Back from Vacation! Note: Writing is slanted to represent dream state.
I hit the ground with a thud. I managed to get up on my knees and look around me. The lady lent me a hand and pulled me to my feet.
"Where are we?" I groaned.
She smiled mischievously. "Oh trust me, you know where we are."
I looked around. Sure enough, I recognized the scenery.
"The landing deck from this morning," I answered.
"Yep," confirmed the lady.
I watched as my master and I conversed. Hearing it twice felt kind of redundant.
"You're watching the wrong thing," the lady commented," Look to your left."
I obeyed and turned my vision. I gasped to find the snipper hiding behind a column. He was loading his gun exactly how I had seen him do it when I had my first seizure. It wasn't long before I saw myself running towards the building. Unfortunately, that was right were the snipper wanted me.
"Yea, I know this. He shot at me from behind the column. What am I supposed to be…?"
I was interrupted by the sound of a laser being fired. My master pushed me out of the way just like before. I turned to the lady with a confused look on my face.
"Wait for it," she replied.
I turned back to discover exactly what I was supposed to notice. Out of nowhere, a glowing whip flew towards the snipper and wrapped around his neck. Even his strong armor wasn't enough to protect him from the intensity of the fire whip. He fell dead in seconds, and the whip slunk back into the shadows from whence it came.
"Whoa!" I exclaimed.
"That," said the lady with a slightly amused look on her face, "was what you were supposed to see."
I gazed in awe before responding.
"But who attacked him with the whip in the first place?" I asked.
"Think about it."
I pondered.
"That was a Zygerrian whip! What would a Zygerrian want with a Death Watch snipper? No, check that; what would a lone Death Watch snipper what with me?"
"Think harder."
I was beginning to get frustrated. I thought back to what the Council had said. They had mentioned something about the Lakow and a whip art of sorts.
"Well, it couldn't have been a Lakow!" I rationalized, "Could it?"
She continued to smirk at me. I was starting to hate that smirk, not only because it was irritating, but also because it was my own smirk on another person's face.
"I told you that I couldn't tell you everything, but I will tell you this. Your vision of the palace fire will reveal to you the answer in time. The Lakow story is written in that one vision of the past. All you have to do is discover it."
I sighed and continued to ponder.
"Viszla was Mar-Lakow's brother, correct?"
She nodded. "You're on the right track."
I groaned. I was irritated with how little she was telling me. "Great, but could you at least tell me if Viszla killed his brother?"
She hesitated. "I suppose, but I don't want to mislead you."
"Mislead me?" I asked, "You mean he did kill Mar-Lakow?"
She nodded slightly. "Yes, but it's not what you think."
"Well, he either did killed him or he didn't. What else could it be?"
"He killed him," the lady replied, "I can tell you no more on the subject."
I let out a frustrated "ugh". None of this was pulling together. If Mar-Lakow was dead, that only left Sha-Lakow, unless…
"Just how many Lakow's are currently living?" I asked.
"Not including Viszla, one," she answered, "Sha-Lakow."
Rats, dead end. Sha-Lakow was alive. I figured as much, but that still means that Viszla didn't kill his nephew but managed to kill his brother. That probably meant that Sha-Lakow escaped somehow, most likely with a grudge against the Death Watch. It would make sense then if he killed the snipper for revenge. I looked back to the lady.
"So that means that either Viszla or Sha-Lakow killed the snipper. Either that, or another person trained in whip art, most likely a Zygerrian."
"Correct."
I nodded. "Can you tell me anything else? Maybe why that snipper was after me?"
She said nothing. I was about to ask her again before the scene crumbled around me and the ground disappeared from under my feet. In a matter of seconds we were free-falling again.
I hit the ground even harder than last time. You would think that falling in a dream would hurt less instead of more. I got up myself this time, without any help. There was no vision present, only the lady. She was seated a few meters in front of me on what seemed like a rock.
"Umm…" I mumbled, "Lady?"
"Raana."
I grimaced. "Wha…what?"
"My name is Raana," she repeated, "Raana Tey."
I paused, wondering why that name sounded so familiar. My eyes widened as I realized the truth. She must've sensed that I understood because she turned to me with a nervous look on her face.
"You're…you…how could… I'm…" My voice came out in short utters.
"Hi," she said shyly, obviously concerned about what I might think, and rightly so.
"You were a member of the Jedi Covenant!" I finally managed to say, "You were one of the seers that saw your padawan fall to the dark side in a vision. As a result, you killed her and suggested that others do the same! You were the leader of the Padawan Massacre!"
She looked at the ground ashamed.
"How could you?"
She looked up at me. I was surprised to find tears in her eyes.
"Do you think I wanted to? Kamlin was my friend. I had a bond with her that all masters have. But you have to understand; the times were terrifying. The Sith were a huge threat. I couldn't afford to lose Kamlin to the dark side. Her abilities would have been lethal against the Order. My fellow masters' students were very similar. It was painful, but we had to do it. I paid for my actions, though. I was tormented by visions of her death and the revenge that would be taken against me. The latter came true: I was killed by a surviving padawan.
I continued to stare at her in shock. She buried her face in her hands, as if attempting to hide the pain.
"All I was trying to do was prevent the future, Ahsoka!" she continued, "My visions were always accurate. I had never had one that didn't eventually come true. On top of that, I myself have always struggled against the dark side. You probably know that from what you've studied at the temple. I didn't want the same thing for my student."
