2472/Reassurance

Reassurance
Date of Scene:	16 June 2015
Location:	Faraway Galaxy <FG>
Synopsis:	Still both suffering nightmares from the assault of the I.N.S. Emperor's Justice, Galen Marek and Juno Eclipse make some attempt to talk out their fears, and put those fears to rest.
Cast of Characters:	428, 731

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Juno Eclipse (428) has posed:
Some spacefarers struggle with the abstraction of a twelve-hour wake and sleep cycle used by starships. It isn't a natural rhythm to keep, but Juno Eclipse had always adapted well to it. In fact, she's become so used to it that planetary days feel strange and unsettling to her. It's hard for her to sleep "dirtside," although these days, it's hard for her to settle anywhere that isn't the Rogue Shadow.

Halfway through the sleep cycle is the equivalent to two o'clock in the morning anywhere else. The hour is early or late enough to see the Rogue Shadow's crew sleeping soundly, thanks to the patrol efforts of a friend. They have time to rest and recover from their exhaustion.

The ship is hidden in a scattering of sensor-disruptive asteroids, and the Ebon Hawk is on patrol, with a Jedi Knight keeping an eye out for unwelcome guests.

Content in the knowledge that they're safe, for the moment, Juno Eclipse has slept through most of the night. Although she's run herself ragged, even she has to take some time for herself, either of her own accord, or at the nagging behest of Galen or Lowri.

Although both Juno and her companion have been plagued by nightmares since the horrors aboard the Emperor's Justice, she's slept peacefully through most of the night, too tired to dream. She's been so tired that even her uncanny cat-like ability to come awake and alert in an instant has been blunted, foggy-headed and leaning hard on the ship's dwindling supply of coffee.

Tonight she comes awake well before her scheduled alarm. Quite suddenly, the woman jerks awake from what must have been another nightmare, throwing herself bolt upright with a ragged, choking gasp.

It takes her five seconds to catch her breath and realise she's aboard the Rogue Shadow, in her own bed. Galen is here, Vader isn't, there are no Imperials storming the halls to incarcerate her, and the ship isn't under attack. There are no hull breaches, the ship isn't damaged further, nothing's on fire...

You're home, she tells herself silently, wrapping her arms around herself, still panting as though she'd sprinted two miles. She's still wearing the sleeveless top and loose pants she'd worn to bed, but now, without something over her arms, she's cold enough to shiver – but it's probably more her nerves. Ten seconds after snapping awake, she's still struggling to focus on calming thoughts. Vader isn't here. The Empire isn't here. Nobody's found the ship. Lowri would have commed if there was trouble. You're safe... Galen's right here with you... you're home...

...And he's probably awake now, too, after that. She hasn't noticed just yet, though, still occupied with trying to catch her breath, and calming the panicky flutter of her heartbeat.

There are no Imperials... the alarm klaxons aren't on... it was just a dream...

There's nothing at all, in fact, but the darkness and silence of the Rogue Shadow's crew quarters, bereft of even the hum of idling engines. The only sound in here is the occasional rustle of blanket as one of the sleepers moves, and now, the fear-harsh rasp of Juno's own breath.

She allows herself one last shudder, wrapping her arms tight around herself. But it had seemed so real...

Galen Marek (731) has posed:
The sound of the respirator echoes through the halls. Galen stands tall, though he's unarmed. Bloody. Beaten and weary. Juno is crumpled nearby, no longer breathing, and Galen's eyes swim with pain as he stares down Vader. The Sith Lord holds a red saber in one hand, Galen's blue one in the other. Neither man speaks, and only Vader moves. The blue saber raises up, and Galen closes his eyes. The hum... is unmistakable.

His eyes snap open, but he seems calm otherwise. Conveniently, it so happens to be just after Juno rises, and Galen chuckles slightly. Pushing himself up, he moves to place a hand on her shoulder. "You too, huh?" he asks, rubbing her shoulder lightly. "Quite a pair, huh?" He closes his eyes, letting the Force around him settle out. However, he can sense Juno's panic and fear, and his arm moves to brace across both her shoulders. "What was yours?" he asks. "Also, what time is it? It's still pretty dark."

He keeps his eyes turned on Juno, watching the pilot carefully. "Whatever it was, it's not real. We're here, no one's trying to kill us. Vader doesn't have my lightsaber in preparation for my execution..." He shakes his head. "We're fine."

