Chapter 21: Moderately Controlled Chaos

Summary: Dealing with the new arrivals!

Chapter 21: Moderately Controlled Chaos

For long heartbeats, Izuku's brain utterly refused to process the latest bit of bullshit. He'd dealt with way too much of it in the past few months, and quite a bit of it in the past hour. His brain just stubbornly balked at processing anything more for long moments. Moments in which the impossibility that was Mei seemed completely content to just hug him to her boobs with the familiar absurd strength her small frame hid. Then, Master Fay cleared her throat and spoke in a very dry deadpan, causing Izuku's brain to reboot.

"While I can see why one might enjoy your current position, Izuku, it might be a good idea to introduce this person you apparently know. Who, as you might possibly have noticed, just fell out of a crack in space that appears to have now vanished. Also, if this is a thing that's going to happen around you, I would very much like a warning next time."

Face abruptly flaming, Izuku was nevertheless gentle as he sat up and pried Mei off of him. She went with a little reluctance, and only shifted so far as to cling to his arm instead of his entire self, but she did shift. There was an instant of internal debate as he tried to prioritize who to ask what first, but the choice was made quickly out of disbelief.

"Mei, how are you here? Why are you here? Not that I'm not happy to see you, but…did they figure out that man's Quirk or something?"

Mei huffed, finally letting go of him. Seemingly reminded of the situation, she looked around, promptly ignored everyone but Izuku, and pulled a tablet out to start fiddling with it. She did answer him, though.

"They didn't figure out anything. I figured out what had happened to you after everyone else gave you up for dead! I was still getting readings for the quantum-entanglement datafeed on your gear, even if they were intermittent…and I eventually figured out what that meant! I couldn't bring you back, but I could go to you! So here I am!"

That…took a minute for Izuku to process. When he did, he closed his eyes and sighed, already suspecting he knew the answer.

"Mei? Can you go back?"

She froze for a long moment in her tapping away at the tablet, then unfrozen and continued. Her voice was firm but soft as she admitted the truth.

"No. It was a one-way trip and I wasn't even sure it would work. There was no way to get more Quantum-entangled particles, after all. You know Miracle Girl lost her Quirk during the war."

Izuku winced at that. Quite a few people had lost Quirks bringing the unholy Shigaraki-All for One hybrid down. Momo had been one of them, though at least she'd had a massive multi-national conglomerate to fall back on when the loss of her Quirk ended her hero career early. He was the one to hug Mei this time, gently asking the next question.

"How risky was this Mei? I'm happy to see you. But you shouldn't have risked your life to come."

Mei shrugged, refusing to look at him.

"I literally have no idea, Muscles. I barely understand what I did. And…there wasn't anyone left for me. You know that."

Izuku sighed, squeezing her tight before letting her go. He did know that. Mei didn't have the easiest time connecting to people and had no family left. Having unintentionally abandoned her, as basically her only friend, was one of the things that had eaten away at Izuku in the past months. Along with abandoning his mother, even if they had been on less than cordial terms after she tried to stop him from being a hero. Fay had helped him deal with some of it, but this was opening the wounds back up again…even if it also soothed one of them. Mei was here now, after all.

"Well, at least I'm pretty sure you'll love it here. They have spaceships Mei, and a Republic of thousands of worlds they regularly travel between. Heck, I own a spaceship!"

Mei's eyes widened, even as her eyes darted around, landing on his and Aayla's ship that was not-to-far away. She looked like she'd zoom off, until he caught her shoulder and shifted her around to face the others. Aayla had apparently woken up at some point and was looking confusedly between the two of them. Thankfully, she was radiating curiosity, not jealousy.

"Everyone, this is an old friend of mine, Mei Hatsume. Who apparently didn't take me vanishing into a crack in reality well and built her own crack in reality to follow me, even knowing it was a one-way trip." That got some blinks and surprised expressions. He smiled wryly, they would get used to Mei's chaos eventually, hopefully. "Mei, from left to right is Jedi Master Fay, Jedi Padawan Aayla Secura, and Jedi Master Ood Bnar. You popped up in the middle of some chaos. Which is why there is an unconscious woman over there whose name we don't know. Speaking of which, maybe we should deal with that?"

