Chapter 21

"Maul." Tholme looks very pissed off, "He's very very dead now."

"Well, while I don't normally condone such actions, I find myself rather grateful this time."

After that, well, let's just say it's a painful wait for the others for everyone. Das and Petra turn up in speeders with nets holding all kinds of crap attached to the side.

"Well you said grab what we can, right?" Das says to Tyranus' disbelieving look, he smiles.

"Remind me never to underestimate you." Das grins.

Two hours, a search party, and several attempted comm calls later, Mace and Mic arrive, except…well they both have beards, and look pretty ragged and in need of a shower, Mace has hair…that's weird.

"What the…"

"Don't ask. Just get us the fuck out of here." Mace requests, holding up a hand to halt Garen's question, then the building explodes. "Quickly."

Just as they make the atmosphere, there's a bigger explosion from the surface, they get out of there as fast as they can.

"I am so very glad to say goodbye to Tatooine again." Anakin tells them all, Arlie nods.

"Oh I don't know, your nephew was born there afterall." Obi-Wan says, happily looking down at the infant in his arms, born just a few minutes prior to Mic and Mace returning.

"Quin, we were right."

"Arlie? What? Where are you?!"

"We were right Quin, we were right!"

"About what? Arl what's happening?!"

"I didn't want to be right." He sees her at last, she stands, looking dejectedly out over the balcony in Mace's quarters. He goes over and wraps his arms around her. She sobs into his arms. "It's Quilo, she's the one doing this. I don't know how to stop this. I can't kill my Padawan, Quin."

"You won't have to Arl, we'll find a way to save her."

"Like we did Sheev?" He sighs, wiping away her tears.

"Did you get Wrath?" She nods, "Good. Now we will fix this. I promise." She still looks distraught, "Trust me."

"No hesitation."

Quin wakes up in medical on Coruscant, Dooku is asleep in a chair next to the bed, Aayla curled into his side and also asleep. His Former-Master asleep on the bed beside his. Qui-Gon walks in the door holding a baby, Quin's heart melts.

"You're awake!" Qui-Gon whispers happily, volume low in deference to the sleeping occupants of the room.

"Obi-Wan?"

"Is finally sleeping, thought I'd take this one out for a stroll since he woke up thirty seconds after Little Obi finally stopped fretting enough to go to sleep. Want to hold him?" Qui-Gon asks, Quin nods enthusiastically, holding his arms out. Qui shows him how to hold the baby before putting him in his arms.

"Qui, your son is cute as crap!" Qui-Gon chuckles, "You two decided on a name yet?"

"Yeah, you're holding Sheev Micahl Jinn-Lars." Quin smiles at the baby.

"I think it's brilliant." Qui-Gon smiles proudly at his words, "Hello Little Potato, you look a lot like your Aunt actually. You see Amidala in Lil Potato's face?" Qui peers down at his face before nodding appraisingly. Quin sees Dooku stirring and uses the force to swat his shoulder, he sits up straighter. "Hey honey, can we get one? They're cute as shit." Dooku looks from him to the baby and back again.

"Quin I think you'll find several biological hurdles in your plan." Quin chuckles.

"We could adopt, or kidnap a Little Potato of our own."

"We have a Padawan, we can get another."

"Yeah but not while they're Potato's."

"I'm seventy-one, I am far too hold to have a po-a baby." Quin grins at the near slip.

"But…cute!" Dooku sighs.

"Tell you what, we'll talk about it when you're released." Quin grins, before smiling sweetly down at the baby who gurgles up at him.

"Hang on, why can I hear you guys?" The two exchange looks that he nearly misses, transfixed by the little face below him.

"We were sort of hoping you could tell us. You died Quin, on the transport here. Then there was white light, and then you were back, and fine." Arlie tells him as she and Terza walk into the room. Suddenly Quin's eyes tear up, he looks at them both, smiling so very very widely.

"What? You know what happened?" Dooku asks him desperately wanting to know. He had been so frightened.

