Star Wars Jedi: The Haunting

Chapter 17

Cal woke up the next morning, feeling surprisingly refreshed. It was the best night of sleep he'd had in a long time. After he'd properly woken up and had changed his clothes, he turned and saw Trilla looking at him with her arms crossed.

"Good morning, Cal," Trilla said cordially. "How did you sleep?"

"Better," Cal said.

"That's good to hear. Have a seat," Trilla gestured to a log.

Cal sat down.

"You do look a little better than you did yesterday," Trilla remarked.

"I do definitely feel a little better," Cal agreed, "but I feel like I'm missing something."

"What's that?" Trilla asked.

"Purpose," said Cal.

He expected Trilla to respond, but she said nothing, so he continued.

"I... always had a purpose before. When I was younger, I wanted to bring down the Empire. But then... Greez convinced me to back away. Told me the odds were against me too much. That winning was impossible. And I believed him."

"When I arrived on Tanalorr, I discovered a new purpose: fatherhood. I decided to try to become a father to Kata. But then... well, you know what happened. Now, though, I'm not sure. What is my purpose?"

Just then his radio buzzed and he saw it was a message from Saw's Partisans.

"Hey, Cal," said Saw. "I know it's been a while since I called you, but we've got a new mission for you. If you're interested, just say, and I'll give you more details."

Saw calling nudged something in Cal's head. "I'm – " Cal suddenly, against his will, paused. He tried to fight it, but his mouth opened against his will. "I'm actually not interested in fighting with the Partisans anymore, Saw," he heard himself say.

"Oh," Saw said. He sounded hurt. "That's a shame, but I respect your decision."

And with that, his radio switched off.

Cal spun around and glared at Trilla. "Why would you do that?" he asked.

"It's like you said, Cal," Trilla said. "You've lost your purpose." With a flick of her wrist, he saw his both his lightsaber and gun fly away. "So I'm helping you find it again."

"But Saw's Partisans –"

"Fuck him, and fuck that terrorist group. Fuck all of them," Trilla said evenly.

"I don't understand. You don't want me working with them?"

"Of course I don't, Cal. They are terrorists."

"You have no right to call them that?"

"Oh yeah?" Trilla said, scathingly. "Then why have they led so many armed campaigns against the Empire? Hmm?"

"That's... different. The Empire is... it's bad, and it needs to be brought down," said Cal. "I worked with the Partisans for years and they are not terrorists. They are fighting for a good cause."

"You're just copying what you've been told. You don't genuinely believe that," Trilla said slowly, shaking her head.

Cal found that he didn't really have an answer for that. He had been fed rather a lot of propaganda, and he... had kind of swallowed it without thinking.

"You're better than that, aren't you, Cal?" Trilla asked questioningly.

Cal froze.

"Aren't you?" she repeated.