TheMaster4444 here. Hope you like it.
Leyna darted down the steps, smashing through Anakin and Obi-wan. The two mighty Jedi were surprised when the twelve year old girl knocked them down like ragdolls, sending them flying into the walls of the room. The little girl rushed past the commotion she had just caused and blasted the door off its hinges as she fled the scene. Everyone, including Syldeena and Damian, who had never seen their daughter/sister act so frightened, were shocked at the raw tenacity of the child's brief outburst.
Finally, Damian collected himself enough to speak. "I'll go find her. She always goes to the same place anyway." His voice was like a python's hiss though disturbingly familiar to the trio of Jedi. Quickly, the dark boy ran out of the house after his sister.
Obi-wan turned to Ahsoka, who was sitting awestruck on the cot. "See if you can help him" he ordered in a tone that he only used when he wanted absolutely no argument. For once, the young padawan had none. She followed the children with greatest haste.
Syldeena looked exasperated. "I am so sorry Master Jedi" she apologized. "Leyna has always been perfectly comfortable with visitors before, even unexpected ones. It is usually Damian who slammed them against the wall." The wary mother turned her gaze up the stairwell. "If he said something to her to make her afraid, I swear that boy will wish he was in the Wastes" she muttered to herself, though the Jedi could hear her perfectly. She ascended the stairs to check that there was no evidence of underhand play in the children's room.
Anakin and Obi-wan stared at each other from across the room. "Did you feel what I sensed?" Anakin asked, silently begging he had imagined what he had felt.
But Obi-wan merely nodded. "Both of those kids were extremely powerful in the force. Your equal in raw strength easily. But the texture of the power, it was an exact duplicate of the aura that we sensed on Mortis with the Ones."
"But the Ones died" Anakin pointed out. "And these kids couldn't have been on Mortis when we were. We would have sensed power that strong even with the highly distracting adventures that were going on. Besides, we barely made it off the planet in time; there is no way they could have escaped."
"Yet here they are" Obi-wan countered. "But I think you are right. Leyna and Damian weren't on Mortis when we were, in fact I doubt they have ever heard of the planet. But regardless of their connection to the Ones, they are incredibly strong in the Force."
"Leyna's little tantrum proved that" Anakin lamented. The blonde demon had not even touched the veteran warriors, instead unleashing a torrential fist of kinetic energy. The blast was similar to a force push but ten times more powerful.
"They are far too old for training" Obi-wan continued. "But that kind of unparalleled potential cannot be left out in the galaxy at the disposal of anyone who should find them. If the Sith discovered them, their fall could plunge whole systems into eternal darkness."
"Judging by Damian, it doesn't look like they have very far to fall" Anakin grumbled. "But you're the boss, what do you what to do?"
"Right now? I want Ahsoka to hurry up and get back here with the children so we can eat."
"Finally! Something we agree on."
Running around a jungle planet that made her miss being shot at by clankers was not how Ahsoka had wanted to spend her day. At least blowing up droids was fun.
But Damian was what made the journey truly horrible. Not that he was obtrusive or rude. He was defiantly the strong silent type. But he cast of waves of rage and determination that made Ahsoka want to rip out her master's throat for every time he had called her Snips. She knew it was pointless and irrational, but whatever aura the kid was resonating affected her nonetheless. Sort of like another person she had met once, someone who had killed her.
They approached a reasonably sized clearing about three meters in diameter. Soft, emerald grass blanketed the ground, with several ditches barred with twigs dotting the land. The ditches contained tiny feline creatures with four eyes and monstrous rows of sharp teeth. Ahsoka recognized them as nexu cubs and tread carefully, knowing what the mothers would do to them if they found them near their young. Damian didn't give the cats a moment's regard, instead making straight for the feature commanding attention at the center.
It was a tree but unlike any Ahsoka had seen before. Roots branching out from the center were the size of speeder bikes and the trunk was as tall as a Coruscanti skyscraper. The titan's trunk was smooth and brown, lacking the exotic features of those the young padawan had seen on Felucia but somehow giving the beast a homely feeling. When she looked up, Ahsoka spotted a single branch at least a kilometer in the air with a tiny figure on it that she could just make out.
The Togruta turned to Damian. "Please tell me she isn't all the way up there."
Damian nodded. "I'm afraid she is. She always comes here when she is lonely or upset. We discovered the tree when we were little and over the last six months we've come here more and more often."
Ahsoka raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "She came to a nexu nesting ground when she was frightened? And she never got hurt?"
"The nexu only showed up three months ago" Damian explained. "even after that though, they were pretty easy to avoid."
"Great" Ahsoka breathed. "So how are we going to get up there?"
Damian stared at her like it was obvious. When the Jedi didn't relent, he realized that she honestly did not know. "We are going to go up the same way she did" he explained.
Ahsoka still did not understand what he was talking about but in a moment her questions were answered. Appearing first gradually but accelerating in their formation, a pair of bat like dark wings sized for a human materialized on Damian's back, emerging seemingly right through his jacket. His aura of the dark side increased as well, casting off fear that made Ahsoka want to run and hide. The grass dulled a little bit. The nexu cubs cowered in the center of their nests. All around the clearing, a shadow was descending. Ahsoka recognized the instruments of flight. They were exactly the same as the Son's.
Damian stretched out his new gargoyle wings like they were no big deal. He returned his gaze to Ahsoka. "Now you call up your's" he demanded.
"I don't have wings" the padawan protested.
Damian blinked in confusion. "Really?" he inquired, surprised. "I thought all force sensitives had them. Leyna and I do, except hers are"-
"Griffin wings" Ahsoka finished.
"How'd you know?" a suspicious Damian asked.
"Lucky guess" Ahsoka lied. "Now how's about you give me a lift to the top so we can grab your sister and be back in time for dinner?"
Damian still more questions to ask but his stomach took command. So, grasping Ahsoka's hand tight, he launched himself into the air and streaked for the wooden loft.
Leyna shivered at the giant tree's peak but not because it was cold. Those people, those Jedi, the little girl thought terrified. They are the same ones. The same ones from the first dream.
