The Beach, Friday Afternoon

[moreofaponchoguy]

By this point, Cal had sense enough to figure out something was wrong. He had spent the last few days feeling pulled in two directions: one was to create and construct, to build BD-1 and himself up for when the Empire inevitably arrived and ruined everything here, and the other was to regain control over his growing fear and focus on the present.

The fear had grown more consuming with each passing day and the answer, as with most problems that couldn't be solved with violence, was to try to meditate. The beach seemed like the best place, to let the surroundings help him calm himself. Cal knelt down in the sand and closed his eyes, feeling BD-1 settle down beside him. He focused on the feeling of his breathing, the sound of the water, the cool sensation of the sand... and raised his lightsaber as he felt his concentration break.

	Cal sighed as the Jedi blocked his strike, and looked down at him. "I should have known I'd find you on your knees. Begging the Force for help?"
	In a flash, Cal was on his feet, lightsaber out defensively. "What are you? You're not real, I know you're not real."
	"Are you sure? I certainly feel real," he said, giving both Cal and BD-1 a sharp shove through the Force.
	Cal skidded backwards and managed to keep himself upright, but in the instant he reached out to catch BD, the Inquisitor rushed forward, and Cal turned to deflect the hit as he heard BD hit the sand with a sharp beep.
	"Pathetic," Cal said with disdain. "It's embarrassing to think I was ever this weak."
	Cal strained to keep his composure, tightening his grip on his lightsaber hilt. "You think I'm weak? Let's see about that," he said as he attacked.
	Okay so liiiike, how do you tell someone you'd noticed that they hadn't been around much, but like, not in a stalker way? It was just that her room was at the top of the stairs and she knew Cal generally used the stairs to go up and down and he hadn't been doing that and, uh, again, not being a stalker but she'd seen that (or, actually, not seen that) and either he'd suddenly swapped to elevators or he'd just not been coming back to the boarding house. And she wasn't trying to police his movements, honest, it had just seemed weird, but maybe not as weird as her noticing this... So great, she was losing this argument in her own head. But still, she had noticed, and things in town were getting creepy, and even if she did end up sounding like a stalker, she couldn't not check in. Especially not when she'd finally managed to lay eyes on him, meditating on the beach. But maybe stopping to grab snacks and waters was a bad idea, because by the time she stepped outside of Midnight, her supernatural sylph senses caught the noise of...something odd. A weird schinng noise that she couldn't place, and also Cal...talking to himself? But in a way that seemed, mmm, not okay. She dropped the snacks and dashed towards where she'd seen Cal last - and pulled up short as she spotted--two of him? "Cal?" she called out, confused, skidding on the sand.
	At the sound of Arden's voice, both Cals looked over, but only one of them smiled at her. "Well now, it seems one of your friends is here," he said sarcastically, taking a moment to study Arden up and down. "I can't blame you, she looks like she'd make an excellent companion."
	"Stay away from her! Your fight is with me," Cal said, striking at the Inquisitor again, searching for a flaw in his defense. It was hard when, you know, you had the same moves. BD-1 shook his head a little and got out of the sand, hobbling towards Arden as fast as he could, beeping at her in warning. "It's bad! Stay away from them!"
	Sorry, BD, baby, she still didn't speak binary. Definitely a personal flaw. But she was definitely picking up the general tone of 'this isn't a great place to be.' While 'excellent companion' sounded like it should be a compliment, there was something unsettling about how that Cal said it. And she was pretty sure that Cal wasn't her Cal-- err, ahem, she was pretty sure that Cal wasn't the Cal she knew. That Cal had this kind of...dark and broody hot thing going on, but there was something about him that made her distinctly uneasy. So, yeah, she understood the gist of what BD was communicating, she couldn't just bail. Not if it meant leaving her friend alone. "...Cal?" she asked again, eyes darting back and forth between the two of them, "Anyone wanna catch a girl up on what's going on real quick?"
	"He's... I don't know what he is," Cal said, trying to keep his voice steady. It wasn't entirely a lie - Cal was used to the strength of memories he viewed through psychometry, but this had just been a vision, one he'd made sure would never come to pass. But he'd also met Force ghosts, and there was so much about his connection that he didn't understand and had never had the chance to learn. Now this thing was here, and it was real, and Cal moved to get between the Inquisitor and Arden. "But it'll be all right. Take BD and go back to Midnight."
