Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

        Suspicious distress signal that matches the one the Jedi Order apparently used over 2000 years ago? Present.

        Anakin, Obi Wan, and Ahsoka on a team that plans to head into what might be a Separatist trap? Also present.

        And that’s everything you need for the Mortis event to happen, you’re pretty sure. Everything from one heavily armed Resolute with the Guardian as support down the fact that only three Jedi are to be the ones heading into the trap at first. And even with you here, it’s not like you’re instructed to do more than what the assignment mandates for you to do, which is mostly just allowing there to be smooth and easy communication in the case of disruption.

        The only issue now is… Where are the three, currently? They should have arrived at the meeting point at the same time as you arrived, but they aren’t here.

“Any sign of them?” you ask towards the trooper in charge of the onboard scanners.

“No, sir,” he answers back, turning to look towards you before turning back to the screen. “There’s absolutely no sign of them anywhere.”

        Strange, would be what you’d consider this situation to be, but you already know to expect any number of questionable happenings ever since you slipped into hyperspace towards this location. Because of that, it’s easy to come up with a plethora of reasons as to why the three are currently missing.

“They should be here by now,” Talon mumbles at your side, glancing up from the comm table, which holds a small image of Rex standing aboard the Resolute and waiting for his General to appear on the scans.

        You’re quite certain that he must be worried even though he’s turned away from you speaking to someone else.

“What do you think is happening?” Talon asks of you, and you catch a warning floating by your senses.

        Something is going to happen.

“I don’t know,” is your answer, eyes wandering the sight of Rex. In your mind and into the Force, you voice your hopes of nothing actually going horribly wrong. “But I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.”

        And seconds pass like a beat of silence written into a script of what’s to come— expected yet nerve-racking all the same.

        An image appears, finally, and you see Anakin’s seated holographic image finally there with Rex’s figure on top of the commtable.

“Rex. Rex, do you read me?” Anakin’s voice speaks out. “[Y/n]? Are you there?”

“I’m here,” you say, earning the sight of Anakin relaxing his shoulders just slightly. “Where are you? There’s no sign of you anywhere near us and we’re already at the rendezvous point.”

“What? You’re at the rendezvous point?” Anakin questions, leaning forward to stare at what you assume is a small version of you aboard their ship. “That’s impossible.”

“General [l/n] is right,” Rex cuts in. “We're at the rendezvous point and there's no sign of you on our scanners.”

        You can see the way Anakin turns to the side, possibly meaning that he’s speaking to someone else when he says, “something's wrong. We're at the exact coordinates where the distress signal originated, but there's nothing here.”

        He leans to the side to double check the coordinates they’ve arrived at, probably. “Rex and [y/n] are at the exact same coordinates, and they’re not here.”

        Someone must be responding to Anakin, because you can see the way the man grimaces with unamusement. 

        But then, the image of him begins to flicker. Talon, you notice, hums with dissatisfaction while you turn to another trooper nearby to say, “the transmission is being lost. Any way to stabilize the connection?”

“Attempting to do just that, sir,” he answers quickly, having already begun tapping away at the buttons in front of him.

“We’re unable to find you,” Rex says, his image not flickering at all. Judging by the way his brows furrow, he must see the way Anakin begins to blip out of sight as well. “Where are you, sir?”

        A heartbeat passes, and then, Anakin’s image is gone.

“Sir?” Rex calls out uselessly. He’s clearly being met with silence as what follows is, “General Skywalker? General Skywalker?”

“The transmission has been lost, sir,” calls a voice from nearby, and looking up, you see one of your own shaking his head towards you. “Something has happened on their end, it looks like.”

        And so it all begins with this abruptly cut connection and the sensation of something awkwardly trying to grab at you. That’s Anakin, you realise, but it seems far more clumsy than usual… Which is weird considering how much practice Anakin has had in reaching out with clear intentions of getting the connection going.

“I'll be back in a moment,” you warn carefully, glancing towards Talon.

        When his brown eyes meet yours, head nodding without hesitating for a single second, you’re free to close your eyes to let the connection become complete. It winds around you far more tightly and fuller than usual, meaning Anakin wants you fully there rather than just your voice, and so you let the feeling of more than his voice fall over your shoulders too.

        In the darkness behind your eyes, you feel a warmth— but it’s not any sort of warmth from Anakin.

        From deep within your memories, you feel a familiar sensation wash over you, but…

        …

        But— 

        Something within you quivers, driving a wedge into the darkness and your eyes blink open with less choice on your part and more force from something else.

        You’re blinded the first moment you open your eyes before a luscious green bleeds out from the bright light of a sun shining down from above. The Force feels so vividly here, all around you, as if everything about this place was practically made of it down to the smallest part. In front of you, there are mountains and floating rocks and life— The life, it… it fills you so deeply that—

“[Y/n]!”

        That feeling disappears, leaving behind traces of something you don’t really understand.

        You turn to see not the bridge of the Guardian, but Anakin waving towards you instead. With him are Obi Wan and Ahsoka, and judging by the way they’re not that far from having left the ship that you remember them using now docked several metres from you, they’d only recently landed. 

        And that is surprising because it hasn’t even been more than a few seconds since you’d lost contact with them. Is this a sign of time moving differently? Was this how quickly time moved in the canon events?

“I can’t see past you this time,” Anakin notes, eyes wandering all around your figure as he searches for some hint of the Guardian that should be around you to clash with the general nature-y surroundings around you right now, as there should be in cases like this connection right now.

        But, even as you look too, you see nothing of the sort. 

        You nod, still a bit befuddled by the sensations that creep up into the spaces in the back of your mind. “I can’t either. I just see… all of this.”

        You gesture out around you, eyes finally and fully taking in the fact that you’re completely surrounded by the lush environment of Mortis. That feeling of warmth returns and something in you seems to like the look of this place, strangely enough.

“You don’t happen to know where this place is,” Obi Wan’s voice begins from behind you, “do you, [y/n]?”

        You know this place, that’s for sure, but the strange thing is that it feels like a part of you recognizes this place as something more than just a place that you technically know. But why… 

“I don’t know,” is your carefully constructed answer as you find that the sights before you start to grow even more… enchanting, in some way. “I don’t know this place.”

        Something entrances your attention so much that you don’t even turn your eyes back towards Obi Wan. Instead, you take a step forward, allowing more of the world to fill your gaze and the air to fill your entire being. That part of you that finds familiarity in this foreign landscape feels… 

“But it’s beautiful, this place,” is what you find yourself saying.

        Surrounded by so much, some part of you whispers…

        …

        It… it whispers “home” back to you?

“Yeah, ‘beautiful,’” agrees a voice, and when a different kind of warmth seems to drift by you, you seem to snap out of it for long enough to finally turn back to the trio.

        It’s Ahsoka that you see first, eyeing Anakin with a questioning look, and when you turn to the man yourself, you see that his eyes are on you, not the landscape. The same can be said about Obi Wan, when your eyes flicker towards him.

“Well, don’t take my word for it,” you say, smiling at the eyes that look to you for an opinion rather than find their own, maybe. “This place, it’s…”

        You don’t know what to call it. “Home” is what part of it feels like, but that’s not the complete picture. Especially not when it’s accompanied by the odd feeling that this “home” thing isn’t exactly your own. No matter how long your eyes rake over the landscape, the only feeling you earn is the feeling that the right answer is barely balancing on the tip of your tongue, leaving you barely toeing the line between grasping it and losing it forever.

        It’s a bit frustrating.

“What the… What?” Anakin asks aloud just as—

        The scales… the pair that make up the neutrality in you… Suddenly, it feels as though it tips very slightly towards the side of the warmth.

“Did you hear that?” is what Anakin asks aloud from behind you.

“I didn’t hear anything,” is how Obi Wan answers aloud from behind you.

        You have no time to turn around and check up on them because something that feels like a breeze runs by your face without unsettling anything in its wake. The only thing that is pulled is your attention, guided towards the side, and… 

“Soon, but not yet.”

        A honey sweet feminine voice echoes in your head and you see a kind face framed with billowing green hair for a split second and only a split second because— 

        A blink of darkness— You’re blinking.

        When you open your eyes again, the first sensation that you can identify is your body swaying before something catches you. The colour of grey fills your vision above you and a face appears from your side wearing deep concern.

“You alright there, General?” Talon asks you, helping you onto your feet and not at all troubled by the fact that you blinked out for as long as you did. “You were only out for a second. Don’t tell me something happened?”

        … 

        “Only out for a second,” he said, but that moment felt like many whole minutes.

        So, time really does move differently over there…?

“I don’t know,” you answer truthfully only because you really don’t know what’s happening. Something good, you can only hope. “But let’s remain on standby and see what happens. I’m sure they’ll show again soon enough.”

        Rex, with his image still standing atop the commtable, nods in agreement.

        If time passed differently over there compared to here, will you still need to wait hours, or will only minutes pass? Maybe even only a few seconds will be what passes.

        Something suddenly pops up in your mind like a bygone memory reawakening. You find that you can remember that familiar warmth and the memory that’s triggered at the same time is a faraway one. There was a warmth, you remember, that accompanied that moment when you first arrived here behind the darkness of your sleeping eyes. And in Mortis, there was that same feeling of warmth— The exact feeling mimicked by the sun above you that was also accompanied by the feeling of “home.”

        Both of which are sensations that are unmistakable. 

        But… why would Mortis feel like that? Like “home,” in some way? Mortis isn’t home at all, you know that, so you noticing the foreignness of that “home-y feeling” was no mistake. Could that mean that you’re truly connected to the Ones. Maybe you’re even connected to Mortis itself, too, seeing as you find the place so strangely familiar? Much like that first possibility, something not-so personal could be tying you to that place. That’s especially likely since that feeling wasn’t your own sense of familiarity, but of someone else’s, in a way. 

        Meaning… you must have some sort of connection to Mortis through someone or something else, but what or who? The pair of presences that seem to be haunting you all the time? For any specific answers, you might just need to wait for those three to return and ask them about what they’d found— if they’ll be able to find anything, that is— whenever they’re slated to return. Perhaps they’ll even have some time in that strange world to go searching for some answers for you.

        Or perhaps not. After all, what are the chances that they’ll even know what to look for?

        You sigh, returning your thoughts and attention to the present once your thoughts inevitably reach that accursed dead end again. 

“Captain Rex, please continue searching for them on your end,” you declare as your order towards the current highest ranking officer of the 501st. As the only Jedi General available at that present time, you need to make sure things don’t fall apart here, or something. “We’ll also be doing the same here.”

“Yes sir.”

        Regardless of what’s to come, your role is to watch and wait, just as it’s always been.

Obi Wan's POV

“And, what exactly are you?” Obi Wan asks, chiming in on the current situation that allows for some questions to be asked.

        When the woman appeared, it was [y/n] who seemed to notice them first— beyond Anakin’s supposed notice of her by… sound— but when they all looked away from [y/n] to see what had caught their attention, turning to see a green haired woman, the spot where [y/n] had been suddenly became empty. For some odd reason, once this woman appeared, [y/n] disappeared themself.

        And, from what Obi Wan remembers— and he’s certain that Anakin must also realise this— is that strangely enough, this woman greatly resembles the woman he’d seen on [y/n]’s holoimage of a mural. A wavy green haired woman… Yes, to say “resemblance” may be an understatement because she looks exactly like the woman in the mural did.

“We are the Ones who guard the power,” the woman, named the Daughter, answers all too simply. “We are the middle, the beginning, and the end.”

“Glad she cleared that up for us,” Anakin mumbles, not exercising much caution in the way of keeping his voice down, but Obi Wan bites back the lecture that’s already forming within his head.

        Because there’s something else afoot, and at the moment, the only way to find the answer is to ask the only person who might have some sort of answer. Even if the answers that Obi Wan will be given in return will be poetic and hard to understand or otherwise, he still must try his luck with this strange green haired woman.

“You must have seen the other one with us,” Obi Wan begins, noting the way the woman barely flinches or reacts, “could it be possible that you… that you knew them?”

        Obi Wan can see that Anakin just barely turns towards him with a furrowed brow and a deep frown, possibly meaning that the thought suddenly strikes him too, while Ahsoka simply looks on with confusion. Truthfully, Obi Wan doesn’t blame Anakin for not noticing before him. After all, the only reason why he even asks this question is because he was watching [y/n] more so than anything else, and what he’d seen made it a possibility that something tied this strange woman to [y/n] even if one didn’t consider the mural.

