Private Light Through Yonder Window Breaks

[Damsy Callat]

Just outside of the site of Tuanul, Jakku
// I know I let you down and it's all that I've been thinking about
I get I messed it up like I was far too close to see
Now I know that this is all that really matters to me \\
// A'Runda \\​

: || There are zero readings in a kilometer radius, || : chirped Ursula.

Damsy smacked her wrist HUD. "Don't power yourself on 'les you're gonna be helpful," she scolded the AI unit as she continued to prod at the sand with the toes of her boots.

A beeping scoff and then a protest was almost immediate. : || What do you think I'm trying to be, exactly? || :

"Trying?" asked Damsy rhetorically. "Or being? 'Cuz it's not helpful." Letting out a sound between sigh and grunt, the Sithspawn squatted down to pick up a small, brown ovoid object and started brushing it off, but when it turned out to just be a rock tossed it back to the ground. After standing back up, she resumed her search. "The Church of old was technophobic. At least the sect that settled here. I wouldn't really be surprised if their stuff's undetectable to you."

: || Lovely. || :

Damsy rolled her ocean eyes. She wished she had never hoped Ursula would loosen up and learn sarcasm. "What did I just say about being helpful?"

: || Fine. What are you looking for, again? || :

"Pre-New Order Jedi lore," she said honestly. "Some sort of affirmation I belong there. That we're not the horse-spawn of the apocalypse."

: || I reckon we're a few centuries too late. Every archaeologist in the galaxy and their grandmother has probably— || :

"Okay, goodnight." With a press of a button to power off her gauntlet and a silent prayer that Urs would take the hint this time, Damsy continued on her way in anything but silence. The crunch of sand underfoot, the hum of some local insects, and the boiling sunrays she swore she could hear weren't nearly as unwelcome as her AI's input though.

 

[A'Runda]

Jakku, Graveyard of Giants

Riding a dewback with no name...

Damsy Callat
​

The hot desert winds blew across A'Runda and his steed as he rode his business partners back to one of the many trading posts around ancient battlefield. A'Runda was with a small band of Jawas who, much like him, were far from home. Even if it was also a desert planet, it still wasn't Tatooine. He worked as something as a body guard, or security detail for some of the local Jawas as they scavenged the many remains of a bygone war.

As the closest trading post came into view for A'Runda and his friends he got a strange, but familiar feeling. He always had a particularly sensitive presence in The Force. Part of the reason he gravitated to barren planets like Tatooine and Jakku. The lack of like and thus The Force was easier on him. So it was not difficult for him to pick up on the Force signature of another being who was also sensitive.

However, what made this new feeling so strange was that it was, Damsy? But it couldn't be could it? She was MIA, or even KIA, he wasn't really sure. That uncertainty always hurt him on the inside. Yet this feeling in the Force felt so clear, the cosmic energy wasn't really one to make mistakes. As A'Runda and his friends began to pass over another dune he called out to the Jawas in their native language. "Hey... I uh, I need to take a detour. You guys can make it back on your own from here. I'll see you tomorrow."

Perplexed the Jawas looked back at him before talking back. "Oh yeah, well if you don't take us the whole way back you're pay will be halved for today." It was rather greedy and silly of them. After all the likely hood that a they would face trouble this close to a trading post. Frowning under his hood A'Runda wouldn't bother arguing with them. He wasn't into haggling like them.

"Fine fine, whatever, like I said I'll see you tomorrow." It's not like he really needed the extra credits. He had plenty, mostly because he hardly ever spent any. Nodding the Jawas went ahead with their travel back to civilization. Perfectly fine with paying A'Runda half for the day's work. Leaning down some on his steed A'Runda patted the dewback some before speaking to it. "Come on friend, this way now." He said before directing them to the direction he felt the Force presence. All the while the dewback cried out in mild protest. They were a stubborn creature. Not really liking things that broke their flow.

Now the two of them began to split and loose sight of their Jawa friends as he felt the Force signature coming from the dunes.

 

[Damsy Callat]

Damsy got used to the sounds of the desert settling all around her rather quickly.

These days, since becoming Force Sensitive herself and learning to bend its will to hers more and more as she either took a new Master or taught herself new tricks, she could wander all kinds of drier climates without being nearly as careful as she used to. Namely, she didn't have to wear hydration tubing under her clothes anymore. Self-focused Cryokinesis had been a game-changer Damsy had learned since running into her former lover on Tatooine. There had been a few reasons she hadn't revealed herself back then. Though at the time they had all seemed so convincing, she looked back on each now with a range of tri-languaged curses on her tongue.

