[video]

[candor1]

[He's had plenty of time to toy with this gizmo (all technical terms, thank you mental projection of Kay that's moved back into his brain now that it's not too painful because there's a real Kay again, shush), but still hasn't put himself on it for more than a brief response to Catelyn Stark.

For all his well-[founded?]-honed mistrust of open networks, it has chastened him that he could have found Jyn and Kay much more quickly if he'd used it from the start. For all the research he does, it's unignorable that he's wasting a huge amount of this powerful resource by relegating himself to observer, not participant.

…And there's one or two other imPorts he's learned about that… have caught his attention. He's wondering if he'll catch theirs.

So, network, hello: months after his arrival (albeit a good percent of them spent unconscious): Human. Male. Age hard to tell: either in his thirties-forties or face prematurely hollowed and lined. Hair: dark, cut as if by himself with a tool not meant for such use and no mirror. Eyes: several galaxies' worth. Shirt doesn't look like anything specific to those who wouldn't know the style, instantly recognizable as Corellian to those who would.

Then he smiles—in a way that seems entirely effortless, genuine, and engaged—and some of the agedness falls away. The eyes crinkle and sparkle. He seems approachable and warm. Even the haircut is transformed into seeming less unloved and more boyish. It gives this stranger the face of a friend.

His accent, when he speaks, sounds Hispanic to Earth American ears.]

I was wondering, if you're willing to share—

[on an open network, though that's not necessarily a good barometer of the network itself]

Are you still in the job you were assigned? Yes or no, how is it going for you?

I've read the introductory material on this. I'm wondering about personal experiences.

[He's tried to go beyond the official literature, including as much of the backlog as he could find or slice. Which is also why he doesn't repeat Godric's question (to which the answers were exceedingly helpful—and a few that sent a shiver up his spine. But pull it together, don't apply superstitious thought to the superstitious thoughts: that's what common cosmological models do).


As if in afterthought, and as if with self-conscious awkwardness, he adds]

…and hello. My name's Cassian.

Comments

[Audio]

[candor1]

Where would you go?

[That to Cassian would be more of an issue than the craft itself. Unless this man also means he can build a nav computer from scratch. Without any star charts for this part of the galaxy, either because it was a different galaxy, an unknown part of their own, or they simply couldn't identify it accurately because its own inhabitants were non-spacefaring.

…And beyond the logistics: any answer would give more insight to the man himself.]

[Audio]

[prophesiedone]

Where the Force draws me. [Somehow, some way he is determined to make his way home. Their galaxy might be lightyears away or close by; none of them really know. No one has a proper layout of anything up there and even if time is an issue - and it absolutely is - Anakin sees no reason to stay grounded - imprisoned, really - unless he has no other choice.]

Checking out the Porters wouldn't go amiss either.

[Audio]

[candor1]

[…All right, that possibility hadn't occurred to him…

First, because it still seems remarkable that people would arrive here from the same universe, for all that he's now met several.

Second, because in that universe, in Cassian's time, Force users had been all-but extinct.

Trying not to think of the last person Cassian had addressed this way—]

Are you a Jedi?

[Audio]

[prophesiedone]

I am. [Was, rather. He is one of the fallen Jedi; a remarkably rare group considering how much conflict exists in their galaxy.] Fully trained, obviously. I had a Padawan too.

[Until she made a far healthier decision than him.]

[Audio]

[candor1]

[…can't be helped that this invites having the question turned back on him, he wants too much to know.]

What year are you from?

[Audio]

[prophesiedone]

19 BBY or 3258 LY depending on the calendar. [They are surprisingly close as far as timelines go.] What about you?

I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS TO COME UP

[candor1]

3277 LY.

[Cassian was seven when this man was last in their universe. So much for learning news.

Although…]

What is BBY?

[prophesiedone]

I think it stands for Before the Battle of Yavin. I read about some important dates right after I arrived. They used both calendars. [Because as people come and go in the cities, information is inevitably stored in one form or another. The Battle of Yavin seems like a big deal and it caught his notice.] No idea why it stood out as a marker for dates.

[candor1]

[Cassian freezes.

It's only a silence on the channel. But it might be a strong enough emotional reaction to ripple in the Force even at this distance.

Han Solo and Luke Skywalker had told him about Yavin being attacked.

They hadn't mentioned they'd changed the calendar because of it.

…From what they'd said…

…or perhaps just Cassian's bleak assumption…

…it had sounded like blowing up the Death Star hadn't actually changed things. Not as much as they'd…

…well, but what had they hoped? It had been an end in of itself. They hadn't actually imagined they would be ending the war. Just undoing a terrible wrong. Saving a few worlds' worth of lives.

A few worlds'.

It wasn't nothing. Of course it wasn't.

And it was right.

And it was all they could do.

…But…

He swallows and forces it from his mind. This man said he didn't know, so it's pointless both of them speculating—when there are others here with solid intel.

…Anyway, he belatedly remembers what was going on in 3258. …19.

Beyond being a year after Jeron Andor was killed.]

So you… I'm sorry, I guess you were taken out of… [it feels oddly impertinent to talk about it—despite hard-learned policy not to dance around such things, that didn't help—and obviously he already knows] …the Purge?

[…good as he usually is at not jumping to conclusions or making assumptions, being brought here from his own death is suddenly forward in his mind… doesn't realize he's projecting such a departure point onto the other.]

