So about the day that Graffiti and Rence leave the Coruscant Guard...
It's a bad day for a lot of people, but Graffiti tells himself that he's not worried about them. There's nothing he can do to help. Not when the Guard can't even save themselves.
He stays close to Rence instead. The clones are moving in formation as always, but also as always, nobody bothers to try to tell them apart. They can arrange themselves in whatever order they want. And he gets nervous, sometimes, about the idea of her being sent away without him. She's just as capable as he is, and the civilians are all hiding off the streets. But nobody cares about the clones except for the clones, and somehow, right now, that feels even more dangerous than normal.
"You two," Fox says. "Scout the northwest entrance."
"Yes, sir," the say in unison, and turn to jog across the courtyard to the wide stone doorway.
The Jedi temple still has lights on, but there are no shadows on the walls, or any other sign of movement. He doubts they'll find anyone inside. By now, they're killed or fled. Shame, he thinks. They only wanted to help people. Some of them, allegedly, even wanted to help the clones. He's not sure if he believes that part.
"Taking point," Rence says, and slips through the doorway, staying close to the wall.
Graffiti follows her, watching her back, and turning every so often, to check the hallway behind them. It's quiet. Every so often there's a grinding groan of rock against rock, but no noises from humanoids. He doesn't like it.
"Hold on." He doesn't need to look to know that Rence freezes in place. "You hear that?"
She shakes her head, still listening.
If the noise was real, it doesn't repeat itself. Eventually he taps the back of her shoulder, and they get moving again.
They both stop when the noise repeats, the ground under them shuddering. That can't be good.
Rence takes a step back, then another. For a moment, neither of them are sure where the noise is coming from, or which way is safe.
Graffiti rushes her, lowering his shoulder to hit her hard in the side, her armour taking the brunt of impact as they hit the floor. There's a sharp crack above them. Something scrapes harshly against his backplate, cracking it in half and leaving a long bloody line along his spine. Chunks of rubble hit him, some leaving bruises, others too small to do anything. One catches his ankle, but he manages to kick it off.
Rence screams, and he reaches toward the sound blindly, the dust around them bringing visibility down to zero. His hand finds her gauntlet and curls around it, holding on tight until the shaking stops.
"Hey." Even though his voice isn't steady, the vocoder smooths it to something cool and composed. "Hey, Rence. What happened? What- are you hurt?"
She doesn't answer, but her arm moves, and her hand finds his, her fingers tightening around the back of his wrist.
He drags himself up to his knees, his other hand reaching for the blaster on his belt. There's a word for that... Cave-in. Was that something a Jedi could do? He's heard all kinds of things about them.
Finally, the dust starts to settle, and he can see what happened. A chunk of the roof is pinning her to the floor from the knees down. It's much too large for him to move on his own.
"Commander," he comms. "The hallway caved in. I'm mobile, but Rence is stuck. We need evac."
"Negative, trooper. Proceed to objective."
"Proceed to objective," the commander snaps. "Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir. Proceeding." He ends the call and crawls the rest of the way to Rence. He'll never get her out of here by himself, but there's no help to be found from the clones. He's all she's got. "Don't you worry," he says, brushing the pad of his thumb over the cheek of her helmet. "I'm not going anywhere."
He sits with his legs tucked under him, carefully manoeuvring her to lay in his lap. There's not much he can do to make the situation at all comfortable, but surely this is better than laying on the stone floor.
"You should," she says. "You have a mission."
"My mission is to protect you." He takes his helmet off and sets it to the side. The dust is settled enough that he can breathe, and there's nothing else here to be afraid of. "They might still come for us."
Her fingers tug ineffectively at the edge of her helmet, and he helps her get it off and set it next to his own. With both helmet lights on, every pebble is lit up in stark medbay-like white. And he can see, even more clearly, that there's no way out for her.
"They won't, Graf." She almost always looks tired, but this is different. This is the loss of hope. Her fingers brush against his chin. "You can still get out of here. You wanted to have that bakery."
"I wanted to have it with you. With you, that was the part that made it a dream."
She smiles at that, and even though her face is pained, she's still so beautiful.