Juno Eclipse (428) has posed:
Juno flinches so hard from the sudden contact at her shoulder that she almost threatens to throw the arm clear off. After another second or two she seems to remind herself that it's only Galen, not another one of the many enemies they've made.

She allows herself one last shudder, exhaling slowly.

"Sorry." Her apology is subdued even to her own ears. Once she's reached up to rub a little life back into her face, she cocks a blue eye toward Galen. So he was having a nightmare, too? She sighs. "I guess we are quite a pair, aren't we?"

Half a glance is given to the darkened quarters, but there isn't anything to suggest what the time might be. She could reach for the datapad she'd left on the endtable, but she doesn't particularly feel like looking into the glaring light of it to see what time it is.

Eventually she just shrugs, though not hard enough to dislodge his arm. "I don't know. I'd guess one hundred or two hundred standard hours. Middle of the night," she mumbles, leaning into the ex-Sith. "I don't remember. Something around my throat. Vader, maybe. Or the prison ship. I still have nightmares about that. Yeah," she murmurs, in response to his reassurances. "I know. I know... but they always feel so real..."

Galen Marek (731) has posed:
Galen smiles softly, pulling Juno a bit closer as she leans into him. "Sorry for what?" he asks, "I know you're still wound up. It's all okay." He offers a warm smile toward her, before releasing her shoulders and stretching a bit. "Yes, the prison ship again, only Vader was there. And then he took my saber, killed you with it, and was about to execute me before I woke up. Those prisoners... they were clones."

He vocalizes this thought for the first time since he had formulated the idea. "Clones of me. That's why I could feel their pain through the Force. They were me. We had a connection. Vader... did horrible things to that many clones of me. I can't... figure out what he wants."

He shakes his head, then smiles again. "Let him do what he will. I'll take him down regardless." He stretches again, eyeing Juno.

"I sort of wish I had brought those tacos with us."

Juno Eclipse (428) has posed:
"I was going to say waking you up, but it looks as though you would've been awake, regardless." Juno lets him pull her close, eyeing him as he stretches. Eventually she looks away, shaking her head. "I think we'll be seeing the Emperor's Justice in our nightmares for a long time. It wouldn't surprise me if Lowri did, too."

One hand raises to rest over her heart, gauging to see whether it's still doing all sorts of interesting acrobatics. Her breathing's steadied a little. Though her heart still beats faster than she'd like, it's not the panicky flutter of earlier, and not enough to worry her.

Juno lets her hand drop, yawning and drawing her arms up over her head, joining her wrists and stretching upward until her shoulders stand out and her arms pop. To go by her sigh, it must've felt good, however unsettling it might have looked – being acrobatic has always been one of her more useful traits, and it makes life easier when she needs to cram herself into a ship's crawlspaces.

Slowly, she lets her arms fall. Her head tilts to suggest she's listening to him, although she shakes her head at what he has to say, shiveirng. Reaching for the blanket, a flick of her wrist pulls it back over herself; she curls up under it, pulling it around herself more for the contentment and security than for the actual warmth. Her eyes are still visible as a gleam of reflected light, though, enough to show that she's still watching him.

"Clones." The word is enough to settle something icy in the pit of her stomach. She sits up, pushing aside the blanket enough to reach out to him, expression falling. Small wonder he'd spent so long trying to find his centre after that operation. He had felt their deaths and borne a link through the Force to them because they were him. Some small part of her had wondered about that, and questioned whether that was the case, but she had hoped she was wrong.

She pulls him close, gently but insistently, resting her head over his. "Oh, Galen, I'm so sorry," the pilot breathes, tone stricken. "I had no idea. I—well, I had suspected, but I'd hoped I was wrong... to have to feel that..."

Their faces were gone. What had he done to them? What kind of torment had he put those poor creatures through, so much so that they had no mind to speak of? "We'll stop him." Her arms tighten around him, and despite the softness of her voice, there's a core of durasteel in the words. "We will stop him."

She falls silent for a moment.

"We'll go back, if that's what you want." She must be a little rattled, still – she's not even heckling him about the tacos.

