"Try piecing them together." Sebastian recommends. "They're two halves of the same crystal, so..."
I nod, taking the other half of the crystal out of my saber. "Right, yeah." I look between the two halves, before placing them together, trying to set them as close to how the original crystal must have looked as possible.
The two hum louder and louder the closer they get to one another. When they make contact, they practically snap together, glowing brightly as they fuse into one gem.
"Holy fuck." I say, staring down at the now whole crystal. "Holy fuck!" I glance back and forth between Seb and Candra, and then back at the crystal, sort of smiling at it in disbelief.
Candra smiles softly and Sebastian laughs. The two ancestors wordlessly clasp one another's hand between them, staring at the crystal, whole.
After a bit longer, I finally tear myself away from staring at the crystal, instead looking once again at the two ancestors. “So uh. What now?” I ask. I am hoping I’m not interrupting the two of them standing there holding hands, but I'm also very excited about the possibility of a new saber, and the crystal action has only gotten me more interested.
"Now you're welcome to pick a new handle, or just say the word and I'll gather up some pieces to fidget with while we're en route to our first token." Sebastian nods over to a selection of handles and other laser tools.
I raise my eyebrows, a bit surprised. “So you are coming with?”
He nods, glancing at Candra, who gives him a supportive smile. "Yeah, I am. Unless you don't want me to go."
“Hell fucking yeah I want you to come!” I say, also nodding. “Cole does too.”
Your father smiles at you gently. "I'm glad. I'd like to get to know you two better. I wish it could be under nicer circumstances, but... I'll take whatever I can get." He shrugs. "So, what's your decision on the saber?"
“Yeah.” I look at the ground for a second, before glancing back up, nodding once more. “Yeah, uh. Building one on the way there does sound really fucking cool.”
"Alright. Then I'll do that." Sebastian nods back and pulls his hand away from Candra's. "If you two want to go back to Keystone, I'll grab a few things and meet you there."
"Alright." I stand there for another second, visibly hesitating. Fuck it, I decide to just go for it. "Thanks dad." I say quickly, trying not to sound as unsure as I feel saying that out loud.
Sebastian looks confused for a split second, then shocked, and then he just grins warmly. "No problem, kid."
Candra frowns. "Would you two hug already?"
I. Yeah. It takes me a second to process what Candra just said. When I finally do, I take a slow step towards Seb, before rushing the rest of the way, hugging him tightly. I don’t really know what I’m thinking about at the moment, there’s so much running through my mind right now. So fucking much has happened in such a small amount of time, it’s insane. Some of it, no, most of it, has been fucking horrible. But, shit. I have a brother. I have a sister. I've got a fucking dad, and all of them are still alive, and so are my friends. None of them are dead, and I fucking intend to do everything I can to keep it that way.
Sebastian hugs you back tightly, tucking his chin over your shoulder. You have a feeling his thoughts are similar to yours.
And, for just a second, you let yourself think about the fact that you've been alone your whole life. You thought nobody cared about you except for yourself. You thought whatever parent you had just abandoned you to die. You've never been so happy to be wrong about something in your life.
I keep hugging him, staring off at some random point over his shoulder vaguely, though I’m not really focused on that. This is a really fucking nice feeling. “Thanks.” I say once again, quietly, but this time it isn’t about the saber stuff, it’s about him just being here in general.
"You're welcome." Sebastian sighs softly. "Thanks to you, too." He couldn't have gotten here without you; he would've had no reason to want to. But he isn't going to say that, and you aren't going to know. Not yet, at least.
Candra just stands back, hands clasped happily, grinning at you two as you hug. She clearly highly approves.
After a few more seconds, I finally pull away from the hug. I quietly adjust my goggles, before nodding at my dad once more. “Alright. I’ll uh. See you at Keystone?” It’s sort of a half question, half statement.
He pats your shoulder with all the assuredness that your half-question had. "Yeah. I'll see you there." And sends Candra a nod.
Candra nods approvingly at your entire exchange and begins walking out, waving goodbye to Sebastian and almost running into several people on her way. Luckily, they all scatter in front of her before she can. You should follow her.
Right, yeah. I start walking the direction Candra's going, speeding up to catch up with her, though I do make sure I'm not going to run into anyone.
You walk all the way back to Keystone Hall. It isn't a very long walk. You mostly just watch Candra stare off idly into the streets and wave at random passerby. She's quite something. You used to daydream about killing her and saving the galaxy from her reign of terror. That seems a little bit stupid now.
When you get there and head inside, it sounds like everyone is in the training room. Everyone except for Quin, who is folded in half sitting against the wall just outside the door.
Oh. Well shit, that doesn't seem good? Is he okay over there? I glance at Candra for a second before turning my attention back to squinting at Quin in mild concern.
"Are you okay, Quin??" Candra frowns at him.
Quin jerks his head up so fast it hits the wall behind him. "Ow. I'm... yeah. Doing great." He rubs the back of his head with a wince.
I look back at Candra once again. Well. This is very much not my area of expertise, though she seems to know what she's doing. I feel like standing here watching them talk is going to be very awkward very fast, so I am just going to quietly make my way to the training room entrance.