As Willow approached the living area, she stopped by the kitchen and leaned against the door frame. She still didn't feel comfortable enough to join the others directly.
From there, she heard loud chatter, suggesting a lot of excitement. Only now could she identify the source of that excitement.

"What is that?" she heard the indignant voice of the rotund pilot ask.
She saw that he was pointing at the small robot.

„Boo-Boop!" it just made, hopping onto the sofa.

Greez's facial expression twisted. "Get off my sofa!" he shouted hysterically, lunging toward the robot.
"Off! Off my sofa! Go away! Get... Get out! Out of here!"

Seeing the chubby captain chase the little machine was almost comical. Willow couldn't suppress a soft giggle.

"That's BD-1. He's with us," Cal explained as the robot ran back to him.

"I don't care who he's with! Do you have any idea how hard it is to get oil stains out of potolli-weave fabric?!"

"Not really," the younger one responded dryly, making the witch bite her lip to hide her grin.

"I hope you found something better our there than this droid!" Greez continued to grumble. Ah, Willow thought, so it's a droid.

"Oh, calm down, Greez. He did. Tell us, Cal," Cere said, as Cal sat on the steps toward the kitchen.
They had noticed Willow's presence now, and both Cal and Cere gave her a slight smile. She returned it shyly but didn't move from the door frame.

"The Vault was built by an ancient civilization called the Zeffo. A Jedi named Eno Cordova hid something inside of it," the redhead began to explain.

"What did he hide inside?"
Though Cere asked, she seemed to already know the answer.

"A Holocron from the archives. It contains a list of Force-sensitive children."
Willow raised her eyebrows. Force-sensitive children? What does that mean?

"The next generation of Jedi, I knew it! Oh Cordova, you old fool," Cere said. Jedi, Willow heard this term for the second time in a short period. She was sure there would be more unfamiliar terms, so she mentally noted them down: Holocron, Jedi, and Force-sensitive.

"You knew him?" Cal asked, looking at Cere.

"Yes! A long time ago. I was his apprentice. Cordova was a loner. That little droid and I are probably the only ones that know about Bogano."

"Hold on! Wait a minute, wait a minute. A Holo-what?" Greez interjected.
And Willow couldn't be more relieved that she wasn't the only one clueless about that thing.

"Holocron! It stores information, but only accessible to Jedi. Hang on, I think I have one around here."

Cere went into the kitchen, followed by Greez and Cal. She grabbed a bluish glowing cube. It was quite pretty, Willow thought. But it reminded her more of a decorative item.

"Use the Force."
With that, Cere handed the cube to Cal and sat at the large dining table.

Cal let the cube rest on his open hand, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.

Willow watched him for a moment, noticing how strands of his smooth hair fell over his forehead. The two scars on his freckled face were unmistakable, even from her distance. Both on the right side of his face, one along the bridge of his nose and a larger one on his neck stretching to his cheekbone.
She had to admit that he was a handsome guy, even with his scars.

She blinked once to bring herself back to the present. If Willow didn't know better, she'd say the cube now floated and opened as if by magic.
From the cube appeared the image of a man, like in a video recording. Only it wasn't black-and-white or color. The man's image was bluish and interrupted by irregular stripes. What was this? How did it work?

"This is Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. I regret to report that both our Jedi Order and the Republic have fallen."
With that, the recording ended, and the cube closed and fell back into Cal's outstretched hand.
An Order and the Republic have fallen? Willow understood that the crew's motivation must stem from political reasons. But she lacked the whole picture.

"With that list of Force-sensitives, we could rebuild the Jedi Order and defeat the Empire."
The hope in Cere's voice was impossible to ignore.

"Okay, no problem! Let's get it."
The pilot was already stomping off to the front of the Mantis.

"Well, except the Holocron is hidden deep inside the Vault, and to get it we have to follow Cordova's path. He mentioned something about the planet Dathomir and a Zeffo homeworld."
Greez froze mid-step before turning back to Cal.

"Well, where are we going? I'm just asking 'cause I was thinking of maybe making some food."
Greez rubbed his belly with his four hands.

"Look, before we do anything... I need to know something," Cal sat down at the table opposite Cere. "How come you are no longer a Jedi?"

Cere seemed a bit taken aback by his directness, though not surprised by his question.
"I had an experience that... changed my perspective. So I cut myself off from the Force."

"But you wanna rebuild the Order?"

"I believe that rebuilding the Order is the best chance we have against the Empire. What do you believe?"
Skillfully, she turned the question back to him.

"I believe I can't keep hiding from the Empire, so I don't really have a choice."
Hide? What had happened?

"Cal, as long as you are alive, you will always have a choice. Are you with us?"
Cere looked at Cal expectantly.

He glanced at his droid before nodding.
"We're in."

"Beep-Boop!" came from the said droid, BD-1.

"Dathomir or Zeffo? It's your choice."
Greez looked at his young teammate encouragingly.

Cal rose from his seat and marched towards the table-like thing that Willow couldn't identify earlier. Now, at least, she would see what it could do. She followed him at a respectful distance to peek over his shoulder.

The young man pressed a few buttons, and the image of several planets appeared above the table. Willow raised her eyebrows in surprise. Her curiosity got the better of her, and she joined Cal at the table.

He noticed her amazed expression and let a small smile escape his lips.
"I guess you don't have something like this on Earth?"

Willow just shook her head, too fascinated to respond properly.

"This is a holo table," Cal explained to her. "It projects a map of the planets in the form of a hologram, from which we then choose our next destination."
The girl was so focused that she didn't notice Cal never took his eyes off her during his explanation.
"Oh, like the Holocron, right? The way the image appears, I mean."

Only when she looked at him due to his silence did his eyes focus solely on the table in front of them. He just nodded, and in the dim light, Willow didn't notice that the redhead was slightly blushing.
Without another word, Cal chose a planet that looked quite similar to Earth. However, since she couldn't read the script, she didn't know which planet he had chosen.

"So, where are we going?" she asked him. His slightly raised eyebrows suggested him not quite following.
"Uh, you know... I know a completely different alphabet. I have no clue what it says," she mumbled, feeling herself becoming embarrassed again.
Get a grip, Willow! You can't blush at every good-looking guy you meet.
She prayed he wouldn't notice her rosy cheeks.

Cal let out a light laugh.
"Oh, sorry, I didn't think of that. We're heading to Zeffo."
Willow nodded, smiling, and caught herself wishing to hear his laughter at least once more.
Disturbed by her own thoughts, she broke eye contact and shook her head slightly. Cal, meanwhile, was already moving towards the cockpit.
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