Galen Marek (731) has posed:
Galen smiles again, then lets it drop from his features. "Yeah, I would've been," he says, "so no need to worry about that." He reaches his other arm up, showing a mild tremor in his hand. The Justice would prey on him for a bit, but he had to try and fight it off. If he could put Vader in his grave, that would certainly help matters. If he was dead, there wouldn't be any more mutilated Galen clones to deal with. And there was also the message Vader had tried to send him: that they were the same, and Galen was fated to end up in a similar place to Vader.

His face behind Vader's mask.

He steadies his shaking hand, then shakes his head. "I didn't want to worry you with it. It's not a big deal. All we have to do is put a stop to Vader and that solves that." He offers another smile, but this one is weaker.

He leans against Juno, his voice quiet. "I know we will," he says, "It's only a matter of time." He rolls his shoulders, chuckling a bit. "I think right now I'm right where I want to be. Tacos can wait."

Juno Eclipse (428) has posed:
"Maybe, but that seems like an awfully cavalier way to look at it. No more Vader, no more awful cloning disasters." Juno rolls a wrist, eyeing the former assassin somewhat skeptically. "A lot of things would change with Vader out of the picture, but it's not that simple. Ask anybody in the Rebel Alliance about that... if you can find them, anyway."

She watches his hand trembling, expression falling again in concern. For it to have affected even him so badly, those nightmares must be terrible. To bolt awake and have problems controlling her breathing and her heart rate, that's normal; she's never had the Force to fall back on to impose calm over herself. He, though, has always been a little better at hiding his reactions. That he reacts at all is concerning.

Somewhat hesitantly, she reaches out and takes his hand, studying it. There's nothing particularly wrong with him, and more than likely he's doing very well considering the hell they'd been through. It still upsets her to see him out of sorts. "It worries me more to see you suffering," she says, softly. "I know it's hard, and I know you've never... really had anybody to trust, before. Trust in me. Please. Talk to me, if you feel like you need to talk."

She smiles, but the expression is crooked; her hand folds over his in what she hopes is a gesture of reassurance and warmth. "I've been told I'm an excellent listener. I know it's not something you want to relive, and heaven knows I want to put that ship out of my mind, permanently, but we can't do that. It'll come back to us, regardless of what we might like. But... talking about it helps, sometimes. And if you feel like you need to talk, Galen, I'll be here to listen." Her hand tightens around his. "I'll always be here for you. You know that, right?"

Falling quiet, she lets that sink in – earnest, but not desperate; merely concerned, and wanting to do anything she can think of to help ease his troubled mind. It's hard not to be troubled after an ordeal like that. Even she has nightmares about those creatures, and they weren't even bound to her.

She offers a half-smile as he leans on her, one arm looping around to pull him closer. "I know." Her admission is soft. "It's just... hard, sometimes. Like the entire multiverse is against us, sometimes, with the exception of a few friends in high places. Bounty hunters, Confederate Elites, unaffiliated Elites who want a piece of the bounty... we can't even turn to the Union openly, even though they could help us; it would only incite the Confederacy even more. Not that I imagine they'd listen or believe that my turning to Lowri wasn't treason..."

Sighing, her eyes slide closed as her own shoulders slump a little. "We're going to have to do something; figure something out to ease the pressure. We can't fight a war on two fronts and expect to win, let alone survive. If we're going to succeed against the Empire, we need allies. It's not fair to ask Lowri to watch over us indefinitely."

Juno remains silent for a moment, before she manages a soft, almost inaudible laugh. "Yeah. I know I'm right where I want to be, too. You know..." She starts to say something, but trails off, as though hesitating; waiting, perhaps, for a signal to continue.

Galen Marek (731) has posed:
Galen closes his hand softly around hers as she takes his, smiling at the gesture. "When we finally mount the assault on Vader and the Empire, Vader is mine. I don't care who else is with us. I want him." There's a fire in his eyes for a brief moment at this proclamation, before it fades back out and he allows a small frown to creep into his features. "You're worried?" he says, "So I guess both of us feel like that, huh?" He smiles, but it's a weak one. "I will, Juno. I promise. But you need to do the same for me, okay? Because I can feel when something is bothering you. Hiding it doesn't help anyone. So I'll be more open as long as you do the same, okay?" His face softens, and he chuckles. "I know you'll always be here. Just like you know I'll always be here. You don't leave an Empire with someone just to leave them behind. Even if we somehow get separated, it's never permanent. No matter who or what tries to split us up, it won't work. Never."

