"Wait wait... what?" Ahsoka asked me with a raised eyebrow.
"Come on, isn't it a pretty good idea?" I ask her. I had just gotten back from my trip a few minutes ago, and shared my idea with Ahsoka in our room. It was dark outside by now, and most living things were definitely asleep at this point. Including Mara.
"I guess... but how'd you even come up with something like that?" she asks.
"I don't know it sort of... came to me. That island is honestly a really nice place." I told her. "Besides the Temple itself there's a small Jedi village there as well. Small, but habitable huts, plenty of open space to do whatever, and also there's a good place to land the ship. Wonderful for a place to call home."
"What about the Rebellion though? We can't just suddenly abandon them without a reason, besides the possibility that we're dead." Ahsoka points out.
"Yeah I know," I reassure her. "We'll still fix up the ship and then we'll figure out how to get back to familiar space. Once we let Senator Organa know we're alright, then we could continue our Fulcrum work. We work from the ship anyways, so if we get a better signal receiver and broadcaster then we could work right here."
She frowns thoughtfully, crossing her arms. "You know, I kind of like that," she says in agreement. "But we aren't telling anyone about this planet, not even Bail," she says firmly.
I think it over before nodding in agreement. "Yeah, I can accept that." It definitely made sense about how crucial it would be to not tell anyone about Ahch-To. First reason; the first Jedi Temple is here, so the Empire cannot be allowed to take it for Sidious's own twisted ambition. Second reason; nobody here knows anything about space travel, or even has any electrical technology. None of them are ready to deal with anyone from another planet, not for a long time. The only reason that doesn't include us three is because we're Jedi (at least I am) and we're deities in their old folklore, and we won't try to abuse or harm anything in their society.
"Good," Ahsoka says with a smile. "So you've told me about your wonderful trip to the island, learned the name of this planet, became an official Knight, and got the idea to live here while also continuing to support the Rebellion. Is that all?" she summarizes.
"Yup. Pretty much," I reply.
"You want to know what I learned while you were gone?" she says.
"You... learned something?" I ask in confusion. Wasn't she with Mara and repairing the ship the whole time? "What?"
She gathers herself before telling me. "That convor we've been seeing all these years?" she asks, and I widen my eyes slightly in surprise at the news of that, and that she's seen it as well. I nod my head and she continues. "Well... that's actually the Daughter," she says bluntly.
It takes a few moments for that to register in my mind as I stand there with a blank look on my face. Then I gape at her in shock.
"Wait... WHAT?" I exclaim in disbelief.
"Shh!" she replies harshly. "Do you want to wake Mara up?"
Lowering my voice I talk again. "You're saying that the convor is actually her? I knew it was connected to her from the Lothal temple but... it's her? How?" I ask in bewilderment.
"Her real name is Morai... and apparently she never fully died," she explains. "When she gave her life to save mine, she inadvertently transferred what remained of her spirit into me."
I'm speechless, struggling to comprehend the fact that the Daughter- or I guess Morai- is actually living on as a spirit within Ahsoka. "That's... geez. How do you even respond to learning that?" I say quietly.
"I still have a hard time believing it myself, trust me. But you'll flip out when I tell you that you're partially connected to her as well," she continues, a small smirk on her face as she waits for my reaction.
"Ok, now you lost me," I deadpanned.
She rolled her eyes. "The bond silly! She repaired it when she saved me from death!"
I blink my eyes, not expecting that but at the same time, not too surprised. When Ahsoka was brought back to life, I remember the feeling I had when our bond was mended with incredible amounts of light. I then recall my encounter with Snoke, specifically when he said I was immune to the dark because of the bond... and something else. Now it all makes sense, because Morai's connection to Ahsoka, and from her to me is what keeps me rooted in the Light. Now that I think of it, the only reason at all that I'm tempted by the dark side so much is because of my relation to Revan, since his blood runs through me, and my dark self and Snoke kept talking about Darth Revan.
"Well, every day since we've been on this planet has certainly been crazy," I mused.
"No kidding," she says in agreement.