"Yes, I do. Let's just say I have friends in high places." Arlie cocks an eyebrow at him, nodding slowly in recognition of the familiar sentence. "So what happened after I passed out, and possibly a bit before, things are admittedly a little fuzzy."

"I am not surprised. Well, Maul is dead, gods know what happened to Wrath, but he's lost his main…err…vessel. Sorry Qui-Gon."

"At least we all have good shields now and know the new one is no one in the Order." They all nod before Quin stops smiling down at the baby.

"Wrath's dead. His soul was destroyed." They look at him in surprise, he just nods at them.

"So, is that it then? Maul, Wrath, the device, they're all gone?" Quin sighs, expression hardening.

"Yes, they are. But our job is far from over."

"Of course it is."

"I know who the other entity is, the one we've spent years trying to work out how to destroy."

"So now what then?" Arlie asks him, he smiles at her.

"Now we find out how to save her."

"You want to what?!" Mace asks in disbelief, he'd buzz cut his hair, but it's still there, his facial hair groomed into a neat goatee. Mic had just neatened his full beard enough to be presentable.

"I want to find a way to take away the other entity's power without hurting her."

"Why?" Mic asks, Quin just looks at them both for a moment.

"Okay seriously, what's with the beards? I wasn't out that long, was I?" Dooku snickers from his seat, beside Quin and holding his hand.

"No Dear, four days."

"Right, so, beards?"

"Let's just say, that when one stumbles upon an artefact in a Dark Sith's lair, don't try and transport it out. Even without touching it, weird shit can happen."

"Can we reduce the swearing around my infant child please?" Obi-Wan requests, he'd demanded to be allowed to come along to this meeting, given the stressful events surrounding the birth, Terza had agreed so long as he remained seated and did nothing too strenuous. Which she could keep an eye on since she's there too.

"And around our Padawan." Mic tells Mace pointedly, he smiles sheepishly, the Padawan in question seated on Arlie's lap along with Ani, giggles.

"Okay, so we have, for all intents and purposes, a Dark Force and a Light Force. One that means harm and one that wishes to help. Correct?" Valorum questions, he had not been able to attend the actual meeting, but he had holo-called in.

"…I…suppose." Quin says as he thinks it over.

"Do we need to interfere? Things seem rather balanced at the moment, if we interfere and fail, we are left in darkness, if left at all." Finis asks, Ani looks up suddenly.

"It's not balance." Obi-Wan very slowly lifts his head to look at his Padawan in shock.

"What did you just say?" He asks in a loud whisper, Anakin looks confused.

"It's not balance." Obi-Wan looks to Arl who was looking wide-eyed at her brother as well.

"What do you mean Ani?" Arl asks hesitantly, no one else had any idea what the two were freaking out about, but then again, neither had mentioned the prophecy in regards to him before, not in this timeline.

"It's equal, but if it were balanced, there wouldn't be sides, it'd be smoothed over."

"Anakin what are you talking about?" Owen asks him, completely lost, as are the others, including Arlie and Obi.

"Well, it's like, um, rainbow ice-cream. But not the one in strips, the marbled one. The strips are equal, but they have borders, sometimes colours cross over, it's war. The marbled one is balanced, everything is everywhere and smoothed over, no borders, it's…peace."

"Do…you know how to create this…peace?" Arl asks, he tilts his head to the side, like he is listening to something.

"If you want to marble it, you need two colours." He says as though it is obvious.

"So…you're telling me, that we need one who is light, and one who is dark, to create one force, and then the force will be balanced?" Mace asks delicately, the table seems to hold their breath, Ani nods unthinkingly before the words catch up to him and he groans.

"Not again. I am not a damned prophecy!" He complains, Obi looks concerned.

"You remember that?" He asks, Anakin looks at him like he's an idiot.

"I could remember only one moment of my life at this temple and I'd remember that." Obi-Wan nods, conceding to his point, and bounces the sleeping baby in his arms when Sheev starts fussing.

"If…if it gets…marbled, the two won't exist separately anymore?" Quin asks, Ani shrugs.

"By the sounds of it, their consciousnesses will be dispersed and intermixed until it's just energy and power." Owen replies, Garen frowns.

