"I really don't think this is the proper setting for this."
"Really Jaina? You're bringing this up now?" Jacen asked over his shoulder as he strapped the wannabe-Sith Lord to the chair. The man, and it was a stretch to call him that, was positively snarling at him, and Jacen grit his teeth in an effort to not just punch the guy in the face.
"We don't even know what happened Jacen, one moment we're all in the midst of some Medium Style lightsaber training and then the next, we're here, with whoever that is." Jaina said
"Anakin, get the gag, and the force suppressant collar." Jacen said to his younger brother.
"You can't say that name! You're disgracing his legacy!" The Sith Lord screamed, and Jacen really had to hold back the urge to punch this guy. Force help him, how was it that someone was so obsessed with the name of their grandfather?
"That does seem a little cruel though." Anakin said as he handed over gag and force suppressant collar. Their prisoner already had force suppressant cuffs on each wrist and both ankles, as well as being tied down to the chair. The collar was just the last bit of the ensemble and the gag because Jacen didn't want to hear anymore of this guy's incessant screaming.
"He's a Sith Lord and we're Jedi." Jacen explained to his little brother. "And I'd rather not have the guy trying to kill us while we figure out just where we are."
"Something has definitely happened." Jaina supplied from across the room. "The force feels a lot cloudier than normal. Its full of brightness, but there's also a haze of darkness as well, and I don't like it."
"We don't even know his name." Anakin said.
"Doesn't matter who he is, he's Sith, so he is our enemy." Jacen said and secured the gag and collar in place. Now that it was all set and done, he stepped back and admired his work. The Sith Lord was still attempting to scream, but his voice was muffled, and his flexing hands did nothing more than wiggle around.
The room also felt a lot lighter in the force after the final force suppressant restraint was snapped in place.
"And whoever he is, he must be an idiot." Jaina said and gestured to the Sith Lord's lightsaber that was now resting on her belt. She was the most resolute in the force of the three of them, with no chance of falling to the dark side, so it was decided that she'd be the one to hold the thing until they figured out what was going on. "This hilt design is counterintuitive. He's liable to cut his own fingers off every time he uses the damn thing."
The Sith's lightsaber did really look stupid. What was the point of two mini blades coming out of the cross guard? The thing looked positively medieval, and it didn't even follow the usual lightsaber building standards. It seemed pointless and just an attempt to stand out.
"Not to mention he's bled the crystal. Truly disgusting thing to do." Jacen added. The kyber crystals in their lightsabers were a part of them and each of them rang out in the force. To corrupt something like that was a monstrous thing to do. A perversion of the force itself.
The prisoner thrashed in his seat some more, glaring a murderous glare at Jaina, but they all just ignored him.
"Well, he seems familiar in an odd way, that's all I'm saying." Anakin said.
"Doesn't matter. Whatever familiarity we may have with this guy is now null. He's a Sith Lord and we're Jedi. Uncle Luke trained us to fight against the dark." Jacen said.
"He did more than train us to be soldiers." Jaina said. "Now, can we figure out where exactly we are?"
"Clearly not where we're supposed to be." Anakin said. "This doesn't look anything like the Praxeum."
"I don't recognize it either." Jacen said.
The walls of this place were stone, and it had an eerie feeling to it all, like it was both unnatural and natural at the same time. The force within this place was also quite curious. It felt older here, which was a strange concept as Jacen wasn't sure if the force could age, but this is what it felt like.
"Clearly this placed hasn't been used in quite a while, and it's a miracle we even found a chair to hold the guy down in." Jaina said.
It had been a miracle. One moment Jacen and his siblings were training and then a flash of light happened. His vision went completely white and in the next moment he and his siblings found themselves in this stone room with a Sith Lord in front of them. One who seemed just as confused as they did, and Jacen had used that to their advantage and quickly disarmed the man. Jaina and Anakin had quickly followed his lead and soon enough this Sith Lord had found three lightsabers at his throat.
Then it was a somewhat struggle filled effort to disarm the guy and lock him up in that chair. Thank the force they had some force suppressant cuffs on them. Suck on that Uncle Luke! Aunt Mara knew what she was talking about!
"It kinda looks like a temple." Anakin said as he looked around the room.
Jacen hadn't even bothered with focusing on anything other than the Sith Lord when they first appeared here, but now that the fight was over and the man was their prisoner, he guessed he could take a look around. It did kind of look like a temple, in the way that all temples were made of stone and looked old. It certainly felt like a temple in the force, and judging by the dirt, grime, and general disarray of the place, he guessed that it was an out of use one.
"Alright, I'm saying that this is some force banthashit that's brought us here." Jacen surmised, as there could be no other explanation for this.
"That can't be your excuse for everything." Jaina said.
"But it's actually true this time. I mean, we have our Vader wannabe," Jacen said as he picked up the black metal helmet and ignored the muffled screaming from their prisoner. "and there's also the fact that we're not at the Praxeum anymore, being taken away from it by the force."
"It doesn't really look like Vader's helmet though." Anakin pointed out.
"That's just a matter of semantics." Jacen said as he drew his lightsaber, ignited it, and sliced the helmet in two.
"Jacen Solo! What are you doing?!" Jaina said as he turned off and reclipped his lightsaber to his belt, the helmet rolling on the floor in two pieces. The sounds of the Sith Lord screaming at the mention of his name were heard and promptly ignored.
"It's just a helmet, and it's not like he's ever going to use it again." Jacen said with a shrug.
"That's not the point! This is destruction of evidence!"
"A little help Anakin?"
"I'm not touching this mess." Anakin said with raised hands and a step back. "It's all on you."
"Traitor… that's why I'm Aunt Mara's favorite." Jacen said.
"You take that back!"