Ahsoka moves over and lies down on the bed, patting the spot beside her. "Alright, no more "Force-rebel-problem" talks. I'm tired, and I'm sure you're tired so let's go to sleep already," she suggests with a grin.
"Oh how could I refuse you Sweetie Horns?" I ask rhetorically, rolling my eyes but laying down in the bed beside her with a grin. I pull the covers up and she immediately wraps her arms around me, laying her head on my shoulder. I wrap my own arm around her as well, pulling her closer as she buries her face in my neck.
"Good night little Jari," she says quietly.
"Good night Ahsoka," I reply, using the Force to flick off the light switch, and she snuggles even closer to me.
The next morning, Ahsoka, Mara and I were headed towards the Viking village to inform their chief of our plans for the future.
"Why do I get the feeling that I missed out on something yesterday?" Mara asks.
Before Ahsoka could answer, I reply rather bluntly. "Because you did," I remarked.
Ahsoka throws me a small, exasperated glare while Mara frowns up at me in annoyance. "Wow. Thank you so much for that dad," she says sarcastically.
"Anytime sweetheart," I reply with a shrug and a mischievous grin.
Eventually, we come up to the edge of the village, standing by the treeline. Taking a moment to survey the whole place, I frown a little bit. "Wait... where is the chief's house?" I ask.
Mara and Ahsoka both stare blankly at the village as well, realizing the problem. "Oh..." Ahsoka says in realization.
"We're idiots." Mara adds in agreement. "How did we not know which house belonged to the chief?"
"Well in that case, let's look for the most likely house then. Size? Space from the others? Impressiveness? Anything really." I suggest hopefully, trying to lift the mood.
"Actually they get raided by dragons every few weeks, so they constantly have to rebuild their houses," Mara deadpans.
I groan and rub my face with my hand. "Of course they do," I muttered in annoyance.
"Why don't we ask Hiccup?" Ahsoka suggests.
"Huh?" I ask in response.
She points to a nearby bush, where Hiccup is standing there, head peaking out. He fives off a startled yelp before walking out sheepishly towards us, much to my surprise. Guess I was so caught up in trying to figure out which house belonged to the chief that I didn't pay attention to my surroundings. Bad Jarik.
"Guess that's the second time you caught me..." Hiccup laughs nervously.
Hearing his voice, I frown thoughtfully. Have I heard that somewhere...?
"You don't need to hide around us you know," Ahsoka remarks in amusement, crossing her arms.
"Sorry, just a usual habit from my experiences I guess," he apologizes.
"Oh come on you're fine Hiccup! Nobody here can really sneak up on us anyways because we have the Force," Mara points out with a grin, saying the last part with pride.
"That's true. I guess I didn't really remember that myself," he admits dryly.
Hearing him continue to speak, I widen my eyes slightly in realization, remembering where I've heard him from before...
Walking along this strange pathway was absolutely mesmerizing, and the different voices continued to speak all around me. Some familiar, some different. Gateways and transparent pathways that defied gravity and physics were all around me. Who knew a place exited like this on Lothal?
Hearing the Daughter speak about her brother after being stabbed brought back sad memories. Another voice spoke, sounding a couple years younger than I am.
"I looked at him, and saw myself."
I didn't pay it much attention, continuing onwards as the voices continued to speak. Why did Satele tell me to come here? And what could Master Yoda be doing on his own personal journey...?
I pulled out of the memory with wide eyes. Back during the final days of the Clone Wars, when I entered the World Between Worlds, I heard Hiccup's voice! He sounds younger currently compared to what I heard there, but it's still him. Ahsoka glances over at me with a slightly raised eyebrow, having sensed something off.
"What is it?" she asks over the bond.
"Tell you later," I replied.
"Everyone's got their moments right?" Mara says to Hiccup, bringing me back to the present.
"I've had plenty of those," he replies. "So... you were looking for my dad's house?" he asks.
"Yeah," I tell him. "We just need to talk to him about what we're going to do next once our ship gets repaired."
"Ok. It's the large house on the top of the hill, next to the Great Hall," he says, pointing it out to us in the distance. "See it?"
"We do. Thanks," Ahsoka says gratefully. "You know what Mara, why don't you spend some time with Hiccup while me and Jarik talk to the chief," she suggests.