	"He's lying to you," the other Cal replied. "He knows exactly what I am--what he's going to be when he finally gives in the inevitable." He smiled, a little friendly and a little dangerous as he waved his hand at Arden. "You should come here."
	There had been something weird about his request, something that almost made her consider it but... "Uh, hard pass," Arden said, giving Creeper-Cal some serious side eye. She knelt to try to gather BD-1 in her arms, not looking away from him. "Full offense, but you've got a serious 'come with me to a second location' vibe going on and I'm not about that life, especially with as short that life would probably be." She shifted over, angling herself towards real Cal, though she kept watching the other one. Callista had burned it into her brain that you never, ever turn your back on an enemy. "Sorry, Cal," she said quietly. "But I'm not leaving you alone with this guy. I can help? I think."
	Cal's eyebrows raised a little as she brushed off the mind control, and his smile grew. "Well well, maybe she's not just a useless human. Still, I don't think Cere would approve."
	"Don't you dare bring her into this," Cal said sharply. "You gave up on Cere. You gave up on everything!" His swing went wild as his rage grew, and the Inquisitor easily dodged it.
	"Do you really think you're in a position to talk about giving up?" Cal pointed out. "You've gone into hiding, sitting on a beach and leaving your friends to fight." Watching the Jedi's face get darker, he added, "Is this what Master Tapal trained you for before you got him killed?"
	Cal tried to stay in control, but Arden being here - being in danger to try to help him, hearing the truth, hearing what an awful person he was - it was too much, and he threw defense to the wind as he attacked his counterpart.
	It wasn't easy to fight off a furious Jedi, and his power was certainly one of the reasons the Empire wanted to capture and turn Cal instead of just killing him. The Inquisitor parried his blows, partly to tire him out, and partly to keep him distracted long enough to send a blast of power at Arden to knock her away.
	So, on the one hand, Arden was supposed to be giving off every impression of a 'useless human.' That had been what had kept her safe - kept her alive - for the last decade, especially once her powers had started kicking in. On the other hand, she had thrown safety right out the window by refusing to leave, and, more than that, she was mad. She had no idea who any of the people they were referencing were, but she did recognize the sound of someone playing on someone else's insecurities and whispering their deepest fears out loud. She recognized it too well, in fact. She saw Captain Creepster fling a hand in her direction and that was just enough time to pull on a chord of magic to harden the air in front of her into a wall. The blast of power slammed into it, pushing her several feet backwards in a skid of sand as her shield exploded into individual air molecules all around her. But regardless of whatever that blast had been meant to do, it had expended its force shattering her wall and left her heart-pounding but unscathed. "Hey!" she called, her amber eyes gone a dark, molten gold and the scent of ozone suddenly thick around them, like the air right before a lightning strike. "That wasn't real gentlemanly of you, was it? Let me show you how a good Southern girl responds to some shit like that." She tugged on another magic chord. Had Nega-Cal ever been bitch slapped by a palm roughly the size of his head, made out of air? If Arden had her way, he was about to be. "Why don't you stop trying to mess with Cal's head and just fuck... the... fuck... right... off!"
	It certainly wasn't that Cal had never been slapped - he'd been tortured into becoming a Sith, slapping was like child's play - but there was power behind the strike that he hadn't expected. He hadn't wasted time bothering to sense her through the Force, but now that he did, there was quite a bit of strength there, delightfully raw and unchecked. In a different, less awful story, this would be where he'd try to lure her with him to the Dark Side, to steal her out from under the Jedi's nose and help her grow her power. But time wasn't on his side with an angry Cal trying to take him down, so he reached out with the Force to choke Arden instead, clenching his fist sharply to simply get her out of the way.
	And Arden-- Arden was pitifully untrained. What training she'd gotten had all been about locking down her powers, shielding herself, hiding. Everything else was instinct, striking out reaching for things she could feel with no real finesse or control. A shield to stop an incoming strike? Sure, she could do that. This? Arden had no way of blocking this. One minute, she'd been proud of herself for scoring the hit, the next she was fighting for air as an immovable force around her throat squeezed,/i. with brutal, bruising force. Her eyes went wide, gold flashing immediately back to amber as her unsteady hold on her powers shattered and she dropped to her knees, hands scrabbling at her neck to try to pull whatever it was off, except there was nothing there. She could hear Callista's voice in her ear, reminding her that she was an Elemental, that she could deal with deprivation longer, especially being deprived of air, but right now that didn't feel true, especially as panic leapt up and joined pain, bringing tears to her eyes as she tried to gasp for the air that was her birthright and yet found none.
