Aria met her husband's gaze for only a brief moment, then looked away again as she watched the two beings disappear back into the forest. Neta was the first one to break the awkward silence, proclaiming that really, they had no choice but to follow them. Aria grunted in agreement, falling into step behind the pilot.
“Neta’s right, if we stay here then we’re gonna get caught by whoever was behind those droids anyways...Besides, I think if they were gonna kill us they would have done it already.” she pointed out.
That assessment was, of course, up for debate once they started the trek through the forest after them. There wasn’t a single inch of pathway that wasn’t choked with brambles or thorns of some kind, and Aria felt as if every time she turned her back (or laughed) at Yerbol, she stepped right into something herself and almost ended up flat on her face on the ground. The Tuk’ata were no better off, the spines on their backs easily becoming entangled with the spiny tendrils despite their best attempts to lie them flat, much to their loudly-expressed distaste.
“I take it back -” Aria huffed as she yanked her ankle out of yet another sinkhole, “The bastards ARE trying to kill us, with THORNS - Owwww!” the Champion spat another expletive as she walked face-first into yet another fracking tree, she’d be glad to be done with this fracking planet already!
To their relief, they glimpsed sunlight a few paces ahead as they finally found their way out of the dense foliage and found themselves on a cliff overlooking a cluster of buildings. The view was...breathtaking, to say the least. She hadn’t seen this much green outside of the Qyaari homeworld in many, many years. It took Aria a little longer than Neta and Yerbol to recognise the similarities to the former Jedi world, but when they brought it to light she stepped up to stand at her husband’s other side and laid a hand gently on his arm in reassurance.
“I’m sorry….did you say R-Revan?!” the Champion had to do a double-take to stare at the strangers in shock, unsure if she had heard them right…
Yerbol cut in with a question of his own, and Aria was thankful for his timing because she wasn’t entirely sure she could have found the words to form another response if they had spoken to her again. After a few more basic pleasantries were exchanged, including the names of their rescuers, before the Qyaari party were sharply chastised not to leave the current vicinity of the buildings they had been shown around.
For a long time after Ethan voiced his opinion, no-one spoke. Aria tried, a few times, but found she was so confused by the whole ordeal that no sound came out whenever she opened her mouth. It wasn’t until Chwuq plopped herself down beside the Champion, staring at the door which Desun and Kyla had exited through, that she found herself able to respond when the Tuk’ata grumbled a single word:
“Weird.”
“Ha! They are a little weird, aren’t they?” Aria agreed, patting the hound between the ears.
Kytra’s ears twitched as she considered Ethan’s question, responding slowly. “Y-Yeaaahh, just a little.” she looked to the two older Champions, an expression of skepticism painted across her features. “How do we know they’re really working for Revan and aren’t just lying. Or worse...they’re crazy and they don’t even really know who Revan is but they thought it sounded cool so they went with it!”
“I’d agree with you, Kytra, if Yerbol and I hadn’t once met with a True Sith Master who was even older than Revan.” Aria sighed, running a hand through her hair. “Yerbol’s right, we’re going to have to take a chance right now, and trust them.”
Kytra seemed no less pleased with the idea, grumbling uneasily under her breath and averting her gaze. “They might be lying, they might not. We won’t know for sure until ‘Revan’ gets back.”
“If he’s even Revan.” Kytra pointed out matter-of-factly. “They didn’t call themselves ‘Revanites’, that’s what his followers were called, right?”
“That was kinda sketchy.” Neta agreed absently.
“They haven’t killed us yet.” Aria countered.
“I don’t know, Master,” Kytra blinked dubiously, “that whole ‘don’t leave this designated area until he comes back or else’ thing sounded like a threat to me?”
_______________________
There was little reason to tempt fate, however, and the group later dispersed to mill about the training area whilst they waited. Aria hovered on the sidelines with Yerbol, casting a glance that was equal parts concerned and curious. “...Are you okay?” after giving him enough time to respond and voice any concerns vis-a-vis their current situation, the shorter Champion let out a dry laugh of her own and followed up with:
“I’m still trying to decide whether we’ve REALLY found Revan and the Exile and some kind of top-secret cult that they’ve created, or if we crash-landed on some crazy planet who think they’re following him as some sort of deified saviour when in actuality he’s a delusional old hermit who fancied he had a shot at convincing them to do what he wanted.”
The one consolation was that they had gotten brief glimpses of Revan during the visions they’d received on Lehon, so at least (she hoped) they would know whether the man really was him, as soon as they saw him. Didn’t make the entire concept of possibly coming face-to-face with a Galactic hero any less terrifying, but what could they do. She shrugged to herself. “I guess we’ll know the truth soon enough, once we meet him, eh? Either he IS the Revan we’re looking for, or he ISN’T and maybe he knows where the real Revan is.”
Or the real Revan really was dead and this was all a weird hallucination brought on by the high speed crash. If so, they were royally screwed. She didn’t say that last one out loud, but she knew her partner would catch onto the train of thought. Before they could further debate their next move, a light tap on the doorframe drew the Champions’ attention to Desun, who stood in the entryway with his sister hovering a few paces down the hallway over his shoulder.
“Master Revan has arrived, he’s ready to speak with you now.”
“Right.” Aria swallowed, willing her voice not to tremble as much as she felt like it should. “Thank you. We’ll, be right out.”
So, who’s the meatshield this time, you or me?
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