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Silco was in the middle of a training exercise with Jinx when the Mandalorian arrived.
'Not again.'
'No, focus.'
'But master!'
'Do you think the galaxy will always be as quiet as our training rooms? You need to be able to perform this exercise in the middle of a battlefield. So focus.'
'I don't think the galaxy has that many crazy mandos...' the girl mumbled under her breath, turning her attention back to the lightsaber wobbling in the air around her.
Silco said nothing to that, mostly because he agreed. Vander's presence grew closer, ominous and turbulent, approaching them like an Eadu stormfront. He was uniquely noisy with his thoughts.
Far below, into the stone bowels of their temple, Silco sensed Sevika's presence stirring, rippling outward in waves of frustration. That much emotion from her was unusual. She was far too guarded for it not to be intentional. Keep the mando far from me was what it meant. Or Fuck off, if Silco had to put it in Sevika's words.
'Why does he keep visiting anyway?' Jinx insisted.
'I said focus.'
'But I am focusing!' Jinx protested, waving a hand in her lightsaber's direction.
The red blade hummed angrily, rotating in slow circles as it spun around her like an odd satellite.
'He probably needs our help,' Silco mused.
Jinx rolled her eyes and the saber dipped. 'I bet he only wants to see you again. All he does is come here and lust after you!'
'Language!' Silco snapped.
He had nothing else to say to counter that, either. Vander's emotions were painfully obvious, broadcasted on all channels around him, at all times. He knew Jedi and Sith alike could read him as easily as a book, and yet he didn't seem to care. Silco had offered to teach him some basic shielding, but Vander only ever said 'Next time.' He never stayed long, but his visits were usually memorable. And lustful, yes. Although he never acted on that, or anything else, his interest was as painfully obvious as the rest of his feelings.
'Whatever he wants, child, he can have it,' Silco said, trying to sound calm and reasonable about it. 'We owe him and his clan our lives—'
'You do, but I don't.'
Silco clicked his tongue, and with a flick of his hand called Jinx's lightsaber to him. He shut the blade down and gave his apprentice a stern look.
'What do you think would have happened to you, if I hadn't found you and taken you in?' She looked away but he pulled at her through their bond, commanding her attention. This was a lesson he disliked repeating as much as she disliked hearing, and he wished she would just internalise it. 'What do you think the Jedi would have done to you if they'd found you? What they did to your sister?'
Jinx bit on her lip. 'I know,' she whispered, looking away.
Silco followed her gaze, to the door and beyond, to the growing mass of hunger, bloodlust, and tart notes of vexation that defined Vander's emotions today. There was also an undercurrent of unease. No, pained discomfort.
'Master, can I go?' Jinx asked, meek and polite, the beguiling voice of someone who didn't want to be there for Vander's imminent arrival.
Silco smiled, equally sweet. 'Of course, Jinx. You can go. But don't leave without your lightsaber.'
He waved the weapon at her and she gave him a wary look. His smile grew to a full grin as her own grimace deepened.
'Come on, master...'
'No, you come on,' he said, falling into a defensive stance, holding the small lightsaber behind his back.
The door to the training room creaked open just then and a blue helmet poked through. Jinx chose that moment to rush him. Silco could give her a point for smart timing, but if she thought Vander's arrival would be enough to distract him, she was sorely mistaken.
He sidestepped her, swatting her with a blow of the Force. She rolled with it, coming back to her feet and exploding forward. Silco's smile returned, genuine and loving as the young girl landed a blow against his chest. He indulged her and didn't push her away again. Instead, he let her saber go, and sent it to rotate high above their heads, while he engaged her in hand to hand combat.
Jinx glanced up at her saber and let out a frustrated yowl. Silco laughed. Nothing beat teaching by example. Despite the weapon being hers, Silco's mastery of the Force was such that she had no chance of reclaiming something he held under solid control.
'You're sloppy,' he told her as he blocked her fists and dodged a strike of her hand aimed at his neck. 'I think Sevika must be going soft on you.'
Jinx growled, but she didn't fall for his bait. She focused on her footwork as she circled him, punching and grabbing for his sleeves, trying to put him off balance, anything to let her seize back her saber.
From the corner of his good eye Silco saw Vander sit himself down on a bench, long legs stretched out, watching them with his arms crossed over his beskar plate. Curiosity overrode some of the man's darker emotions, but he was still a poorly contained storm.
Jinx, maybe sensing the source of Silco's distraction, took a step back. Silco gasped as he understood what she was up to a little too late. She'd already turned around and was running towards the Mandalorian, waving her hand.
'Hey, Vander! Welcome back! Guess what Silco said ab—'
'Jinx!' Silco called after her.
He fell for that one. The girl snatched the saber from his wavering control and giggled as she caught it out of the air and clipped it to her belt.
'You fell flat for it, silly!'
'What did Silco say?' Vander asked her.
There was amusement now, overlaying the man's curiosity. Silco wasn't entirely sure if he understood what Jinx had just pulled off or that she was teasing him.
She came to a stop in front of Vander and gave him a sarcastic salute. 'You should ask him!' she said with a laugh before running out of the room.
'She's good,' the Mandalorian said, looking back at Silco.
'Better than you realise,' he said.
Knowing the Mandalorian couldn't sense the pride radiating from him, Silco made a point of showing the emotion on his face, even if the smile pulled at the dark scars marring half his face. Jinx had enormous potential. Despite her wildness she was extremely studious. Unlike Sevika, Dustin, or Ran, she was talented in telekinesis and passionate about Sith alchemy. She had a fascination for weapons and their enhancement and devoured all the holocrons Silco could get her on the subject.