"Well fuck that, no."

"I'm sorry?" Mic asks as Obi glares at him for the language.

"Sorry Obi, but no. We aren't doing that."

"Quin, be smart, we don't have another option." Arlie tells him, he gives her his best bitch face (It's pretty bitchin.)

"I am smart!"

"Oh please, if brains were gasoline, you wouldn't be able to fuel a flea go-cart for two laps around a cheerio." The table just looks at her like she's insane, which, I mean, fair enough.

"Imma assume you insulted me and tell you to shut up. The Force is a friend of mine, and it wants the Anti-Force saved. So that is what I am going to do."

"And what does the Force want here? If it knew that this was our only option, that it was prophesised, what would it say then? A prophecy, so literally the will of the Force, what do you think it would tell you?" Quin looks at them all in turn, debating with himself before locking eyes with Yoda, the troll nods.

"She'd likely tell us that sometimes you have to make the Force listen to you." They all seem surprised and unsure what to make of that, unsurprisingly, it's Arl that catches on first.

"I died, you said someone died and became the Force." He nods, her breath catches, everyone looks in varying stages of shock. "I asked you where you recognised me from…you said your Master created the order, and the theories about the Creator creating the force…but it's not true…the Creator is the Force. The Creator is me…" She says looking to Yoda who smiles sadly, "A version of me anyway."

"So wait, Arl's the Force and she trained Yoda? Or a version of her, the pre-divergent timeline version?" Bant asks, "Who's the Anti-Force? Why does Force-Arlie want to save her?" Quin looks to his lap.

"I don't know if it happened here, but Anakin once told us that everyone was capable of doing anything given the right circumstances, that we couldn't just rule someone out as a suspect because we trusted them. From that I learnt that those we trust most are in the perfect position to hurt us the most if they were to turn against us. In this case that is especially true. Now I do not know how the power was granted to her, nor what finally pushed her over the edge. But when Arl left, when she came back here, she left a Padawan behind." Arl's head snaps round to look at him.

"Quinlan if you are about to suggest…"

"I am not suggesting Arleia, I know." He snaps, "You left her, Obi went crazy, Mic had to leave, she was alone. She left the farm, Obi-Wan never saw or heard from her again. Who knows what happened after that, but it's her. After all, she's the only one who knows what happened with Reeft and Bellan, she knows how much your Master's opinion means to you because she saw how much his anger hurt you during the war, she knows how much you care for your brother because she saw you go to Naboo and stay to defend it even when you shouldn't have. Saw you watch over him through out the entire war, and saw the aftermath of that betrayal. That's not all, there's other things that are only relevant to Force-you, but you should also know, that Force-you went and checked to be sure. Quilo is the Other Entity Arl, I'm sorry, but it's true." Arl has tears streaming down her face as something occurs to her.

"I did it again." She whispers, they all look to her in confusion, "I left my family for people I might never have found again, just like when I left Earth."

"No Arl, you didn't leave your family, you simple wanted to save all of it." She looks to Quin surprised, "My friend, I have known you for a long time now, a few versions of you, but no matter what, one thing stays the same. Your ability to love everything no matter what. You love things because you understand, better than most, that everyone is capable of doing good and bad things, no matter the choices they have made before. But you choose to constantly believe that they will make the right one this time. You love everything because of the amazing potential you can see it all happening, you love a seed because of the flower you know it to be capable of blooming into it. You came back here to save your brother, sacrificed yourself and possibly your happiness to save your family here. You went looking for Garen to save him from himself even at your own cost, you wanted to save your brother because even after slaughtering half the temple, you knew there was good in him because there is in everyone. You choose to see the potential good instead of the bad that has already occurred, in everyone but yourself. You see the selfish side of all your decisions, and it blinds you to the motivation for every decision you have ever made, good or bad. All your choices are born of love. You did the right thing both times because you did it for the right reasons, to protect and save the ones you love. You never left behind someone in danger, only those already safe to save those who weren't." Quin tells her honestly, she chuckles a little.

