He tightens his grip, "With a pilot like me and a mechanic like you, we'll really be going places. No one'll be able to compete." 

Buries her nose into him and breathes deep. Hers. Isn't leaving her. But...

"The Republic and the Exchange are looking for me. Don't know why."

"...did someone put out a bounty on you or something?" 

"He – Coorta – said he had a holo of me from when I was a padawan. So."

He nods, "So the Jedi bounty. The rumours paint that reward pretty high." 

...she nods.

"I'm not a Jedi."

"Sure, but if there's holos of you as a padawan kicking around, it's not like anyone's gonna care that you're not part of the order anymore. They'll show off the holos and they'll show off you and then they'll take their cash." 

True. And yet.

"I mean," she starts. Stops. Closes her eyes and breathes in him. She can do this. "After the war. I was exiled. And. The Council cut me off from the Force."

"-didn't know they could do that. Which war?" 

"Mandalorian. It was news to me then too."

"Shit, how old are you? I mean, I know you're near-human, and Jedi age weird- but if you don't have the force-"

"Thirty-six? Or thirty-five. One of those. I'm sephi, amongst other things."

"Huh. Explains the hair. So you were with Revan, then, back before everything." 

She nods against his chest.

"He was my master. I haven't seen him since — since the war." The end of the war.

He- squints down at her. 

"You were- you're General Vikaré." 

Nod.

"Pretty sure you're supposed to have died at Malachor. In all the official files, I mean." 

"I was comatose for months, after. When I woke I was blind and deaf and — the Force was gone. I couldn't reach it. I had to relearn how to breath and see and touch..." She curls up small against him, remembering. "It was over a year later that I found myself in front of the Council."

He shifts to accomodate her, but, "Hang on, I thought you said the Council did it? Broke your connection." 

"They — must have. They did. What we, what I did at Malachor was the antithesis of everything the Force was. Is. Jedi can reach over vast distances in times of need. They didn't deny it."

"-well that's even more terrifying, then. Doing that halfway across the galaxy," he shakes out his free wrist. "But anyway, it's not like anyone really knew what that thing was going to do, right?" 

"We built it. We knew."

"Mm." 

He accepts this.

"So. Everythug and their mother thinks you're a Jedi. You're not a Jedi, but it doesn't really matter, because they're after you anyway. Not like 'not being a Jedi' is something you can prove to every bulkheaded idiot you meet." 

"You're right. People don't just stop being Jedi — force users. I've never heard of it outside myself. Anything I say will just be ignored, especially with my face out there." But. She continues. "There was a moment, in the lift, when I was fighting Coorta and his men. I think... maybe I'm wrong. I was in pain and high on adrenaline, but. I think it was there. The Force. Just for a split moment..."

"...don't Sith use pain to make their force shit more powerful?"