Master Fay shook her head, speaking up before the others could.

"No, her mind is a mess and I put her into a deep healing trance. It will be hours before she wakes, at least. We can spare the time to meet your friend, as well as make sure the remains of the talisman are secured." Her attention shifted to Mei, her Force presence sending soothing waves that actually seemed to calm Mei's excitement a bit. He was going to have to learn that trick. "And greetings, Mei Hatsume. It is a pleasure to meet any friend of Izuku's. Indeed, he has mentioned you to me more than once."

Mei looked surprised but pleased at that, even as everyone else stood in silence for an awkward moment. Then, Aayla clapped her hands.

"Well, Master Bnar? You said you needed to get that thing secured. Why don't you do that, while the rest of us set out some lunch? This has been an eventful day already and it's only half over! I'm starving after whatever it was I did to defeat the evil necklace, too!"

Her cheerful phrasing got a weak chuckle or two, but everyone quickly agreed with the course of action…

... ...

Izuku suspected that the only reason he'd been able to pry Mei away from the ship was that she wasn't willing to let him out of her sight just yet. That was fine, as he didn't particularly want her out of his yet either, still having a hard time accepting that she was actually there, after months of believing he'd never see anyone from home again. That said, he was also grateful that she was getting along reasonably well with Aayla. Despite being slightly overwhelmed by Mei's bombardment of technical questions, Aayla had seemed more amused by the pinkette's energy and curiosity than anything. She also didn't seem to take Mei's constant touching of Izuku to reassure herself he was real wrongly. Izuku had no idea why. They hadn't exactly properly sorted out their relationship since Aayla had gotten her belt off and Fay had suckered them both into her version of therapy. For the moment, however, he was simply happy to let that whole bundle of complications rest, since Aayla didn't seem to be reacting badly.

After all, there were enough other issues to sort out as it was.

Mei is her own special brand of chaos, of course, but it was a brand easily derailed at the moment by letting her poke through the changes that astromech droids made to his heroics gear. She'd spent a few minutes explaining what she'd done to get there first, of course, after Izuku himself had explained his own situation to Bnar, who hadn't been told the full details yet. The truth was, however, that only Ood Bnar was an academic among them, and his primary field of specialization was the Force. He was able to follow at least a little of what Mei described, even filled in a blank or two where she'd had to guess, much to Mei's delight. But, ultimately, even he couldn't really fully follow the reality of what she'd done. Nor, it had to be said, was there a whole lot of point in trying. Mei was here now, she didn't seem to have done any damage to the local reality, and…that was pretty much that.

It was their other guest that was the topic of conversation for the moment, as they ate in the lounge of Izuku and Aayla's ship. Ood Bnar surprised them by leading with a statement that threw the rest of them for a loop. The Wandering Fate had by far the best medical equipment available to them, so their other new 'arrival' had been left in the care of their medical droid for the time being.

"I know who the young woman is. Or at least who she was. She's a native of Ossus, one of the younger Jedi that got out during the evacuation of the planet. Celeste Morne was her name, quite a promising talent if I recall correctly. What happened to her after that, however, I obviously can't say."

Fay shook her head when they all looked to her.

"That's not a name I know. If she is recorded in the order's histories, it is not a story I'm familiar with. What of the 'evil necklace,' as Aayla so aptly named it?"

Odd Bnar chuckled, even as Aayla flushed with embarrassment at the amusement on both Jedi Master's faces. He did turn serious a moment later, however.

"A terrible artifact. One that had been lost long before the fall of the Great Library and a subject of much squabbling between Sith even before it went missing. We did a great service to the Force by ridding the galaxy of the vile thing. It was called the Muur Talisman and was the origin of the Rakghoul Plague."