"You know, I read a fanfiction once, and there was this guy who could come up with these amazing and inspirational speeches on the spot, without fail, every time. I thought it impossible in real life, I could not have been more wrong." She says with a grateful smile.

"He is good at that." A voice says from the doorway, they all turn to look and see grown-up pre-divergent timeline Arl, in all her forcely glory, "Knock Knock?"

"Arl?" Quin asks, walking over and hugging the fifty-four/15'592-year-old version of his friend before him.

"Hi, heard you trying to explain things, thought I'd lend a hand now that the immediate danger is gone."

"Damn, I grow up to be hot!" Arlie comments, Mace facepalms as Mic starts laughing, Xanatos fondly shaking his head and Garen just unashamedly looks over at Force-Arl and nods.

"Yep." Arl laughs at her best friend, as does Force-Arl.

"Now Quinlan, the next time someone is fiddling with a reality altering device, don't blasted tackle them you moron!"

"Hey! I didn't know it could do that, you said it could destroy you."

"Yes, but as the Chancellor pointed out, that was unlikely to be its only function, counter-productive as it would be. Even if it was, you could've killed me!"

"That's what I was trying to prevent actually." Force-Arl goes to argue more before just taking a deep breath and calming down, looking serene as Quin is far more use to seeing.

"I suppose it does not matter anymore." She tells him, then she sees everyone still staring at her gobsmacked.

"Arl, is that timeline still going on? Like the first timeline?" Quin asks, she smiles calmly at him.

"Quin, you didn't travel through time, reality was altered. The other one doesn't exist anymore." She tells him, "Must you all keep staring?" They all awkwardly look away, "Padawan!" She calls happily, seeing Yoda hobbling up to her.

"Master." He says with a bow, she kneels down to hug him.

"How are you Youngling?"

"Did she just call Master Yoda a youngling?" Garen asks in surprise, Quin grins at him.

"She's over fifteen thousand years old Ren." His eyes go wide.

"Damn, you look fucking good for you age." She smiles at him as young Arl laughs.

"Garen, seriously, sensitive ears." Garen rolls his eyes.

"He can't understand us Obi-Wan!"

"So break the habit now, you shouldn't be swearing around my Padawans and Asi anyway."

"Oh my gods baby!" Force-Arl cries happily, clapping and jumping slightly.

"Yeah, it's Arl." Dooku comments, both versions glare at him.

"Want to hold him?" Obi offers, trusting Arl, every version, completely. She nods happily and takes the baby, holding him with ease.

"Hiya Lil guy, what's your name?" She asks the child.

"You know he can't talk, right?" Xan comments, she eskimo kisses the baby.

"Well how would you like it if we directed questions about you to your Master instead of you while you are right here?" He sighs at her, she grins triumphantly as younger her pokes her tongue out at him.

"His name is Sheev, Sheev Micahl Jinn-Lars."

"Or as I call him, Little Potato." Quin adds, Arl smiles down at the baby.

"Sheev Jinn-Lars, you are one of the cutest things I have ever laid eyes on my dear." The baby babbles at her, she smiles wider.

"You have kids, shouldn't you think they're cuter, isn't that like a mandatory part of parenthood?" Quin asks, She smiles at him like he's just said something adorable.

"I said one of, besides, all babies are as adorable as each other. It's when they grow up that makes the difference."

"Still think you do that adorable everyone looks in their own way." Yoda points out, she nods.

"True, but I tend to see them through the force instead of through their physical form because it's hard to maintain that focus, but this Little Potato here, is adorable in the force and in the physical form, isn't that right Little Po." She says to the baby as she tickles his tummy and makes funny faces, the child's amusement at her resonates through the force.

"You have a child?" Arl asks her in surprise, "Thought we weren't gonna do that?" Force-Arl smiles patiently at her as she bounces the baby in her arms.

"Things change kid, you'll get there one day. Or maybe you won't, and that's okay too. Circumstances are very different. Honestly, after Obi-Kin was born, I thought I'd never have another kid. Didn't turn out that way either."

"How many kids do you have?" Force-Arl thinks about it.

"Eight."

