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The Outlander approached the human girl on the walkway who immediately noticed the intrepid hero and spoke up excitedly, “Hey, I heard you gave those gangsters what they deserved.”
“They did deserve their ass-kicking,” said the smuggler agreeably.
“Did you find my friend?” the girl asked hopefully.
“My friend dropped him off at a medic’s,” the Outlander replied waving off her concerns. “He’ll be fine.”
“Thank you,” said the girl, relieved. “I mean it. He’s my best friend.”
“Mmhm.”
“We don’t always agree, some people think he's a bad influence, but he looks out for me.”
“Uh huh.”
“I’m not much of a fighter myself, but I could always rely on his strength.”
“Yeah.”
“We’re inseparable. Never leave each other’s sides—like conjoined twins.”
“A little creepy, but alright.”
After getting thanked again (in credits this time), the triumphant smuggler made her way to the cantina to wait for Lana. Once there she found a private corner to speak to Valkorion without looking like a crazy person.
The looks people kept giving her were beginning to grate.
Nursing a drink, she spoke up, “I’ve been thinking about that girl. About what she said about best friends.”
Valkorion watched her warily but said nothing.
“And I realized,” she continued slowly, watching his expression carefully, “That you and I are… Besties.”
Valkorion’s non-corporeal form tripped over nothing. While standing still.
Huh. That was impressive.
There was a tightness around Valkorion’s eyes and mouth as he began, “Only ambition must guide you. The oaths you swear, the promises you make, they are yours alone.”
“That sounds like you’re reciting an old speech. Are you reciting an old speech?”
“Your birthright the losses you suffer. Your entitlement the pain you endure.” Valkorion stoutly continued as if she hadn’t spoken.
“Because I have to say I think I deserve my own original speech if you don’t mind.”
“And when darkness finds you, you will face it alone,” he finished.
“There was some rather unnecessary emphasis on ‘alone’ there, Valkorion,” said the smuggler. “I’m not quite sure what you’re trying to say.”
There was a sharp exhale of breath and Valkorion joined his hands behind his back. His back straightened and he seemed to look down at her with his sharp steely gaze of massive disapproval.
This was the look, she imagined, he gave to Arcann growing up and she couldn’t figure out why he was aiming it at her.
“You must not hold to sentimentality,” said Valkorion firmly. “It weakens you.”
“Well that’s just ridonculous,” she said with a silly grin.
Valkorion’s eyes closed for a moment, as if he was holding back a great inner rage.
“Also weren’t you the one going on about love? Didn’t seem to have any problems with sentiment then.”
“I am no one’s ‘bestie’.” Valkorion sneered.
“I’m going to get us ‘Best Friends Forever’ bracelets,” said the smuggler cheerfully before becoming sober. “But I’ll have to wear both of them.”
“A shame,” said the apparition sarcastically.
She gasped with a sudden idea. “We can look for your body and put the bracelet on it!”
“A wonderful and not at all disturbing idea,” said Valkorion, closing his eyes and rubbing his forehead in a way so reminiscent of Lana’s Sith-ly disappointment that the smuggler was suddenly struck by the thought that the both of them would probably get along great if only they got to know each other.
At the very least Lana would stop screaming at her for using Valkorion’s power.
“Your Sith friend is here,” Valkorion informed her before disappearing from sight.
Sure enough Lana had just entered the cantina and made a beeline for the smuggler.
The Sith’s brow furrowed as she approach her friend.
“Something wrong?” asked the smuggler.
“I… felt a strange disturbance in the Force just now,” said Lana, looking herself disturbed. “It felt like… great disapproval.”
“Weird.”
“It feels like it originated… from you?”
The smuggler shrugged. “Don’t know what to say. I feel fine.”
“Right,” Lana shook her head. “Probably nothing.”