"Your stop is here!"
She pushed me hard into a cell. It was a place built inside a cave. The bars were strong and enveloped in energy, entering several centimeters, perhaps meters, into the solid rock. Even if I figured out a way out of it using my skills, it would take a long time. It was an obvious conclusion, because if she threw me into that hole, it was because she herself would find it very difficult to leave.
I tried to settle down on a rock bank. Any movement of my body ached and my wrists began to numb because of the handcuff. She watched me carefully, as if trying to read my thoughts. She changed so much since our last confrontation. How much time has passed? So much so? Her hair was cut to the shoulders, she abandoned the Jedi robe and adopted typical smuggler clothes. It was a more rebellious image of herself.
"I thought the order was to summarily eliminate all of the dark siders. Aren't you breaking one more precious rule?"
"You know I've always broken rules." She didn't want to play my game. I got it. She's smart. She didn't even bother with my cynicism. Instead, she looked at me so deeply.
"How long do you intend to stay here, looking at my face? There's a spectacular war out there. Should not you be protecting your friends, or being the savior of some little planet?"
"They're safe." Again no emotion in her voice. So the game is more serious than I imagined. "I can stay here as long as it takes."
"Still think you can bring me back?" I smirk. "That's really silly. There is no possible return after the true nature of force is known."
"You decorated this sentence perfectly!" She smiled wryly.
"You're still brilliant in your theater. This posture of strong, unshakable. The rebel full of ethics. You're pathetic!"
"Thank you." Another cynical smile.
I knew her too well to know that whatever her plan was, she would take it to the end. It would be an interesting game.
"Master Fabray!" A female voice interrupted our brief dialogue.
I couldn't see who it was, but I figured it would be close to a Jedi Alliance headquarters. She nodded to the owner of the voice and then glared at me.
"Stay here, San! I'll be back as soon as possible."
…
"Stay here, San, I'll be back as soon as possible."
I think I've heard that phrase a thousand times in my life, ever since Quinn played the part of my older, protective sister. The first time I remember to heard this was when I was about seven. I liked to play ball in school. If in class I was an easygoing girl, who everyone loved to bother, I felt like a goddess in the courts. No one was more skillful than I was in the game. No child in my class could score as many points as I did. No one but one: Quinn. Only later I understood why we stood out from others.
Quinn and I didn't have the same friends at school. She lived surrounded by people who were considered the coolest and I only had the company of Sugar. In front of her, her friends treated me with respect, but as soon as she turn her back on them, they started to insult me because of my grimace, my black hair always trapped in a ponytail, my knees grated, my gaunt way, of my dirty or stained clothes (because of the ball), the fact that my family is not natural of that planet. I didn't say anything to Quinn, I didn't see any reason and I didn't want to be the crying baby who runs to the big sister for any problem. Besides, I had the ways to take revenge.
One day I reached the limit of tolerance. The girls tormented me so much that at the time of the physical activities I deduced every single one of the insults. Quinn was amazed that day. I had never seen myself so aggressive. I gave out elbows, kicks, hard innings, hurt as much as I could until I got kicked out of the game.
At the end of class, after I said goodbye to Sugar, those same girls surrounded me to hit me. But you know what a child fight is. A jerk in the mud, a hair pull a fist in the back and we are solved. When I fell, I hurt my knee and stood on the sidewalk, crying, motionless. As soon as Quinn saw me, she ran to help me. My knee was bleeding enough to scare a child our age. It was the first time I saw her fearful. Quinn was such a steady child that even my mother's mistreatment didn't seem to strike. Seeing her so worried about a skinned knee surprised me.
"Stay here, San. I'll be back as soon as possible."
She ran to the school building and returned a few minutes later, pulling the nurse droid by the arm. The gentle mechanism led me to the school's first aid center. After the dressing, Quinn asked me what happened and I just replied that I slipped into the mud and fell to my knees. That simple. I was never sure if she believed me.
Over time, several types of "stay here, I'll be back as soon as possible", happened: because of boyfriends, emergencies, injuries. And in each of these situations we were more united.