Chapter Text
There are no stars in jail. No natural light or the vastness of space to fall asleep to. Just the unnatural fluorescent light of the artificial climate system. It’s a nightmare to sleep under. Though, after everything, Jod supposes it beats the brig on Borgo Prime. At least here, there’s food twice a day and water throughout. A private space where he can be with his thoughts. It could be a lot worse.
He could’ve been thrown out of the airlock or died on At Attin when the New Republic rounded them all up. But he didn’t. Somehow, for some reason, he survived. Though he can’t fathom why, if he’s honest.
The door to his cell swooshes open, and a man slightly older than himself steps into it. His bright red hair holds something familiar to it, but he can’t quite put his finger on it.
“Hi,” the stranger says, shuffling awkwardly on his feet. “I’m Cal. I’m here to talk to you.”
He groans. Kriff. Of course, they’d send some goody two-shoes of an interrogator. Can’t they just torture him? Anything but hold a conversation with…. this. “I’d rather you didn’t…” he sighs as if it’s the greatest trouble in the galaxy, “but if you must, get on with it.”
Cal seems taken aback by his answer but recovers himself quickly. “Right. What did they tell you, Jod?”
At that, he raises an eyebrow. “I’m to be tried as a pirate. Why, what did they tell you?”
Interesting.
Cal curses under his breath, then sighs. “They took your blood during processing. It had a genetic match to someone unexpected…”
They did. Yes. A pinprick on his finger as he walked out of the body scanner and finished his fingerprint scans. A single drop of blood for health testing, as they put it.
This is making less and less sense with every word. And he’s not in the mood for games or riddles. “Well, out with it, then!”
“I’m your brother,” Cal says, finally dropping any act between them.
He stares at the older man for a second or two.
That is—
Come now.
That is ridiculous.
A warped laugh bubbles from his chest and echoes through the room. “You almost had me there. That was a good one.”
Except, Cal’s not laughing. The bastard is just staring at him with those sympathetic green eyes.
No.
No, that can’t be right. He has no family. His family left him on a Force-forsaken planet to fend for himself.
He’s alone.
“I know how this sounds—” Cal says.
“—You really don’t.” Jod bites back the wave of turmoil that threatens to spill over. He can’t let them know how this affects him.
“Like you’re being held for a fool. They’re toying with you; they’re trying to manipulate you. That’s what I thought when they told me.”
He looks at Cal then. Seeing a similar pain reflected in his eyes. Someone’s who’s also survived the worst of the galaxy and still came out on top. Despite everything they’ve thrown at him. Betrayal. Heartache. Loss…
But brothers?
Come on now.
There’s no way for this to be true. No reason for him to believe a single word.
And yet…
Perhaps he can use this to his advantage.
He’s certainly not considering it because of a misguided reason of needing family. Of needing someone in his corner for once.
Of course not.
This is just business.
He pretends to think about Cal’s words for a moment, then slowly nods. “Yeah, that just about sums it up.”
“I get it. I’ve been there. Maybe not literally, this is… this is a new one for me, too.” Cal says softly, his lip curling up just a little. “But I bet you’ve been through crazier shit. I know I have been.”
He can’t exactly deny that. He snorts at Cal’s words and makes a gesture with his hands and shoulders as if to say; I suppose I have.
He has.
Dust settled over the sky above as the last of the bombs fell. His lungs burned from the dust, his eyes stung. Tears were caked to his cheeks, the moisture soaked into the dust that now clung to his skin. He squinted up at the light, hands trembling from fear as footsteps approached and a woman appeared near him. Her brown Jedi robes fluttered behind her in the wind.
“Come, little one,” Her soft voice soothed. She reached for him and lifted him out of the hole he’d been hiding in for days. Wiped his cheeks and washed his face. “It’s alright, little youngling. You’re safe with me.”
Youngling.
Yeah. He’d been one. He doesn’t remember the planet it was on. Just that it was destroyed near the end of the war.
They bombed the temple…
The temple he’d been living at.
Not the one on Coruscant. No. He’d arrived at this one years before. He couldn’t remember just how old he’d been when he moved.
But at least it’s something.
“The past has a way of catching up to us when we least expect it.” Cal offers, drawing him out of his thoughts.
He rolls his eyes at the philosophy lesson. “Please spare the Jedi mumbo jumbo and tell it to someone who cares.”
“Someone who’s not you?” Cal seems rather amused, though his arms are crossed, and he’s leaning against the wall of the cell. As if he’s waiting on something.
What’s he waiting on?
What’s his game here?
“What gave it away? Was it the charm? Or the general face of, I don’t know what the kriff you want with me.” He asks while gesturing around his face. He scowls at the other man, his brother. Yeah right.
Yet he can’t deny that there’s a small voice in the back of his head that tells him it’s true. That nagging little feeling he gets when people talk to him.
The Force. His mind not so helpfully supplies.
Reason. He counters in his thoughts. Intuition.
Though as he looks back at Cal and sees that knowing little smirk on his face, he knows what it truly is.
“No, just your shitty attitude. But that’s alright. I’d be pissed too if I was stuck in a cell like this.”
He pauses at that. Wondering if he can play into that. “Right…” He says carefully, then smiles warmly and leans forward. “I’m innocent, too. I have no idea why I’m here.”
“That so?” Cal raises an eyebrow, slowly leaning forward, his smile slowly widening. “We both know about At Attin, Jod. There’s no fooling your way outta this one. But nice try.”
“Come on, Cal. Work with me here…” Jod whines, and for a single second, it triggers something inside of him that makes him lurch back onto his cot and hold his hand to his chest.
“Come on, Cal, work with me!” Jod yelled at his older brother, hitting him on the leg to get him to move. “I’m telling Mom!”
Cal laughed at his antics. “What? I’m not doing anything!” The ten-year-old giggles, pushing him back. Holding the new holograph of them together high above his head.
“Mom! Cal’s being a Banta brain!” Jod yelled at the top of his lungs. Several Masters looked at them as Mom jogged up to them.
“Jod, stop yelling. By the Force, what’s the matter with you two?” Mom pried the four-year-old Jod off Cal. His auburn hair glinted in the sun and brushed his shoulders. Those deep blue eyes that Jod shared, now stern and harsh.
Jod gasps at the memory. One he thought he lost forever.
His heart races against his palm.
Cal has stopped, too. Staring at him with tears stinging the corners of his eyes. “How about, uh, we take it to another room? I’ve got some stuff to show you.”
And suddenly, this whole brother situation isn’t that unlikely anymore. He hates it with every fiber of his being.
Hates that feeling of weakness.
Of longing.