"Seriously?" Mara asks.
"Huh?" Hiccup says in surprise.
"I think that's a great idea," I say with a smile, nodding my head. "You two seemed to hit it off pretty well last time. I'm sure you'd be great friends with each other."
Hearing this, Mara shrugs. "Yeah, ok sure," she says in agreement.
"You really mean that?" Hiccup questions, and hearing the genuine bewilderment in his voice makes my heart stop a little bit. Is he really treated that badly in this village? We all saw what that one kid was like when confronting Mara. Poor Hiccup.
"Does it sound like I was kidding?" she demands, putting her hands to her hips and stepping forwards, giving Hiccup a threatening glare. He quickly backs up nervously, raising his hands.
"No no no, just making sure!" he quickly amends, and Mara immediately switches back to happy mode.
"Great!" she exclaims, and Hiccup sighs in relief. Ahsoka and I both share a quiet laugh with each other at Mara's threatening attitude.
"Well you kids have fun, we'll be back in... you know what, whenever," I say with a shrug, the two of us leaving Mara and Hiccup to their own devices. I just have to hope that nobody bullies them, because then I'd be worried.
For the bully.
"You sounded so responsible," Ahsoka says sarcastically.
"Hey, who knows how long our meet up with the chief may go?" I ask rhetorically.
"I doubt it'd be more then ten minutes," she says.
"You never know. Considering the way these people feel about us he could spend the first half hour either staring at you in bewilderment or threatening us with an axe," I remarked.
As if on cue, there was a sudden commotion nearby as one Viking threatened the other with an axe about them messing with their property of some kriffing bantha fodder I didn't care about.
"My point exactly," I tell her, gesturing to the two Vikings.
"Oh for Force's sake Jarik," she mutters, rubbing her face.
We continued our walk around the village, staying more out of the busier streets just to not gather so much attention. Those we did pass by stared at us with suspicion, confusion or bewilderment, giving us a wide berth as we moved by them. Eventually, we head up the small incline to the chief's house, and I knock on the door.
I muffled shout from inside immediately answered as someone stomped to the door. "SPITELOUT, FOR THE LAST TIME I AM NOT-!"
The door slams open in front of us, and the chief's angry ranting is cut off as he notices us, staring in surprise for a few moments. Me and Ahsoka both glance at each other before looking back at him, and he coughs nervously.
"Oh... Sorry about that I didn't know it was you..." he apologizes quietly, obviously embarrassed. He coughs once more before straightening his posture, standing proudly before us. Ahsoka was right; he is really tall.
"What're you here for?" he gruffly asks, not rudely, but not polite. Just blunt and straight to the point, obviously still wary of Ahsoka, and on a smaller level me as well.
"We just want to let you know what our plans for the future are once we finish fixing our ship," she tells him.
Stoick frowns thoughtfully before nodding his head once. "Aye, let's get it over with then," he says in agreement, opening the door wider and inviting us into his house. In the center of the room is a fireplace, which is currently lit. To the left side is a set of stairs leading to the second floor, and scattered around the room are weapons, some chairs, and also what I think is a small kitchen are off to the side. There's also another door at the back of the room, which I assume to be Stoick's bedroom.
We sit down a a few chairs around the fire as Stoick closes the door, pulling up another large chair and sitting down as well, eyeing us with narrowed eyes. He turns his gaze to me analytically.
"Who were you again?" he questions.
"I'm Jarik Shan, chief," I reply.
He nods once. "Good to see you doing better," he says simply before getting to the matter at hand. "So, what've you got to say?" he asks.
"As you know, we came from the stars, other planets really and crashed here. I can't exactly explain our reasons for crashing or what we do exactly in simple terms, so I'll skip that for now." Ahsoka tells him. "Once we fix our ship, we'll head back to our allies and let them know we're alright and where we've been."
"And these allies of yours... will they come here as well?" he asks cautiously, narrowing his eyes.
I shake my head. "No. We're not going to tell anyone else about this planet. It's quite obvious you've never encountered people like us before, so more coming here isn't a good idea, especially if the wrong people learn about your planet."
"What kind of people?" Stoick questions.
