeing on the ground. The mountains themselves weren't clear, so the blurred colors were sufficient for the last six years. He didn't mind it, though. It was the only thing that kept his mind clear.

§

Alderaan

           While he hadn't used the civilian ship in years, Arkeous had no trouble remembering the controls and he passed through Alderaan's atmosphere with no issue. The mountains on this planet were just as tall as Mustafar, but some of these were dusted with snow and contrasted rather nicely with the clear bodies of water surrounding them. The density of the lake below him wasn't nearly as thick as the ruby sea he sat on the shore of before.