"They're on the other side of an ocean. They...surprisingly haven't tried to track me down yet, not that I've noticed. I might- Maybe. One day. But not now."

    "All right."

    "She's going to go after them herself, at some point, whether you want to join her or not. She's not sure when; after she's recovered and you and Ant and Shin are settled, at least, and maybe later. Or if anything happens to you she's going to go right away, she doesn't want to let them have the next Slayer."

Ira gives an almost-laugh. "Okay, you're not gonna get an argument from me that something needs doing about them. Just- once Ant's okay. I can't- I need them to not be able to touch em."

    "Yeah, that's more important right now, definitely. And she does need to recover, to do the best job of it."

Ira nods.

And then: they're back at the motel.

Ant greets them with a wave. "Good sparring session?"

    "Deskyl enjoyed it, yes. I think Ira did, too." Ira?

He gives a small smile. "Nice to be fighting when I'm not trying to kill something." Beat. "She's teaching me defensive stuff as well."

"Well. You needed it."

    "He's done very well with what he did have. But yes, he'll benefit from some better training."

    "You could join them, sometime, if Ira is okay with that."

"Ooh. Can I?"

Ira's quiet for a moment, then nods. "Probably better that you know how. I should've thought of that sooner."

    "Next time, then. Right now we have a question about moving, for you - do you care about staying in Greenville High?"

Ey shrugs. "Not really. It's a school. The teachers are inane at best, and ignore my preferences at worst."

"All right." She has the computer booted up already; she brings up the house listings. "These are the places we're looking at, then."

Both have three bedrooms; one has an unfinished basement that they can use as a gym, a bigger living room, and a balcony, but the other is a little bigger overall - the extra space comes in the form of an office - and has a nicely planted backyard, and it's more convenient to the buses.

"I expect you'll want the first one," DZ says, when she's gone over both of them. "The office isn't as much of an advantage as the basement, and I expect you'll be able to get a car soon." (Deskyl nods agreement.)

"Yeah, it does look better overall," Ant agrees. "Also: balconies are always cool."

"Yes. Deskyl will like this one, especially, it has a good view of the sunset."

Deskyl signs to her. "We'll leave you two to talk to Shin about it; Deskyl is ready to practice speaking again."

Ant nods. "Sunsets are always nice to watch," ey agrees.

Then ey goes to poke Shin who has been napping through this entire conversation.

And so she practices. It's tedious work, mostly, with her being functionally deaf: DZ picks a word in the Sith language that contains the next sound in the phrase, and coaches her through extracting it and adding it to what she has memorized. Exhausting, too; it's hard for her to speak, hard for her to think about sounds at all, and sometimes she spends half an hour just trying to remember how to say the word that has the next sound in the sequence. But she keeps at it, with the occasional break to meditate or nap or practice 'saber forms, and after not quite a week of effort, she's ready.

Shin sets up a viewing with landlord, managing to arrange it for an evening when Ira's available as well.

"Do I really need to come?" Ira grumbles. "Figure between you and Deskyl you've got it covered."

"Yes," Shin states firmly, looks to DZ. "Are you coming with as well?"

"Is it safe?"

"Deskyl will be able to read Ira's mind well enough to know what's going on, you'll be okay without me if it isn't safe."

"...Probably wiser not to risk it on the bus," Shin admits. "Not until we're actually moving. Hey, Ant, you ready?"

"I- mean, I don't want to leave DZ on her own?" Ant says, obviously torn.