Galen chuckles slightly, then nods. "I'm kind of upset that I do my job a bit too well. If Kota was still around, maybe we could convince him to trust us and get an in with the Rebellion. Alas, however, I doubt he could survive the fall, even though he managed to fight me off before then." Most people probably didn't know that Kota had managed to keep himself alive against Starkiller, the Sith apprentice leaving the general for dead in a fall. "Unless... he did somehow? It might be worth looking in to. A Rebel force at our back would slow the flood, right?"

He shrugs, then tilts his head at Juno. "I don't know," he teases, "but I have a feeling you want to tell me. What is it?"

Juno Eclipse (428) has posed:
"He's all yours. I'm hardly going to take that opportunity away from you." Juno shudders, shaking her head. "I don't want to be anywhere near him. Never again. I don't know where he took me while I'd been in Imperial custody... I still can't remember anything about that. He probably had me drugged to keep me cooperative. Heaven knows it's the only way I'd be cooperative towards any of them," she adds, darkly. "I'm a bit worried, though. Where did he take me, and why? I remember being taken somewhere, before I was loaded onto the Emperor's Justice. But I don't remember where it was. I just can't remember the details..."

She looks up as he gives his entreaty, and she can only dip her head in response. "I know. You're not going anywhere, and I'm not going anywhere," she murmurs. "Not by choice, anyway. I'll be right here for you. I'll... try to make an effort, then." Her smile is a little lopsided, almost apologetic. "It's a little hard. I don't like to worry you... but... you're right. We need to trust one another, now more than ever before. We're all we've got, at the end of the day. We might have Lowri's help, right now, but she has her own goals to pursue..."

"Too well? Maybe. But you never did have a body to bring back to Vader. Jedi seem to be pretty resilient, aren't they? Lowri seems like a pretty resilient woman, anyway. And you're resilient, too, Galen... I think," she says slowly, "that it's possible he might have survived. Maybe. It would depend on a few factors, but Nal Hutta isn't the worst place he could have plunged towards. If he had any way to check his momentum, through the Force, possibly, I think he might have survived his landing. Though I imagine he was probably hating the world about then, if he did survive."

She makes a thoughtful sound as she eases herself back down to her pillow, curling up against him and resting her head against his chest. "If we can track him down, he might be worth speaking to, although I hardly expect him or any of his rebel allies to trust us. We've done more damage to them over the past few years than a lot of other Imperials, I imagine, and I wouldn't blame them for their apprehension." Falling silent for a moment, she considers. If he risked a brief glance at her thoughts through the Force, they'd be a miasma of mathematics and equations; considering the probability of General Kota's survival.

Eventually, she decides that it is quite possible, and also probable, too. The Jedi are monstrously resilient, to go by the tough battles she's watched Galen fight. Even the least among them have posed a significant and deadly threat to her companion – Kazdan Paratus, the outcast, who for all his insanity was nonetheless a dangerous opponent.

Juno puts that thought aside for the moment, though. She makes a soft, thoughtful sound as he prompts her to continue, shifting a little closer to Galen. Putting aside that it's both comfortable and comforting to be near him, the quarters are cold, and he's nice and warm. It also helps her think, because she's settled on a thought she wants to articulate correctly. She's never had any particular trouble composing her thoughts before, but she's been so exhausted lately that she can't trust her own articulation.

Juno Eclipse (428) has posed:
"Galen..." She raises herself up on an elbow so she can look him in the eye, or close enough their very slight difference in height might allow for. "I spoke with Lowri a few nights ago, while she was watching over the ship. We talked about a lot of things, but she told me something that really stuck with me. She'd been investigating me on behalf of the Union, and she was checking up on Rancor, one of the Black Eight pilots I'd flown with at Callos. Her investigation took her to Cloud City, on Bespin – but she never met Rancor. She met an alternat version of... me."

Looking up, she fixes her eyes on him, studying his reactions. "Lowri said that version of me had... I... you had sacrificed yourself. The other 'you.' For the Rebellion, and for her. And Lowri said that it left me... the other 'me...' broken. She was just a shadow of herself. The only thing keeping her going was refusing to let his sacrifice be for nothing. Lowri said... that the other 'you' loved her enough to make that sacrifice, and she doesn't think we – you and I – are that much different.