        He knows from all of his years with [y/n] that all their movements and actions always seemed to have some sort of end destination to them. There is little that they do that seems… random or not at all in accordance to some path that [y/n] seems to know without trying too hard.

        But what happened back there… Turning to the side just as the strange green haired woman appeared was something that seemed beyond [y/n]’s expectations.

“They are the Other,” the woman answers without turning around and without much of a clue as to what she may be feeling beyond her mask-like expression. “They are the middle without a beginning or an end.”

“Wait,” Ahsoka says aloud, pausing for a moment to actually wait as if her mind needed some time to match up with the conversation. 

        Obi Wan glances over to see the young Togruta’s mouth parted with nothing more than silence slipping past her lips. Ahsoka mulls something over before she seems to settle on something.

“Does that mean [y/n] is like you?” Ahsoka asks. “You and the, uh, the Father?”

        That is a good question and Obi Wan directs his eyes towards the woman for some sign— any sign— because this kind of answer will lay some of [y/n]’s questions to rest, he thinks.

        And surprisingly, he sees the way she turns her head just enough to reveal her face barely turning around to glance at them. They still can’t see her face very well, much less her eyes, and she turns away completely soon enough.

“They are not,” she answers, pausing for a beat that almost makes it seem like she’ll reveal some sort of helpful answer. “They are the Other.”

        But she does not reveal anything of the sort, unfortunately, and Obi Wan does not know what to make of that.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Anakin questions, finally breaking past the thin, thin wall of interrogative patience, and Obi Wan has half a mind to pull back the young man like he did so often when Anakin was so much younger. “[Y/n] is an Other— whatever that means— but what does that make [y/n] for us? For you?”

        Unfortunately for the woman, Obi Wan also wants to know.

        He wants to know because the way [y/n]’s eyes wandered the landscape in silence… There had to be some sort of reason for that sort of expression, but without being able to contact them again, as it seems that there’s something intruding on his ability to connect with them, they must settle with what they can find out from this place alone, for now.

        The woman slows down, pausing to turn her ethereally beautiful face towards them. Everything about her is warm and welcoming, yet Obi Wan doesn’t feel welcomed in the slightest.

“[Y/n] [l/n] is the Other,” the woman declares clearly and without any question—

        And it’s strange that she knows [y/n]’s full name.

“— unlike you or I or any other being,” she continues before turning around and walking again with her hair and clothing billowing behind her. “Without a beginning and an end, they are the Other within the middle…”

        And that’s not helpful.

“… and they are our hope for what’s to come,” the woman adds in a voice just barely above a whisper. “Our wished champion.”

        Though that phrase poses more questions than answers, Obi Wan admits that that is helpful.

“[Y/n] is your champion for wh—”

        rrmmmbllll rrhhhhhmmmmm

        Anakin’s words are cut off at the sound of rumbling from above, and just as Obi Wan sees Anakin lunging forward to keep the Daughter from danger, Obi Wan makes sure to react without delay as well. Turning to his side to make sure that Ahsoka is out of the way as much as possible, firstly, he makes sure to follow behind her to get himself out of the wa— 

        Obi Wan feels his foot snag on an uneven surface and suddenly he’s falling. The world spins in his sights and it’s not until he feels weightless, just barely, that he realises that by some great stroke of luck, he’s managed to save himself from falling to his death with a single hand gripping to the edge of the cliff.

        A very close call, indeed.

Anakin's POV

        After such a close call, Anakin gets up from the ground without much issue. He’s used to rough landings like that, so even the slight ache of it all sinks away. But then he sees the strange woman on the ground and he remembers how hard he’d shoved her.

        So he reaches out to help her up and make sure she’s fine, but the moment his hand makes it even a breath too close to the woman, she turns around in a whirl with an expression practically blaring warning signals of displeasure.

“It is forbidden for you to touch me,” she booms at him in a strange and echoing way, and Anakin reels back due to it.

“Sorry,” Anakin makes sure to say first, holding his hands up to show that he’s clearly not going anywhere closer to her. He even makes sure to take a step back. “I was just saving your life.”

        But the woman doesn’t seem to care. Instead, her eyes lift to the high rising cliffs above them, clearly looking at something, but when Anakin directs his gaze upwards, he sees nothing. Or, well, he doesn’t think he sees anything of interest.

        So he directs his eyes back to her and tries not to think about how this woman looks oddly familiar to the one from [y/n]’s mural thing. As Anakin assumed earlier, there’s a great chance that this woman is related to [y/n], and based on her answers so far, there’s something seriously suspicious going on with this lady and [y/n].

        If only this lady would just tell him instead of dancing around with her answers.

“That was my brother’s work,” the Daughter whispers, but Anakin can’t really tell if she’s talking to herself or him.

        Then, she finally lowers her eyes to him. “You are in great danger.”

        And that’s just great.

“Wait for me,” she continues, clearly not looking for a response from him seeing as she turns away. “Do not leave this place.”

        And then she just begins to leave.

“Hey,” Anakin calls after her departing figure. “Wait!”

        chrr ri, comes a chirping commlink sound.

“Anakin, are you there?" Anakin hears Obi Wan’s distinct voice loud and clear and a bit of his worry melts away. “Are you alright?”

        Still, he can’t help but sigh. A cliff has collapsed, the weird lady leaves, and he still didn’t get a proper answer about [y/n]…

“Yeah,” he answers sarcastically before directing a glare to the Daughter’s back. “But our friend here has run off!”

        He wants her to hear his voice and turn around or react, but she doesn’t do any of that. All she does is continue walking without looking anywhere but forward as his lonely voice echoes through the air.

        “Just my luck,” Anakin grumbles in his head. Now, he’s starting to wish they’d just run into a Separatist trap. After all, a fight is so much easier to understand than whatever this has been.

“Go back to the ship and try sending another distress call,” Anakin advises Obi Wan and Ahsoka, considering the fact that his padawan isn’t with him. “I’ll follow her and find out how to get off this rock.”

“And if this is a trap?” Obi Wan wonders as he always does.

        The answer is obvious, isn’t it? Anakin wonders why Obi Wan ever needs to think about those kinds of things.

“Then I’m not going to wait around and find out,” Anakin answers smartly. Obviously, if there’s a trap, one shouldn’t sit and wait helplessly. 

“Anakin, stop! Wait for us to find another way around and meet you.”

        Anakin considers Obi Wan’s words for a moment, he truly does, but when he notices the Daughter slipping around a corner and out of sight… Well, his finger just so happens to disconnect the call.

        There’s nothing to be gained from waiting around to be caught in a trap, after all.

Ahsoka's POV

“Anakin?”

        Ahsoka watches Obi Wan shake his head, unamused with the clearly voluntary line disconnection.

“So reckless and impatient,” Obi Wan mumbles, crossing his arms over his chest.

        But Ahsoka knows better than to assume that Anakin will cause more trouble than good. Sometimes, yes, that’s what he does, but Ahsoka trusts Anakin and whatever plan he might have. 

        …

        If he has a plan, that is, and Ahsoka’s sure that he at least has a bit of a plan.

“He'll find her,” Ahsoka says, trying her best to reassure the man with her.

        Obi Wan looks pensive. “Yes, and what else?”

        She doesn’t like the sound of that.

        rmbmmmm bmmm, comes more sounds, and with a glance towards the sky, it looks like clouds are rolling in with a promise of a terrible time.

“Storm's coming,” Ahsoka notes, eyeing the very dark and foreboding clouds that seem to be brushing their way across the sky at a speed that’s more than just worrying.

        As if things couldn’t get worse…

        Obi Wan shares a glance with her before starting to make his way back down the path towards the direction they’d come from. Before Ahsoka follows after him, she glances her eyes towards the obstructed path with a bit of a worried feeling blossoming in her chest.

        Even so, she doesn’t send anything like a “good luck” towards that direction nor does she even do it in the confines of her mind. She knows Anakin and she knows how reliable he is, especially in a pinch. Beyond the fact that he’s the Chosen One, he’s her Master and she trusts him, so Ahsoka turns away from the fallen rock to keep in time with Obi Wan’s strides.

        …

        … … 

        Ahsoka knows that the situation calls for some care and caution, but the silence that passes along with the scenery that seems to turn redder and redder to signal something like autumn— which is weird— is a bit suffocating.

“So, Master Kenobi,” Ahsoka begins, noting the way the bearded human man turns to reveal a bit of his blue eyes to her, “how are you feeling about this place?”

“It is a rather odd place,” Obi Wan answers, turning his eyes away to gaze out towards the open air opposite to the cliff face. “Certainly no place to be losing one’s focus.”

        If that was supposed to be a teasing jab at Ahsoka’s wandering focus, then she identifies it and files it away for something a bit more interesting, in her opinion. If Ahsoka was standing still, she’d be rolling around on the balls of her feet.

“‘Odd,’ huh?” Ahsoka repeats, nodding in understanding. “I see.”

        She can also see Obi Wan looking towards her, most likely now focusing half on the path in front of him and half on her. “Is there something on your mind, young one?”

“No, nothing really,” Ahsoka answers. Her mind suggests for her to be respectful and to not continue speaking, but in the end, it’s her curiosity that wins out just barely. “I was just wondering if you thought of this place as being as beautiful as Master Skywalker thinks.”

        Obi Wan parts his lips, but he doesn’t say a word just yet. Instead, he turns to face forward with a bit of a ruffled edge to his Signature.

“I… suppose I do admit that this place is beautiful,” Obi Wan offers in a voice far softer than before.

        Huh.

“Why do you ask?” Obi Wan’s voice drifts through the air to her, but the man himself remains staring forward.

        Ahsoka purses her lips, glancing away as if the shrubbery that they’re passing by holds something more interesting than the current conversation does. It’s not more interesting, actually, but she doesn’t want to be directly facing the danger that’s to come with the next words she’s going to say.

“Oh, you know,” is how Ahsoka begins her answer, glancing at Obi Wan’s back warily and only for a second, “it’s just that I was wondering if you thought of this place as more beautiful than, let’s say, [y/n], you know? Like Master Skywalker does?”

        Because Ahsoka knows that she’s not stupid enough to not have seen whatever was happening before [y/n] disappeared from this place.

        Then, Obi Wan stops completely in his tracks. Seeing this, Ahsoka stops as well.

“What did you just say?” Obi Wan questions, turning with deeply furrowed brows. For a moment, he truly looks like he’s at a loss for words despite the fact that the thunderous expression remains. “Ahsoka, you—”

        RRMmmb bmmmmbbmm

        And there’s the thunder again.

“We should really get going, Master Kenobi!” Ahsoka chirps happily, knowing full well that the impending danger of a night supposedly too dangerous for them— according to the Daughter— will drive Obi Wan away from interrogating her any further. “We can’t be caught out here during the night with the storm approaching, right?”

        And when she sees Obi Wan’s face scrunching up with defeat, lips parted for a long and weary sigh, she allows the man some time to compose himself by way of a hand carding through his own hair.

“Fine. But I will have no more talk about any of that, understand, Ahsoka?” Obi Wan declares, eyeing her even as he continues walking forward.

        Ahsoka knows that when he says “that” in that way, he means her question about [y/n]. For the sake of avoiding a lecture and only for that reason, she makes sure to nod before promising, “I understand, Master.”

        Now safe, she makes a mental note to maybe talk to the men of the 501st. She’s noticed the way Anakin seems so close with [y/n], but she doesn’t know yet what the significance of all of that might be. Whatever it is, she knows that the way the two men seem to hold [y/n] to such high importance is something very interesting, especially for someone as curious as she… 

        And she is as curious as can be… 

“Good,” Obi Wan says simply, returning to full stride. “Then we must make haste.”

        Ahsoka smiles deviously once she’s safe behind Obi Wan’s back to do so. She’ll find out the meaning of those “beautiful”s even if it takes her years to figure it out… 

        The walk continues in silence because Ahsoka decides that it’s not exactly very helpful for her to continue pestering Obi Wan for answers when she’d just promised to stop talking about it. She can try her luck some other time, after all. And Anakin left them a mission to do too, which currently needs more of her attention.

        Yet, when they arrive at the spot where they’d left the ship, they find an open space instead. As the grass morphs to a dried and reddened state beneath their feet in tandem with the setting sun, there is nothing there that greets their return.

“The ship’s gone,” Ahsoka notes, looking around with deep confusion.

        What could have taken it? And in such little time?

“Yes, I see that,” Obi Wan agrees with a bit of a sarcastic tone, almost, and when Ahsoka glances over, she sees the older Jedi rubbing his beard while deep in thought.