	"No!" Cal screamed, feeling Arden's panic as much as he could see it. His own fear was bubbling up, and he remembered one of the last times he had felt this helpless. Cere and Cal ran down the corridor of the Imperial base, the sound of blaster fire ringing out as the stormtroopers continued to tail them. "Does it feel like we're running into a dead end trap, or is that just me?" Cal asked. "We're absolutely running into a trap, but we can see it coming, which means we'll have the upper hand," Cere said. "Get ready." Cal activated his lightsaber as they continued to run, the hallways narrowing as they reached the end of the path, and it didn't take long for them to be completely surrounded by enemies. "Please tell me you have a plan," Cal said, giving Cere a nervous glance. Cere closed her eyes for a moment and concentrated, and as she threw her hands out, Cal felt everything around him slow down. The air cooled in an instant, and he didn't need to see the stormtroopers' faces when he could hear their yells, bellowing lowly as their movements turned to lead. As Cere attacked, Cal followed in kind, striking each trooper down as their defenses fell. As the last one hit the ground, Cal caught his breath and grinned at Cere. "I didn't know you could do that. I've never tried that on more than one person." "Remember, all things are connected in the Force." Cere gave Cal a smile. "For good and for ill." As Cal came out of the memory, he focused on himself first, letting the Force help him regain his control as he felt the connection continue to the Inquisitor and Arden. With a burst of energy, Cal pushed into the Force, slowing everything down around them. He could feel his counterpart pushing back, dropping his control over Arden to throw everything at Cal, but it wasn't enough. Each lightsaber strike had purpose now, parrying, controlling, lessening the blows he was receiving, until one swift spin sent his lightsaber through the Inquisitor's chest, and the shadow finally dissipated.
	As soon as the grasp on her throat let go, Arden fell forward, sucking in great lungfuls of air, one hand on the ground steadying her, the other pressed against her pounding heart. As the roar of her blood faded from her ears, she looked up to watch Cal spin and move almost faster than she could register, his laser blade a whirling pulse of blue in his hands. It was almost like a dance, watching him move. It was kinda... beautiful? And Arden's face burned hot with embarrassment (and also from the flush of being choked). No wonder he'd told her to go back to the house if he could fight like that. He was some kind of professional and she...she was a rank amateur who'd tried to play hero and would have been seriously hurt if not for Cal's heroic intervention. Tears burned in her eyes - tears she could at least pass off as an aftereffect of being choked - and watched with awe as Cal dispatched his evil counterpart. He was spectacular and she was seven different kinds of fool.
	As the awful version of himself disappeared, Cal could feel some of the weight he'd been carrying this week lifting, but it was quickly replaced with embarrassment and concern as he ran over to Arden and BD. "Are you all right?" He looked them both over feeling dumb for even asking. "I don't know what happened. I mean, I know what that was but it shouldn't have been here, and I should have gotten rid of it faster and--" He got cut off as BD nestled against his chest with a relieved beep. "It's okay." "It's not okay," Cal said to both of them. "I'm so sorry."
	"I'm so sorry," Arden said at the exact same time, looking up at him. And then looked confused. "Wait, why are you sorry?" she asked. "You saved my life."
	"Well, of course I did, but I wouldn't have had to if I hadn't put you into danger in the first place," Cal explained. "It my fault that thing was here, and I should have gotten rid of him before he hurt you."
	"You tried to send me back to safety and I didn't go," Arden said, shaking her head. Her voice still sounded raw, and she absently kept rubbing at her throat. "I should have just done what you said. You had it handled and I just got in your way." She couldn't help but look up at him with admiring eyes. "You are amazing. With your laser blade thing. Where did you learn how to do that?"
	Laughing probably wasn't the right response, but it had been a while since his skills were described as amazing and not the sign of a traitor. "Uh, I learned it at home. It's what I've been trained for since I was a child," he explained. "Where did you learn how to do that wind stuff? You really were a help there, I swear."
