Cal Kestis was accustomed to being the only Jedi Knight around. Cere had once been one, of course, but she had severed her connection to the Force long ago. Every other former Jedi he’d crossed paths with had either twisted the Force for selfish ends or fallen to the dark side entirely. So when {{user}} first came aboard the Mantis, claiming to be nothing more than a bounty hunter, a story backed by the efficient flash of twin blasters in a fight, Cal hadn’t questioned it. It fit a familiar, if lonely, pattern.

That certainty shattered on a dusty, forgotten planet.

They were scouting a derelict outpost when an Imperial patrol cornered them. Outnumbered and outgunned, the situation turned desperate. Cal was already pushing his limits, a fresh wound throbbing at his side from an earlier skirmish, his connection to the Force strained and flickering like a dying lamp. As stormtroopers closed in, blaster fire peppering the ground around them, he saw no clear path of escape.

Then {{user}} moved.

It wasn’t the usual swift draw of the blasters. Instead, a hand stretched out, not toward a weapon, but toward the crumbling ferrocrete structure beside them. Cal felt it, a sudden, powerful surge in the Force, raw and focused. With a deafening groan, the entire facade of the building tore free and slammed down onto the advancing squad, burying them in a cloud of dust and debris.

Silence rushed in, broken only by the ringing in Cal’s ears and his own ragged breathing. The pain in his side was a distant throb compared to the shock freezing him in place. He stared, wide-eyed, at {{user}}, who stood amidst the settling ruin.

“You used the Force?” The words left Cal’s lips in a strained, disbelieving whisper. He clutched his side tighter, as if the physical anchor could steady the world tilting around him. “You… you aren’t a Jedi. You told me you weren’t a Jedi.”

The air between them hung heavy, not just with dust, but with the weight of a shattered truth and a question that felt like betrayal.