“It was here, no question…” Ahsoka begins, gesturing to the strangely empty space as her eyes wander the area. 

        She ends up needing to take a second look at the flora after her eyes have swept over them in passing because something about them seems to be growing more and more off as the time moves forward. And she doesn’t just mean the colour change, either, because she can see how they shrivel into a concerningly grey colour before completely… withering away without leaving behind a single trace. Now, as the sun sets completely to plunge the world into a darkness with limited moonlight, Ahsoka finds herself agreeing with the Daughter about how night time is not a good time.

        And she hasn’t even seen whatever else “night time” might have in store… 

“And look,” she relays to Obi Wan, “everything's dying.”

        Obi Wan looks like he’s thinking, pondering the happenings and the circumstances they now find themselves embroiled in, but it doesn’t look like it’s—

“Did you lose something?”

        The sudden voice drives every alarm in Ahsoka’s head to ring out and the next thing she knows is that she’s crouched and ready to attack with a single green saber already ignited and humming in the tense silence.

“You didn't do as you were asked,” continues the… person. 

        A humanoid man, Ahsoka assumes, but considering the kind of being that the Daughter seemed to be, Ahsoka is hesitant in thinking that the truth might be as simple as that. The Daughter had called herself one of the “Ones who guard the power,” whatever that power might be, after all, so she’s probably not entirely normal or average. If they now find someone else in this strange place, how likely would it be for this person to be one of the “Ones” just like the Daughter?

        Probably very likely, Ahsoka figures.

“And what was that?” Obi Wan inquires calmly, and when Ahsoka glances over, she sees that he hasn’t drawn his saber yet. In fact, for a second, she can see that Obi Wan’s eyes are narrowed at the sight of this newly arrived person, almost as if he…

        …

        Recognises him?

        Nevertheless, Obi Wan’s always been the patient one with a preference for negotiations over aggressive ones. She doesn’t catch the sight of him glancing over at her with any sense of warning, in any case, so Ahsoka just maintains her attack stance.

        Just in case.

“My Sister said to wait,” he answers without answering much, really.

“Did she, now? Well, we were unfortunately separated,” Obi Wan explains, still walking the diplomacy route. “We'd like our ship back, if you don't mind.”

        Somehow, Ahsoka gets the feeling that just talking won’t get them their ship back.

“Not yet,” he says, and when he takes a half step forward, Ahsoka takes her own in return. Obi Wan seems to do the same, only for this person to begin clearing the distance between them and him with a few more steps.

        Ahsoka gets the feeling that this person wants something specific— 

“Is it true that he is the Chosen One?”

        Anakin. This person might want Anakin.

        The sound of two sabers being activated nearly at the same time fills the deathly silent air: Obi Wan’s and Ahsoka’s second. 

“What do you know of such things?” Obi Wan demands, and though Ahsoka doesn’t want to be as respectful as Obi Wan now that she knows that this person might want her Master, she supposes that being overly aggressive might also prove problematic.

        As Anakin is prone to showing her, time and time again.

        But the man is unfazed, neither by the lightsabers or Obi Wan’s pressing voice. 

“What is about to happen shall occur,” he tells them, “whether you like it or not.”

        He swipes his hand in front of him as if to dust something away, and in less than a heartbeat, Ahsoka watches as the saber in front of her deactivates, pulling back into the hilt. She doesn’t need to turn around and visually check her other saber to know that it’s been deactivated as well, and neither does she need to check whether Obi Wan’s blue saber has also been retracted either because she also knows.

“You are Sith,” Ahsoka hears Obi Wan declare, and trusting the old Jedi’s words, Ahsoka returns her eyes to the strange person and…

        … 

        Yeah, the guy looks like a Sith, alright. At least, compared to someone like Ventress. He definitely doesn’t have that kind of… “class” that someone like Dooku has, that’s for sure, but he still sure looks evil enough.

“‘Sith?’” the man repeats before chuckling with amusement. He even smiles as he does so, crossing his arms over his chest. “Yes… and no.”

        … 

        And what is that supposed to mean, anyway?

        Ahsoka turns to look towards Obi Wan, hoping that his years of experience over her own might help her understand what exactly this mysterious man means by that, but when Obi Wan turns to meet her gaze, she can see that he looks just as confused as she feels.

        Then, the maybe-Sith-maybe-not turns around while saying, “the storms here are quite lethal. If you want to live, I suggest you find shelter.”

        Even if they wanted to ask the man more questions about what he means and what he wants, he dashes off before leaping into the sky far higher than any average sentient can. Just as lightning flashes through the sky, momentarily blinding Ahsoka, her eyes refocus just in time to see that the man’s humanoid figure has transformed into a winged creature that looks kind of like a bat but not quite. He soars off into the sky, apparently unfazed by the supposedly lethal rain.

        Then again, he must live here so maybe he’s grown used to it, in a way? Still, that leaves the simple question of— 

“What in the universe was that?” she asks aloud, returning her deactivated sabers to her side. Again, she looks to Obi Wan for answers even though she’s starting to think that maybe he doesn’t actually have any. 

        And she must be right about that because Obi Wan doesn’t seem confident at all when he answers with, “I'm not quite sure.”

        They have no time to truly deliberate on the matter any further than that when a bolt of lightning meets with the ground near them as if to remind them of the fact that they need shelter. Ahsoka had assumed that when the man said that the storm was lethal, a part of her assumed that he was referring to the rain, or something. But with some drops already landing on her exposed arms, nothing insanely dangerous seems to register at all. It just feels and looks like regular rainwater.

        So it would appear that maybe the true danger is actually the non-sentient lightning apparently trying to smite them from the clouds high above them.

“Quick. There's a cave over there,” Obi Wan’s voice notes, and turning to see where his arm is gesturing to, Ahsoka sees exactly what he means.

        Neither of them remain in the rain for much longer than that once the cave is found and both silently opt to make a dash for it before one— or both— of them is killed by the raging storm slowly gaining strength.

Anakin's POV

        Things are going great.

        First, he loses the strange woman because apparently she can walk very fast and disappear too, based on the fact that when she turned a very specific corner, Anakin had lost her. It didn’t even take that long to lose her either because this happened only a few minutes after he’d split from Obi Wan and Ahsoka. But he kept on running down the most likely direction she must’ve taken anyway. After all, where else could he go but forward? He already promised to get answers from the weird woman.

        Then, something like a storm started erupting from the sky. The only good thing to come out of that is the fact that it isn’t raining. So, maybe for that, he’ll give his luck some credit. He’d hate to have to run through such a weird place while drenched after all.

        Even so, he’s never been quite so good at tracking things through the Force. At least, not good enough to be able to track wherever the woman must’ve gone. He still refuses to give up and turn back because to end his search for answers here would be a bad move on his part. He knows he can trust Obi Wan and Ahsoka to be able to handle themselves while he looks around on his end, so that’s what he’s going to continue to do.

        And if the woman is nowhere to be found, he can settle on the next biggest landmarker that he can see— A building or a monastery in the distance which seems to hold something like a glowing crystal at the highest point of the building in the sky. The glow of the crystal is only slightly surrounded by the storm clouds with lightning speckling the grey translucent body, so he can see it from nearly everywhere he stands, which is nice. Though, that doesn’t change the fact that it seems to be a far place to wander.

        Meaning, he might as well start picking up the pace to save time.

        A bolt of lightning crashes down next to his running body, and cursing under his breath, he darts about until he can find a decent place to duck his body into for a quick break. Which luckily enough, as if the Force really is smiling down on him, takes the form of a huge hole that he’s able to leap into just as more lightning crashes down all around the spot he’d just been standing on.

        Peeking out from the hole, he directs his gaze towards a building in the distance. 

        He still doesn’t really know what he’ll find in that building, if he’s going to be honest. He doesn’t even know if that place even has anything for him to find, let alone the woman or anything else with any answers. 

        Which is bad because answers are what he sorely needs right now.

        At some point during his run, he received another transmission from Obi Wan. This time, the connection proved to be really spotty, leading Anakin to think that they might not be night be able to contact each other very well or at all the next time they try, but that didn’t stop Obi Wan from reporting to him about what they’d learned from meeting one of the possible locals who might’ve even been a Sith, of some sort.

        Not that Anakin understands what that “Sith, of some sort” even means, but he at least knows that the maybe-Sith could turn into a beast. Based on what Obi Wan told him, it looks like there are people who want him for something. It probably has to do with his Chosen One stuff, Obi Wan theorized, but Anakin tries not to let that make his task of searching for answers any more daunting than it already is. Even if there’s a danger of being hunted, Anakin knows that they need answers and a way to get off this weird planet safe and sound.

        And if not answers, they can certainly make do with just their ship back. Anakin has no idea who could possibly have taken their ship and for what reason, but… 

“Whoever I'm looking for is in that monastery,” he mumbles to himself as if to remind himself that this moment of a journey is actually worth his energy and his splitting up from the other two.

        Once the lightning seems to let up a bit, he hauls himself out of the hole again. He just needs to keep moving because, along the way, he might even be able to figure some things out. And before things go wrong— not that he’s allowing himself to assume that things will go wrong even though things always go wrong— he continues at his fastest speed onwards.

        The lightning continues to rumble above him and he makes sure to keep a careful eye out for any possible shelters along the way should the lightning grow aggressive again. Although the day seemed to pass quickly, this stormy night seems to last much longer. Not that the time of day really matters to him, of course. There doesn’t seem to be much of a huge difference between night and day here, anyway.

        And Anakin is thankful for the lack of stuff throwing themselves in his way. He manages to remain dry and unharmed by the time he makes it to the stairs leading up to the mountain supporting monastery at its peak. The air continues to be rainless by the time he makes it to the next flight of stairs leading up to the entrance of the monastery.

        “Finally,” he thinks to himself with rushing steps, but by the time he actually makes it to the entrance doorway, he slows his steps.

        The light that shines through the doorway is unnervingly bright and Anakin gets an odd feeling about everything. He knows very well that odd feelings are never good, so maybe that’s why he decides to walk inside with caution instead of bolting inside and demanding answers from whoever or whatever might be there to greet him.

        He walks down a long and wide pathway built over a deep whole that doesn’t really have railings. It just has strange statues standing along the sides— things he doesn’t know the significance of— with accents of glowing neon blue just like the blue markings on the ground that he also doesn’t know the significance of.

        But, at the very least, there seems to be some humanoid person at the end of the long pathway sitting between two statues. The eyes of the statues almost seem to watch Anakin as he approaches, so he finds that he doesn’t really like them. Still, he still remains on course and quiet as he approaches the still body. The being is seated in a pose that either means the man is meditating or sleeping spectacularly because he doesn’t seem to be swaying in his seat.

        Based on Obi Wan’s quick report, this isn’t the maybe-Sith who visited them at their landing site.

        Compelled to not act too brash, perhaps by the voice that sounds like Obi Wan’s in his mind, Anakin stops at the edge of the slightly elevated platform and stares for a moment. Then, instead of stepping any closer to shake an answer from the old humanoid, Anakin lowers himself down into a patient seat.

        The man’s eyes suddenly open once Anakin settles in and he finds himself staring at eyes with the whites coloured in black and the irises coloured in a bright turquoise. The old man doesn’t seem like a threat now, but Anakin knows not to let down his guard.

“Welcome, my friend,” says the old looking man.

        “Friend,” huh…? Anakin frowns.

“What is it that you want from me?” Anakin questions, remembering Obi Wan’s warnings of people out to find him.

“To learn the truth about who you really are,” the old man answers as he rather elegantly stands up from his seated position. “One that maybe you have known all along.”

        Anakin follows along with the motion, standing up too, but he doesn’t really follow with the conversation itself. 

“One you must believe in order to fulfill your destiny,” the man continues as he steps off of the platform and closer to him. He speaks carefully with words that Anakin does not trust and barely understands.

“Enough with the riddles, old man,” Anakin says defiantly, not at all looking to extend his stay here if he can help it. “Tell me what's going on here.”

        The thunder rumbles in the sky above the monastery and Anakin wonders if he took it a step too far. He can’t get a good read on the old man, so if they were to fight, Anakin knows that he might have the disadvantage. Especially since the old man seems to know… something about him… 

“As you can see, there is nowhere else to go,” is the old man’s answer instead of anything else. When the man gestures down one hall, Anakin maintains his suspicion-filled gaze on the old man without looking away.

        Anakin doesn’t like this.

“It is late. You will be my guest tonight,” the old man declares and there doesn’t seem to be a hint of malice in his voice.