	Arden looked down, biting her lip. "Can you keep a secret?" she asked, really just showing how deep her ignorance of Cal's life was. After his nod, Arden forced herself to look up into his eyes, searching for something. She seemed to find it and quickly, before she could lose her nerve, she blurted out, "I'm not human. I'm...something else. My dad was, but my mom was...a dj--a different thing. And I ended up something else entirely. I'm a sylph. An air elemental. Remember those sand tornadoes the day we met? And how I couldn't get up for awhile? That was me, uh, losing control of my powers." She was pretty sure she wouldn't be able to get up now, either. "I, um, don't really know how to use them."
	The idea that Cal couldn't keep a secret was adorable, but it also showed he was doing well at appearing to be a normal-ish person without deep secrets of his own, so he was going to take that as a win for the moment. "I know lots of people who aren't human," he said, giving her a soft smile as he realized that might not be as sympathetic of a statement as he was going for. "What I mean is, I'm used to being around people who have some extra things going on. I've never met an air elemental before, but I think that sounds pretty cool." BD nodded and beeped approvingly, because she really was so awesome! "It's been a little while for me, but I remember what it was like to be new to my abilities. It can be really overwhelming," he said. "Are you all right?" He couldn't stop himself from looking at her neck, keeping some space between them. It might not have been him who hurt her, but it was still sort of him, in a way. This was all so awful and strange.
	Her head throbbed, her throat felt raw, and the idea of getting to her feet and walking back to Midnight made her want to weep with exhaustion. So obviously, the only thing to do was give him a tired smile and a, "Doing okay," because she'd already embarrassed herself today and whining about how much she hurt to the guy who'd been in a laser blade battle was just a bridge too far. Same with pointing out she'd had her powers for years now, she'd just never actually used them. "But uh. Could you tell me what the fu-- err, heck that was all about? That guy...he said he was you."
	Cal sighed softly, because this was an inevitable conversation, but he wanted so badly to lie and avoid it. "The short version is that he's my worst case scenario," he explained. "People like me have been branded as traitors, and the ones who aren't killed are tortured and turned to fight for the Empire. I had a vision once that if I continued on the path I was going down, I would have been captured and turned into... him. So, I changed my path. I don't know how he ended up here, and I promise, I'm not on the wrong side," he said with desperation. He grew more tense as the words started spilling out. "I'm trying to do what's right and the Jedi aren't what the Empire has made us out to be. I don't know how this happened, and I've never wanted anyone to get hurt, and it's why I'm trying to get home before the Empire finds me here but... I don't want anything bad to happen because of me, but it has, and I'm so sorry."
	"Hey," Arden rasped, finally breaking the distance between them to reach out and cup his face in her hands. "Cal, look at me." She waited until his eyes met hers, her palms cool against his skin. "You don't have to convince me you're a good guy." Her tone was gentle, but firm, with no room for doubt or argument. "I already know that. And I don't know how your vision ended up here and fighting you, but I know what wasn't your fault. Something weird is going on with the island, it's on the radio, we can talk about all that later. But that Cal? The one you fought? He was bad news. He wanted to hurt me. And you fought him. Not just now but before, when you made the conscious decision not to be him." A thumb brushed over his cheek. "You can say you're sorry if it makes you feel better. But there's no world when I'm gonna blame you because some weird island magic brought an evil version of yourself from a future you rejected here for some ultimate showdown and then I got hurt because I didn't listen to your warning. That isn't fair, Cal. And this isn't your fault."
	Arden certainly wasn't the first person to tell him that the terrible things that happened around him weren't his fault, and while Cal was sure each individual meant it in their own way, it was hard to shake the feeling that he wouldn't need so much reassurance if bad things stopped happening, and the bad things would stop happening if he was just a little bit better at being a person. It was really good that it wasn't a Truth Day today. "I didn't hear the radio. I've been so focused on building up BD's upgrades," Cal said. "Maybe the weird island magic wouldn't have brought anyone here if I was paying more attention." It was a pretty weak statement, but he had to put up some kind of protest or he'd feel like a liar. He did, at least, look Arden in the eyes because it was nice to know she didn't seem to be afraid of him, for now.
