A/N: Hello back readers! Sorry for the slight delay, moving out and in took a toll on my social life... :( But I am back for the next few chapters that are left in this story! :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or any of its characters. I only own my OCs Cas, Tani and Sehr along with the plot of this story.
10. The Temple
Cas had been sitting in this small room for hours, her legs painfully folded in front of her, her eyes closes, her breath even. She was bored. She did not really know what her mother, sat in the same position in front of her, was waiting for.
She peaked once, then twice, and her heart quickened its pace in a very obvious way for the meditating Jedi who sighed, then opened her own eyes.
"You are not trying, Cas."
The young woman shrugged. "I don't know what you're waiting for. Should I fall asleep? Hear something, see something?"
"The Force is strong within you, Cas, whether you like it or not. You have had visions before, but to conjure them needs practice, and more than that...disciplin." Cas chuckled, and Tani sighed. "I am trying to make you forget where we are headed."
"Make me forget or you?" she answered bitterly. The blow touched its aim, and Tani's cheeks lost all colours. And Cas felt bad. "I'm sorry, it wa cruel of me to say that."
"Yes, it was." her mother answered in a small voice before standing. "I'll go see where we are at. Stay here, and try to focus."
Cas, who had been about to stand as well, to escape this small room, fell back onto the rug, sighed deeply, then thought that maybe this whole thing would indeed make her forget the passing of time.
She closed her eyes, and tried to focus on her breathing, and the slowing beating of her heart...
It was raining. Badly.
Cas was standing in front of a darkened building, one she could barely make out the outline of. It seemed built out of ruins.
Something was buzzing nearby, and it made her scared. She had recognized the sound, and the foreboding it brought with it.
Her eyes searched for the light-sabre admist the water that poured down her face, and there they were.
Bodies.
Slouched down in the mud, burnt, broken, faces twisted in postures of fear.
She screamed.
"Don't be afraid, little mouse," a dark and deep voice said close to her.
She turned around and her eyes widened. There was standing a young man she knew very well. She remembered vividly the smile that would sometimes adorn in full lips when they were playing; she remembered thinking he was very pretty; she remembered asking him to marry her someday, and the laugh that had ensued.
In his hand was the dreaded light-sabre, but it was not the green or blue colour she was used to, no, it was the colour of the blood it had just shed.
She looked back up, and asked "Why, Ben?"
He smiled, but it was twisted, mad. "For power."
He raised his arm, and Cas did the same in pure instinct, as if flesh and bones could stop what was about to come down on her.
And she woke up.
She must have screamed when she was under, for her mother and Jessika were both leaning over where she was lying on the floor, with Poe watching worriedly from the door.
"What happened?" her mother asked in a whisper.
Cas' purple eyes were swallowed by the black of their pupils, fear overwhelming her still. "I knew him!" she blurted out. "The man who killed them. Ben Solo."
Poe growled from his spot, and she looked at him in surprise. "He's called Kylo Ren nowadays," and he left. Jessika followed.
"Ma?" Cas asked in a small voice, "was it true? What I saw?"
Tani sighed. "That you knew him? Yes, what pupil of ours did not? If I recall, you had quite the crush on him, but then again, most girls did." She chuckled, but the laugh was laced with sadness. "He was also my nephew. And now he has killed his own father."
Cas sat up, and her hand went to her mother's shoulder. "Why was I shown this?"
Tani smiled sadly again. "Everything has a meaning, darling. Maybe you were meant to remember. To recognize him. Maybe you are fated to meet again."
Cas nodded once. "Then I'll be ready to receive him."