        But Anakin still doesn’t like this one bit.

        …

        With nothing else to do, however, he follows along with the old man’s whims. Especially seeing as the old man starts walking and leading him somewhere. Anakin supposes that if he wants answers, he’ll probably be able to get it from him so long as he’s patient, maybe. He’ll just have to keep his guard up.

“Hopefully, Obi Wan and Ahsoka are having more luck than I am," Anakin thinks to himself, frowning, as he follows behind the old man.

Obi Wan's POV

        Things are not going well and the fact that Obi Wan can’t make sense of what’s happening isn’t helping either. Even as he contemplates the whole ordeal— or, at least what has happened so far because he knows that there must be many more things to come— as he takes on the duty of the first watch to spare Ahsoka some more troubles, nothing shaped like an answer seems to arrive at the forefront of his mind.

        And it does not help that the very air seems to shift and swirl all around him without being able to calm down. Obi Wan can’t seem to shake the feeling that something, or someone, is there with him and Ahsoka and that— 

        He snaps his head upwards and out of his current train of thought when a particularly alarming sort of feeling suddenly spikes, but all he sees is Ahsoka peacefully resting nearby. There is no one else there with them.

        Yet the feeling of something lingers… 

“Obi Wan, have you done as I asked?” questions a familiar voice nearby.

        And there it is— The reason for this strange feeling growing within Obi Wan. It’s a painfully familiar voice, too, and when Obi Wan turns his head, he’s met with a sight that he expected, based on the voice alone, yet didn’t expect, all at the same time.

“Have you trained the boy?” this image of Qui Gon seems to ask of him.

        No matter how familiar this image may be, the only thing that races through Obi Wan’s mind and body is far from warm relief.

        It’s suspicion.

        He stands from his seat, mostly to be ready for a fight should this image prove to be as aggressive as it seems to be deceiving. Climbing up the step behind him, effectively creating distance though at the price of moving farther from Ahsoka, Obi Wan is quick to draw his saber because of one reason alone: something, or someone, knows of his relationship with his old Master and is masquerading as someone Obi Wan would normally let his guard down for.

        And so he knows better than to assume that he can trust this image without making sure of anything else.

“Master Qui Gon? How are you here?” he questions as carefully as possible, wanting to discern what the truth of this matter is before he starts swinging his saber through the image. Even if this image could be a possible enemy, he would rather not be required to cut even the image of his old Master in half if he can help it.

        This Qui Gon, in the face of his question and Obi Wan’s saber, seems wholly unperturbed and Obi Wan wonders, for a second, if his saber would even work to repel this seemingly ethereal image before him.

“I am here because you are here,” Qui Gon answers, taking a few steps to the side with the same amount of grace as Obi Wan remembers his old Master having, “and because [y/n] is not.”

        …

        And what does that mean?

“I-I don’t understand,” Obi Wan manages to say, inwardly cursing the stutter. “What do you mean by being here simply because [y/n] is not? And why here? What is this place?”

        Qui Gon is no longer looking at him, Obi Wan sees that, but that doesn’t mean that this image of a person, should they truly be Qui Gon, isn’t listening to him. No, not that at all, and the closer Obi Wan seems to peer into the Signature of this image, the more he’s met with the unquestionable truth that this Signature is indeed the Qui Gon from his bygone memories.

        “There truly is no doubt about it,” Obi Wan thinks to himself, swallowing hard and seeing the humming blue of his saber drop ever so slightly from the air before him. 

        This really is Qui Gon Jinn, somehow.

“This place is unlike any other… A conduit through which the entire Force of the universe flows,” Qui Gon explains to him. Obi Wan counts that strange answer as an answer even if he doesn’t really understand it completely.

“And of [y/n]?” Obi Wan continues to inquire.

        Qui Gon turns around to meet his eyes, only to look away. “They’ve saved my life, you must know that.”

        Obi Wan knows. “Yes, I know. [Y/n] told me that they did.”

        Though, they never did tell him how they were able to reach all the way to Naboo from the Temple Grounds in order to help Qui Gon. Obi Wan doesn’t know whether the reason [y/n] hasn’t told yet is because they have decided that they can’t or shouldn’t or because they themselves don’t even know. There could even be a fourth reason that Obi Wan has yet to suggest to himself.

“It came with a cost, Obi Wan, a great one,” Qui Gon continues, and Obi Wan feels a chill run through his body. “We have been tied together because of what they’ve done, in a way. Not completely different from how you and Anakin are tied to them, but not quite the same either.”

        No words leave Obi Wan’s lips because he doesn’t know what to say. Qui Gon looks up at him, hued in a glow that makes him look ghostly, and he seems to have something to say to fill in the space that Obi Wan leaves behind in this conversation.

“Only one of us, for now, can be…” Qui Gon trails off, lifting hand to his chin as if to think, “… awake. Yes, awake, in a sense, at any given time. And even if such a condition were not in place, there is something that hinders my full recovery.”

“And what is that ‘something?’” Obi Wan questions first and foremost.

“The ever-growing darkness, Obi Wan. You must know what I mean,” Qui Gon answers, clearly choosing to speak more in riddles than in direct answers. 

        Though, if Qui Gon had the time and ability to be guiding Obi Wan to answers rather than confessing them directly, Obi Wan assumes that that must mean that Qui Gon is somewhat fine where he is and in whatever state he must be in.

“It affects even I where I am, currently,” Qui Gon continues, taking on a pensive expression. “An old darkness, yes… Though, not even I can say I know exactly what it is beyond the fact that it is causing many issues in my recovery.”

        That must mean that Qui Gon has no other answers on that matter. For the sake of getting as much information as he can, just in case there’s some sort of time limit to Qui Gon’s presence, Obi Wan decides that moving on might be the best choice of action.

“Then, what do you mean when you say that only one of you is allowed to be ‘awake?’” Obi Wan manages to ask. “Are you… Are you unable to awaken simply because [y/n] is currently… ‘awake?’”

        Qui Gon’s face is unchanging. “That is correct.” 

“Then, what does it take for you to come back?” Obi Wan inquires, hating how much his words sound like a plea… Like a child begging for the return of someone unable to come back. “Does that not mean that [y/n] must…”

        In Obi Wan’s head, the idea of [y/n] dying in order to swap out with Qui Gon is a mortifying one. Even the idea of [y/n] “going to sleep” for Qui Gon to “awaken” isn’t any better, either.

        Yet again, Qui Gon’s face is unchanging. He glances away, clearly making a sign that something isn’t easy. “I do not know what is to become of me in the future, Obi Wan. That will depend on [y/n], I should think.”

        But Obi Wan knows for a fact that the older Jedi knows something that he isn’t saying.

“What is it that you know, Master?” Obi Wan questions, barely noticing the way his saber wavers. “You know something about your situation and… and [y/n], do you not? Something that we do not know?”

“We are bound, as I said, so yes, I know of something of [y/n] that only few know of,” Qui Gon answers with the kind of aggravating vagueness that is the opposite of what Obi Wan wants right now. “So it stands that it is not my right to speak openly of such matters. Only [y/n] and time will tell if you are to come to this truth.”

        …

        Fine. 

        If Obi Wan knows his old Master’s character at all, then he knows that this matter is a losing battle that he can never turn the tables around for. Obi Wan feels his hand tightening around his saber as his mind identifies the feeling welling up within his heart as frustration.

        This secret of [y/n]’s… Just what is it and why does it seem so important? After all, he doesn’t even know about it, so who else could possibly know about it? Perhaps this is his supposed arrogance speaking, but Obi Wan is sure that if there’s to be anyone in the Order to know of [y/n]’s secrets, it would be him— their close friend— and yet… 

        … 

“Then,” Obi Wan begins again, watching Qui Gon’s eyes watching him as carefully as he used to in his memories, “what about this place? Are we in danger?”

        If Qui Gon wasn’t going to talk about [y/n], then it would be a waste of time to continue pestering him further on that topic. To make better use of this time, Obi Wan should ask about other things that might guarantee some sort of helpful answer.

“This planet is both an amplifier and a magnet. Three are here who seek Anakin,” Qui Gon explains, offering him more details than Obi Wan had received about [y/n]. Obi Wan watches as Qui Gon turns around completely to face him to continue saying, “but each wants him for different reasons.”

        “But what is the significance of that?” Obi Wan wonders. 

        He knows that the man who may have been a Sith is looking for Anakin, but who are the other two? Could this include the Daughter from before as well? If that’s true, that would make no sense because, as Anakin said, she left him behind to wander off. If she wanted him for whatever reason, that would have been the best chance to take him.

        Yet, she just turned away to leave.

        There is something else afoot, but Obi Wan remains silent about that thought. Only for as he would like to hear whatever else Qui Gon might have for him in the form of helpful insight.

“They, like me, believe him to be the Chosen One,” is all Qui Gon tells him. 

        Obi Wan, upon remembering the moment in his life when he’d last spoken to his Master about this topic, feels his heart ache ever so slightly. It’s a bittersweet feeling, the memory of his Master rushing him into Knighthood because he was deemed skilled enough just so that the Chosen One could be trained by someone who believed in that age-old prophecy. It clashes with so many of those equally treasured memories of a different sort of truth from that rush of a time— All the validation and praise he earned for truly being as good as others thought of him… 

        … Qui Gon… 

        … his colleagues… 

        … and even [y/n].

        Obi Wan allows his blue blade to return into the hilt of his saber.

“You were right. The Force within him is stronger than any known Jedi,” Obi Wan says, reattaching his saber to his belt. “I have trained him as well as I could, but… he's still willful and balance eludes him.”

        Even with [y/n]’s continued guidance along with his own, Anakin is still… Well, Anakin is still Anakin. Not that Obi Wan is particularly vexed by that. It’s just that the Council is unhappy, meaning he needs to be a little unhappy too until Anakin improves just a little more.

“If he is the Chosen One, he will discover it here,” Qui Gon tells him.

        Obi Wan doesn’t understand why that is so important here and now. “And if not?”

        For a moment, it seems as if Qui Gon is without an answer.

“Then you must realize that with his power,” Qui Gon begins, eyes staring into Obi Wan’s with a pressure heavy enough to make Obi Wan feel infinitely more concerned about the situation, “this is a very dangerous place for him to be.”

“But why?” Obi Wan questions further. “Does this have to do with those three? What do they want Anakin for?”

        Qui Gon is silent once again. His eyes drop to the floor and all that can be heard for a moment is the sound of crackling fire and the rain. Obi Wan, in this silence, begins to wonder if he asked the wrong kind of question.

“I do not know enough,” Qui Gon answers, his voice soft. “Even knowing what I know through [y/n], I do not know.”

        “And just what is it that [y/n] knows?” Obi Wan ponders to himself, making sure to file that question for later when he has the chance to ask them. After all, Qui Gon probably won’t answer.

“Then, do you at least know how we can leave this place?” Obi Wan decides to try and ask.

        Yet, even for that, the answer on Qui Gon’s face seems to be a resounding “no.”

“But you will find your way, that I promise you, Obi Wan,” Qui Gon says, voice full with warmth and a familiarity that nearly springs tears from Obi Wan’s eyes. “You must be careful, Obi Wan. What you are facing… This may all be out of even the Force’s guidance.”

        And that is worrying to hear.

“If not the Force, then…” Obi Wan doesn’t know how to really form that question, but Qui Gon seems to understand it enough.

“There is a power that, when two come together, may be able to bring forth something no one has ever imagined possible. Anakin may be strong in the Force, but this…” Qui Gon seems unsure for a moment, brows furrowing. “This, in particular, is enough to make the impossible a possibility.”

        Obi Wan doesn’t understand. “And this is not the Force you are hinting at?”

“No,” Qui Gon answers, shaking his head, “this is not the Force.”

        That isn’t helpful.

“And it is here?” Obi Wan tries asking.

        Qui Gon nods, but it’s a slow one. “The two parts of it are here, yes.”

        “‘Two parts of it…’” Could they be… 

“Are these two parts included in the three that are here looking for Anakin?” Obi Wan wonders aloud. “But if they’re so powerful, what could they want with Anakin?”

“They…” comes the beginning of Qui Gon’s answer before he looks away. “The two may be a part of the three. And as for what they want with Anakin…”

        Silence.

        Qui Gon steels his gaze with Obi Wan’s and a chill runs down his spine. Obi Wan watches with some sort of dread building in his chest as Qui Gon parts his lips to answer.

