moreofaponchoguy | The Beach, Early Sunday Morning

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The Beach, Early Sunday Morning

Last night had been a lot.

This morning had been A Whole Lot.

Cal had been through the ringer before, but nothing in Fandom had affected him this deeply, and as soon as Arden was settled and resting, he hit his breaking point. Cal made sure Kamala and her family were going to stay with Arden, and then headed down the outside stairs of the manor, because if he had to see Duke or Grimm for one more second his waning self-control might snap.

He made it to the beach and dropped to his knees at the edge of the water before finally being sick, bile rising from the stress of Arden's injuries, the vision he'd seen, and the pounding ache in his head. Once his stomach was under control again, he shifted back and closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down and meditate, but his safe mental space was darker and twisted, and the calm refused to come.

He opened his eyes and tried to slow his breathing as he grabbed for his communicator. "Cere? I know it's early, I'm sorry. I need help."

[For his friends! Cal, Cere, and Greez being on the beach is good for broadcast, but the conversation is NFB.]

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It was adorable that Cal thought Cere wasn't already awake. Nothing in the universe traveled faster than bad feelings, and she didn't need to be told that something was wrong with Cal. "I'm on my way," she said, shaking Greez and handily ~~heh~~ dodging his flailing. "Where are you? Just stay there."

"At the beach." He almost gave her directions, but it wasn't like it would be hard to find.

"You're okay," BD-1 said softly. "Arden will be okay."

Cal sighed and pulled BD into a hug. "I don't know if either of those things is true, BD."

In spite of the time it took to get Greez out of bed, it wasn't long before he and Cere made it to the beach. In a better world, this wouldn't be the first time either of them had found Cal disheveled and wearing someone else's blood, but experience still didn't make this a pleasant discovery.

Cere sat down beside him, while Greez flanked him from the right. Greez didn't need to be Force-sensitive to feel the anguish coming off of Cal, and making sure he couldn't escape seemed like a smart idea.

"Cal? What happened?" Cere asked gently. "Are you hurt?"

That question shouldn't have been difficult to answer, but Cal still wasn't sure what to say. He was exhausted and nursing the start of a migraine, but it was nothing compared to what Arden had been through. Once he started, the words all came out in a rush - Arden's history, everything he knew about Callista, finding Arden actively dying, being completely unable to help, Duke, Grimm, the vision... Everything came tumbling out as his words turned from distress to anger.

"She could have died. Her own family watched her with their stupid edicts and their arbitration and they could have just let her die!" he said, his hands shaking. "Callista's not here, but if she was--"

"If she was, you'd still be here, doing the right thing by keeping yourself in control," Cere insisted. "Cal, I know it's hard, but you need to calm down. Anger isn't going to help this situation. It's not going to make Arden better, and you know it."

"Then what will help? They want to take her back and take her away from everyone who can take care of her and treat her like a person." Cal stood up and started pacing, trying to push the anger down, but he was so full of pent-up rage that it had nowhere to go. "I tried being calm and that didn't keep her safe, so you tell me what you think will help!"

Without a word, Cere picked Cal up with the Force, shoved him towards the water, and dropped him in the deep end.

"Cere! Don't drown the kid!" Greez said.

"He knows how to swim. He just needs to cool off."

Later, when he was processing this conversation, Cal would realize that he could have sensed the shove coming if he wasn't so blinded by his emotions. For the moment, all he could do was make sure his mouth was closed so he didn't get a lungful of ocean before coming back up.

"Your suggestion sucks!" he yelled, getting pushed back under for his troubles.

"She'll keep going until you calm down!" Greez warned. "I wouldn't test her!"

"This isn't funny!" Cal yelled, but there was already less fury in his voice. It was hard to stay mad and tread water at the same time.

"Are you ready to come back and have a rational discussion?" Cere asked. She could see Cal nod, though she also caught the rude gesture he made as he swam back to shore. Oh, to be so young and foolish again.

Cal grumbled as he dropped into the sand, shaking his head to loosen some of the water from his hair. "You could have just yelled at me, I think I would have preferred that."

"Meeting your anger with my own wouldn't have done any good," Cere explained. "I needed to get you out of your own head and back here with the rest of us, especially if you just dealt with one of your long visions."

Cal sighed. Of course his psychometry made everything worse, because why wouldn't it? Still, Cere was frustratingly right. The shock to his system had knocked him for a loop, but it was easier to breathe and focus on the moment. "Thank you. I'm sorry," he said. "I've been doing well at taking care of myself, but things here have never been quite so bad."

"It sounded like a pretty bad time," Greez agreed. "Is this the right time to ask what you're thinking about doing next?"

"I'm still thinking about going to North Carolina and seeing how Callista likes having sharp things stuck in her, but I won't," Cal said. "If for no other reason than Arden wouldn't want me to, and it would probably just make the problem worse. Plus..." He trailed off for a second, catching Greez's expression and realizing what he was really asking. "Plus I can't really do anything if I'm going home, right?"

"Yeeeah, about that," Greez said. "You are coming back with us, right?"

"Do you want to come back with us, is what Greez is asking," Cere added.

"Of course I'm coming back with you. I can't stay here," Cal said. "The Empire isn't just going to sit and wait for me while I take a beach vacation. We have a lot of work to do, and you guys need me. The Order needs me, the Partisans need me, I can't stay."

Did he sound super convincing?

No, as a matter of fact, he did not sound convincing, and Cere's expression got more gentle as she sat down next to him. "Cal, Greez and I have been talking over the last few days, and we think it actually might be a good idea if you stay here," she said. "And before you start arguing--" because hi, she'd known him for more than a few minutes, "--we're not saying you're completely wrong, and we're not happy about being apart. But taking a break here could be good. The Empire hasn't been sitting and waiting, we barely knew you were missing."

"And there's no telling how the time thing works because this place is all screwy," Greez said. "But if you get time here and it's not so much time there, that all works out."

"You've got to start thinking about yourself," Cere added. "Our world is better with you in it, but the Partisans don't need you. You can only give so much of yourself before you run out of anything to give at all."

"Plus, laying low for a little while might be safer for all of us. Your bounty's starting to get so high that our allies might be tempted to turn you in themselves," Greez said, looking defensive as Cere shot him a dirty look. "What? I thought we agreed to be honest with him?"

"I can't just think about myself," Cal said, which was how he ended up with a bounty on him in the first place. "That's not how I was trained, and it's not how I want to live. I stayed here because I couldn't get home, but now that I can get home, I can't justify staying."

Cere didn't want it to come to this, but it was time to bring out Cal's greatest nemesis: logic.

"Cal, in all the strangeness of this place, you mentioned there were other Force users here. Are they also in a position where they can't get home?"

Nope, he did not like where this was going at all.

"No, as far as I know, they can all get home," he said.

"So, they go home, and come back here, and everything turns out all right?" Cere asked.

Cal siiiighed deeply. "Yes, but--"

"Hold your but," Cere said, putting her hand up in his face. "If they can split their time between our world and here, why can't you? And do not even think about saying it's because you're special, because I will throw you right back in that water."

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