Black squadron left a few hours later, after having checked over their snubfighters and making minor repairs. It would have been nice to have seen them off, Luna thought, but she and Face had been holed up in the salon, catching each other up on recent events.
After they were done she sat, slumped, at the table, her head in her hands. It was too much. Too much for her, too much for anyone.
'Are you doing okay?' Face asked her gently.
She let out an explosive, incredulous snort of laughter. 'Are you okay?' she asked instead of answering, and then looked up at him. She hadn't really noticed before, but he seemed so much older now, so tired, than when she had last seemed him. That is, he had always been old, but that wasn't exactly an inhibitor of living. But now he just seemed to be at the end of his tether, like he was completely done.
'You know me, I can survive anything,' he smiled at her and shrugged as if it was all a nothing, but there was no energy in the act.
Luna stood and made her way over to the exit, tapping the door control. As the door opened, sounds of banging came from further inside the ship. Before she left, she looked back. 'We're going to make everything right. We can do this.'
She left him with those words and found the others in the cargo hold. Someone had cleared a space in the centre, and the others were sitting around. She frowned at them. They should have been hard at work, but then again she couldn't blame them for wanting a break. After all they'd been through.
'Come on, Cora,' Vix was saying, 'just a little fight.'
'I don't want to hurt you!'
'Aww, please?' he pleaded. 'I've never fought a Force sensitive before. That's the ultimate test.'
Cora turned to look at her as she stepped in, her face brightening as she smiled. Cora turned back to Vix. 'Okay. One fight,' and stood up into the circle, jumping up and down lightly on the balls of her feet. Watching her, Luna couldn't help but smile, her heart feeling lighter.
The two squared up opposite each other. 'Don't hold back,' Vix told her, bringing his fists up protectively, and beared down on her.
The fight was over in a flash. Even Luna, who knew how fast she could move thanks to watching her exercise, was surprised by it. As Vix came within reach, Cora had ducked low to hook her leg behind Vix's knees, then placed her hands on Vix's chest. She didn't even push - not with her hands, at least. But she short, quick hit sent the large Devaronian flying onto his back.
The others stared at her in stunned silence. 'You fast,' Twitch said, breaking the silence. 'You quick, you even beat Twitch!' quite a compliment, given that Twitch fancied himself the fastest gunslinger in the Outer Reaches. Luna wasn't sure if that was true, but he was certainly quick. The others wooped with joy and cheered her. Luna beamed with naches for her girlfriend.
That pride grew cold when she spotted Ka'iulani at the edge of the group, not exactly joining in but entirely distancing herself. She noticed the others weren't entirely engaging with her either. She wasn't sure how she could reconcile herself to Ka'iulani's actions, even if she could understand them. Fenn was like family to Ka'iulani. If something had happened to Cora, Luna reflected, she would want to deal unimaginable pain on the person who did that. But then again, that was her issue. She had always suffered with controlling her anger, ever since she was a child. But to shoot someone like that?
Something out of the corner of her eye, across on the other side of the cargo bay, distracted her from her train of thought. Something that didn't even register as a thing. More like an absence of a thing. She walked through the group to stand in front of it.