To say she regretted that choice just about everyday would have been both over- and understated; under for the feeling, over for the time. Reflecting on hindsight every 24 hours would have at least driven her in the bottle by now, sent her on a murder-suicide spree influenced by the Dark Side at most.

A Dewback's groan drew Damsy's gaze onto a nearby sand dune but then chilled her body completely still.

She felt it too. A well-rounded quartz grain over yonder rise, familiar in its fracture and friendliness, but out of place among the grains that made up the sea here. No, it belonged under two, diagonally offset suns rather than one.

A'Runda undoubted.

 

[A'Runda]

On the dunes A'Runda began to look out over the last one. Eyeing the old abandoned settlement. It seemed as thought half of it was covered in the sands. Slowly becoming one with the dunes that surrounded them. As they began to come over sandy hill A'Runda's steep groaned loudly. Still not keen on their rider breaking their daily routine.

A'Runda could see what looked to be an individual standing amongst the abandoned and ruined buildings. The source of the Force Signature he was picking up on. It was stronger than he remembered from Damsy if it was her. Nonetheless he didn't find all too many Force Sensitives here and those that he did find were typically trouble unfortunately.

However, if this be a foe and not a friend A'Runda wasn't too concerned about not being able to deal with it. He had his old gaffi stick still and his sawed off rifle. Not to mention his lightsaber if things ever got truly dire. Eventually the dewback back there way into the old settlement. Legend had it that it was home to peculiar folk that were wiped out many centuries ago. As they got closer eventually the dewback stopped, not wanting to go any further. Groaning once more A'Runda patted them on the side before sliding off. Even now he was still masked, just not nearly as heavily. Peering, his eyes gazed upon the women and her familiar vibe.

Patting his steed once more he stepped closer to her. Still feeling the Force's connection to her. Yet this women didn't really look like the women he cared to deeply for. However, she did seem to remember her. Yes, she was with the moister farmers way back on Tatooine. Was she possibly a sister? No she didn't look too much like Damsy, and he wasn't sure that the Force worked like that.

"Don't get a lot of visitors around here, especially around old villages like this one." Perhaps she was with that group of Jedi that he was hearing about that had established themselves on the planet. "I think we met before, on Tatooine."

Damsy Callat

 

[Damsy Callat]

A'Runda may have not recognized Damsy anymore for the body change she had had since last they officially met, but she sure recognized him. While his clothes might have been a little different, and they still covered most of his body, they couldn't hide his general silhouette. And that hadn't changed one bit. Considering it along with the Force signature and gaderffii holstered saddle-side on his dewback, she was fairly confident in her identification until he spoke, and then she was certain.

Damsy took an involuntary step back when he stepped close.

Her heart clenched in her throat, literally breaking.

She nodded first, slowly, unsure of her own ability to speak without tears. A moment later, she replied in a voice a few octaves lower than natural: "Yeah. Mister A, right?"



**
A'Runda

 

[A'Runda]

A’Runda only slightly tilted his head some to he side. Seeing her step back some. She seemed a little concerned. He could pick up on a sense of unease and sorrow. Hearing her question he nodded. Clearly she must be the same woman he met back on tatooine. “That’s right, However, I don’t recall ever learning your name, sorry about that.” A’Runda replied to her. “I suppose you and I are sorta in the same boat, Tatooine didn’t quite work out for us huh?” He added, seemingly assuming her situation.

After his remark he looked around some at the abandoned settlement they were in. Recalling once more to himself how its inhabitants were supposedly massacred long ago before his time. Now many of the old structures were mostly buried in small dunes of sand. Each grain of which was carried along by the winds and piled up over the many years. Looking back at the woman he spoke once more. “What brings you here might I ask?”

Damsy Callat

 

[Damsy Callat]

Damsy didn't think.

She didn't have time to...

: || What's happening out there, Dam—? || :

...before slapping her hand over her wrist's HUD. Ursula's feminized mechanical voice muffled against her skin a millisecond too late. Or perhaps not? Either way, call or close, it wasn't helping normalize the heartbeat vital the AI had been halfway through complaining about.

Damsy looked up at A'Runda with wide doe eyes. That deep, saltwater blue must have been utterly unmistakable now.

 

[A'Runda]

Suddenly it clicked with A’Runda. Seeing into her eyes she instantly recognized who was really in front of him. It was true, the Force had not made a mistake. Under his garbs he felt a rush of emotion. Almost to an overwhelming degree. Softly and slowly he stepped forwards. Getting a better look into her unmistakable eyes. Even with his goggles filtering the view for him he could never truly forget her. She was a shapeshifter after all he had almost forgotten that about her.

