#sentient weapons

“You will learn it if she deems it necessary,” Cinder answered as she pushed Ruby along. “But I wouldnt count on it.” 

“Right…” Ruby said quietly before mumbling to herself. 

Cinder tried to listen to Ruby, not quite catching anything she was saying. She took a quick glance at Ruby’s ears, not seeing any earpieces that hadnt already been removed. Nor was Ruby talking into her scroll, since that was left on the airship along with anything else that could be tracked before Tyrian takes care of it. 

“Who are you talking to?” she finally asked. 

“N-no one,” Ruby answered back, nearly jumping at the sudden question. “Just… myself.”

“Just yourself?” Cinder asked as she took hold of Ruby’s scythe. “I dont believe you.” 

“Well its just me here-” 

“And I dont believe you.” Cinder pulled Ruby’s scythe away, only to be met with Ruby grabbing the scythe as well to keep it from being removed. 

Ruby looked away. “Dont… dont take her. Please.” 

“Then tell me who you’re talking to.” 

Ruby looked at her scythe, and then looked away. 

Cinder raised a brow. “You’re… talking to your scythe?” 

“She uh… helps me keep sane.” 

“Just keep it quiet,” Cinder said as she shoved the scythe back to Ruby and pushed her forward. “My goddess will expect all attention on her.” 

“Of course.” 

Cinder nodded and continued to walk Ruby to Salem’s throne room. She grinned as she reached the door and pushed it open, ready for the reward she was sure she’d get. She pulled Ruby along and nearly threw her to the ground in front of Salem.

“I have brought Ruby like you asked,” she said as she knelt down in front of her. 

“Thank you, Cinder.” Salem stood up and walked over to Ruby to look her over. “You are dismissed.” 

Cinder looked up at Salem. “But I brought Ruby to you. I’d like to stay to see what you plan-” 

“And I told you to leave. Do not make me tell you again.” 

“Of course, goddess.” 

Salem lifted Ruby’s chin with a finger. “You will do nicely for what I have planned.” 

Cinder watched Salem for a brief moment before finally picking herself up and leaving the throne room. She frowned as she replayed the way Salem touched Ruby. The gentleness she had for the girl that seemed to constantly get in their way, the softness in her voice that she wished Salem would give to her. 

It disgusted her. 

“Oh, Cinder, there you are.” 

Cinder stopped in her tracks and turned around to see Emerald coming to her. She composed herself just as quickly and gave Emerald a soft smile like the one Salem gave to Ruby. “Emerald, I thought you and Mercury were away.” 

“We were, but we had to come back early,” Emerald answered as she held out her weapon. “Respite thinks… we can trust Salem, right?” 

“Who’s Respite?” Cinder asked. 

“My weapon. We were tracking the maiden like you asked us to, then Respite made a good point that even if we end up getting the maiden powers, we still dont know where the relics are held-” 

“So you left her?!” Cinder growled out. “It took us months to track her down the first time! You were supposed to follow her!” 

“But we know where she’s going,” Emerald said quietly. “We can track her down again-” 

“*You* can track her down,” Cinder interrupted. “*I’m* going to my room to figure out the next stage of our plans so you dont screw it up again. And no more talking to your weapon. If you have questions, you can ask me.” 

“Yes Cinder.” 

Cinder let out a heavy sigh as she walked towards her room, reaching her hand into her pocket to grab some of the sand she kept there. She pulled it out and superheated it with her semblance, recreating one of the blades that formed Midnight in almost an instant. She ran her thumb over the hilt, waiting to hear a voice from it. After hearing Ruby talk to her scythe and Emerald claim that her weapons were talking as well, it almost piqued her curiosity to see if her own weapons would talk. 

After several minutes of walking around in silence, she formed the other blade and put them together in the form of her bow. She stopped to listen for any voices coming from her weapon, almost closing her eyes as she waited. But again, minutes passed with nothing but silence. 

The second clue, upon opening his eyes, was that he appeared to be in an infinite void. Better than being strapped into an Imperial interrogation chair, but still concerning. Kallus sat up slowly to get a better sense of his surroundings. The ground beneath him was smooth and reflective. It rippled when he pressed his hand to it, but found himself completely dry as he stood up. The sky, if one could call it that, was a misty color. Squinting his eyes and staring hard, Kallus thought he could almost see stars. Everything around him was touched with the warm gentle colors of a sunrise.

With little else to do Kallus started walking. The ground rippled softly beneath him with each step and he tried to recall how he’d gotten here. Events wove themselves together slowly. There was a mission. An unusual mission. Zeb had come to him early in the morning and said the Ghost Crew had found something- no, someone. Many someone’s, and they were very important. Lasat. Prisoners in a labor-camp.

Kallus had helped the Spectres free Lasat before, but always from a distance. He would sneak into security rooms, open doors, take out guards, guide the others through escape routes, all the while taking care that he wasn’t seen. Afterwards he’d find his way back to the Glimmer and distract any TIE fighters while the Ghost snuck away with the prisoners. It’s not like he was allowed to know where they were going anyway. But this time had been different. There was a blockade around the planet the Lasat were being held on that only the Ghost could get through. The labor camp was the largest they’d ever attempted to breach. Security was much tighter and the control room was nearly impossible to get to. There’d be no time for him to get there before the rest of the crew was spotted. Kallus had to memorize the camp layout and guide everyone through in person.

It would be the first time he’d come face to face with a Lasat other than Zeb since Lasan and he was… scared. The whole flight through hyperspace Kallus could feel the icy grip of his sins crawling down his spine. He sat in the galley, staring at the camp blueprints and trying not to vomit. By the time the Ghost made it through the blockade and landed on the planet he’d managed to convince himself that none of the Lasat would recognize him. So long as he kept his head down and focused on getting everyone into the camp and back out safely, everything would be fine.

