Star Wars: Saviors of the Broken

Chapter XVII

"Is it ever possible to truly know someone? To understand their experiences, their feelings, their vices, their virtues, their pleasure, their pain? The Force binds us all together, but not even the Force will allow us to see through the eyes of someone else." - Varik Montari, from Collected Wisdom of the Jedi Masters

Two days passed, and as Pete was shuffled back and forth between the operating table and the bacta tank, Frank, Gerard, Ray, Mikey, and Patrick got to know each other better. They spent hours chatting about where they'd been over the past few weeks, along with everything from music to food to which Jedi was the coolest. Soon, they discovered that even in this strange, mixed-up galaxy, where anyone could turn against you at any moment, they could trust each other.

Of course, they kept their secrets too. Frank never mentioned that he was Fun Ghoul, although he suspected that Patrick had figured it out on his own. The Way brothers never said why they had fled Coruscant so suddenly, and Ray never told Patrick that they'd fought together in the Clone Wars. Patrick, for his part, kept quiet about what Pete had said to him before the Black Mariah had arrived. They didn't need to know about Pete's feelings for him, and they definitely didn't need to know that he wasn't the perfect Jedi they thought he was.

As Patrick was telling the others about how he and Pete had fought Brendon Urie, who Gerard was sure had to be an Inquisitor, a doctor entered the room. "Pete's awake," she said, peering down at the five boys.

"How is he?" Patrick asked worriedly.

"He's recovering nicely," she said. "Would you like to see him?"

"That would be great," Patrick said. His heart beat faster at the thought of seeing Pete again. He wasn't sure what he would say when he saw him. What was there to say after Pete had confessed his love for him?

"Can I come too?" Gerard asked.

"What about me?" Frank asked.

"I'd like to make sure Pete's okay," Mikey said.

"Me too," Ray said.

"We can't take all five of you right now," the doctor said.

Gerard sighed. "Maybe we should let Patrick go by himself," he said. "After all, he's friends with Pete, and we barely know him."

Patrick wasn't quite sure how he felt about being alone together with Pete, but he nodded and followed the doctor into his room. When the doctor opened the door, he stepped inside, not quite sure what to expect.

"Hey Lunchbox," Pete said weakly from the hospital bed. The doctors had told Patrick that Pete had broken nearly every bone in his body when he'd fallen into the sinkhole, but already, he was looking a lot better. There were a couple of fading bruises and a few faint scars left - nothing that couldn't be fixed with another night in the bacta tank. Soon, he'd be ready to leave Utapau. They just had to figure out where they would go from here.

"Hi Pete," Patrick said.

"There's something I want to talk to you about," Pete said.

"Good, because there's a lot I want to talk to you about."

"How did you get me here exactly?"

"It's kind of complicated," Patrick said. "This group of outlaws found us and rescued us. Gerard's a fan of True Clone Wars Adventures, and he wanted to warn me about the Inquisitorius. That's the organization Brendon's in, by the way."

"I thought he was a Sith."

"Apparently not, but according to Gerard, it's all a big conspiracy. The Sith and the Inquisitorius are working with the Empire to get rid of all of the surviving Jedi."