"Jarik and I are a part of a rebel alliance, fighting against a ruling Empire." Ahsoka explains. "And bringing the Empire's attention to your world is something we absolutely do not want to happen."
He nods his head in agreement. "Aye, that's true. Many in the village are already suspicious enough of you three, so more would only worsen the problem. Thank you for that," he says.
"Of course," I reply.
"Also... after we let them know, we've considering coming back here and living on another island nearby," Ahsoka says.
He furrows his brow in confusion. "Another island? Why would you even bother? You aren't from our world," he demands.
"Our lives are really dangerous, and having our daughter Mara added into that is something we've never enjoyed," I explain. "We constantly have to move from place to place, but nobody else in the galaxy knows about this planet but us," I say, and he nods in understanding. "Also, the island I found has a special significance to us, since it's actually the first Jedi Temple... do you know what a Jedi is?"
Stoick furrows his brow in confusion, before his eyes widened in recognition. "Wait... Jedi?! You found the temple of the Jedi? How?!" he demands. "That place has been lost for millennia!"
"Jarik found it because he was called there yesterday. You see, the three of us, we're all Jedi ourselves." Ahsoka tells him.
"That's absurd! Blasphemy!" he says angrily, glaring at us. "You dare claim to be the messengers sent from Asgard?!" he demands.
"Whoa whoa, hey stop for a second!" I exclaim, quieting him down. "Look, I don't know anything about your gods, or 'Asgard,' but I am a Jedi," I say firmly.
"How could you possibly be a Jedi?" he demands skeptically.
"Because we use the Force. It's what gives a Jedi their power," I answer.
"Power? What in Thor's name are you talking about? You mean your supposed witchcraft?" he asks, glaring at us suspiciously.
"No I'm not a witch!" Ahsoka replies in annoyance, crossing her arms. "All Jedi possess the Force, which gives us different abilities. It's how I calmed down that dragon before, letting it know I wasn't a threat."
"I'll believe it when I see proof of your claims," he says stubbornly, refusing to believe us as Jedi. This will always be a problem to the more primitive cultures who haven't discovered much electrical technology yet; they take their beliefs in religion very seriously. It's not a bad thing by any means, I believe people are allowed to believe in whatever they want, it just makes it harder to explain this to them. Especially if they're stubborn like Stoick.
"You want proof?" I ask, standing up. Holding out my right hand, I call on the Force to summon a large axe resting on the wall to my hand. It flies across the room, and I grip it perfectly, although finding it a little bit heavy.
Luckily that did the trick, and Stoick stares at me with wide eyes, shocked that I was able to pull an axe to my hand without moving.
"Gothi believes us," Ahsoka adds.
He looks between the two of us with wide eyes. "Odin's beard..." he whispers. It takes a few more seconds before he finally, slowly nods his head. "I can't believe it... but you are Jedi."
I can sense he's about to go into a humble apology, and shut him down before he could even start. "Before you go into an apology or prayer, whatever you were about to do, we aren't gods. Never have been. We live to be the same age as normal people, have the same mortality as anyone else. Depending on the species anyways," I told him.
He nods again, laying back in his chair after being just about ready to get up. "Okay... but may I ask... why return to Ahch-To now? Jedi haven't been here for thousands of years," he asks in confusion.
"Well, it was actually more of an accident." Ahsoka admits sheepishly. "Your planet was lost to us a long time ago, and faded from memory. As for why..." she sighs sadly, gathering herself before continuing. "About ten years ago, nearly all of the Jedi were wiped out."
"What?!" he asks in shock. "By this Empire you've spoken of?"
"Yeah," I reply with a nod. "The Emperor brought down the previous government from the inside, and had us all wiped out to establish his rule. He's a Sith Lord, the ancient enemy of the Jedi." I then eye him with a serious gaze. "Which is why we will not let anyone else ever know of your planet. If the Emperor found out that the first Jedi Temple was found, he would crush you."
Stoick nods his head, understanding the severity of the situation. "I'm... sorry for you losses. But thank you for keeping us hidden from this... Emperor," he says gratefully.
Ahsoka nods her head. "Of course chief Stoick."