"And just what are you doing in my garden?"
Jess jerked her head up, guilty at the question: Zawati had threaded several purloined flowers into her hair already, a muted rainbow that glowed softly in the perpetual gloom. Even Zawati looked like a child about to be scolded; she rose stiffly, clasping her hands together in a posture that almost looked contrite. Zawati and this new being met eyes, and Jess felt their two Force signatures touch and swirl together like a whirlpool. She felt caught in the middle, heart ready to burst in a chest that wouldn't move to take in air.
"Jin-Array?" Poe asked, and Jess saw then that it had to be him; his leathery lizard's face made it so he couldn't be mistaken for anyone else, though the ubiquitous mist had obscured it at first. His huge black eyes were set on either side of his head, tilted like a cat's and teardrop shaped in a way that made him look unexpectedly expressive. His head had a slight triangle taper, and a muzzle that nonetheless made him look faintly like a snake unsure of whether it would strike or not. As Jess watched, he bared his teeth a little and his thick tongue flicked out as if to test the air. She shivered; those teeth sat curved back and sharp, a mouth full of scalpel blades.
Hell, AND he's a Jedi?
Jess swallowed hard as she realized he probably had a lightsaber somewhere under that deep umber robe. You know, just in case the claws and teeth wouldn't get the job done for some kriffing reason.
"If you know my name then this isn't going to be good news, is it?"
As Jin-Array gestured —Jess got the feeling he had the habit of doing so, almost like he was punctuating his words with his hands-- his disabled wing dragged, nerveless and awkward compared to its fellow that moved smoothly with the arm it was attached to. But what really caught Jess' attention was his melodic, complex tone of voice, beautiful to listen to and engaging her sense of hearing on several subtle and deeply affecting levels. Zawati gasped at the sound and Jess groped for her hand.
"N-No," Poe said, the only time Jess had ever heard him stutter, other than right after Muran died. She glanced over. He looked stricken, pale and shaking like he'd found himself in Kylo Ren's interrogation chair all over again. Hell maybe he had, in his mind.
"You're not First Order," Jin-Array said, a milky-white lens flickering over his eyes for a moment as he studied their motley band. Jess adjusted automatically in her head, watching that. If things went to shit and they did have to fight him for whatever reason, she bet he could track them by infrared, or some sense inherent to the Vor people that would be a fucking problem regardless of what spectrum it used.
Poe shuddered. Jess waited for whatever smart ass remark he might have normally made. Nothing.
"We are not," Zawati said, apparently realizing that Poe hadn't worked out speech yet and seamlessly taking the place he would have otherwise occupied in the conversation. "And have no love for them besides."
"We were sent by the Resistance," Jess blurted. She could have knocked one upside her own head for that blunder. "I'm Jess and this is Poe. We're pilots. This is our friend Zawati. She helped us find you."
Hard to believe I have a whole other identity that I maintain. Good move, Pava.
With childish errors like that, she might have just sealed their fates. But damn, she'd never heard anything like that voice or felt anything like the Grey Force.
Jin-Array's eyes widened in surprise, a so very human expression on a very inhuman face.
"Well, come on then," Jin-Array said, sounding resigned as if they'd shown up to enforce some terrible, long-avoided sentence. Jess followed, mute, in his wake. Poe and Zawati fell in beside her.