"What are their names?" Arl asks looking delighted suddenly, Force-Arl grins like she knows exactly why, Quin supposes she probably does.

"Obi-Kin, Shmina, Codex, Owena, Patriic, Eartha, Macey, and Meeka." Garen and young Arl look a each other before laughing until they can't breathe.

"Macey…and Meeka…"

"I missed the younglings and my Masters, it seemed appropriate." Force-Arl tells them, Mic meanwhile, has buried his face in his hands while Qui-Gon attempts not to laugh as he remembers where exactly she got those names from.

"So Obi-Kin, Obi-Wan and Anakin, Shmi, Mum, Codex…Cody and Rex, Owena, Owen, Patriic, Trick, Eartha, Earth, and Macey and Meeka, Mace and Mic." Garen sums up, remembering Cody and Rex being mentioned, the two Arls nod.

"Now, I believe we have more important things to discuss than my children." Force-Arl comments.

"We have time, you are staying, aren't you?" Quin asks her, she looks at him blankly, he sighs. "Arleia Skywalker…"

"You already have an Arl here…"

"…This is your home as well."

"…There cannot be two of me Quinlan!"

"Sure there can be, we'll just go by different names." Arl says as though it is obvious, Force-Arl raises an eyebrow. "Well, I go by Arl Aa, a lot of people don't even know my birth name. You could go be Arleia Skywalker or something."

"But everyone knows you're Anakin's sister."

"So we change the Skywalker, what about Holp?" Arl suggests, Dooku debates the wiseness of the action before he speaks up with his own suggestion.

"What about Arleia Damask? Or Lei for short." Both Arls look to him in shock before they look to each other.

"I like it." Arlie tells her counterpart, the older her sighs.

"So many reasons I should not be staying."

"We can tell everyone the truth about most of it. All of it if you want. But if you want less weirdness, just leave off the time travel and leave it at Lei Damask, immortality and Force and Creator and Yoda's Master." Mace suggests.

"You want to be around for your nephew, don't you?" Obi-Wan asks when she goes to protest again, she looks down at Sheev again and knows she's lost.

"Lil Po's just so damned cute!"

"I'm sure he'd like his Aunty Lei around, and his Aunty Arlie." Qui-Gon tells her surely, Lei sighs.

"Fine." They all grin triumphantly. "But we leave out the time travel?" Arlie nods in agreement.

"What about Mum and Dad?" Owen questions.

"Tell them the truth, they took it well enough last time." Quin reminds Lei, she nods but looks to Arlie who also nods.

"Po's hungry by the way Little Obi." Lei tells him a second before Sheev starts crying.

"Still want one?" Dooku asks Quin sarcastically, he seems to debate the question before grinning and nodding rapidly, Dooku sighs and drops his head into his hands.

"Oh come on, how hard can it be? It's not like we sleep anyway, what with you being a complete workaholic and me a caff addict. Just water the Potato and it'll be fine." Dooku looks at him like he's nuts.

"You are trying to give me a migraine, aren't you?"

"Little bit, but I'm serious about adopting a Little Potato."

"I might be more inclined to take you seriously if you'd stop referring to infants as vegetables."

"How are we going to find Quilo?" Arlie asks, Lei bites the end of her thumb for a moment as she thinks.

"I do not know. But Quin, we do need to disperse our consciousnesses."

"A…Lei, no."

"You can't let our Padawan do that!" Arl objects, Lei looks at her sadly.

"Arlie, she's hurting people. That dream, she sent it. They are her eyes. It is not us that is in danger, it is everyone around us. Do you want that on your head? Because I do not."

"There has to be another way."

"We are out of options."

"Then make another one! That's what we do!"

"Things change Arl."

"We promised. Never again would we just accept that we didn't know how to do something. Of all the promises you have ever gone back on, are you going to go back on one to yourself as well?"

"I do not know what else to do."

"If we cannot answer a question, there is more yet to be learned."

"But we can answer it, it just is ot an answer you want to hear. We do not always get what we want Arl."

"Yes, I am aware of that! If we always got we want I wouldn't have scars on my back from months of torture that didn't happen! You want to tell me something isn't possible, explain to me how the words he engraved on my skin remain."