All I could do was stare at her blankly. I was in too great a state of shock to say anything. This lady that looked exactly like me had done horrible things in the past. I had been taught to show contempt towards her, to learn from her mistakes. "Don't be a Raana." It was a saying that would occasionally be tossed out at misbehaving younglings, even though it was rarely mentioned. Yet before me, I saw a lady that wasn't really cruel at all, just…conflicted, wanting to do good but fearful of negative results. She had literally been torn apart by her visions and turned into a monster. People often condemned her for this, but something told me that she was by no means the only person to suffer through this, whether in the past, present, or maybe even the future.
I put my hand on her shoulder. "I understand. You were literally going insane from the sheer intensity of visions. I can understand how that would happen."
She turned and smiled at me. It was then I noticed how nice her smile was. She didn't look that evil at all.
"Thanks," she said simply.
I nodded and smiled uncomfortably. She noticed this and knew why.
"When I said that I was a warning from a past, I didn't mean that you were going to go insane from visions. I went insane because I put so much trust in what I saw. Ahsoka, the future is incredibly unstable, and the past and present are rarely what they seem. You'll often meet your destiny while attempting to avoid it. Worrying about what you see and hear is dangerous. Everything that happens in you visions are often just warnings. I'm a warning…" she paused uncomfortably, "…and what I'm about to tell you is just a warning too."
I grimaced. "What do you mean?"
"The prophecy," she replied.
I must've had a pretty astonished look on my face, because Raana laughed before continuing.
"Well you didn't think that your master was the only one who got prophecies, did you? Oh no, my dear, in fact, you prophecy is directly intertwined with his."
"Umm…what?" I stuttered.
"'The Prophecy of the Descendant'," she quoted.
I grinned slightly. "Okay, sounds regal enough."
She grinned in response. "Perfect, then allow me to elaborate. You've probably figured out by now that you're my direct descendant."
My jaw dropped. "Oh yes, of course! How could I have possibly not known that?" I said sarcastically, "Come again, I'm what?"
Raana's smile broadened. "You are my direct descendant. Oh come on, surely you noticed the family resemblance!"
"Well yeah, but..." I uttered, trying to compose my exact thoughts, "You were a Jedi and all. The Code would forbid you from…"
I stopped myself and continued to stare at Raana. We were silent for a few moments before we both burst out laughing.
"Okay, okay," I admitted through giggle fits, "I guess neither one of us is exactly prone to obeying the Code to the letter."
"Or in some cases, obeying the Code at all," she added, still laughing.
"Okay, yeah, I know. But still, isn't outright defiance to the attachment law a little bit…much?"
"It was when I was young. I headed the Code and loved the Jedi life, but I loved him more. I made a decision. I volunteered to be stationed at the Outer Rim on a base, guarding our station there. I know, I know, it sounds terribly boring, but it gave me the opportunity to have my baby without anybody noticing. When I returned to the temple, I gave the baby to his father. Eventually, I became a master and he moved on with his life. We never saw each other again."
"So I came out of that lineage?"
She nodded. I nodded in response. "Okay, I can see how that would work. Extremely underhanded, probably very difficult, yet incredibly brilliant."
"Thank you," she replied.
I nodded. "Now, you were saying something about a prophecy?"
"Right," she responded. I saw her get up from sitting and walk over to what seemed like a hologram tablet. How had I not noticed that before? She approached it and touched it lightly. As soon as she did, an inscription began to cover the wall, written in Togruti.
"Do you understand this?" she asked.
"Slightly," I responded,"I studied it at the Jedi Temple."
"I'll read it out loud to you," she volunteered, "Now, promise not to worry too much. Just be aware."
"Okay, sure," I promised, eager to hear what she had to show me.
She nodded. Putting her other hand on the tablet, she began to recite the words that would change my life forever.
"Child of Tey, Bearer of the Sight,
Head the advice of your future,
Remember the mistakes of the past,
Attachment to shall your freedom,
Trusting shall your liberation,
But remain in one attachment alone and betrayal will fall upon you,
Your master, your brother, loves too much for his own good,
Should you continue to walk under him, you will not see your nineteenth year, and he will fall
Should you walk away from him though, your life will save him, your death will destroy him,
Be warned, those who love you endanger themselves, but you do not endanger them."
By the time she was done, my mouth must have been so wide open that someone could've suck an entire human head in it and it still wouldn't have been full.
"You said you wouldn't get worried," Raana reminded me.
I gave her a dazed look. "How am I supposed to? I just found out that learning under my master is going to literally kill me and cause him to fall to the dark side! And by the way, don't you mean 'Attachment shall be your freedom' and 'Trusting shall be your liberation'?"
"First of all, it didn't say that staying your master's student was going to cause him to fall to the dark side. It said that if you remain under him, you will die. Second of all, I read what was there, so no, there are no be's in either one of those lines."
I moaned and began rubbing my temples. Not worrying was harder that I thought it would be. All of a sudden, a reoccurring concern re-entered my brain.
"Raana," I begged, "Please tell me that Lux is not involved in any of this."
She said nothing for a while. "Our time is up, child. You will be able to meet with me any time you re-enter the dream state. You still have much to learn as a seer, and even more to learn about the events that are approaching soon. However, I believe you have your master concerned."
I felt the vision fade and panicked. "NO! Wait, Raana! If…!"
My words were lost as sound and time disappeared. Everything was completely black.
...
I sat up quicker that I ever had before. The medical bed I was on was soaked with sweat and for a while, I wasn't even sure if I was breathing. I immediately recognized I was alone with not even a medical droid present. This relieved be greatly. I didn't want anybody to know what happened yet. I finally managed to control my breathing. As soon as I could even slightly speak, I continued where I had been cut off:
"If," I whispered, "I remain with my master, will my death be by his hand?"
Thanks for Reading! Review if you have an opinion...or if you don't I guess, I don't know what you would say. Surprise me! :D
