Chapter Text
It’s late at night when she knocks on the door to Praufs’ apartment, it takes a while but the kid - Cal opens the door, blinking blearly at Meg who thanks him, patting his head twice before she makes her way inside and towards the small table. It’s filled with small trinkets, a few tools and a welder.
The kid had started living with Prauf after they worked together on a few jobs, the guild had him originally rooming with three other people for about a year after he had been dropped off by whoever the hell left him here, before their entire place had flooded leaving them without a place to stay. Prauf; knowing Cal had offered him the second room in his place, a much more senior member of the guild than most surviving was given better accommodations than some.
“Sorry kid,” she apologizes, the fourteen year old opens the fridge to grab her a beer, - amazing brat, knowing everything - sliding it across the counter before sitting down beside her, they sit in silence, something she often does with Prauf on late nights. Truly his kid, Meg thinks as she leans back in her seat looking towards Praufs’ bedroom. “Is this why you were waiting outside for the past week usually between the times 11pm-4am before not knocking and going home.”
Meg is a little startled before she lets out a small laugh, “yeah kid it is, why do you know that? Shouldn’t you have been in bed?” She gives him a look before he nods, “yeah, you were pretty loud though,”
“It took you a minute to get to the door,” she says dryly, the kid brightened, not something you normally see around here, “that’s cuz Prauf got me a new blanket, do you want to see?”
“Next time kid, I’ll be over tomorrow, I’m gonna go wake Prauf if that’s alright, do you need help to go back to bed?” It’s pretty late and she probably woke him up with her knocking. She could prolly go look at the kids new blanket if she did, he shakes his head declining her offer to put him to bed, completely understandable, next time.
Him being awake at this time is also absolutely her fault, “if your supervisor complains, tell him I had an emergency alright?”
Cal’s quiet - always is, that sneaky little devil, often too quiet — “yeah, goodnight Meg. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
She smiles softly as he nods his head along tiredly and makes his way back into his room, closing the door slightly before turning off the light, a soft blue light coming from the crack in the door.
She makes her way towards Praufs’ room before opening the door, they only ever do this when there is an emergency. It seems like an emergency to her, she can’t wait until morning to tell him or she’ll spazz herself out again,
she’s quiet, gently nudging him awake. He almost jolts out of the bed before realizing who it is and relaxing slightly.
“Hey,” she greets as he pushes himself up from his bed onto his side, she takes a deep breath, “I— okay, look I need you to promise me something before I start talking alright?” Meg is silent as Prauf looks at her. It's serious, they both know it is, no one would reasonably ask someone that on kriffing Bracca.
“Do you want to sit down?”
Meg shakes her head, “no hopefully this’ll be quick.” She stumbles over her words making him frown.
“This isn't spice or anything like that-?” Prauf asks, his voice lowered, almost hissing and she shakes her head, swallowing heavily, “even— even more of a risk.”
“I’m putting my life on the line saying this Prauf, but I trust you and that kid of yours.” She looks hesitant, her eyes flickering towards Praufs’ bedroom door, watching for something - someone.
“There’s a clone, his name is Rex—'' Prauf tenses, “shhh, ah, he’s- well he’s a part of the rebellion.”
Prauf looks terrified, his eyes widening and he’s about to move to stand up as Meg tries to explain, it was understandable though, you couldn’t really trust clones around here, not in this era. Not when they could simply be ordered to shoot and would without hesitation.
“Look I trust you, you don’t like the empire - just, I’m willing to bet William on this— I get he doesn’t mean much as he’s long, long dead but I truly trust Rex, he had a Jedi friend up here not too long ago, she could use the force and everything.”
Prauf took a deep breath as Meg's hands shook - in fear? Terror? But William? Her son, betting all that mattered about him on their small rebellion scene, it seemed both wrong and right at the same time. Her son had died during the riots back on Coruscant before she moved down to Bracca to get away, “Meg, take a deep breath, okay?”
“No one knows I’m telling you this,” she admits to him. Would she get in trouble with their leader? With this… Rex character? Would she get hurt for telling him
This? Was this why she was so scared? “Ricky and Anduit are in as well, Prauf they’re looking for something here,” she leans in whispering, almost hissing, “something important.”
Important? How important would it be if she was willing to get them all killed?
His eyes scan her over as she continues to speak, “apparently there’s some kind of device that can look into the past or something, one touch and it can give you its history, that’s why Rex is here, to stop them from getting it.”
“Do you even know what it looks like?” Prauf asks his old friend, “or is this a wild goose chase?” Were they simply rebelling because they could or was there something actually going on here? Was their something important about the occupied scrapworld of Bracca, the home to the ambandoned, the indentured, and slaves to the guild.
“Look, Prauf, Bestie, the Empire doesn’t even know what it looks like, some sort of Jedi artifact, the records got erased during the purge, when they destroyed their whole archiving system, so yeah, both of us are on some kind of goose hunt.”
“What would happen if they did get this device?” He didn’t understand, what was so important about a device that could see into the past, I mean it would be interesting to learn some new things, maybe old dead languages or even cultures that were killed out during years but other than that, he slumped his shoulders, “I don’t really see how it could do anything that bad?”
“Prauf, the jedi aren’t dead, if they get even a whiff of a jedi, whether it be clothing or hell even a footprint they could easily just use the thing to find out any information about it. Kriff Prauf, they could go to any old rebel bases and get the names and information about who knows how many thousands of people.”
Her hands are shaking, “it doesn’t matter if it’s been scrapped by now, whatever it is needs to be kept away from the Empire, no matter the cost.”
“I— give me a few days,” Prauf says finally, “I won't say anything to anyone,” a few seconds pass and she gives her friend a hug. She knows she could trust him, knows he would never betray her - or Williams - trust like that.
“Thank you Prauf.” And Meg really truly means it, always has.
The door is about to close, “—what bar did you say this Rex was at?”
Meg simply grins, “Ra’saras’,”