[Third Person]
The laughter in the Naboo control room had barely begun to die down. Kaelen and Padmé were watching a replay of the video, delighting in the exact moment the holographic Ewok choir appeared. Even Captain Typho, a man who hadn't smiled since childhood, had a slight curve to his lips.
Suddenly, the air in the center of the room rippled. With a cheerful pop! and a cascade of pink and silver sparks, a portal opened. It was such a brilliant fuchsia that it lit up the entire room.
Out of the portal stepped Rick Sanchez.
His face was red with anger. His lab coat was slightly singed. And in his hair, there was a piece of star-shaped confetti.
He strode in, stepping out of the offensively cheerful portal, and pointed a trembling finger directly at Kaelen.
"YOU!" he roared, his voice echoing through the room. "Little genetic anomaly with a hero complex! I know it was you!"
Kaelen slowly stood, adopting an expression of bewildered innocence. "Rick! What a pleasant surprise! New portal color? That's a bold choice. Very... vibrant. It suits you. It brings out the blue in your... hair."
"DON'T YOU DARE GET SMART WITH ME!" Rick shrieked, advancing on him. "My portal gun now sounds like a unicorn sneezing glitter! I had to go through a dimension of talking kittens giving self-love advice to get here! One of them tried to read me a poem! It was humiliating!"
Padmé approached, her face a mask of perfect, serene concern. "Rick, what has happened? Is your equipment faulty? How terrible. Perhaps Kaelen could take a look at it after we finish planning the war. He's very good at fixing things, isn't he, darling?"
She shot Kaelen a look filled with feigned sympathy and a glint of triumph.
"HE'S THE ONE WHO BROKE IT!" Rick insisted, exasperated by Padmé's calm. "This is his handwriting! The passive-aggressive manipulation, the direct attack on my aesthetics! It's a Kaelen tactic!"
"Me?" Kaelen said, bringing a hand to his chest in a gesture of offense. "Rick, I'm wounded. After all we've been through. I would never do such a thing. It probably just needs a recalibration. Or perhaps," he added, "it's a sign from the universe that you need a little more joy and color in your life."
Rick was on the verge of exploding. His genius pride prevented him from admitting he couldn't immediately revert the change, and the couple's facade of innocence was driving him mad. He was trapped in a pink nightmare.
"WHEN I FIND OUT HOW YOU DID IT...!" he began to shout.
But his threat was interrupted by an urgent alarm from the main console. A hologram of an Anakin fleet communications officer appeared in the center of the table.
"General Skywalker for Director Ror!" the officer said, his voice urgent. "We have a problem!"
Anakin's face replaced the officer's. He looked tired and was in the middle of a bustling bridge. "Kaelen, Rick. Bad news. One of Commander Rick's probes, the one that escaped, has located something. Not us. The Republic fleet."
"What has it located?" Kaelen asked, his humor instantly gone, replaced by total seriousness.
"One of our main resupply and repair stations near the Sullust system. 'Refuge Station'," Anakin replied. "That rogue Rick's fighter is headed straight for it. It's a civilian station with over fifty thousand souls on board, plus three Venator cruisers undergoing repairs. If he destroys it..."
The implication was clear. Commander Rick, unable to find Kaelen, had decided to hurt him another way: by attacking his new allies.
Rick stopped thinking about his portal gun. His rage was replaced by cold calculation. He looked at Kaelen, and both understood. Their cat-and-mouse game had just gained consequences.
"That son of a bitch," Rick muttered.
He turned to Kaelen, the humiliation forgotten for the moment. "This isn't over, kid. When we save your stupid fleet, I'm going to reprogram your metal arm to slap you every time you try to be smart."
"Deal," Kaelen replied. "But first, we have to stop your angrier, better-armed counterpart."
He looked at Rick holding his pink portal gun. "And you're going to have to take us."
Rick looked at his weapon, then at Kaelen, and let out a grunt of pure frustration. "Great! We're going to save the galaxy through a portal that sounds like a laughing fairy! Couldn't be more humiliating!"
He pulled the trigger. A brilliant pink portal with silver sparkles opened in the middle of the strategy room. On the other side, the chaos of Anakin's bridge could be seen.
The truce was forced, the situation desperate, and their only means of transportation was ridiculously adorable. War had returned, and it promised to be very, very strange.