“I can only tell you to be careful. All of you. I cannot tell you much more than that, Obi Wan. I am sorry.”

        Somehow, that “cannot” sounds more like a “should not.”

Anakin's POV

        It’s not the accommodation that Anakin has an issue with, but the general oddity churning in the air that makes it hard for him to sleep that he has an issue with. That and the fact that he can’t help but feel a bit worried about Ahsoka and Obi Wan, both of whom he kind of abandoned in search of the weird-Daughter-person that he still has yet to actually find.

        And, as if to make things worse, apparently he needs to sleep. That is, according to the old man he’d just met, who’s aptly named the Father. Anakin can only assume that the old man is connected to the Daughter based on his name alone, but those thoughts and theories just lead him into thinking about nothing important in particular, mostly because he still doesn’t know much of what’s going on. 

        Maybe that’s why Anakin can’t seem to sleep. Maybe all this thinking is the reason for why he’s just awake with his eyes closed as he shifts around in the bed he’s been offered.

        And if things couldn’t get any worse, at just the right time for things to get worse, a strange feeling seems to wash over him as he continues staring into the darkness behind his eyelids.

“Wake up, my son,” suddenly says a painfully soft and kind voice before he can feel something brushing against his bangs. “I must tell you a secret.”

        And instantly, his body kicks into overdrive.

“Who's there?” Anakin questions the partially lit darkness of this borrowed room as he sits up in his bed with a start. “Who's there, I said?”

        If it’s the old man playing some weird trick, he’ll— 

“It is me, Ani.”

        The voice comes from behind.

        Anakin turns around to finally look behind him. It makes sense for this mysterious person to be behind him, especially since his alarmed eyes didn’t catch a single thing wrong with the room in front of him. Now facing the window, he’s met with a figure bathed in shadows with edges illuminated by the lightning outside.

        The silhouette is a familiar one.

“Your mother,” continues the figure, but the only feeling that surfaces from within him when the figure opens their arms wide for a hug is confusion.

        At the very least, his mind isn’t boggled enough to know that this is impossible.

        So that’s why Anakin, upon seeing this… this person shifting even closer, wastes no time in pulling out of the bed completely and onto his feet before quickly darting back and away from this seemingly perfect image of his dear mother. Normally, he wouldn’t do something like this, but he knows that there should be no way for his mother to be here with him.

“What kind of black arts is this?” Anakin inquires of the figure, feeling a bit more insulted now that he realises that this figure or person or whatever chose to imitate his mother, of all people. “My mother isn’t supposed to be here… You picked the wrong person to impersonate, whoever you are.”

“Am I truly not ‘supposed’ to be here, my son?” this image wonders in return, taking a few steps forward to do away with some of the distance Anakin had created. “Or is it that you simply find it hard to believe that I am here with you?”

        Anakin keeps his mouth shut, mostly because he doesn’t really know how to respond to something like that. He may have an idea that this is likely not his actual mother, but to take any chances with attacking them in any way would crush his heart if it turns out that this figure really is his mother. For once, he wholeheartedly agrees with Obi Wan’s usual “wait before acting” tactic.

        So he makes sure to stay out of arm's reach from the figure, circling the centre of the room with the figure and mirroring whatever they do.

“I have a secret to tell you,” this image of his mother repeats to tell him.

        When they don’t seem to continue just yet, looking on at him as if waiting for his permission, Anakin frowns heavily. He’d much rather speak less just in case the thing he’s speaking to isn’t someone he should be speaking to, but it doesn’t look like they’re giving him much choice in the matter.

“Then tell me,” Anakin offers cautiously.

“Everything you have done, everything you have learned, has led you here,” this thing tells him, but the words don’t seem to mean much to him. He just can’t really see anything helpful about them.

        Would it mean more if someone like Obi Wan heard them instead of him?

        Is he missing something crucially and glaringly obvious?

“Whatever you are,” Anakin begins carefully, hand itching to move closer to his saber, “choosing to look like my mother was a mistake.”

        The face that stares back at him barely shifts. They just continue staring at him unnervingly, smiling all the same. “Your Jedi training has served you well, Ani, but you are more than a Jedi.”

        …

        Could this thing be referring to the fact that he’s the Chosen One? Someone more than just a regular Jedi?

“So?” Anakin can’t help but question. “Why are you bringing this up? I know who I am— what I am. Get to the point.”

        There’s a hint of venom in his words that he doesn’t mean to use, but it’s all because he’s being reminded of being the Chosen One stuff again. Not that it’s a bad thing, his supposed prophecy of a destiny, but it weighs on him, nonetheless. Even if the people around him try their best to balance it as well as they can, like Obi Wan and [y/n] try to do, he knows that it will never stop weighing down on him.

        There’s a reason why he feels so torn about not being enough. When he was younger, he thought he was something more than anyone ever thought of him as being since he was the Chosen One— that it was all a good thing. But as he got older, his thoughts reversed.

        Nowadays, feeling like enough is harder than ever.

        The thing wearing his mother’s face scrunches up their expression into something a bit more desperate and sad. Anakin knows that this person isn’t his real mother, but the sight of her image frowning like that still makes his heart fall.

“You are troubled,” the person continues. “Tell me, where is your pain so I may be able to take it away.”

        …

        The kinds of things that he’s troubled by… 

“But why should I tell you?” Anakin wonders in return.

“Because they eat away at you, do they not?” they say without a hint of hesitation. 

        Anakin bites back the words that identify his troubles. He’s already talked about these kinds of troubles with his mother on Naboo— already making this a clear sign that this isn’t his mother in front of him— just as he’s already spoken to [y/n] about all of this. So why would he speak about this sort of thing with some stranger… something pretending to be his mother?

        He won’t be speaking about these darker parts of his heart with them, actually. No matter how well they wear his mother’s image and plead with her exact voice, they won’t succeed in digging into his mind.

        At least, he’s going to try not letting them in.

“Maybe they do, maybe they don’t,” Anakin answers carefully. “Why do you care about what bothers me and what doesn’t?”

“I am your mother, that is why,” they answer.

“You aren’t—!” Anakin starts, and the moment he realises that his voice is lined with anger, he quickly cuts off his words. 

        He still doesn’t know what the goal of this person or thing might be, but he does know that he needs to keep as calm and careful as possible. He doesn’t really like the idea of just playing along with whatever they’re doing, but he keeps repeating Obi Wan and [y/n]’s guiding advice in the back of his mind to help keep himself calm and collected like he should be in this situation.

        Anakin eyes the person, wondering what his next move should be. His eyes stare into the eyes that he’s so sure should be on Naboo, staring at neatly trimmed and meticulously cared for gardens, and he finds himself remembering that the only reason why his mother is alive and well at all is because of [y/n]. They’d lied to him— he remembers— in order to save themself from facing dire punishment at the hands of the Council so that they could save someone he should've been able to save. 

        He’d done nothing, truthfully. The Chosen One of some important Jedi prophecy did nothing to save one of the most important people in his life. It’s ironic how powerless he is. Weak and lesser— It’s no wonder [y/n] had to lie.

        … 

“I wasn’t the one who saved my mother,” Anakin begins slowly, his stance loosening and his tense muscles slowly relaxing with defeat. 

        The words tumbled from his lips all too easily, but he doesn’t really know why they did. He’s never said this to his mother or anyone before, this regret of his, so he wonders why it comes out now.

        …

        Maybe it’s because he knows that this person isn’t really someone he truly knows. They’re just some stranger to him. They know nothing about him, so even if he looks weak in front of them, they know nothing else about him to truly judge and compare.

“I’m…” he begins softly, clenching his hands into tight fists. “I’m weak. I’m failing as a Jedi and I’m failing my mother and everyone else.”

        And the one who’s stronger and better than him— and maybe also more deserving of being Chosen One, too— is [y/n], the same person who keeps reassuring him that he really is deserving of his power and abilities.

        Anakin looks up to see the face of his mother staring at him with a deep and rich sadness. The image of her remains silent for a moment until they ask, “how so?”

“By being weak, I said that,” Anakin repeats, shaking his head. “There are so many things that people think I am… that people think I should be, but I’m not any of that. I don’t even know if I can be all of that.”

        Even though Obi Wan and [y/n] keep saying that they do think he can be that kind of person… 

“You know, if it were down to me, I think I would’ve been too late to save my mother,” Anakin continues, feeling his heart bleed at the thought of [y/n] never having left the Temple to help his mother that fateful day. 

        Where would his mother be, if not for them? Still a slave? Still suffering?

“All this… this Chosen One stuff isn’t for me. At least, I don’t know if it’s for me anymore,” Anakin tries to explain. “I get that I’m strong in the Force and all of that, but what else is there for me if I couldn’t even be the one to save my own mother?”

        He looks up to see his mother and only his mother staring back at him. A deep rooted sense of shame fills his entire being, fueled by his years of being praised and insulted within the confines of his years being a slave and a Jedi.

“If I couldn’t save my mother,” Anakin begins, spitting out the words that bumble around in his mind on their way out, “how am I supposed to bring balance to the Force? How am I supposed to do anything that the prophecy wants me to do? I’m not actually anyone great.”

“It is time you realized that your guilt does not define you, my son,” the person tells him, apparently understanding the kind of plight that he’s going through right now. “You define your guilt. You have strengths, too, and you have not yet failed anyone yet. There is plenty you can do.”

        Anakin scrutinizes this image of his mother speaking about something they aren’t entirely speaking about. It’s almost like they know something about what’s to come just like… 

        …

        “Not yet maybe,” [y/n] had said to him as if they also knew something that he didn’t. It’s the same, the way this figure speaks, to how [y/n] speaks about the future.

“But what is that ‘thing?’” Anakin inquires, already partially assuming that no clear-cut answer will be given to him. Still, he takes his chances. 

“You already know what it is you should dedicate yourself to, do you not?” 

        Does he? Does he really know what he wants to dedicate himself to? 

        …

“I want to become better. I want to dedicate myself to becoming the kind of Jedi that I can be proud to be,” Anakin declares, desperately wanting something to erase that shame that he feels churning deeply within him. “I want to be the kind of Jedi that… that…”

        Well, he wants to be the kind of Jedi that [y/n] wants him to be, but the kind of Jedi that [y/n] is the kind of Jedi that the Chosen One should be, right? If he really takes on that Chosen One stuff— all the duties and the other stuff that come with the job— he should be exactly what [y/n] wants him to be, right? Then… If that’s the case, what Anakin needs to do is try a little harder at being a little better in being that patient and skilled Jedi that Obi Wan and [y/n] are praised for being.

        Becoming the Jedi that [y/n] wants and the Jedi that the Chosen One should be… They’re two goals with the same end, he thinks.

“I…” he begins carefully, “I want to be a Jedi worthy of being the Chosen One. I can’t imagine what I would do if I don’t become better than I already am.”

        But strangely enough, the image of his mother in front of him seems displeased. They shake their head. “That goal is not truly what you wish to dedicate yourself to. It is a prison.”

        It’s— 

“No, it’s not,” Anakin argues. “It’s what I want! I want to be better. I want to measure up to the kind of Jedi that everyone wants me to be. That’s what I really want.”

        A forlorn expression falls over that face of his mother’s as they glance away from him. “That can no longer be your destiny.”

“What do you mean by ‘no longer my destiny?’” Anakin questions, taking a step towards this image of his mother and unable to help the way his voice rises in volume. “Isn’t it what I should be doing as the Chosen One?!”

        But they’re unfazed by his tone and volume. Eyes flicker back towards him and Anakin swears they grow a little colder in his eyes before this person says, “it is not what you want.”

        And Anakin’s brain stops creating words at that point. Everything in his mind just falls to a grinding halt and he finds that he can’t really tell what this person wants from him. He told them what he wants and it is what he wants. What else is there for him to do? What does this figure want him to do?

“You’re wrong,” Anakin growls through gritted teeth. “It’s what I want. It’s what I should do.”

“No!” they say, finally speaking in a way that’s more than just sickly kind words and confusing questions, but Anakin doesn’t really think that this is an improvement. “To follow that poisonous route will bring ruin to everything!”

        The voice speaking sounds like something otherworldly. It’s hard to explain, but it almost sounds like the voice is echoing… Booming, even. He’d been so overwhelmed with his problems that he almost completely forgot that this person probably isn’t someone he should be chatting with.

“What are you?” Anakin questions while backing up a few steps.

        He watches the lightning crashing down in the skies past the windows behind the person, adding to the general ominous tone of the situation, but he stands his ground. He still has his saber, after all, so he can fight if he needs to.

