As the sun peeked over the horizon, Allana Skywalker and Valin Horn began the hike into the canyons where the old observatory once stood.
"We ought to be careful." Valin pulled binoculars out of his satchel bag and raised them to his face. "I heard that steelpeckers and madmen roam this place."
"Old men who were part of the Empire, driven mad," Allana murmured. "But surely they're all dead? They were old when my mother was a little girl."
Valin shrugged as he put away the binoculars. "All the same, I'd rather not deal with the steelpeckers."
"What else is a lightsaber for?" Allana grinned teasingly as she knelt down by the canyon-side.
She glanced out at the canyon as the rising sun slowly illuminated the shadowy floor. It reminded her of a day long ago on Ahch-To, during one of their vacations.
"You know, Anakin once figured out how to fly, when he was only eleven."
"Anakin was also more gifted with the Force than anyone would hope to be," Valin reminded her. "I'd come away from the ledge, Your Grace. We can descend with the Falcon."
Allana stood up, inhaling deeply. Perhaps it would be best to listen— but the day was young, and she was filled with the impulse to do it, to try everything and anything now that she had reconnected with the Force.
"Yes, it would be much better—"
She closed her eyes, extending her consciousness and energy outwards. The decision was made. The Force was all around her, like the rising sun whose light she basked in.
Goddess above, she'd missed the sensation.
"Princess, aren't you coming—"
She then laughed, and jumped into the canyon.
The wind danced around her as she threw her hands out, willing the Force to slow around her, for time to stand still. It was exhilarating, with all of the fun of the fall—
And all too soon the ride ended with a graceful stop, only about a foot above the packed sand and grit. Her hair spilled out in front of her, and the hem of her tunic and robe met the dust.
She giggled like she was a little girl again, and dropped into a heap on the ground, the sand as gentle as a pillow.
Anakin had done it before, jumping off of a high rock and landing just before a little bit of the path that the fish-nuns used to use.
Allana quickly sobered at the thought of Anakin. Right on time, she remembered the feeling of all the light in the world dying, watching Darth Keera stab him—
"ALLANA SKYWALKER!"
Allana looked up to where Valin had shouted from. She smiled weakly and waved.
"I'm okay, see?" Allana then stood, dusting off the mauve tunic with turquoise and pink beading. She examined for a moment the light brown of her pants— the dirt stains would wash out easily, she decided.
She then looked up to Valin, and her smile disappeared completely.
"I wouldn't have done it if I didn't think I could," she promised. "Please don't be angry with me— I'm okay, after all."
"You scared me, I thought—" Valin shook his head and placed his hand over his heart. "Just give me a minute to get to you."
"I could help you fly down," Allana offered. "You won't regret it."
Valin squinted down at Allana. "Are you crazy?"
"What, don't you trust me?" Allana's tone was light and teasing, but her expression revealed the deeper meaning of her words; She had to know that for all the dreams and prophecies about her queenliness over the Force that she truly deserved it. In her mind, that meant that she was capable of the kind of miracles that her siblings had pulled off regularly in their childhood.
That was another reason she missed Thea. Her eldest sister was more reserved in her displays, too, before she had joined the Sith. Even as the dark Empress, Darth Keera didn't rely so much on flashy tricks— the Force was only a tool to her, not like it was for the others.
And there was something else, far more personal in Allana's question to Valin.
Valin must have recognized it, because his expression softened towards her.
"You know I do, Allana."
And with that, he jumped.
The descent was perfectly controlled, graceful— and he landed stumbling into Allana's arms.
"Wow." He remained frozen in her embrace, the two of them unable to move or really even think except for things about how pretty Valin's face was—
"I could never even hope to keep up with you," Valin muttered. "That was amazing. I can't even lift a rock."
Allana suddenly understood.
She remembered a training session by the little garden that Ben and Rey had created. Jacen, Jaina, Valin, Tahiri, and the others were sitting in a circle with Ben, learning how to lift rocks.
Allana remembered that she and Jysella were watching because they were curious at what the big kids were up to.
Jacen and Jaina of course had an easy time lifting rocks. Others had trouble, but eventually managed it.
But Valin never did, and eventually quit, getting up and crying.
That was when Jysella ran off to comfort him, and Allana awkwardly hid behind the Organa Rose bushes.
While Valin had learned a few basic tricks with the Force, he would never be on the same level as many other Jedi, and certainly not that of a Skywalker.
"Come on," she said gently. "We should get everything with the observatory done before the day is done."
"Alright." He stepped away, and looked back up at the cliffside. "You'll have to lift us back up there, though."
"Don't worry," Allana swatted the concerns away in a large gesture. "I've always got your back."
She then jogged out a few paces ahead.
"Wait, Allana, get down!" Valin hissed, interrupting their journey. He then pulled Allana down with him to where the jagged rocks hid them from a small slant in the canyon, leading to where the observatory waited for them.
An obsidian structure, it was so close, blocking out everything else around it.
As Valin peeked between rocks, Allana sat up and glared at him with irritation.
"The locals were right," Valin muttered. "The mad imps— they're here."
"What?" Allana impatiently looked up and between the rocks. Valin placed a hand on her shoulder, a gesture that silently begged her to keep low.
But she saw them all the same.
Elderly men, with long white beards and skin darkened and worn because of the blazing sun despite the relative cold of Jakku, compared to Tatooine. Their eyes were wild and bright, carrying bits of scrap complied into makeshift weapons to bludgeon, their dark uniforms now tattered and bleached gray.
"They shouldn't be alive." Allana tentatively reached out to try and understand how they had all remained forty-four years after the Emperor abandoned them on Jakku.