“D-Damsy?” He replied, wanting to make sure that he wasn’t wrong and that he wasn’t losing his mind from his isolation out in the dune seas of Jakku. After he spoke he moved his hand up to the base of his neck before pulling up the mask and goggles over his face. After he did he showed off his face. His tan skin feeling naked out in the dry desert air. His expression was one of shock and astonishment.

From the last time she saw his face he looked considerably more healthy. His face is not sucking and swallowing from radiation poisoning any more. His dark hair had grown out too. As well as half of his face still being covered by his old tribal tattoos. She wouldn’t have seen it but the moment he realized that it was Damsy his eyes would revert back to their dark brown coloration. No longer a vibrant yellow.

Damsy Callat

 

[Damsy Callat]

Damsy rose a hand to her mouth. "Oceans' tides..." she whispered, reaching out her other hand for his cheek. She had only seen his face a handful of times, so maybe that was the reason it felt so unreal. That and her luck; she felt as if nothing truly, jaw-droppingly good had happened to her since leaving the Confederacy for the first time.

It never made it.

For a moment that dropped her heart through her stomach, she thought she had stepped into quicksand, but her legs finally crumpled beneath her when she hit solid ground. The low impact was enough to tease the first few freshwater tears from her eyes.



**
A'Runda

 

[A'Runda]

A’Runda didn’t stop her as she went to feel his cheek; he just continued looking into her eyes as she seemed just as astonished as he was. That is until he legs seemed to give out from under her. “Damsy!?” He exclaimed before he followed her down, kneeling on the sand. With his arms he sort of caught her as well.

He couldn’t help but go in for a deep hug and embrace her. To him he'd never known if Damsy had died or simply gone MIA. But it always ate him up from the inside. The negativity of the uncertainty having corrupted him in The Force. But none of that felt like it mattered now. He was just glad to see her again.

“Damsy I...I-I didn’t think I would see you again… I thought you were gone.” He pained him to admit that and she could hear that in his voice.

Damsy Callat

 

[Damsy Callat]

All the sound she could manage for quite some time was sniffles.

"I'm so sorry," she was finally able to break the pattern. "A'Runda, I'm sorry. Atrisia was...so scary." She didn't look up at him, but sought out a hand to hold; if she found it, she would intertwine their fingers, pull the palm towards her lap, and cover them with her other hand. The entire invasion had the plot of a horror holo flick, but the worst memories to her flooded back all at once:

"Ready!!" All at once, the vertical line became horizontal, a living wall between the enemy and the armored duo. Damsy pushed herself back into to line just in time to spot the incoming wave. She aimed at the frontrunner, backed up even further, and heaved her throw. The trident planted into the infected's neck, and then him into the ground. The weapon's shaft tripped up a few more before a shower of blaster bolts, infantry and walker fire, plowed into the crowd.​

​

"Cease fire!" The order came after a few eternal minutes, and all rifles clicked as they were hesitantly lowered. "Let's move! Heads on a swivel!" Once again, Damsy head the push. When she came upon the fallen swarm, she reached down for her trident. Commandos marched on without her. Wrapping her hand around the golden hilt, she tugged. It didn't come free, so she slid her hand down towards the prongs and - "Kark!" ​

Without hesitation, Damsy swung her rifle under her arm, detached her grapple, and threw in onto the pile. Suddenly, her hand stung. When met with his raised eyebrow, she explained, "I'll figure it out." Not a lie, technically, but spoken just in time for Alpha's approach. She joked, a hidden smile on her face, "Long time no see, Reinhart. Your men need these." She pointed to the equipment, then the cliffs, then the walkers. "Hope no one's scared of heights. We're propelling from the heads to the clifftops, then we'll climb to the Palace basement. Demonstration, Berrezz?"​

When she went to reply, pressing her wrist comm, she smeared blood over it. She turned over her hand and saw blood pooling on her blacks in a large crescent moon. Quickly, she wrapped her hand in her combat cape. The stains wouldn't shown against the black. Whatever the cost, she had to see this through.​

She cleared her throat, trying to reject the emotion already scalding her throat. "Command—" She started off well enough, voice chapped by nature and not oncoming death, but stopped for a different reason. It didn't feel right for her last words to be so formal, Dauntless or not.​