        For a second, the light from the storm outside disappears for long enough to drown the room in a moment of complete darkness, and when the light returns in a flash, all he sees in place of the image of his mother is a huge beast of a monster. It certainly doesn’t look friendly, but just as quickly as the image of the beast appears, lightning seems to flash again and the thing with him returns to looking like his mother once again.

“The one who will remind you of your true fate!” they answer in an angry growl.

        …

        Huh?

        Lightning flashes again— His only source of light in this room, unfortunately enough— and the thing just… vanishes along with the short lived darkness. His eyes wander the room to try and find them again, but he sees no one with him. No image of his mother or the beast or… anything really.

        … 

“I’m starting to really get a bad feeling about this place,” Anakin mutters under his breath with a deeply fatigued sigh. He gives the room a once-over while half expecting for the thing to appear again the moment he lifts his eyes from any body of shadow in his room.

        …

        But nothing jumps out at him and Anakin takes a moment to lift a hand to rub his face as if to scrub something away.

“What did they mean when they said that being the Chosen One like everyone wants me to be isn’t my destiny…?” Anakin wonders aloud, trying his best to wrap his head around the strange words they’d left him with.

        He doesn’t know. He just doesn’t know anything.

“Then, what am I supposed to do? What should I do? What am I supposed to be?”

        …

        … … 

        Anakin shakes his head with as much force as he can muster. He wants the confusing thoughts out of his head, but seeing as they still linger after his rough actions, he finds that he doesn’t know how to get them out. His thoughts and worries cling to him, unable to let him go, and the bad feeling in Anakin inflates in size.

        He really needs to find some sort of answer and soon. 

        With eyes glancing around the room, Anakin feels a sense of helplessness fall over him and he decides that he hates that feeling with a burning passion. Seeing as all the anger and hate boiling to life within him isn’t helping at all either, he tries to let those feelings go into the Force like Obi Wan taught him.

        He really does try.

“I hope Obi Wan and Ahsoka are at least having better luck than I am,” Anakin mumbles to himself, sorely wishing that they were here with him.

        Because even he knows that he sorely needs some help right about now…

Ahsoka's POV

“Are you happy, child?”

        Ahsoka blinks her eyes open and begins to look around. That was a feminine voice speaking, but that’s not something that should be possible. The only person who should be in the cave with her is Obi Wan, so…

        …

        Her eyes continue to glance around, but Obi Wan isn’t actually anywhere to be found. And Ahsoka finds that strange because he isn’t the kind of person to just leave her without telling her that he was leaving. So where did Obi Wan go? And that voice— 

“Your Master, does he treat you well?”

        Alarm blossoms inside of Ahsoka and her eyes begin to scan the area far faster than before. She keeps sweeping the confined space with her gaze over and over— but not once does she find anything— until she finally does find one thing that’s different than what she expected of this space. 

        Across the crackling fire from herself, just standing there behind the flames, is a female Togruta, from what Ahsoka can see. Regardless of this slightly familiar sight, Ahsoka is far quicker to assume that something is wrong above all else. Before Ahsoka does anything else, she makes sure to quickly leap onto her feet just in case trouble is what will meet her with the appearance of this new person, already reaching her hand towards one of her sabers.

“What concern of it is yours?” Ahsoka demands of this new person.

        They don’t seem too troubled with answering her questions. “I am your future. Your potential.”

        Ahsoka narrows her eyes. They may have answered, yes, so Ahsoka is slightly satisfied with that, but it’s not like the answer that she was given was even a good or helpful one. And with eyes staring at the figure a bit more deeply… She sees that they’re also a bit more transparent than any flesh-and-bone being should be, and assuming the worst, her hands are quick to finally draw her weapons. 

“This is a trick,” Ahsoka hisses in return, trying not to worry too much about the fact that there might be some truth in this person’s words.

        After all, the markings on their face… the general style of the blue markings on their montrals and lekku… They all look eerily similar to her own and she does not like that one bit.

        And just where is Obi Wan…?

“There is a wildness to you, young one,” they tell her, lifting up their hands in a way that makes it seem as though they were coaxing a wild animal too frightful to act friendly. “Seeds of the Dark Side planted by your Master.”

        What the… The “Dark Side?” Being “planted” by Anakin?

        No way.

“Do you feel it?”

        Ahsoka’s hands tighten around her sabers and she feels a bit of anger building up within her. For someone who drops in here so suddenly, talking about things they can’t possibly understand, they sure are touching on some dangerous topics… 

“No,” Ahsoka answers, steadfast in her faith in Anakin— her Master. “He is like no other Jedi.”

        And that doesn’t necessarily mean that Anakin is a bad Jedi. Just… different.

“Passionate, impulsive— but I trust him with my life,” Ahsoka declares forthright, glaring at the stranger who rightfully keeps themself a safe distance from her sabers. 

        Ahsoka admits, even if it goes against everything she’s learned of being a Jedi, that if they were to come within a very specific distance of her in this situation, Ahsoka will have no qualms with actually starting a fight with this being.

“There are many contradictions in you,” the person says, apparently reading into Ahsoka very well, “and in him.”

        Well, Ahsoka knows that she still has some growing and learning to do— she’s a Jedi Padawan, after all. Learning is what she’s supposed to do, and the more she gets to know Anakin, the more Ahsoka gets the sense that he’s the same way with plenty of things that he needs to learn too. And there’s no issue in that at all because Ahsoka knows that all Jedi are constantly learning and being humbled. Still, even if this figure basically said all that, that doesn’t excuse the kind of tone that this person used when they spoke. They don’t know anything about the kinds of things she has to work through and the things that Anakin needs to work through.

        They don’t know anything, whoever this person is… 

        Ahsoka supposes that this person took her silence as her answer because their face screws up into a deep frown as if reacting to something.

“Be warned! You may never see your future if you remain his student,” they continue to say, not waiting for any kind of answer on Ahsoka’s part. “Leave this planet!”

        And with the kind of dramatic flair that Ahsoka sorely doesn’t need right now, they seem to… beckon the flames closer to their body before they become engulfed in it. Pulling their hands over their chest, the flames crawl even higher until the person seems to be eaten away by the fire itself. It must’ve really eaten away at them because the mysterious person is gone once the fire settles.

        Then, the cave is empty save for Ahsoka herself again. And Obi Wan—

“Ahsoka?”

        She jerks awake even though she swore she was already awake, and after glancing around the space again, she finds that Obi Wan is here like he should be. He kneels over her, staring at her with concern in his blue-grey eyes.

“I had a vision,” Ahsoka blurts out towards the older man before looking away towards the ground unsurely. 

        She doesn’t know what else to call it, if she were to be really honest. If [y/n] were here, she’d be able to ask the Jedi with the most experience with visions if what she’d seen was what she thinks it was. 

        Still, whatever it was, it leaves behind a foreboding feeling in her mind. There’s no time to waste, whether or not that was a vision, and she lifts her head to Obi Wan again. After seeing what she’d seen in her dreams or vision or whatever, she knows what they need to do next.

“I think Anakin might be in trouble.”

Anakin's POV

        When he realises that he’ll find nothing in his bare, borrowed room, he marches on out towards the main room again. There, somewhat surprisingly, the Father still sits where Anakin found him last. Approaching the old man, Anakin ignites his saber, and fueled by suspicion, he raises it towards the face of the man.

“Cannot sleep?” asks the Father all-too simply. He doesn’t even open his eyes. “To strike an unarmed man is hardly the Jedi way.”

        And Anakin knows that, but the situation also calls for as much care and caution as he can muster. For that, he doesn’t pull his blue saber away.

“You're a Sith Lord!” Anakin declares, because what else could this man be?

        The Father doesn’t seem very bothered, only shrugging in his seat before saying, “you have a very simple view of the universe. I am neither Sith nor Jedi.”

        Right… 

“I am much more,” the man continues, finally opening his eyes. “And so are you.”

        All these talks of weird riddles and vague answers… Anakin feels pretty irked.

“I see through your spells and visions, old man,” Anakin tells him, fully convinced that this man who seems so innocent isn’t actually very innocent at all. “Tell me what is going on here!”

        He takes a step forward, saber still pointed at the man’s beard-covered throat, but the man continues to remain unafraid. Instead, he suddenly reaches out to his blue coloured saber before— 

        Anakin can’t exactly believe his eyes when he sees the Father grab his saber and easily pull it towards the side to make room for him to stand unobstructed. Anakin can’t tell if the man is crazy or what, but he can see that the man isn’t… affected by it at all despite having grabbed plasma like that.

“Some call us Force-wielders,” the Father explains without explaining much.

        And if Anakin thought the old man was done, he’s clearly proven wrong when the old man seems to mime out the motion of pushing the blade towards the hilt. Following the motion, Anakin watches as his saber is deactivated.

        Uh— 

        …

        Okay then… 

“The Jedi have never spoken of this… or of you,” Anakin begins slowly, now realising that if the Father could do that to his lightsaber, fighting with said saber might not bode well for him. At this rate, it might be best for him to not actually try fighting him at all if he can help it. “But I’ve seen you before. On a mural.”

        Specifically the mural that [y/n] showed him.

        The Father hums. “Few still know of our existence and the few remnants that you’ve seen sit scattered in places where only the memory of us remains.”

        Then he stops speaking but Anakin doesn’t want him to stop speaking. He wants answers, after all, and he came here to get them. If the old man wasn’t going to voluntarily give him answers, then Anakin will have to somehow reach for them himself. To begin that process, he lifts the hand that still holds his saber hilt towards the doorway that leads to his borrowed room.

        The first thing he wants answers for has to do with what just happened to him.

“In that room, my mother came to me, but it was not her,” Anakin explains. “It was something else.”

“Ah,” is how the Father begins his answer. “My son, I suspect. We can take many forms. The shapes we embody are merely a reflection of the Life Force around us.”

        Anakin watches the Father strides towards the foot of the platform. There, Anakin sees himself being glanced over at.

“You carry a great sadness in your heart.”

        Wha—?

        But before Anakin can question that, the Father continues walking and talking.

“My children and I can manipulate the Force like no other, therefore it was necessary to withdraw from the temporal world and live here as anchorites.”

        So far, Anakin is following.

        Maybe.

“As a sanctuary?” Anakin inquires, inferring his answer from the words being said to him.

        It looks like Anakin’s guess is right, but a sort of sadness seems to fall over the old man’s face. “And a prison.”

        A silence falls over the huge, expansive room, but only because the Father seems to find it hard to continue, or something. Unable to really understand, still, what’s happening on a larger scale, Anakin decides to keep quiet until something the Father says begins to sound like it makes more sense to his ears.

        Eventually, the Father seems to gather his words. “You cannot imagine what pain it is to have such love for your children and realize that they could tear the very fabric of our universe.”

        The Father continues walking, turning his gaze away with what looks like shame before mumbling lowly, “something that I am afraid they have already done…”

        …?

        “Something they’ve already done?” Well, that doesn’t sound good at all. What did this old man’s children do? And who exactly are his children? Are they the two that he’s met: the Daughter and the unnamed son that Anakin is starting to suspect is named “the Son,” maybe?

“I don't understand,” is the only thing that Anakin can think of as a response.

“It is only here that I can control them— A family in balance; the light and the dark; day with night,” the Father explains before angling his head ever so slightly towards Anakin’s direction. Not exactly enough to reveal his eyes, but enough to reveal a small portion of his face. “Destruction replaced by creation.”

        So far, sure, okay … Anakin can somewhat say, with confidence, that he’s following. He gets that, at it’s core, it sounds like the Father is talking about hiding away the power that seems to be held by the Daughter and “the Son,” but there still remains one issue with all of that— 

“Then why reveal yourselves to us?” Anakin questions. 

        After all, if they wanted or needed to hide, they should’ve never reached out to the Order for any reason to begin with. Unless…

        … 

        … unless they needed something from them. Help, maybe?

“There are some who would like to exploit our power. The Sith are but one,” the Father continues. “Too much dark or light would be the undoing of life as you understand it. When news reached me that the Chosen One had been found…”

        Anakin watches as the Father turns around to stare at him before speaking again.

“… I needed to see for myself.”

        Again with the Chosen One thing… Anakin starts to wonder just how real it really is, at this point. After all, couldn’t it be possible that he’s just… different from everyone else? How much of this prophecy, which is older than many of the Order’s own members, can really be trusted with talking about some kind of actual truth?

“The Chosen One is a myth,” Anakin says as simply as he can.

