Star Wars: Saviors of the Broken

Chapter XXXV

"It's always nice to see an old friend again." - Ashex Wenvoll, from Collected Wisdom of the Jedi Masters

As Gerard stepped across the bridge and into the Horseshoe Crab, he couldn't help but worry about what had happened to his brother and his friends. The Inquisitorius had already attacked them once - what would stop them from doing it again? Would they ever be safe again?

Sometimes, he wondered if he would have been better off staying home, only learning about the Jedi through his extensive comic book collection. He could have ignored the information on the data pod, he could have kept his old job, he could be designing propaganda posters for the Empire right now. Maybe nobody would have noticed that Mikey was Force-sensitive, just like nobody noticed for the first sixteen years of his life. Maybe they would have been better off.

Then again, if he'd stayed home, he never would have met Frank.

Gerard pressed a kiss to Frank's lips just as the two of them entered the Horseshoe Crab. Ray followed closely behind, rolling his eyes as Frank leaned in for another kiss.

"You know, maybe it's not the best idea to make out while walking," Ray said. "You're going to run into something one of these days."

"It's not my fault that Gee's so cute," Frank said.

Gerard smiled as he pulled away from Frank, knowing that he was lucky to have such an incredible boyfriend. He couldn't believe that just a few days ago, he'd nearly left him. The thought that he might never see Frank again nearly broke him, but at the time, he thought it was the right thing to do. Now that he knew that the Empire had invaded even the farthest corners of the galaxy, that no planet was safe anymore, he promised himself that he'd never leave Frank again. Frank was the only hope for him, after all.

As the three of them headed into the cockpit, Gerard spotted the crew members of the Horseshoe Crab. Joe was in the captain's chair, and Pete was standing next to him, with one arm wrapped around Patrick. Finally, hiding behind Pete, with his nose in a book, there was Mikey.

As soon as he spotted him, Gerard flung his arms around his little brother. "Hi Mikey," he said. "It's so good to see you."

"It's good to see you too, I guess," Mikey said as he put his book down and awkwardly hugged his brother.

"How have you been?"

"Okay. Nothing's really happened since I sent that hologram," Mikey said. "I missed you a lot."

"I missed you too. The ship feels...incomplete without you."

Just as Mikey was about to say something, a hologram of Andy appeared. "Hi everybody," he said. "How's it going out there?"

"It's been...interesting, to say the least," Joe said.

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Ray said.

"We're all still alive though, and that's what counts, right?" Pete said.

Andy nodded. "That's good, but just surviving isn't enough. The Empire's only growing stronger, and we need to fight back."

"You don't have to tell us twice," Joe said. "Apparently they've already been to Ilum, and they're heading to Tatooine next."

"Tatooine?" Frank said, confused. "Why?"

"We don't know yet," Joe said. "Before we decided to meet up, we were going to go there and see what was going on."

"I think I know," Gerard said. Everyone looked at him expectantly, and he said, "It's because of Obi-Wan Kenobi."