Chaotic darkness surrounded them in the Force, crackling and thin, as if they were tenuously tied to life itself— and there was something else, something that Allana did not quite recognize. It was strange, and dark— but not the same darkness the Sith or her father once carried.
This was far older, far colder.
She looked back to Valin, frightened.
"I don't think we want to mess with them," she whispered. "Did you feel it, too?"
Valin nodded, shivering despite the warmth of the day.
"We'd better be—"
Then she saw it— her reaching out had drawn their attention, as they were now looking in the direction of the rocks.
"What now?" Allana hissed.
"We fight." Valin's words were grim, his hazel eyes wide in fear as he gripped the hilt of his lightsaber. Allana removed her own from her belt.
They nodded, an understanding flowing seamlessly between the two of them.
Then, without hesitation, they leapt over the rocks.
The men— or whatever they had become— did not hesitate, launching themselves at Valin.
His even, artful swordsmanship style quickly devolved into wild arcs of desperation and pure adrenaline as the men swarmed him with their metal.
It was as if they hadn't noticed Allana.
"HEY!" Allana screamed as she ignited her saber-staff. They were distracted just long enough for her to stab one through the chest, then with an arc cut through three.
She made her way to Valin, and they stood back-to-back.
How many were there? Only four remained with them, but Allana had no doubt that more imps remained than this.
After all, the observatory was an impressive work that had somehow stayed in pristine shape. There had to have been a huge maintenance crew.
As she was running the logistics through her mind, she realized that the four remaining imps were staring at her, a sort of serenity on their faces, awe in their eyes like they were seeing the night sky of Hapes for the first time.
Then one wearing a stained white uniform— most likely one of the heads of the project, Allana numbly thought, detached from the blood pumping through her veins— approached, dropping to his knees in front of her. His withered hands reached for the hem of her robes.
"Your Majesty," he croaked. "Free us."
The other three repeated the phrase, taking it into a chant.
"Free us. Free us. Free us—"
Allana didn't know what they wanted— except—
She ignited her lightsaber right through the leader's chest. That strange serenity seemed to overtake him as his body then crumpled to the ground.
She and Valin made short work of the remaining three— and as Allana delivered the final blow, the bodies of the old men turned to dust.
"What happened?" Allana wondered aloud.
Then she saw the translucent blue ghosts of several men, young again and wearing perfect uniforms.
They smiled at Allana and saluted, before disappearing and becoming one with the Force.
"Something bad happened here," Valin said even though it was obvious. "Are we sure Rey came here?"
"Dad sent me a transmission last night, when I asked him about that," Allana said. "Apparently here is where she found a place to the World Between Worlds— where she was able to bring Dad back, after the Battle of Exegol."
"Wait— your father actually did die?" Valin frowned. "I'd always thought he'd actually survived the encounter and Rey just lied to protect him—"
Allana shook her head. "Dad told me that, a long time ago. He died, once."
"Did he ever tell you what it was like?"
Allana shook her head again. "He doesn't remember much, he claims— and what he does remember, he doesn't want to tell us. Says we'll find out when it's our time to join the Force."
She looked to the big blast doors to the observatory. She wondered if Jaina or Anakin would answer those questions, if she saw them again.
Or, if Rey had once found that door here, could Allana find it and bring her brother and sister back—
"We can't get in— there's biometrics blocking the door," Valin said. "I'm not a slicer—"
"Neither am I." Allana's throat went dry. "That was more Anakin's specialty."
Still, she looked at her own bare hand. "Let me try— I am the Emperor's great-granddaughter, after all."
Unfortunately, she'd forgotten that fingerprints aren't genetic. And the door did not take a blood sample.
"Hm." Allana then remembered the compass that Ben had given her.
As soon as she pulled it out, the doors swung open.
"Do you think—"
"There's something special about this compass," Allana decided. She pocketed it, and the two entered the long dark hallways of the observatory.
It was echoing, all the lights dead as the generators had run out a long time ago.
"Let's split up, we'll cover more ground," Allana decided as they reached a fork in the path. The main tower was circular, with four branching paths on each level. "I'll take the control room, you try the vault, alright?"
"Alright." Valin hesitated a moment, as if there was something else he wanted to say, but he said nothing.
"May the Force be with you," Allana offered.
Valin nodded, and left.
Allana entered the control room, and there it was, in the very center.
A Jedi holocron— one that looked just like the ones her mother and the other Jedi would make, from time to time.
"Mum?" Allana called out as she picked it up.
The holocron folded open to reveal the face of Rey Skywalker.
"Allana," she whispered. "Only one of my children could find this. I'm so proud of you."
"Mum, why did you come here, where are you now?"
"This observatory belonged to my grandfather, Darth Sidious," Rey said, as if reciting facts out of a flimis book. "It was created to examine the effects of the Force nexus that is in the heart of the planet. My grandfather had heard the stories— I know I told them to you."
Allana frowned. Her mother had told her many stories— but she remembered now, the legend of Jakku once being a forest planet.
"Here, Sidious left his pupil, Gallius Rax to study the deepest mysteries of the Force and the Sith," Rey continued, blithely. "What he discovered was that a Sith Lord named Darth Nihilus came and—"
Her hologram flickered, turning red and glitching.
"He corrupted— energy— stole— planet's core— still— nexus—"
Then the hologram Rey began to speak in a hissing language, baring sharp pointed teeth, unnaturally so for a human.
Allana dropped the holocron, and it closed, just as she heard Valin scream.
She pocketed it, and ran to the other side of the facility in record time.
Valin lay unconscious, with bruises and a wound blossoming across his abdomen.
"Who else is in here?" Allana demanded. All she heard was hissing— but that was enough for her.
Something dark and strange had happened to Valin, and there was no time to lose.
Using the Force, she lifted Valin into the air, and started to run.