"Because Quilo knew it would hurt more than the torture."

"And what did it become instead?" Lei opens her mouth before snapping it shut again.

"A warning."

"A warning of what happens when we let power get ahead of us, when we play God, when we let an enemy win, when we become complacent, when we think we know everything. A warning of how bad things get when we stop fighting. Some people just want to watch the world burn, those words became a promise that we never would again. You want to save reality, so save all of it. Just this once Lei, everybody lives." Lei nods slowly, but acceptingly.

"If there is a possible way to do so, we will find it."

"What words?" Xanny asks looking concerned.

"Peace is a lie, there is only passion.

Through passion I gain strength,

Through strength I gain power,

Through power I gain victory,

Through victory, my chains are broken,

The force shall free me." The two quote, Obi-Wan's eyes go wide.

"Oh damn."

"He carved that onto your back?" Garen questioned Arlie, she swallows harshly and nods, clearly uncomfortable, Lei seems perfectly at ease.

"Can't imagine your life-bondeds were happy when they saw that." Quin comments without thinking, Lei turns to him looking unhappy.

"Well, you could ask them, if only someone had not altered reality." He grimaces.

"Oops." She waves him off.

"I would have lost them eventually anyway, I live on, remember."

"Don't do that again, don't pretend you don't care." Lei looks to the ground, when she looks up, the pain of a thousand losses is clear in her eyes, Quin almost regrets his words.

"I care Quin, I care that I lost them. I just choose to care more about having gained them at all. I've lived it both ways with them, believe me, it's better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all. At least this way I know they loved me too, even if they don't anymore." He nods, looking upset, he hugs her again, "It's not your fault Quin, honestly this isn't even Maul's. Neither of you meant for this to happen." He nods.

"Yeah I know, I just wish you could catch a break every now and then." She smiles understandingly.

"That was my break. But break time is over. So now we work out how to safely stop Quilo." Everyone in the room feels a renewed sense of determination, mostly just so that the woman before them could come home.

"How did she gain her power?" Valorum asks, Lei frowns.

"Mother Talzin. Sort of."

"Sort of?" Bant asks.

"Well, Mother Talzin used her grief, amplified it until she just couldn't cope. Then she tried to use an artefact to imbibe Quilo with power beyond even her own, hoping to use the girl as a vessel or a conduit to drain. But something went rather ridiculously wrong. You see, the night brothers attacked the night sisters right in the middle of the ritual, Quilo was screaming when the ruckus sent the tiny amulet flying. It went into her mouth, she accidentally swallowed it."

"…She…swallowed it…" Mic says slowly as though trying to comprehend the words, Lei winces and nods.

"Of all the things I have seen in my 15'592 years, that had to be the most unlucky and ridiculous thing…ever."

"Can we remove it?" Arl asks, Lei shakes her head.

"The power sort of…soaked into her, but you can't be the way she is and still be alive. Just like I can't." Arlie nods, not all that surprised.

"What if we get her DNA, grow a clone body, pull the consciousness from her being and put it in the clone body, and then get her to see a mind-healer? She'll have no extra power and be able to work through her issues." Garen suggests jokingly, Lei, Arl, and Quin exchange looks.

"I do not know enough about meta-physical minds to make a call on that, but Xanny does." Arl tells her, turning to look at her friend who is rolling his chair back and forth as he thinks.

"It's possible, but something needs to be done with the energy." He tells them.

"I can absorb it." Lei tells them, Quin raises an eyebrow, "I absorbed a sentient mind and gave myself a consciousness, yet gaining power in such a way surprises you?" He gives her a look like saying, 'yeah that's fair enough'.

"Okay then, we have a plan of attack. Now we need her DNA, a cloning tank, and her." Arl says happily, they were going to do it, they would save her Padawan, and she'll finally have succeeded in her promise to her Mentor.

"Also, Lei, Xanny?" Quin says questioningly, Arl looks confused at the comment, as does everyone else, including Xan, but the Force seems to understand.

"Yes, of course, Xanny, how would you like your legs back?"