Fleeing the Empire, two Jedi find each other.
They knew each other, once. Not very well, since they hadn't been close. They'd never been friends, but they did know who the other used to be.
He was once naive. She was once joyful. Now they are older, more jaded, hurt and alone, abandoned by the galaxy they were supposed to swear to protect.
They were Padawans, they were children. They never got to pass the Knighthood Trials, never got the chance to swear their vows. Their braids were cut off by their own trembling hands, when it became too unsafe to wear such an obviously Jedi hair-style when their people are being hunted.
There are no hugs when they see each other, no shouting of names, no tears. They've cried enough, don't have tears to spare after all they've been through, and their voices are rough from lack of use and thickened with grief, and lower with the passing of time.
Yet in the Force they remain the same.
For the first time since the Order fell, since their home was desecrated and their family was slaughtered, the air around them sings.
It's mournful, it's barely making a sound, but after years of silence broken only by the screams of suffering and death, the Force is singing.
"You're alive" he breathes out, only his life-long belief and trust in the Force allowing him to believe his eyes.
"You survived" she says softly, voice barely above a whisper, words full of hope and relief.
They come closer to each other, and their souls are joined in a warm, relieved embrace. For the first time in what feels like forever, reaching out for the Force doesn't cause unbearable pain.
Reaching out for the Force now doesn't hurt at all. It's the best they've felt in years.
It feels like coming home.
Once upon a time there'd been thousands of hearts humming rythms of love and compassion, thousands of souls singing songs in the Force.
Yet after the many years of suffocating silence, of the constant pain and suffering, of neverending loneliness, it's the most beautiful song either of them has ever heard.
The time to go their separate ways comes too soon, but before being torn apart, before being ripped from their hopes and dreams and into the cruel reality they live in, he gives her one sole gift.
"May the Force be with you" he says, meaning every word and defiance coloring every syllable.
We are still here. You can't make us disappear.
She smiles, and the joy that comes with it is almost too much to bear.
"May the Force be with you too."
Hearing their people's farewell and good wish for the first time in what feels like forever, the two members from a community that should stay together go their separate ways.
Someday, in a future much closer than either survivor realizes, there will be thousands of souls raising their voices in the song of their people, in the song of the Jedi once again.
But for now there are two, and two is enough.
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jacobvanloon
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