Really, he needed very little encouragement to express his pride in his student.
'What brings you here today?' he asked, changing the topic and indulging his own curiosity. 'Have you run out of juvan?'
'What?'
'Your wound,' Silco said, pointing at Vander's side. 'It's chafing and irritating you. I can sense it. I could sense it before you even landed your ship.'
Vander was still for a moment, then his large hands came up to his helmet. He snuck a finger under the brim of it, and a seal released with a hiss. The face under the helmet was shockingly Human. Silco always wondered at Vander's huge size and freakish natural strength. He thought he ought to have some non-human origins—anything to explain his physique—yet the eyes looking back at him were blue and clear under furrowed brows. His beard was showing some grey, his lips were pulled in an uneven smile, charming and roguish and all too Human.
'I keep forgetting you Force users can know that stuff,' Vander said. He took off his gloves and neatly folded them inside his helmet before gingerly patting his wounded side. His curiosity dissipated, replaced by a fresh onslaught of frustration. 'Got caught in the blast of a thermal detonator.'
Silco scoffed. 'I know Mandalorian beskar armour is fantastic, but you should be in several pieces.'
'No, I was far enough, but I got slammed by debris. I thought I was going to get skewered, honestly.'
'Right,' Silco said wryly. He hesitated for a moment, but turned his attention to the far wall, on the other side of the training arena. He grabbed the emergency box there with the Force and zipped it across the room to them. 'I suppose I should be flattered that my small Temple was your first destination after such an ordeal, but we aren't a hospital, and none of us are healers.'
'I won't make a habit of it,' Vander said with a grunt.
He pulled his cuirasse out of the way and tugged on his padded shirt to let Silco apply the juvan. He hissed as the cold paste touched his skin, and a burst of lust exploded through the Force. Silco kept a straight face and continued his work.
Vander's side was a bloody mass of contusions. The irritation he projected through the Force had not led Silco to expect that much damage. The man was certainly something else.
'What the kriff happened to you?' Silco wondered aloud. 'You call it debris, but it looks like you wrangled a rancor with your bare hands.'
'Almost,' Vander grunted, dark amusement sparkling bright around him in the Force. 'I was chasing a Jedi.'
Silco froze, fingers resting on Vander's ribs. Touching him like this, he was able to read his thoughts with such clarity that he could see the face of the Jedi he was thinking of. A Human girl. Just a teenager with cropped pink hair, sharp white teeth bared in a snarl, her bright yellow saber slicing through her opponents.
Silco snatched his hand away.
'No. You— where did you—'
'Yeah, I guess I found her for you. I was on Ord Mantell. The bounty I was tracking was part of some big shot's entourage. They had a Jedi escort. She was just a jetii’ad.'
A padawan.
Silco busied himself with wiping the juvan from his fingers and packing up the first aid kit. He let his emotions flow into the Force, refusing to look at them in this initial rush of confusion.
'She can't be...' he protested weakly. 'She's supposed to be dead.'
'Sorry, Silco, but no dead girl can give me such a good beating,' Vander said with a wry chuckle. 'Girl is alive—and lively.' His hand came to rest on Silco's shoulder, his feelings engulfing Silco for a moment. Pity, desire, curiosity. Concern. Kindness. 'I figured you'd want to know.'
Despite himself and his better judgement, he leaned into the Mandalorian's touch. He let his emotions wash over him and sweep his away.
He'd lost so much in the wars. So many people dear to him. He'd tried to make his peace with it. They'd all fought for a cause they believed in. His resentment, his grief—it fuelled him when he needed it, but he'd never allowed the sentiment to fester. The dark side of the Force could be overwhelming enough already.
Silco had moved on.
Vi, like countless others, had been relegated to the blood-soaked past.
He'd tried to help Jinx move on too and forget her sister. They had so much work to do; to rebuild, to expand their order again. Silco tried to keep everyone at the Temple focused on the future.
Vi, alive—it was a dream he'd never really entertained. Vi, a Jedi padawan...
Silco would rather she'd died.
'Hey.' Vander's hand squeezed his shoulder, but Silco ignored him. The vision was too strong, too much like a nightmare, floating before his eyes, drowning the world out. Vi and her yellow saber, looking up at her Togruta master, yelling orders, dodging blaster fire effortlessly. Vi, punching a mercenary in the face. Vi, snarling, biting on her lip. Smiling. 'Hey! Silco? Don't make me regret telling you.'
'You didn't tell me anything,' Silco mumbled. 'I saw—'
'Ah, come on, don't be like that, little Sith. You're the one who asked my aliit to keep an eye out.'
'Yes,' Silco said, shaking himself, hands alighting on cold beskar. 'Yes, I was hoping for something else... But I suppose it's best that way... It's best to know.'
'What will you do?'
'I'm... not sure. I'll figure something out.'
'Mmh.'
Vander's hand trailed down his back. Silco froze, but Vander's hand came back over his shoulders, and repeated the pattern... He was rubbing comforting circles into his back.
Silco let out a strangled laugh, the irony of the situation hitting him like a seismic charge. A Mandalorian warrior, comforting a Sith Lord by rubbing his back like a crying child. He thought he'd seen everything in the wars, but clearly life still held many surprises for him.
'Don't say anything to Jinx,' he told Vander. 'I want to make sure first.'
'Sure. Your kid doesn't like me anyway.'
'You're just so kriffing noisy to be around,' Silco said with a sigh. 'We've all explained this to you. Just let me show you how to shield yourself.'
Vander smiled, patting Silco's back. His blue-grey eyes sparkled with mischief.
'Next time,' he said. 'Next time for sure.'