Star Wars: Saviors of the Broken

Chapter XI

"Boring planets are safe planets." - Patrick Stump, scrawled in the margins of Pete Wentz's copy of Collected Wisdom of the Jedi Masters

For the first time since they'd left Coruscant, the escape pod was silent. Patrick had circled around the Colonies a dozen times, never with any real direction. He knew that they had to land eventually, but after what had happened on Devaron, he was terrified the Sith would find them again, so he kept on flying back and forth across the galaxy. It wasn't a great long-term strategy, but at least he and Pete would be safe for now.

As for Pete, he was still recovering from Brendon's Force Choke. He spent most of his time lying down, reading from Collected Wisdom of the Jedi Masters, or writing more bad poems. Patrick hated to admit it, but he missed Pete's conversation, his jokes, his random musings. Hopefully, Pete would be back to his old self soon, but for now, he was too depressed to even put on eyeliner.

"Hey Pete?" Patrick said after he'd made his twelfth lap around the Duluur sector. "Is everything okay?"

"I'm weighing the pros and cons of breathing," Pete said.

"Pete, I'm serious," Patrick said. "It really seems like you've been having a hard time lately, and I...I want to help you."

"I guess it's just really starting to hit me how alone I am," Pete said.

"You're not alone," Patrick argued.

"How am I not alone? All of my old friends are dead or on the dark side. I have you, but that's it. Even if we found another Jedi, how could I know that I could trust them?"

"We can trust other Jedi."

"Are you sure?" Pete said. "Brendon used to be a Jedi, and he used to be my friend too. I thought I could trust him. I thought I could help him find the light side again, but no matter what I said, he wouldn't listen. It was like I couldn't get through to him."

"He's too far gone," Patrick said. "He's fallen to the dark side."

"No, you don't understand," Pete said. "Brendon knows better. He would never choose the dark over the light. I can talk him into coming back. I just need to try again."

"No way," Patrick said. "We're not going back to Devaron."

"Why not?"

"It's too dangerous."

"We can't keep running forever."

"You're right, but we need to find somewhere safer."

"You thought Devaron was safe."

"And I was wrong," Patrick said.

Pete sighed. "I just can't believe that Brendon would do something like this. Last time I saw him, he was drinking coffee and showing off his high notes and asking Khras if he could put sparkles on his Jedi robes. Sure, he'd dabbled in the dark side before, but so had all of us. I didn't think he'd end up like that. I barely recognized him out there. It was like the old Brendon was completely gone."

"In a way, he is. The dark side's consumed him," Patrick said. "I hate to break it to you, Pete, but I don't think he's ever coming back."

There was an awkward silence. Patrick looked into Pete's deep brown eyes, and he saw all of the sadness, the sorrow, the fear he'd been holding back. He wished he could take all of that pain away, but he knew that nothing could mend Pete's heart, not after one of his closest friends had betrayed him.

"You did a nice job fighting him off though," Patrick said, still hoping to make Pete feel better.

It was a lie - a white lie, but a lie nonetheless - and both of them knew it. "Thanks," Pete said. "You were amazing out there though. I mean, you were the one who beat him! I hardly did anything!"