Chapter Text
Part 4:
Luca is asleep when Nield and Obi-Wan reunite. They find it sorta cheesy when they wake up. Nield is sitting in the living room, shoulder to shoulder to Obi-Wan, watching him with a look in his eyes that Luca would have called promiscuous if it hadn’t been directed at Luca’s kind-of-parent. (And also Luca knew Nield and Obi-Wans relationship wasn’t sexual, so...)
“I’m sorry-“
“Don’t apologize.” Nield scolds, pressing his shoulder harder into Obi-Wan’s. “Don’t apologize for having the life you dreamed of.”
“I don’t think I ever dreamed of my people being massacred and then raising my padawan’s child, Nield.” Obi-Wan drops his head onto Nield’s shoulder.
“Marry me.”
“What?” (Okay, maybe it was, who knows.)
-
They stayed on Melida/Daan for about a month before Nield shooed them off, stating that Obi- Wan needed to leave before he died of pent up anxiety. Nield held up a hand as if to high-five the air as they took off, and Obi-Wan returned the gesture through the window.
“Good Luck.” He’d said before they’d left.
“I don’t need luck.” Obi-Wan had replied. Luca sighed in relief, worried he’d say something else, worried that he’d say what he usually did to Anakin.
“Everybody needs luck.”
Obi-Wan had smiled. “Not us.” He gestured between Luca and himself. “Besides,” He shrugged, “There’s no such thing as luck.”
Luca sighed internally, and Nield raised an eyebrow. “Just come back to me.” The I don’t want to lose you again hung in the air. Obi-Wans response was nonverbal, but Luca can tell that it was I don’t think I could lose you again either. I’ve already lost everyone else.
Luca repeated the words to themself, Luke to Lucia and back again. “I don’t want to lose you, I’ve already lost everyone else.Yes I am in fact aware we are now the same person.”
“Of course, Nield.” Obi-Wan said instead. They get on the ship and they do a few jobs. They come back again. Luca has a new normal.
-
Crosshair makes it his mission to make Luca laugh. The two of them are on opposite sides of the galaxy, so its hard to line up their actual circadian rhythms, but Luca takes enough naps that it doesn’t matter.
Luca’s giggles give Crosshair a reason to smile, something he doesn’t really have ever since Commander Cody deserted. He’d shot that Governor without hesitation. Cody didn’t seem to understand that he wasn’t just following orders, though Cross was good at pretending that’s what it was. Crosshairs life wasn’t just his anymore. It wasn’t the Empires either. He had to live for Luca, and he had to follow the Empire or else he would die.
Cody didn’t understand. Luca was Cross’ only priority. They were the only thing that came before Crosshairs own life.
-
Vader could feel his child on the clone. Vader knew his name, he’d met the clone before, but he didn’t quite remember it. The dragon was roaring in his ears.
The clone was the only person who the dragon calmed at the sight of, though it did bristle. It was obvious that the clone was not his child’s kidnapper, but the bond was obvious to Vader once he had noticed it. It was almost impossible to see if he hadn’t been looking for his child’s signature 24/5/368.
Vader seethes as he watches from a distance, his child’s chosen clone had been transferred to some lowlife nat-born who looked down his nose as if the his men were two feet tall and being crushed under his boot.
Vader resists the urge to murder the lieutenant. He couldn’t bring the Emperors attention to focus on his child’s chosen guardian. But if the lieutenant tried anything, Vader didn’t think he could hold back from ripping out that man’s sarcophagus.
The dragon rises in Vader’s chest as his child’s chosen stepped onto a shuttle. He reaches out a tendril, wrapping it around the clone. It’s thin, elastic too, and it stretches as the ship takes off.
That clone was his child’s. Hurting him would be punishable by death.