fic | influences

He lands on Ryloth late at night, near the equatorial jungles, though his team quickly transports him away from the shadows of the low-growing trees (or more specifically, from the many predators they hide) and towards the desert to the east, near Rhovari, while the sun starts to set over the speeder that contains, besides Claude, his attractive, light blue Twi’lek contact along with his two assistants.

Anakin’s kyber weighs doubly beneath his shirt as his contact, named Zuse, briefs him on the task at hand. They have managed to gather a large portion of the former Free Ryloth movement, to try and convince them to join the efforts against the Empire now. Their leader is an acquaintance of yours, we’ve heard, says Zuse, looking Claude up and down once as if trying to determine whether he believes this to be true or not. He says he’d prefer you lead the negotiations.

That’s some honour, Claude replies.

Yeah, Zuse laughs, a hardened edge to the sound. Everyone here’s born the weight of the Empire for too long already, most of the Twi’lek people are in forced slave labour these days. only until you meet the third guy.

Who’s the third guy, Claude inquires.

Someone who’s got more to run from than you, Zuse tells him and turns back towards the road, marking the end of the conversation. What he means is, someone who’s got more to lose. A tough competitor, then. Maybe an even tougher collaborator.

After a couple of hours on the move, they arrive at the small village in the far outback of Ryloth’s desert landscape, the characteristic houses built into the ground standing empty and unused for months now. Claude is shown into the largest one, built at the very heart of the village, the light shining up from the entrance golden and inviting. He enters without any biases, he’s be a crap negotiator if he came loaded with those, after all. A lone man is waiting beneath the earth, sitting at a small table with a cup of makeshift tea.

Claude knows immediately. He doesn’t know how he knows, but he knows. It’s nothing that can be said out loud or acknowledged, but at this point he’s been around Anakin so intimately, so closely, so long, that he could spot it anywhere, that air. A Force user. Meaning, most likely, a Jedi. Meaning, hunted by the Empire like all the rest of them.

No, more.

Someone who’s got more to run from than you, Zuse had said. Which isn’t wrong, even if it isn’t the whole truth. Persecution isn’t a problem of more or less, but simply a problem of being in the first place.

The man, who’s no doubt known they were coming from a mile away, Anakin does that, at least, gets up slowly, approaching with the same air of -- that thing Claude doesn’t know what is exactly, he just recognises it. He looks about ten years older than Claude is, full beard and calm eyes. They’re the same height, but he still gives off the sense of looking down. Claude only manages not to frown, because he’s a diplomat, born and raised.

He reminds him of Rainier.

The realisation leaves a sour taste at the back of his tongue. The Jedi, in turn, just locks at him slightly puzzled for a long moment, before they shake hands, introduce themselves and state their intentions.

Obi-Wan Kenobi: Securing a safe passage for Jedi fugitives via Ryloth to the nearby Outer Rim planets.

Claude Bérubé: Creating collabs with the existing Ryloth resistance and securing intel routes into the Core.

After that, the first three days of negotiations are without pause, without sleep and without any real sense of progress. Kenobi is concerned that involving Ryloth in the resistance business will make it more unsafe than strictly necessary to go into hiding here. Claude argues that the involvement will in contrast open up for a wider selection of planets to seek asylum on. Kenobi tells him that they don’t need more, they need more safe. The stalemate lasts two additional days.

All the while, Claude thinks of Anakin, knowing that Kenobi was his Master, trying desperately not to think of Anakin, in case Kenobi should catch on to his trail of thought – thinks of the Jedi Anakin was, who he was and what he became, because the Jedi Order was gravely mistaken in their approach to him. Because the Jedi Order didn’t understand and now the rest of the Galaxy can look to them in horror at the atrocities they suffered as a consequence.

He thinks of consequences.

He thinks of Rainier.

And he returns to the negotiation table, a little more hardened than before. Calmer, sure, much like Kenobi who exudes calm, but harder and Claude doesn’t like himself that way. He misses who he is with Anakin, who Anakin makes him into.

Just as he misses not being reminded of what Anakin was made into by a multitude of others, including both Claude and himself.