	"I don't think that's how the weird island magic works," Arden said. Her hands slipped from his face, fingertips trailing lightly down his arms before returning to her lap. "I don't..." She faltered, bit her lip, and forced herself to continue. "I don't think you like yourself very much. And I think it's because you blame yourself for stuff, even when it's not your fault. Even if there was nothing you could have done to prevent it. And I wish I was better at friendship so I'd know better ways to say that that's bullshit, because you're somebody really worth liking. And it sucks that you don't see it, cause you're all caught up in the ways you think you're letting folks down instead of seeing ways you build folks up."
	I don't think you like yourself very much. Wow, Cal hadn't been cut to the quick like that since his first conversations with Cere, and he hated that he hadn't been able to hide his feelings better. "You're a good friend," he said, not at all spurred on by how nice her fingers had felt trailing down his arms. "And you're not wrong about a lot of that. But I am letting folks down by being here." BD made a sad sound at Cal. "She's right, you're too mean." "And you're hurt," Cal said, picking BD up and examining his leg. "We should get back to the manor." He gave Arden a smile. "You did help, I swear. I'll stop apologizing eventually once I know you're really okay." It might be never, sorry Arden!
	Let's just say Arden had some familiarity with the subject. But she let it go in favor of the herculean task in front of her - you know, pushing herself to her feet and then walking the...however many yards to the manor. A deep breath. Standing took a little longer than she might have liked, but she succeeded at it. Unfortunately, standing also took what little energy she'd managed to scrape together, leaving her to topple over into the sand again. Maybe Cal would be kind and just leave her there facedown on the beach for the tide. That would actually be really gucci of him.
	Oh yeah, leaving her to wash out with the high tide was definitely how Cal rolled, that totally wouldn't cause generations of Jedi to Force Ghost their way to the island to yell at him. "BD, think you can stay on my back?" he asked, crouching down next to Arden. It was only because Arden didn't speak the language that BD said, "Obviously!" as he hopped carefully over Cal’s shoulder. Cal rolled his eyes a little and crouched down, reaching for Arden. "Put your arms around my neck, I've got you."
	Well, they clearly didn't understand that Cal had been doing her a favor with the tide thing. Thanks for nothing, Force Ghosts. Arden briefly paused to consider whether or not she could asphyxiate on sand in the next ten seconds, reluctantly realized the she could not, and shifted enough to, um. You know. Do the thing with her arms around his neck and the...yeah. Her embarrassment at being too tired to stand and inelegantly flopping into the beach like a fish turned into embarrassment at being so close. "I'm so sorry," she breathed. "Using my powers is like running an uphill marathon in the snow. But I'll be okay, you just had a big fight, you're probably even more tired than me..." Except for how he was standing unaided while she clung to him and seemed quite unlikely to fall over about it.
	Cal debated for a moment about whether or not to pretend that lifting her was difficult, but it seemed like there were more downsides than positives to that choice. "It was tiring, but thankfully the town isn't that big," he said, lifting her into his arms. If he took a moment to take in the smell of her, the gentle fragrance of fresh air and ozone, it was just him making sure he had her safely in his grasp. "Maybe, if we're lucky, we can get in quietly and no one will ask either of us any questions."
	Sorry, Cal, but you had just picked her up like it was nothing and was now princess carrying her back to the manor. She was, obviously, fine and being totally normal about this and not at all segfaulting in her brain or anything. "Yeah," she echoed, "Totally." And then, "Wait, what?" as her brain caught up with the what was happening. "If you have to, throw me at Dean as a distraction and make a run for it. It might be the only way," she said with a soft laugh that trailed off after a moment. "Hey Cal?" Feeling greatly daring, she leaned forward and brushed a soft kiss over his cheek. "Thanks." You know, mostly for saving her life and all, but she was pretty sure he'd argue with her about that, so she was keeping it vague.
	Cal could feel the way BD was vibrating against his back and rolled his shoulder a little to mentally will him to calm down. If there was any heaviness left in his chest, it was long gone now. "Let’s go with a gentle toss instead of a throw, but hopefully it won’t come to that," he teased. Making sure he was holding her tightly, Cal headed back to the manor and whatever the island had left in store for them now.

[Preplayed with the lovely afraid_of_marshmallows! Everything after the fight is NFB, please!]