"She said she wants to make sure you don't need to make that sacrifice." Her hand seeks out his, curling around it; both seeking and giving comfort. "It made me realise that she was right. Lowri. That I'd do the same thing for you, if it came down to it; not because I'd want to leave you behind, but..." Juno laughs, softly; breathless and nervous. "You know, this is hard for me to say. I don't know why, because it's true. But I... love you, Galen. I'd go anywhere, do anything, for you. And we'll fight the Empire together. We'll take them down – together."

Settling against him, she sighs, slow and deceptively calmer than she feels. "My point, I suppose, is that I don't want to have to make that sacrifice. Or for you to. I'm afraid I'd wind up like her, Galen; broken and lost. I won't do that to you – and I hope you'll never need to do that for my sake." Her hand tightens over his. "I'm not going to ask you to promise me; I can't even promise that we'll survive the next day. But... stay with me. Please. I don't think I could bear the thought of losing you."

Galen Marek (731) has posed:
As Juno shifts up on her elbow, he can sense a shift in tone. Subtle, but he can feel the gravity increase around them. His smile fades a bit, his face returning to its neutral state. As she speaks, he listens in silence, his mind turning each word over. An alternate version of Juno that... Galen had given himself up for. He had sacrificed himself for a cause, and Juno... she had suffered for it. Lost all of her spark and carrying on only to make his sacrifice worth something. It hits him in a way that most things can't. Would he give his life up if it meant saving Juno? Without a second thought. He'd choose that path every time. But now he can know the results. Losing one of them would really mean losing both. If Juno did the same for him, he... he can't even consider it.

His hand squeezes hers, and he nods, cheeks going slightly pink for a brief instant as she finishes her speech. It's a moment before he says anything, but when he does, his voice is soft yet strong.

"I have to say she's right. I would do whatever it took to save you, no matter the cost to myself. Love drives people to do... crazy things at times. And I love you more than anything in this Multiverse. But to know what the result would be... it's frightening. Because if the positions were reversed, I know that I would be the same way. Lost. Probably lost forever to the Darkness." He takes a breath. "You're right, you can't make me promise, because it's not something I can guarantee. But I can give my word that I'll give my every effort to keep us together. Alive. Well. Because that's what w... you deserve." He hesitates, falters. He had done many horrible things. Juno had Callos on her conscience, but as the Darkness starts to retreat, the blood Galen is responsible for almost feels like it paints him. "What we deserve," he rectifies after a moment. "Even though... I was a monster, this is something that will happen."

Juno Eclipse (428) has posed:
Although she hasn't known Lowri for very long, she remembers enough to know that the alternate version of herself must have been unsettling. From everything she'd been told, that version had been broken and defeated, held together only by the memory of what she had lost, and the hatred of what had brought about that loss. Regardless, there's something subtly horrifying in thinking about that, of knowing she could be brought so low by a single event.

At the same time... it's not surprising. She was willing to leave behind her life in the Imperial Navy for his sake, without a backward glance. She was willing to risk everything, even life itself, for him – and he did the same. How could that kind of sacrifice not affect her?

"It does." Juno smiles, faintly, but the expression is one of disquiet. "It's the same reason why I wouldn't sacrifice myself for you. I know what that would do to you. It'd drag you back down into the Dark Side, and it's a pit you'd never be able to climb out of. Vader will have won – and I refuse to give him that kind of satisfaction. I refuse."

She falls silent as he hesitates, and for a moment she even holds her breath as he seems to agonise over whether or not he deserves some kind of happiness. Only after he continues, correcting himself, does she even realise she was holding the breath, letting it go. She smiles, encouragingly. "Galen." His name is spoken softly, even as she reaches up to lay a hand against the side of his face; touch light, but no less a thing meant to draw his focus. 'Look at me,' the gesture seems to say.

"You're right. We've both done terrible things." She can guess at his line of thought, even if she doesn't know with certainty; even if the Force can't give her any insights. Juno's never had that crutch, but she's still familiar with how his mind works. Not always, and there are times when she despairs of ever understanding the man behind those brown eyes, but she can guess. This is one of those times where that guess doesn't seem to be too far off the mark. "I have Callos on my conscience, and I always will. You'll have every single target and every incidental bystander that Vader ever ordered you to dispatch. But..."