Fay stiffened at that, but Izuku and Aayla remained confused. Seeing this, Master Fay grimaced and explained.

"The Rakghoul Plague is something still studied by Jedi Healers when they are taught the methods needed to recognize and purify Darkside inflicted wounds. It's a bit of an esoteric field now, but was still actively taught when I myself was a padawan and took the course on Force Healing. The plague was one made in part by Sith Alchemy, and it transformed those infected by it into ravenous monsters called Rakghouls. Creatures who could, in turn, spread the disease. The plague was eventually wiped out when an inoculation against it was created. Though, due to events of the time, it took several hundred years to cleanse Taris of them, officially making them extinct."

Ood Bnar smiled, visibly pleased about that bit of information.

"A good ending, then. And a better one yet as the Muur Tailsman was the only known way to create more. Our destruction of it today makes it extremely unlikely they will ever return. As I said, a very good thing. Though what it means regarding Miss Morne, I have no idea. She clearly attempted to divest herself of it the moment she could."

Izuku frowned, hesitated, then tentatively spoke up.

"I have an idea about that, if we want more information before we wake her? The odd psychometry my, apparently equally odd, connection to the Force gives me might allow me to learn more. It was originally blocked by the oubliette. But with that now open…"

There were considering looks around the table at that. Aayla didn't seem to like the idea, but the older two Jedi Masters were clearly more willing to consider it. Master Bnar eventually rumbled out an opinion.

"We cannot know what effect the talisman may have had on her, or how willing she was a participant. It would be the path of wisdom to attempt to determine that before she wakes. The use of Force Light should prevent any undue affect on you, young Izuku. But you may see any number of unpleasant things, if you can see anything at all from so old an event."

Izuku nodded and stood, having already finished his food.

"Might as well get it out of the way. And I'm sadly familiar with witnessing unpleasant events."

Aayla grumbled but didn't actually protest as they all returned to the stasis device. Mei was left behind for the moment, too lost in her tinkering to even notice when they went back outside. Once there, the two Jedi Masters both summoned globes of Force Light as Izuku touched the inside of the oubliette, taking a deep breath and letting the Force and its babble of information in. He was quick to narrow that stream of information down to just the oubliette…and the scene that came through the moment he did was vivid, as if it had been repeated a thousand times a thousand times. And, as Izuku watched it play out, his heart broke a bit as he realized that was because it probably had repeated like that. It was just a few minutes of time, leading up to Celeste being sealed in the device. He took in all the details he could, then broke contact with a shudder.

"T-that was unpleasant. Though more the emotions attached than anything. Morne had been possessed by the Talisman but managed to overcome the possession. She begged another man, who she called Zayne, to kill her to eliminate its threat. Instead, he sealed her into the oubliette, apparently intending to seek help. I suppose he must have failed to get that help, leaving her trapped."

There were grimaces on all four of their faces, but it was Fay who eventually spoke up to break the silence.

"That is a good sign then, at least. Combined with her rejection of the talisman the instant she awoke, we can at least expect her to not have been a willing participant. What her mental state will be like is another issue."

Aayla shook her head and half-smiled at that.

"Another victim for your brand of therapy then, Master."

Fay's own smile was wry as she shook her head.

"I admit, I had not expected to spend my year providing therapy for such incredibly odd cases, my dear. I do not begrudge it for a moment, however. Indeed, in a way it is quite refreshing to help so directly instead of mediating trade disputes or settling wars. It is certainly a different sort of adventure. I will help Miss Morne as much as I am able, once she awakes."

That was, for the moment, that. The group broke up, with Aayla going with Master Fay to talk through one of her own ongoing therapy sessions, while they awaited their new guest's awakening. Ood Bnar mentioned he would like to speak with Izuku when there was time, but let him return to Mei for the moment. She would need to get settled in and adjust to her new reality. Particularly as she didn't even speak Basic. Only the fact that all three of the Jedi could use the Force to comprehend other languages and make themselves understood in turn had prevented that from being an issue so far…