        The Father doesn’t seem to share his sentiment, however. “Is it? I should very much like to know. Why don't we find out together?”

        And Anakin finds that he doesn’t like what the Father is insinuating.

“Pass one test and I shall know the truth,” declares the Father, clarifying the details of a plan that Anakin knows he probably shouldn’t agree to. “Then, you and your friends may leave.”

        He can practically hear every part of his brain telling him to reject what the Father is saying and to find some other way out of this place without his help, but… 

“Alright,” he finds himself saying. “Fine.”

        What choice does he have if he wants to safely and easily get himself, Obi Wan, and Ahsoka out of this place?

         It’ll just be one test. How hard could it be?

Obi Wan's POV

        The rain had stopped a little before both he and Ahsoka finally left the cave in search of Anakin, the one whom Ahsoka truly believes to be in great danger. Obi Wan admits that even though doesn’t truly know what’s happening, he also has a bad feeling about everything. After seeing Qui Gon visiting him and hearing of Ahsoka’s strange vision in the form of a dream… Well, the only feeling he has is a bad one.

        So, all that’s left is to regroup with Anakin before searching for a way out together— but that’s where the issues begin to appear again. The process of looking for Anakin would be so much easier had their commlinks still worked, but it seems that the earlier problems with the connection have now bled over the connection completely. Without being able to contact him directly, they need to rely on walking around and hoping that they’ll find him.

        Night, or whatever constitutes this place’s version of a “night,” passes over the land right before their very eyes. Similarly to the fact that the plants decayed and died to herald the “nighttime,” the world seems to be regaining life in accordance with the approaching “daytime.” It was almost as if he were witnessing this planet’s entire seasonal changes within a span of a few hours.

        Obi Wan would even stop to take in all that is so incredibly interesting had there been more time for him to do so. But there isn’t enough time for that, actually. Currently, things are on the verge of going horribly wrong.

“The longer we stay here, the stranger this place gets,” Ahsoka comments, watching as the wave of seasonal change rushes up from behind them before overtaking them in speed. 

        All around them, the planet’s surface grows far greener than it had ever looked a few minutes prior with plants springing from the ground and becoming lush once more.

“It appears the planet is renewing herself,” Obi Wan says in agreement, eyes wandering the landscape as well.

        But when his eyes wander their way to Ahsoka, he can see that the young padawan isn’t at all curious or at awe at the natural display around them. Rather, she seems greatly troubled by other matters that Obi Wan already feels like he knows about.

“What about Master Skywalker?” Ahsoka asks him, lifting her eyes towards him.

        He’s worried for Anakin, he admits to that, but he also feels a deep sense of faith. Whatever trouble comes to Anakin, Obi Wan knows that the young man will be able to handle it on his own for at least long enough for them to bring their support.

“Anakin will not be easy to deceive,” is Obi Wan’s answer and he’s confident.

        And then they keep walking, but the silence doesn’t last long whatsoever because no sooner does a large shadow appear to close in on their location on the ground. This would mark the first time they ever find any evidence of life other than the flora and the Ones that they’d met, and upon turning around, the owner of the shadow certainly belongs to one that’s big and flies.

        There are also two of them and they… don’t seem too friendly. 

        Both swoop down, brandishing clawed feet directed straight for them, and before Obi Wan does anything else, he reaches out to shove Ahsoka out of the way. To guarantee her safety is the biggest concern of his, and his quick thinking certainly ensures that, so she manages to avoid the clutches of the large dark coloured creature— the very same one he remembers the Sith-like man transforming into.

“Ahsoka, find cove—!” is all Obi Wan manages to relay to Ahsoka before a screech from the air swallows up the rest of his words. 

        A rush of white comes flying at him, and since he’d spent so much time pushing Ahsoka away from her assailant, he feels two clawed appendages wrapping themselves around his arms. The ground leaves from it’s place below his feet far sooner than he likes and he even watches as it starts to grow less detailed and farther away from his sights.

“Obi Wan!!” Ahsoka calls out to him in horror, eyes on him rather than the black bodied creature doubling around for another grab.

        Obi Wan tries to rip his arms free, but he finds that he can’t free himself. He can only use the one thing he has left to try and save Ahsoka from being caught as well— his voice. “Get out of the way, Ahsoka!”

        Ahsoka turns to look behind her, but the warning comes too late. Obi Wan, with a deep sense of worry and horror building up within him, watches as sharp taloned feet ensnare Ahsoka just as easily as he was captured, lifting her up in the same manner that Obi Wan himself is being carried.

        The white creature above Obi Wan screeches, stilling to a hover with flapping wings as if to wait for something, and— 

“…rother, hav… care …ith that on…,” Obi Wan seems to hear, and it’s a familiar honey sweet voice too. The voice isn’t speaking aloud, rather he seems to be hearing this in his… head? And in broken parts, too? “Th…y will …eed her by …heir sid…”

        Obi Wan hopes for some response from the other beast that this white bodied one must be speaking to, but none comes. The black bodied one holding onto Ahsoka only growls as it soars past, and judging by the face that Ahsoka’s making as she struggles fruitlessly, it seems likely that Obi Wan had been the only person between the two of them to have heard this strange voice.

        And then, as if to respond to the black-bodied creature’s lack of an answer, Obi Wan swears he hears something like a woman sighing before the white creature carrying him starts to move along again.

        More questions and just not enough answers once again. Obi Wan takes a moment, ignoring the way the wind smashes against his face, to wonder if this is the same kind of frustration that [y/n] feels with their situation on a regular basis.

        …

        And being reminded of [y/n], Obi Wan finds himself remembering the mural. The Sith-like man… the Daughter… everything.

        Did they have something to do with [y/n]? Based on their conversation with the Daughter before the group was first separated on that cliff pathway, it’s very likely that there must be more to this situation than meets the eye and that there is plenty to uncover.

        Obi Wan swallows heavily and tries to calm himself for whatever might be coming his way because if he wants to find some sort of answer, in order to lessen some of [y/n]’s burdensome questions and mysteries while he’s here, he’s going to need to focus.

        The sight of a large castle or a monastery, perhaps, is brought into view and Obi Wan steels his nerves. 

        Whatever truth he finds here will certainly be invaluable to [y/n]. That he knows to be true even if there are a plethora of things that he still doesn’t know for certain.

Anakin's POV

        “It is time to face your guilt and know the truth,” the Father had said to him, but Anakin finds that he doesn’t really understand what he’s supposed to do.

        Seeing two creatures— one of which he actually recognizes from the “night” prior— didn’t provide him with the answers he wanted either. But what they carried in their claws into this strange circular and empty place with a very fancily decorated ground…

        When he was busy hoping that Ahsoka and Obi Wan were okay, he does admit that he had the brief thought of wanting to see them well. However, seeing them being carried to where he is by winged beasts— one of which, the black winged one, is terribly familiar from the “night” before— was absolutely not what he was expecting. It certainly wasn’t what he wanted either.

        In his stunned silence, Anakin can only watch as the two beasts lower themselves closer to the ground on either side of the circle that Ankain finds himself standing in the centre of. Inside his heart and mind, only a bad, bad feeling emerges.

“Whatever he wants, don't do it, Master!” Ahsoka yells from her place with only one arm free from the black bodied creature clutches.

        The sound of Obi Wan struggling brings Anakin’s gaze to the other side of the circle. There, both of Obi Wan’s arms are held in the air within the front talons of a white creature, and clearly nothing about the situation seems to be good. Especially when Anakin considers the expression on Obi Wan’s face.

        What in the…

        Anakin turns his head to the older man, absolutely fuming. “Let them go. I will not play your games.”

        Again, just like every other time, the older man is unfazed. He strolls around Anakin, hands behind his back with an air of indifference, almost. “Oh, but I think you will. I have ordered my children to kill your friends. The question is…”

        He was watching the older man’s motions, Anakin swears to it, but eventually he finds that the older man isn’t with him in the open space anymore once he trails off. When he lifts his gaze higher and to the side, he sees the older man staring down at him from a higher platform as if all of this was just some show.

“… which one will you choose to save?”

        The older man gestures to Obi Wan with the white creature, “your master?”

        Then, he turns to Ahsoka with the black bodied creature— that one that Anakin is now sure he’s seen before— “or your apprentice?”

        And in Anakin’s eyes, everything really does look like the older man just thinks of all of this as being a little game. 

“You must now release the guilt and free yourself by choosing.”

        The only thing Anakin feels, however, is anger, and there certainly isn’t anything freeing about such an emotion.

“No!” Anakin roars back, but he can see that it does little to improve the situation. Clearly, the older man wants nothing but a choice, but that very same choice isn’t something that Anakin can give so easily. 

        Especially not when it puts someone’s life on the line in this way… After all, those lives aren’t just “someone’s life,” either, but Obi Wan’s and Ahsoka’s.

“Their powers are too strong for us, Anakin!” he hears Obi Wan shouting towards him from his place, straining against the talons of the white creature. “Save Ahsoka!”

        Anakin can hardly believe Obi Wan’s words. How can he say that when it means that, in return for saving Ahsoka, he would die in the process? How can Obi Wan expect him to make that choice… To make a choice that will directly lead to Obi Wan’s death?

        Yet, on the other hand… 

        Anakin can hear the way Ahsoka strains, clearly in pain. The white creature must be especially kind because not even Obi Wan seems to be in pain. Only Ahsoka seems to be struggling against what seems to be a very tight grip around her one held arm.

        This is an unfair choice.

        This is an unfair game.

        This is just plain unfair.

“Let them go,” Anakin declares, deciding that the rules of this game so unfairly brought forth by the older man are just not worth it. He glares at the Father with as much intimidation as he can muster. “I will not play your games. You will not make me choose!”

        The Father just watches on, waiting for something. “Only you can make my children release them.”

        And what is that supposed to be? Some sort of hint? 

“Anakin! The planet is the Force,” he hears Obi Wan shouting towards him, but he notices the strained quality of his voice. “Use it!”

        It’s not the kind of strain that comes from being held, rather… 

        …

        For some odd reason, Obi Wan doesn’t seem to have wanted to tell him that, and the only reason that he does so at all is because the situation seems so dire and terrible. Anakin feels like that sort of thing needs some time to consider and rethink, but he also knows that he has no time to be deliberating. He needs to act and he needs to act fast. 

        Since picking one of the two to save is out of the question, he needs to do what Obi Wan is reluctantly telling him to do: to use the planet… the Force… to make the creatures submit so that he can enact his choice of saving them both.

        And even if it means something as dangerous as using the Force that this planet apparently is made out of, then that is what he’ll do. To save them both, he’ll take the risk.

        Just like all the times he’s cleared his mind for access into the Force, Anakin lets that blanket of calm fall over his figure. He can feel it, the churning and vast amounts of the Force lolling about beneath the surface of nearly everything around him, and strangely enough, he finds it easy to connect to it.

“You will let them go!” Anakin declares. It’s as much of an order directed towards the beasts as it is a promise to himself.

        He throws his hands out to his sides, aiming his hands towards the two creatures, and a shockwave that seems to originate from him in the centre pulses outwards. Anakin can see the way his power collides with them both, coiling around their bodies as they skid backwards.

        With both hands rising, he watches the two creatures lift off from the ground. Clearly, by the way they struggle within the invisible hold, it’s him who’s doing the lifting and not them. 

        All around him, the world seems to shift in accordance with his motions. The sky becomes overcast almost as if “night” is falling again and the darkness that arrives with the sun being blotted out seems to allow for the ground below Anakin’s feet to glow. All the lines that were drawn there, creating the intricate image of a circle divided in half in a manner not as simple as a line slicing right down the middle with plenty of rune-like texts and smaller dots, begin to shine like a decorative image of stars and images and words.

        Even as the thunder seems to return to the scene, all Anakin feels is the deep calm of the great body of the Force that is here. He lets his hands gently lower, and on both sides, the claws holding both Ahsoka and Obi Wan finally loosen to let the two safely land on the ground below them, free.

        But Anakin isn’t done. Maybe he could stop there, but he doesn’t want to. They have to pay for what they've done, and that’s especially directed towards the black bodied one and what it’d done to himself and Ahsoka. At least, that’s what Anakin thinks. He also can’t let them go without doing something otherwise they’ll just snatch their previous prisoners up again.

        Anakin curls his hands towards himself, pulling the two creatures slightly closer his way in the centre before he throws his hands back out. Both the winged beasts are sent flying into the stone walls behind them so roughly that pieces are broken off at the moment of impact. 