The moment he’d entered the prison Kallus felt strange. He heard something. A whisper, a buzzing in the back of his mind. Something was wrong but he didn’t know what. The further into the compound they got the louder the sound became. It almost sounded like a voice.

Chopper had just opened the main gate so the prisoners could make the last sprint across the landing pad towards Hera and the Ghost while Kallus and the rest of the crew kept the guards busy.

“Hey, traitor!”

Kallus whipped around, the voice he heard with his ears nearly drowned out by the one calling out in his head. In front of him was an imperial officer he vaguely recognized from his time on Thrawn’s ship. They hadn’t interacted much but the man had always seemed to dislike Kallus beyond the usual animosity between ISB agents and the rest of the Empire. The officer wasn’t important. What was important was that he had a bo-rifle in his hands. Kallus’ bo-rifle. And he heard it scream as the man clumsily ignited it.

Kallus’ body moved on its own. He closed the distance between him and the officer in one blink. His opponent raised the bo-rifle to block an incoming attack, but Kallus wasn’t aiming for him. The only thought in his mind was getting the weapon out of his hands. He wrenched the staff out of one hand, reached out and snapped the wrist of the other. The officer cried out in pain and kicked himself backwards, releasing the staff. Kallus felt it hum in his hands. He swung the bo-rifle, aiming for the officer’s neck with the bayonet blade attached to the side. He felt it connect at the same moment he heard the blaster he hadn’t noticed the officer pull out firing into his chest.

Kallus halted. Everything after that was black and he’d woken up here. It occurred to him for the first time that he might be dead.

“Not quite, but you’re close.”

Kallus’ eyes jerked up and standing in front of him was a Lasat. He recognized his face from one of the many that haunted his dreams. This was the Honor Guard he’d won the bo-rifle from.

Kallus opened and closed his mouth a few times before managing to get words out.

“It’s you.”

The Guard flicked his ears in amusement. “It’s me.”

Zeb had told him once that it was customary for a follower of Boosahn Keeraw to bow to whoever had given them their weapon. Kallus put a fist in his other hand in front of him and lowered his head. The Guard inclined his head in response. Kallus frowned in confusion.

“Are you a ghost? How are you here if I’m not dead as well?” He didn’t even know where ‘here’ was.

The Guard sat down and gestured for Kallus to do the same.

“I’m not a ghost. I’m not really even the Lasat you fought. I’m more… the bo-rifle’s memory of him.”

He gave Kallus a moment to process what he’d just heard before continuing.

“Right now you’re communing with the bo-rifle. It can’t speak, so it uses the forms of its past wielders to communicate with its current one.”

Kallus raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“I can’t be the current wielder.”

“Why not? You defeated me in single combat. You claimed the bo-rifle through Boosahn Keeraw.”

Kallus dropped his gaze to the ground. His reflection stared back from beneath him.

“There was no honor in invading your home.”

“True.” He flinched at the Guards bluntness.

“But the bo-rifle sensed the potential in you to become something better than you were. The Empire could not snuff out the light in you completely.” The Guard smiled slightly, like he knew something Kallus didn’t. “And you had a purpose yet to serve, Warrior.”

Kallus’ face pinched in confusion. Before he could ask what that meant the Guard made a dismissive gesture.

“An explanation for another time, perhaps. The bo-rifle called to you for a reason, aside from freeing it.”

All levity dropped from the Guard’s face.

“You have a choice to make.”

Kallus sat up straight and listened with bated breath.

“I said earlier you were close to death. You stand on the precipice between your world and the next. You are connected to the bo-rifle enough for it to tip the scales one way or the other. It can send you back or let you go.”

The Guards eyes softened.

“It has seen your life. It knows the pain you’ve endured. You’ve done enough good now to earn the peace death would bring you.”

“…And if I go back?”

The Guard was silent for a moment.

“You will face your sins. You will hurt and bleed again. You will meet your nightmares. You will stare the darkness of the abyss in the eye once more and I cannot promise you will survive.”

Kallus closed his eyes. He remembered watching his mother slowly die of a disease they couldn’t afford medicine for. He remembered starving in the Lower Levels of Coruscant. He remembered the Academy, how everyone looked at him like he was garbage that had crawled up from the sewer. He remembered Weiss and the ISB program and how they’d turned him into a monster his mother wouldn’t recognize. He remembered Onderon and how helpless he’d been. He remembered Lasan, standing in the ashes of the atrocity he’d been too blind to see he was helping commit. He remembered Lothal. Meeting a band of rebels. Chasing them through the stars. He remembered Bahryn and Zeb and a conversation that had changed everything. A spark igniting within him that had set flame to a rebel’s heart that had been growing for years under the surface. He remembered dragging himself out an escape pod. He remembered being shown kindness and compassion and forgiveness he didn’t deserve by people who would become the first family he’d have since he was nine years old. He remembered how he’d do anything to protect them and their dream.

The Guards green eyes stared back at him, waiting.

“It’s a hard choice.”

Kallus smiled.

“No. It isn’t.”

The Guard smiled back.

“Alexsandr Kallus, do you swear to use this bo-rifle with honor, to protect those who cannot protect themselves, and bring light to a dark galaxy?”

“I swear.”

They both stood. “Then it’s time for you to go.”

The world around them grew brighter and started to disappear.

“Wait!” Kallus cried as he felt himself start to slip away. “What’s your name?”

The Guard let out a gentle laugh.