"I believe we can move past that. I believe we can be redeemed. It's going to take a long time, I won't lie. It's going to take a lot of effort. And we may never be fully trusted by either the Rebel Alliance or the Union, or anyone else who has a conscience like we do. But we owe it to ourselves to try. We're not monsters. We've done monstrous things... but we have the freedom to move past that, now." Leaning forward, she rests her face against the other side of his, opposite her hand. "I'm proud of you. So proud. I... admit that a few years ago, I'd wondered... I'd wondered whether or not you could seize onto that spark of light, whether you could really move past all the conditioning and the torment and the awful things Vader compelled you to do. But I know now that I never had any reason to doubt." She smiles. "And..."

"Thank you. For being there for me. I know all of this... has been pretty hard on you, too. Just as hard as on me. But we'll get through all of this." Drawing back, she smiles, laughing softly; little more than a breath through her nose. She hesitates for a moment, nerves momentarily taut as a plucked string, before tilting her head – and touching her lips, in the briefest of instants, to his. She herself is scarlet when she turns her head away, embarrassed perhaps by her own boldness, but smiling all the same. "And... thank you for continuing to be there. We'll get through all of this. And we'll get through it together. Vader has no idea of what he's up against. We're strong, separately – but together..." That smile broadens. "We can endure anything. And we'll prove it to him, and to anyone else."

Galen Marek (731) has posed:
Outside of Juno and PROXY, Galen didn't have many he could trust without question, and even PROXY had his moments. Mostly when the bot was trying to kill him. In fact, only when the bot was trying to kill him. Juno was the one with connections, and he was trying to do the same, but it was harder for him. He had spent most of his life not speaking to anyone, not trusting anyone outside of the two men that had betrayed him in the end, once he had found someone else to trust. And while that stigma followed him, he was still trying to shake it. But it's difficult to just brush off the teachings of Vader. A lot of that would remain ingrained in him for a long while yet.

But he wasn't alone. Even outside of Juno. PROXY. There was the Flotilla. Revan. Other allies were constantly coming out of the woodwork. Toph. Kyle. These people could aid them in their redemption to a degree, if he could just let them in enough. Maybe one day that would be an option. One day soon.

"I refuse to give in to that side of myself again. And I couldn't stomach the thought of you being a shadow. So no, I won't sacrifice myself either." He turns to face her as her hand rest on his face, and he meets her gaze without hesitation.

He smiles, feeling her rest her cheek against his, face heating up slightly as she praises him. He tries to prepare a counter statement, but his mind is abuzz with so much that he can't seem to settle on anything. So he opts to keep silent for the moment. She pulls away for a moment, and then there's the kiss, and his head buzzes in that brief contact.

He supposed that in this moment he could truly accept that this was a freedom they had now. He smiles softly, wrapping an arm around her waist as though afraid it's just another dream that can be rent from his grasp. Not this time, though. "Damn right we will," he finally manages. "Thanks for... you know, not giving up on me back then. It's a startling thing to think about, if I hadn't held that spark. So... thank you for never giving up that small hope." He leans in, resting his head on Juno's shoulder, closing his eyes. "It's good. Never having to worry about people knowing about us. It was hard trying to maintain such a distant appearence sometimes..."

Juno Eclipse (428) has posed:
Darth Vader wasn't exactly the cuddliest parental figure, was he? It's no small wonder that Galen has problems relating with others, or psychological scars that will take him years to work through. Honestly, it's a wonder he even has any capacity to listen to the positive emotions left in him. She almost wonders what he might have done if she had never been assigned to the Rogue Shadow. Would the darkness have consumed him?

That's a sad notion, to think that somewhere in the multiverse, there's a Galen Marek wholly devoted to the Dark Side, who never reached for the light – not because he didn't want to, but because he didn't know how. It's almost as depressing as the thought of a Juno Eclipse, left broken and hollow after the loss of her own Galen.

"I wouldn't let you give in. Not as long as I'm alive," she reassures him, smiling faintly. She doesn't quite meet his eyes, but that's more from embarrassment over that kiss than anything else; even in the darkness, he can likely sense the flush of her face; the buzz of warmth, affection, embarrassment, and a little bit of nervousness that ripples from her through the Force. "We're there for each other. If either of us slips, if either of us fall... the other will be there to catch him. I promise you I'll be there to catch you. The Dark Side is never going to have you. It's not going to have me, either, if a normal person could fall to it."

She leans into his touch, though, and there's a brief sensation of relief – as though she were afraid she might have frightened him off. Silly, she chides herself, silently. He intercepted a prison ship for you. Defied the Empire.