They stay there quietly, until his comm pings again. The commander. If Graffiti's disobedience is discovered, there won't be mercy for him. Kark, they might send someone to get him, make him finish the mission. So he might as well make sure that he can stay here as long as he needs.
"Commander, we're taking fi-" He cuts the comm off in the middle of his words, and tilts his head back to stare up at the ceiling for a moment. There's a warm light up there.
"Thought you were a horrible liar," Rence says.
"Never had anything worth lying about before."
She smiles a little at that, and falls quiet.
He doesn't try to push her to talk, just brushes her curls back from her face, and keeps his hand in her hair. She always liked that. And right now, there's nothing that could tear him away.
They both tense up when they hear footsteps.
"Graf, I don't wanna be alone." For the first time, she looks scared.
He draws his blaster, aiming it at the doorway. If they think they can take him away from her, they're very much mistaken. He's the crack shot of the Guard.
It's not Corrie red that comes around the corner, but Jedi brown. He doesn't let himself feel relieved. He still aims for the heart.
"You," he snaps. The Jedi raises their hands, slowly. He can't tell if they really think he's going to shoot, or if they're trying to placate him. "You can- you Jedi, you can do things."
"Yes," they say cautiously.
"The rock." His hand trembles for a moment, and his voice breaks on the word. "Please."
"Easy." The Jedi comes closer, one cautious step at a time. They kneel next to him, their gaze moving to the slab. "What happened? I felt the rumble, but I thought it was a breaching charge."
"I don't know. The ceiling came down."
"This may hurt," the Jedi warns, seeming acutely aware that Graffiti is tracking them with his blaster. Their hands touch the stone. It lifts, easily, like it weighs a fraction of what it should.
Rence cries out, but she moves her legs, moves, and that's all that matters.
For a moment, Graffiti wonders if the stone was made of foam, but then it scrapes and crashes against the wall, and he knows that this is some Jedi magic. Which means... a Jedi saved a clone. Just like those stories. Huh.
He leans over Rence to run his hand down the length of her greaves, searching for any injuries. There's a few places with new dents and scratches, but no blood. A piece that big, it must have just been the weight keeping her down.
"You're okay," he breathes out, and kisses her hair. "You're okay."
"I'm okay," she assures him. She sits up, slowly, wincing with every new movement. "We need to get out of here."
"More of that ceiling could come down," he agrees, glancing above them again. "There might be another way out through the temple."
"There is," the Jedi says. They lower their hands, and Graffiti lowers his blaster. "I can show you."
Graffiti glances at the stone again, and back to him.
"If you get us out, we'll take you with us. We're not going back to the Guard."
"Oh, don't worry about that. There's a lot of ways in and out of this temple, if you know where to look. They won't find me. But come, this way. If you don't mind more tunnels."
"I think we'd both rather not," Graffiti says dryly, but they don't have a choice. He gets both their helmets, handing Rence's over, and setting his own over his head, the light still on. "But lead the way."
They move quickly, the Jedi ahead of them. They're bold for turning their back to a pair of clones, Graffiti thinks, but he respects them for that. For doing anything to help, when they could have disappeared into the depths of the temple.
They seem to be halfway across the temple when the Jedi stops next to a carved doorway with a mural painted inside it. At a touch, the mural dissolves into stone, and the Jedi pushes at what's left behind. It slides aside to reveal a hallway.
"Through this," the Jedi says, gesturing toward the end. "There's a ladder at the end, that leads down to some of the city's lower levels. You'll have to be careful down there. You won't be able to find the way back up."
"Thank you," Graffiti echoes, slipping his hand into hers. He has no way to express how much she means to him. What he would have done to save her.
The Jedi smiles, but there seems to be something sad to it.
"We only ever wanted to help people," they say softly. "Even now. May the Force be with you."
"And also with you," Rence answers. Her fingers lace with his, and she steps forward. He follows close behind.
When they get to the ladder, he looks back. The Jedi is still there, watching to make sure they make it out okay.
Perhaps irrationally, Graffiti hopes that the Jedi gets out of here, too.