​

So she began again: "It's Damsy." She glanced over to the Palace, where the squads were moving up to the basement floor. "Alpha and Omega are scaling Xiaolang as we speak." She swallowed thickly. She could easily leave it at that, but Luna deserved to hear it as it was from her, not how it might have been from Berrezz. "I'm...no longer an asset. But the misson'll get done, Luna, I swear. Tiria's got it." With the heel of her palm, Damsy swiped at the tears running down her cheeks. They were mostly silent, but soon enough she began to sputter. It became worse as she actively fought to keep the floodgates closed. "It's been an absolute honor serving with you and the Dauntless. I'm just sorry I gotta go like this.​

​

"Tell @A'Runda I love him and will see him again on Tatooine." ​

Damsy yanked off her helmet and tossed it onto the bumpy street, sending it clattered away as she turned to face the drop-off into the river. Unclasping her Kaminoan dartgun from its thigh holster, she made sure her comms were all disconnected before training the weapon on herself...​

"I-I thought I was gone. But then I wasn't." She shook her head, trying and failing to clear it.



**
A'Runda

 

[A'Runda]

Hearing her apologies he shook his head some. He wasn’t upset at her, he never was. He’d just been worried and confused for so long. A’Rudna held her hand, intertwining his gloved fingers with hers. He wasn’t really familiar with the world of Artisia. But he could understand that it was clearly worrisome to her. He didn’t say anything, he looked at her and let her seemingly process the shock of witnessing him again.

It had seemed as though their time apart from each other had not been kind. She’d faced horrors he couldn’t yet understand, and he’d lost himself on tatooine in his loneliness, falling down a dark spiral of revenge and violence. “There’s no need for you to apologize to Damsy, if anything I’m sorry I never really went looking for you.” The galaxy was such a big place he couldn’t imagine where he would begin if he did search for her.

After speaking there was a loud moan from his dewback from behind him. The steed was not sure what to do with itself but could sense that A’Runda and the stranger were having a moment. Gently the large reptile stepped closer to them before laying on the sand closer to A’Runda. Basking some in the sun’s brilliant light. For A’Runda seeing Damsy was a great relief, not just because she was alive. Given recent events for him, the former tusken it was could help a great strain on him and his psyche. Currently though he wasn't quite sure what to say to her. Still processing the moment.

Damsy Callat

 

[Damsy Callat]

Damsy let out a breathless laugh, almost drowning in the tears she had breathed into the back of her throat, as the dewback lay down. She uncovered A'Runda's hand to pet the beast on its flank before scooting closer to its master. She wrapped her hand behind his neck and brought her head down on his chest. "There was nothing to find," she whispered.

She wasn't sure if that had changed. The female shape knelt before his felt to her so empty. It was really a wonder that the dry desert air hadn't ripped through the husk.

But now it was too late. For the first time in a long time, Damsy noticed the beat of her heart. The pump of her blood. The heave of her lungs and the tremble of her skin.

"I missed you, cuddlefish."



**
A'Runda

 

[A'Runda]

A’Runda would simply keep her in a gentle embrace as she laid her head down on his chest. Hearing her words. “I missed you too.” Was all he felt like he could manage to say. For the moment. He didn’t really pay any mind to the dewback as they got closer to the two of them.

“It seems as though the years have not been kind to either of us.” He spoke softly to her. Even if it wasn’t that obvious between the two of them that they had been through a lot he could sense it. After all the last time they were really together he was extremely sick, and now he was seemingly more healthy than ever, but it couldn’t show the wounds that were more than skin deep.

At the moment A’Runda felt torn, all he wanted to do was speak to her, ask her questions. But yet he couldn’t think of anything to say at the same time. Eventually though he spoke again. “W-Why are you out here on Jakku?” He figured that wasn’t a bad or difficult question.

Damsy Callat

 

[Damsy Callat]

Above all, she heard his heart.

"How or why?" she asked softly, rotating but not removing her head. Regardless of his actual intention, she decided to address the latter first. "This new body can regulate its water content a lot more than the last one." That felt weird to say out loud. How long had she lived like this, and this was the first time she had talked about it? Well. Maybe the second.

"I didn't mean to change. It just happened after I was pretty sure I had died during the Atrisian rebellion." Wonder flitted over her mind; had Luna Terrik ever actually transmitted her last words to A'Runda? A no would not surprise her. She knew the former War Marshal had taken the apparent death of her friend hard, to the point that she might have denied it until a body was found—which of course never happened.

"I can't revert back. I'm stuck like this. And I can use the Force now. See?" She shifted some more, freeing one of her hands and bringing it into both of their view. Small electric sparks flew about her fingertips.



**
A'Runda