"That's not something you need to thank me for," Juno murmurs, reaching up as he lays his head against her shoulder. Her arms circle around his shoulders, and she laughs – a little louder than the last time, a little less embarrassed. "I meant that, you know. I'll always be there for you, Galen," she whispers, arms tightening around him; not quite enough to hurt, but enough to indicate a certain quiet desperation. If she doesn't have him, what does she have? Something tells her that story of the alternate version of herself that had lost her Galen will haunt her for some time. "Always."

"I admit, it's still a little disconcerting to be called out on it. I suppose Medusa would have known; she may be unsettling, but she's hardly stupid. I'm not certain how I feel about her knowing, though." Sighing, she lets go of him just long enough to flip the blanket back over herself – it's cold – and curls up against his chest, arms slipping around him. On the bright side, she doesn't need too much of a blanket when she's got him, does she? "But I agree. It was hard."

"I guess, to a certain extent, I was used to it. I had to mask a lot of reactions when I was still a TIE fighter pilot..." She chuckles, not much more than a breath, the sound somehow carrying a certain disgust. "I could outfly anyone aboard the Retribution, but heaven forbid I actually tell them to their face while they were strutting about how superior they were to a woman. No, I had to show them." Juno grins. "Oh, but it felt good to show them."

Galen Marek (731) has posed:
Galen nods. "Me either," he says, "I won't let you turn into that shadow Juno. No way." That would tear him up if he was still alive to ever see it. That terrifies him more than any sort of variation of himself. Darth Starkiller he could deal with. Shadow Juno? No possible way.

He smiles. "The Empire proves that even those not sensitive to the Force can be swayed by it. There's... viciousness there. Darkness. And it's not just Vader and Palpatine." The Empire is a force of the Dark Side in and of itself, a twisted remnant of its former self. He hugs her a bit tighter, closing his eyes.

Galen smiles a bit more widely. "I'm not just talking, either. I'm not going to let you go again. Even though it was only a day after you got captured... the room on the Flotilla was so cold. No more, though." The warmth is amazing, compared to that night. As she settles back under the blanket, his arms wind around her as well, the closeness drawing sleep back into his eyes. "I was encouraged to only display my anger," he says, "It was... normal for a Sith, but it was never quite right for me. It always felt wrong. But I don't have to just act by anger and hate. There's... so much more." He smiles serenely, chuckling at her story. "I don't doubt it. I took the best part of the Empire away from them, both in terms of skill and just overall."

Juno Eclipse (428) has posed:
"Probably not so much a shadow Juno as a ghost of her former self," Juno muses quietly. "I got the impression she wasn't really evil, or even angry in any respect beyond what she felt towards the Empire that had taken her Galen from her. Just... in despair. The way Lowri told it to me, when her Galen was killed, she lost all reason to live. Only the rebellion itself sustained her, and even then, it sounds as though she still balanced on that knife-edge."

She shivers, shaking her head faintly. "I don't ever want to be in that position. I never want to have to make that choice, or to weigh it and find it tempting. To have to feel pushed to that extreme, to feel so lost and alone... I couldn't cope with that any more than I could watch Vader drag you fully into the Dark Side."

How broken and twisted a man must Vader be, to want to pull Galen into that hopeless miasma? Especially when Galen has a chance at redemption; when that spark of light is alive in him?

"No more than I'm going to let go of you," she agrees, quietly. "I was drugged for most of that time, so I don't remember much of it. But I remember being alone. And I remember being cold. And I remember everything felt right again, once... once you held me again." She smiles, burying her face into his shoulder. "Being with you again... it made what I went through right, or at least as right as it'll ever be for me."

"Yeah." Her agreement is quiet, and she smiles, settling in beside him, drawing up the blanket. By degrees, she can feel herself relax, the last of the nightmare-adrenaline bleeding off as she lets his warmth, presence, and the reverberation of his voice soothe her nerves. "And I took the best part, too. Funny how that works out. Almost makes me believe in the Force... to have found you..." she murmurs, eyes gradually sliding closed. "Good night... love."

There's a brief bloom of warmth, though the Force; affection and simple appreciation at not having to hide the thing that means the most to her. It fades, in time, just as her alertness fades. He'll know when she's finally drifted back to sleep – but what doesn't fade is the faintest hint of a smile that touches her face.