[prophesiedone]

[Calendars get changed and refigured for the stars know what reason. Anakin took the sparse notes he had found about their galaxy lightly - nothing set in stone, just someone else's impression of events. He had noted that there had been a shift in how the dates were recorded around said battle and thus he used both dates to tell others the year from whence he hailed. Less confusion that way, hopefully, and he so did not like to waste time on anything - especially petty calculating matters.

He arches a brow at the name. Purge, hm?] The Purge of who, might I ask?

[candor1]

[Well, he'd walked into that.]

Apparently not.

[His tone shifts to the well-crafted, all too-well-practiced balance of interpersonal and ritual, not distant but respectful, quiet but clear, modulated down to the best frequency not to elevate nerve reaction—used whenever imparting such information. Howevermuch at the back of his mind he suspects this man does know and just wants him to say it outright.]

The Emperor's Purge of the Jedi. There were no Jedi active by my adulthood, as far as we knew.

[Which didn't preclude them being able to hide even from a spy network, of course. …But if so, and they weren't helping… but that was a different line of thought altogether.]

[prophesiedone]

Do not make assumptions. [The Emperor being Palpatine. Of course. Anakin scowls for a moment before his expression twists into a half grin.] Good. I would say the Purge was successful, then.

[Thanks, in large part, to him. Anakin is certain there is no Jedi alive that could face him, legitimately, in battle and win.]

Is the Empire better for it?

[candor1]

[…

…

malditamierdatontodelculolabanthasabemasquetueresmásboludojodidopuñeterochupantependejoteodiotematocobardedeberías morir

…

.]

So you aren't a Jedi.

[prophesiedone]

I am, I was, I will always be. [He shrugs, the light in his eyes growing to a feverish glow.] But I'm more than that now.

[candor1]

I see.

[That you aren't.

Not that Cassian knew much about Jedi. And whatever he did know, from varyingly plausible stories, he hadn't necessarily credited or paid as much attention to as he ought. Even the leaders of the Rebellion barely talked about the Jedi; and before the rise of the Empire, Cassian would have considered the Jedi his enemies. But he'd been so young, too young to understand who he'd been fighting or who he'd been fighting for.

But Cassian knew people. He knew their psychology and their rhetoric and the interplay of conviction with power/institution.

And whenever anyone said something like I'm more than that now, it meant, however convinced they were otherwise, whatever community or movement or belief they claimed for their own, would not resemble what they were doing with it. It had become only a banner, sometimes flown over utterly contradictory/incompatible behavior and acts. And others who ascribed to it would disavow them utterly.

…In this case: if they had been left alive to do so.

All that keeps Cassian outwardly calm and vocally quiet now is the simultaneous realization, with all this, that he's talking to someone exceedingly dangerous.

And he's not going to pick a fight.

…not blindly.]

Well, then, it depends what you mean by "better".

[prophesiedone]

Do you? [He hasn't met anyone who really understands how he feels. Except for maybe Palpatine, but that Sith is twisting him for his own ends and Anakin knows it. All he really has is himself and he doesn't expect anyone to stand at his side - besides Padmé for obvious reasons. Even she may not understand his vision fully until he shows her - and he will.

She will be safe. Their son will be born and everything will be as it should be.]

More order? Less chaos? Less vying for power? The galaxy needs swift justice; not policies of noninterference.

[candor1]

[That thing about not picking a fight.


Nevermind.



How often are you asked like this to your face.



Jeron. Khriou. Narede. Dorosz. Blue. Farir. d'Djiera. Dyv and Linnë. Devist. Tivik.
Basteren. Calfor. Casrich. Kappehl. Mefran. Melshi. Pao. Rostok. Sefla. Tonc.
Baze. Bodhi. Chirrut.
Kay.
Jyn.]



More subjugation. More victimization. Centralized and planet-wide. Labor camps. Occupation. Resource-stripping. Radicalization of native communities in defense of their lives. Xenocide.

[which you may not care about killing your own kind but speaking of them]

A planet-killing superweapon that wiped Ni-Jedha off the face of the world with a single shot.



[The face and voice of Cassian Andor are absolutely unreadable.]



Not justice. Certainly interference.

[prophesiedone]

[So many names that mean little to nothing to Anakin as he is now. He has come to grips with the fact that in order to seize the power and control he desires, he must be cold. Ruthless. The path of the Sith isn't good for the heart - his heart is weak anyway.

Thus, while the succinct description does give him some pause - some unease - he does not seem particularly upset.]

There are reasons behind each act, wouldn't you say? Rebellion would be the foremost, I think. It can't be tolerated. [He smiles callously, eyes glinting coolly.] Letting opposing factions exist and gain strength is dangerous for any empire.

[candor1]

[buries the rage beneath weariness]

And the purpose of empire is what?

[prophesiedone]

To protect; to bring peace. [He's so far gone. Look what the Sith have done to him.] Sacrifices are necessary, though they are never easy.

[candor1]

Protect and bring peace to…?

[prophesiedone]

The galaxy as a whole.

[candor1]

[makes a dissatisfied sound]

Do you have less abstract answers?

[prophesiedone]

Not really because it has always been about everyone. Everything. The laws should cover the whole galaxy and be actively enforced. Rebels and their rebellions cannot be tolerated. The safety of all cannot be compromised because they are unhappy.

[candor1]

[using all his discipline to keep his voice even]

And you see no contradiction in what you just said?