Stark Industries [all day Friday]

[momslilassassin]

After leaving Fandom Jaina a brief (and not terribly helpful) update about his adventures last weekend where he'd been slightly electrocuted but was otherwise Completely Fine, Really!, Ben settled behind the counter with an enormous cup of coffee and some of the data Ender had forwarded him about Shakespeare.

It never hurt to be too prepared about the next assignment.

The shop was open, though, if your iPod had decided to stop working or something.

Ender | Topher

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[endsthegame]

"I come bearing meats and other items of a Skywalker-placating nature," Ender announced upon his entry.

[momslilassassin]

"You may stay," Ben declared, beaming at him. "Ho, kreetle."

[endsthegame]

"Ho, Ben," Ender said, dropping the box of Thai food in front of him. "How's the day been?"

[momslilassassin]

"Uneventfully, so far," he replied. "Just catching up on some research."

[endsthegame]

"Anything interesting?" Ender asked as he pulled up a chair.

[momslilassassin]

"You gave it to me, so I think so," Ben said, smiling.

[endsthegame]

"A smartass flatterer, now there's something," Ender said, opening up the container. "Any thoughts, then, that you might like to share?"

[momslilassassin]

"Nothing that fascinating," Ben said. "I can send some of the molecular breakdowns on to Cilghal, now that she's mostly done with the barvy Jedi."

He sighed. "Turns out that the Horns didn't get uncrazied while they were in carbonite."

[endsthegame]

Ender ran his hand through his hair. "Do they know if the other young Jedi are actually fine?"

[momslilassassin]

"No," Ben said, sighing again. "Dad's theory that as long as he keeps smacking pieces off of Abeloth she stays out of our heads seems to be holding up so far."

[endsthegame]

"It's still not any kind of long-term solution," Ender said.

[momslilassassin]

"Not really," Ben agreed. "He's got her cornered on a planet where neither of them can really use the Force. Maybe that'll even the odds some."

[endsthegame]

"Probably not, unless the Force lies at the root of her ability to shift shapes," Ender said. "He'll be at a disadvantage."

[momslilassassin]

"I think he's always going to be at a disadvantage as long as he goes after her with no one but Vestara," Ben said. "Since he can't focus on not getting a Sith lightsaber through his back the second the advantage shifts."

[endsthegame]

"Has he at least requested more Jedi to help him?" Ender said, sighing.

He knew several of his people were watching Luke's back - from a distance or otherwise - but that wasn't quite the same, and Dink couldn't do everything.

[momslilassassin]

"He'd be stupid not to," Ben said, "but I haven't heard one way or the other."

[endsthegame]

"That's helpful," said Ender, who made a mental note to make Jane spy on that more. He rubbed at his forehead, then reached over to hand Ben some plastic cutlery.

[momslilassassin]

"Thanks," Ben said with a quick smile, "and yeah, helpful and Dad are words that are...really not found around each other these days."

[endsthegame]

"It's not doing him any favors either," Ender said. "Your father hasn't got as much of a head for strategy as he'd like to think. That's dangerous."

[momslilassassin]

"It could get him killed," Ben said flatly. "Running flat out against an unkillable changeling is dumb."

[endsthegame]

Ender's eyebrow went up. "I agree," he said.

[momslilassassin]

And Ben couldn't handle the idea of losing another parent right now.

"Other than sending a 'stop being an idiot' email, I don't have another suggestion," he said. "No one seems to even know what Abeloth is."

[endsthegame]

"Then someone needs to find out," Ender said mildly, "Instead of pottering around like chickens trying to react to everything that's happening."

[momslilassassin]

Ben tapped his fingers against the counter as he thought. "When we were researching Centerpoint Station, we ran into stories where the Killiks claimed to have built the entire Corellian system. Maybe we should send someone to talk to them."

Hopefully someone who wasn't Ben.

"Not Uncle Han."

[endsthegame]

"Not Uncle Han," Ender agreed. "Preferably not any of the Jedi who were damaged by them before - but you might not be able to get out of sending at least one of them."