        Once they rise, however, Anakin can tell that that wasn’t enough. The two take to the air again, eyes locked on their previously captured, and they lunge.

        Again, Anakin reaches out, aiming his attention on the black bodied one first.

“Down!” he yells towards that overly aggressive one, throwing it to the ground before turning to the white creature to do the same.

        Once he has them both pinned and finally grounded, they thrash wildly under his hold, but Anakin doesn’t let up on the pressure he’s exerting.

“On …” Anakin begins, nearly forcing the words past his teeth, “your knees!”

        It’s the black bodied who struggles with the most energy, and it’s fitting seeing as that’s how it’s been acting this entire time. Anakin can see the way it growls at him, snapping it’s jaws as it seems to desperately do… something. It roars again, nearly shaking the very air around them all, before Anakin catches the sound of something in his… 

        … in his head?

“…ou!”

        A voice. A familiar voice— the same otherworldly one from the “night” before.

“You!” the voice continues and Anakin can see the way the beast's red eyes are staring directly into his own. The beast’s mouth moves, yes, but not to make these words. They move to create more frustrated and angry growls. “…e’s usin… you, you foo…!”

        Huh? What?

        Then the beast suddenly breaks eye contact, struggling with a little less fervour beneath Anakin’s hold, and the voice speaks no longer. To it’s side, the white creature is the first to crumble beneath his influence, falling to the ground into a heap, and just as it’s head comes close to the ground, the sight of the white creature seems to disappear in a split second. There, the image of the beast is replaced with the sight of the green haired Daughter struggling to keep herself from being pressed flat onto the ground.

        Being the only one left to struggle, the black bodied creature grunts and growls for far longer than the Daughter had. It strains against Anakin, he can tell, but even his knees collide with the stone beneath it’s feet after some time. And just like the Daughter, the moment the black bodied beast comes close to being pressed flat to the ground, the body of the creature is also replaced with the figure of a man— “the Son,” maybe.

        Above Anakin, as he feels his tight grip on the Force begin to loosen, he can hear the storm clouds receding as the world ebbs into a gentle and lulling calm again.

        It’s all over, yet Anakin can’t get the words that “the Son” seemed to direct towards him.

        “He’s using you, you fool,” is what Anakin is sure “the Son” had said to him. His mind chooses to ignore the “you fool” part in favour of the other, more important part about how “he’s using you,” apparently.

        Who is using him? Could it be the… 

“And now you see who you truly are,” begins the Father’s voice at just the right time. “Only the Chosen One could tame both my children.”

        Anakin can see the way both the said children look up at him from the ground, but he feels far from powerful. And maybe that’s because of the way the two beings look like they’re… worried. Pleading with him with their eyes alone, in some ways. There’s something that they want, clearly, and Anakin has a feeling that it has nothing to do with what the Father might want from him.

        Because of all of that, naturally, something about all of this doesn’t feel right, even though both Ahsoka and Obi Wan are free. Still, that doesn’t mean that nothing of value was gained. Of course Anakin is satisfied with the fact that Obi Wan and Ahsoka are perfectly fine. If he had to be honest, at this rate, that was the one thing that really mattered. 

        … 

        So, that means no more looking for answers and no more stalling for whatever reason. This time, they should really focus on getting out of this place before they find themselves in more trouble than it’s worth.

“I've taken your test,” Anakin spits out, not exactly meaning to put so much venom in his words but not exactly adjusting his tone either. “Now fulfill your promise and let us go.”

“Ah, but first, you must understand the truth,” answers the Father.

        Great… Anakin starts to wonder if the Father just lied to him about being able to leave once the test was completed, but he doesn’t voice the doubts aloud. At least, not yet. 

“Now, all of you, leave us.”

        Anakin sees Ahsoka leaning closer to him, eyeing the Father past his figure with distrust and irritation. “Do not trust him,” she hisses to him.

“You think?” Anakin retorts with a tone that Ahsoka accepts, though only after offering the Father another glare.

“I said, leave us!”

        And nothing is left to keep the four from being there any longer. They leave, as ordered by the Father, and Anakin finds himself alone with him again.

“Do you feel your destiny? You must see it now.”

        Anakin turns and he watches the old man carefully with plenty of suspicion.

“I am dying,” the Father tells him almost too suddenly, “and you must replace me.”

“‘Replace you?’” Anakin repeats, raising a brow at such a crazy thought. He was angry with this old man, yes, but hearing that he’s dying is a bit sobering. “I can't stay here.”

        He needs to go back. He needs to leave with Obi Wan and Ahsoka and report back to his men and [y/n] that everything is actually fine. He needs to return to the war, not remain here, so he can end the fighting and fulfill that promise he made with Obi Wan on Naboo.

        There’s just no way he can stay.

“But this is yours,” the Father tells him, apparently surprised to hear that Anakin actually doesn’t want to stay, as he gestures to the world around him. “It has been foretold. The Chosen One will remain to keep my children in balance.”

        …

        And maybe it was foretold, but Anakin doesn’t want it. Not one bit. He steps back and away from the Father, shaking his head all the while.

“No,” Anakin says one more time. 

        That “no” seems to be the one that makes it through the old man’s skull because the Father sighs with defeat.

“I cannot force this duty onto you,” the Father says ruefully. “The choice must be yours.”

        Which is great to hear, but… Well, the face that the Father is making makes it seem not-so great, actually.

“But leave and your selfishness shall haunt you,” the Father tells him, “and the galaxy.”

        …

        Now, that’s a bit troubling to hear. But troubling as it may be, the choice has been made and Anakin finds that even if he feels bad with rejecting a dying person’s wish, he selfishly doesn’t want to change his decision either. 

        To stay here… It only takes one memory of [y/n] to make him rethink if this whole “Chosen One duty” business is worth so many sacrifices on his end. Giving up [y/n] and Obi Wan and Ahsoka… his life as a Jedi… the Order… 

        He just can’t do it.

Ahsoka's POV

        Ahsoka isn’t worried as she waits at the ship that’s been magically returned, which now sits at some sort of empty platform that doubles as a landing platform for the monastery. Even if she was worried, she isn’t anymore once Anakin appears, making his way to the ship after them. After all, that means that no matter what has happened while herself and Obi Wan were gone from Anakin’s side and what the important looking old man might’ve said to him, they can put all of this weird adventure behind them and leave.

        Finally, that is.

“Ready to get out of here?” Obi Wan asks the both of them from the top of the ramp.

        Ahsoka knows her answer, so she turns around to check for Anakin’s. Only, she sees him staring back at the monastery. Or, he’s at least staring at whatever part of the building that Anakin can see from his place halfway up the ramp. He doesn’t answer Obi Wan’s question, but once she climbs the rest of the way and turns back around, she sees that Anakin follows them.

        The ramp pulls up behind Anakin, and before long, they’re finally getting out of this weird place. As she follows behind Obi Wan for the cockpit, she takes a moment to wonder if [y/n] is worried about them. 

        They’ve been gone for so long, after all.

The Daughter's POV

        With her brother standing next to her, the Daughter watches the Jedi board their ship before it rises from the monastery grounds and into the sky. Their Father had told them that the Chosen One Anakin Skywalker had ultimately decided to leave this place instead of taking his rightful role as the one watching over her brother and herself. Their Father was disappointed as much as he was saddened by the choice.

        But for her brother and herself, that was joyous news that left her grateful. After all, Anakin Skywalker cannot stay in Mortis no matter how much her father wishes it so.

“You need not to worry, Sister,” begins a voice next to her, and when she turns, she sees her brother narrowing his eyes at the ship that’s steadily leaving them behind. “All will end well. That, I promise you.”

        If her brother wasn’t taking great care in reigning his powers, she’s sure that he could very well shatter everything nearby to pieces. Though, if she were being honest, shattering their surroundings would certainly not be the worst thing he can do with his powers unchecked.

“Our Father does not approve of what we are doing, Brother, and he has yet to approve of what we’ve done,” she says in return, taking great care in keeping her voice low and soft should her father hear what she was saying. “We must not intervene too much to avoid his growing suspicions.”

        But her brother doesn’t seem to agree, if his furious frown was any indication.

“Why should we care what Father approves and what he does not?” her brother hisses towards her. “He is dying, Sister, and we must do what we can before the worst befalls on us as well.”

        She sighs, staring at the red eyes of her brother’s that seem to be glowing with more and more malice and impatience as the seconds tick by. She supposes that she can understand what her brother is feeling and why he worries so much, but that doesn’t mean that what he wants to do or what he might want to do is right.

“And we have done all that we can,” she begins carefully, shaking her head. “Whatever shall occur next will be handled by [y/n] [l/n]. They will do what it is we’ve brought them here for. That, Brother, will be enough.”

        She watches the expressions flit over the face of her brother’s in rapid succession: anger, apprehension, worry— almost every negative emotion one can feel— without fear as she’s already used to each minute change. She sighs softly.

“Anakin Skywalker has chosen not to remain as our Father wishes,” she reminds him. “He will leave and he will continue to be the one to support [y/n] [l/n] just as we need him to. We have assured the best that we can.”

“But he is not ready, Sister, for such a task,” her brother hisses lowly, voice ripe with anger. “He is blinded by his destiny— that accursed prophecy! In order for [y/n] [l/n] to succeed, he cannot follow that destiny.”

        And she knows that. Even as her brother reaches out to her, taking hold of her shoulders, the crazed desperation in his eyes serves no function of intimidation or fear, but as one of many reminders.

“If he is to follow that destiny, he brings ruin to us all— to us. Do you not remember that, Sister?” her brother reminds her. “To do nothing as the Force ushers in a fate such as the one we have seen is unacceptable.”

        Those words that he speaks of is the truth and it is a truth that she wishes was a little easier to handle. 

“I know, Brother,” she says softly, nearly whispering her words.

        In her mind, she tries not to think too heavily on the matter or to delve too far. Already, she can sense the Force of this place begin to dwell too heavily on their combined and swirling emotions, so she brushes them away for the moment.

        For now, at least. 

“I know,” she reassures her brother as some strength returns to her voice. “And so I understand that what you must do must be done.”

        She tries to offer her brother a smile, perhaps as something to give him hope and strength for the long road ahead.

“Take care to not harm them, Brother,” she says, relinquishing some of her uncertainties in directly disobeying their Father and acting against the future that the Force had shown them so kindly— or, rather, a future that the Force had so cruelly shown them.

        That vision of her long-lasting death is not something that was very kind. Her Brother would not be putting on such an explosive display if it had been a kind vision. And though she cares about her father’s wishes and treasures him as a father, she also treasures her brother and the things he wants.

        And if he wanted to bend fate for her, then there was little that she could do— little that she wanted to do— but support him as well.

“[Y/n] [l/n] will not be pleased to see us act out of line,” she reminds her brother. “They will know, after all, if we do more or less than we are meant to do.”

“I know, Sister,” her brother assures her, nodding. A look of determination spreads over his face and nods again. “When Anakin Skywalker leaves this place, I will be sure that the goal he takes on as his own will be the one that we require of him.”

        And in her own mind, she apologizes to Anakin Skywalker because all they’re doing is changing everything that had already been decided into something they selfishly and desperately wanted. Of course, her apologies to him aren’t as great as they are for someone else. That “someone else” being [y/n] [l/n], she means. After all, they had no say whatsoever in the matter of their current otherworldly duties, so her apologies are greatest for the Champion of theirs picked and brought here without a choice.

        But what has been done has been done and all that is left to do is to see through their selfish wish for a dream that has no other foundation but [y/n] [l/n]’s resolve.

“So worry not, Sister,” her brother echoes, offering his rare and kind smile, “for I will not fail you.”

        And she has no doubts about that.

“I know, Brother.”

        Just a few seconds pass after deciding that all that you really can do is sit and wait before you feel a jerk to your body. There’s a heavy pressure that falls over you, but it lasts no longer than a single heartbeat, so all that you’re left with is a feeling that questions if that was even real or if you’d just imagined it.

        What is happening in Mortis right now?

        Those scales within you seem to shake soon after, but what follows, strangely enough, is a feeling of murky and uneasy determination from both of those two different halves. 

        Are the two halves, the maybe-the-Daughter and the maybe-the-Son, trying to do something? The uneasiness of it all tells you that you’re probably not going to like where anything is going, whatever that’s about, but the feeling begins to die away before you can really question it any further. Again, you’re left to wait in silence for yet another sign of literally anything at all.

        You sigh heavily. It’s only been a few seconds but who knows how long it’s been within that weird world of Mortis…