The Planet Now Cautiously Dubbed Mirnon And Various Swears, the Outer Rim, Thursday

[suitably_heroic]

"Poor frizzled idiots."

Atton watched the shuffling figures pour into the back of the transport ship. It'd taken them days, not just to guide those people through the tunnels, but to keep them from snapping and getting violent with each other.

It was a mess.

"Yeah. I hope we can get them back to normal," Mira said pensively. She was leaning against a rock, and her face showed every inch of the last few days' worth of sleep deprivation. Atton imagined his did too, but he had a hunch he was used to it more than she was.

"Nah, that part is easy," Atton said. "It's dealing with whatever Brianna thinks a deprogramming cycle looks like that's the bad part."

Even Mira's huff in response sounded tired.

"Whoever did this is still out there," she noted.

Atton swallowed. "They were using these people like batteries," he ventured. "It reminds me of some of the druk Revan was messing around with near the end."

"So they're gonna come back, probably," Mira ventured. "This battery was almost empty when we got there."

Atton rubbed at his face. "Give me five minutes to sleep before we get into that, okay?" he muttered. He dug into his pocket. "I should call Sparkle before he loses it."

"And I'll go debrief Mical."

"See? You get all the fun jobs."

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Comments

[suitably_heroic]

"The good news is I'm not dead," Atton said, putting on a faux-cheerful tone. "And we managed to rescue some people from the Shop of Horrors down here. Not all of their limbs, though."

[myownface]

"Jesus," Sparkle muttered, biting his lip and kind of slumping back against a nearby wall. "Fuck, Atton. Even your good news is all wrapped up in some shitty fucking news."

[suitably_heroic]

"The best theory Mira and I have is that they've been using people like batteries," Atton offered. "We just don't know who 'they' are yet. Besides 'creeps with massive cleaning bills'."

[myownface]

Yeah, Sparkle was picturing that.

Sparkle was also pretty sure that no matter how much his imagination filled in those blanks, whatever he came up with wasn't going to come close to what it was Atton was skirting around.

He blew out a little breath. Swore. Okay.

"... So is that part the bad news?"

[suitably_heroic]

"The bad news is that Mira and I are going to have to sit here until these sleemos come back with the next batch of batteries," Atton said, running his fingers through his hair.

[myownface]

"Hey," Sparkle said, his own quip rather on the halfhearted side, "lookit that, the news got worse."

It was stupid how he was getting kinda used to that. He made a disgruntled noise, and then kicked a piece of trash before starting his way back toward the temple.

"Never a dull moment, huh?"

[suitably_heroic]

"I can't remember the last time I had a sanisteam," Atton muttered. "... or sleep."

[myownface]

Sparkle blew out a soft breath.

"Maybe they'll show up soon, you can take out the trash, shower for a week and then sleep for a month..."

Fuck, as much as he loved feeling, in his time on Coruscant, like he had a place to belong, he really hated this galaxy sometimes.

[suitably_heroic]

"If we're lucky," Atton said.

A pause. "I don't get lucky a lot."

Beat.

"Not like that."

[myownface]

"Kinda figured," Sparkle replied, huffing out something that was intended to at least kind of pass as a laugh. "I'm gonna, like, cross my fingers anyway, if that's all the same to you?"

[suitably_heroic]

"Sure, do what you have to," Atton said lightly. "Who knows? Maybe there is someone up there listening to scrawny jerks like you."

[myownface]

"Not that they ever have before," Sparkle snorted. He walked silently for a few seconds. "Give 'em hell, okay?"

Kick their asses, save some lives...

Come back in one piece.

[suitably_heroic]

"I always do," Atton promised. A beat. "I mean, I literally always do."

[myownface]

"Good. Then do that thing you're good at. Maybe the next group of batteries'll get to keep a few more limbs."

Yeah, his stomach turned a little just quipping about it.