Jacen was about to send another remark at his little brother when a distinctly lightsaber snap and hiss came through the air. All three of the Solo children immediately halted in their bickering and looked around, hands going to their lightsabers. They were all proficient in the three forms, though Jacen personally thought that he was the best of the three of them. Jaina could have the title of the best at force manipulation and Anakin was more like their mother anyway.
There was another snap and hiss of a lightsaber igniting and Jacen took his own lightsaber in hand. It was only now that he noticed that the room, they were all in had a rather large entrance, and that the sounds of those lightsabers igniting had come from it. The force was basically shivering in anticipation, and Jacen felt multiple lifeforms through it. Two of them were force sensitive, that was clear by their signatures, while the others were basically force null by comparison.
"Anakin, guard the prisoner, Jacen with me." Jaina said as she drew her own lightsaber, keeping the blade off until it was needed.
Anakin nodded and made his way over to their prisoner, his lightsaber also drawn, and he positioned himself behind the chair the prisoner was strapped to. Jacen looked over the rest of the room in search of more entrances, more weak points in their hastily put-up defense in the event that whoever these people were and found none. This room only had one entrance, and their unexpected guests were coming from said entrance.
They really should have spent more time actually figuring out what was going on instead of bickering, but there was no point on moaning about it now.
Jacen and Jaina took up positions on either side of the entrance, if these people were enemies, or worse, Imperial remnants, they'd ambush them from either side. That plan also left Anakin in the center of the room and the most vulnerable of the three of them, but he could just hide behind the prisoner, as that chair was rather large. Jacen wouldn't miss the Sith Lord at all and he'd be happy to never see him again for that matter.
"Shields Jacen." Jaina sent through their mental bond.
Jacen licked his lips as he shored up his mental shields. Twin bonds were unique and since they were both trained Jedi it made it even more so. It also meant that Jaina would always be able to tell how he was feeling no matter how much he reined in his shields. She was able to know when his shields were slipping and give him a little nudge.
Soon enough they started to hear voices of their guests. Their march didn't sound organized, in fact it sounded like they were just strolling about. That was until the Sith Lord started shifting in his seat again and making more noise. That talk and disorganized march stopped, and it was preplaced by a more unified and organized one, with chatter down to a minimum.
"I have a bad feeling about this." Came from outside of the entrance. Almost like it was around a corner and getting closer.
"You always have a bad feeling about this master. This temple is abandoned after all, so there's not going to be anyone here-" The male voice cut off abruptly and Jacen watched as a tall human with sandy blond hair trip over a raised stone in the floor and land on his face in the room's entrance. The man's lightsaber fell to the ground and rolled to a stop right in front of Jacen's feet.
This wasn't exactly how he imagined the first encounter going.
Jaina looked just as confused, as he was sure she also noticed that the lightsaber's blade was blue, a Jedi color. Jacen flex his fingers around his own green bladed lightsaber, and he noticed that Jaina was doing the same around her own violet bladed one. In all honesty they had been expecting another Sith Lord to appear, but this human male who face planted was clearly a Jedi, and his force presence felt like a blinding sun of light.
"Hello there." Another voice said, and Jacen's head shot up from where he had been looking at that rather familiarly shaped lightsaber on the ground at his feet.
The face he met was one that seemed too familiar. The man had copper colored hair and white and beige armor-robes on, with a blue bladed lightsaber in his hands. Behind him were men in white plastoid armor with blue and orange accent markings. Something about this entire situation seemed rather familiar to Jacen, and he was getting a weird sense of déjà vu.
"Hello?" Jacen said back, and he could almost here Anakin snickering from his position behind the prisoner. The youngest Solo was always more politically inclined, and that meant being the best with words.
The armored men who looked frighteningly similar to Mandalorians had their blasters raised and pointed at him and his siblings, but this Jedi held up a hand to stop them. That bearded face seemed so familiar, but Jacen couldn't place a name to that face!
"Do pick yourself up Anakin, we have company." The bearded Jedi said, his lightsaber still at the ready, but not pointed at any of them.
Wait… Anakin?
"What? Oh, shit." The man who was also named Anakin hastily stood. When he did, Jacen got a good look at his face, and he was sure that the force was laughing in the background. What the hells was going on, and why did this man also look so familiar?!
Not-his-brother-Anakin's eyes widened at the scene before him, and he force pulled his lightsaber back into his hand from where it sat at Jacen's feet. He ignited it in one go and looked around and saw that no one else was readying to attack. It seemed more like everyone was just really confused, and that made this other Anakin falter for a moment, before he turned back to the other Jedi.
"Uh, Obi-Wan, I thought this place was abandoned?"
Wait… Obi-Wan?!
The prisoner started thrashing in his seat again and Anakin Solo, not the other Anakin, stood up from behind the seat with a confused expression on his face.
"May I ask who you all are?" Anakin asked, with a polite Corusanti smile on his face, one that Jacen knew was completely fake.
"I could ask the same of you four." The bearded Jedi who had been identified as Obi-Wan said. Jacen was still trying to process what was going on. He knew of an Obi-Wan, but that man was dead, so maybe this was just a coincidence? The force didn't seem to agree with that notion, and the other Jedi in the room felt that as well.
"The prisoner's not with us." Jaina said and stepped around the new people, heading towards their younger brother. Her lightsaber was still firmly in one hand, and Jacen followed her movements with his own, and soon enough they were all standing next to each other.
"Well, my name is Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, and this is Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker." The man named Obi-Wan Kenobi said.
Jacen heard Anakin Solo choke on his spit while Jaina raised an eyebrow at these two Jedi. That couldn't be their names. Those names were known throughout history of the Jedi Order. Uncle Luke's master had been Obi-Wan Kenobi, and that man had died on the Death Star. It couldn't be possible for this man to be the same as the one from Uncle Luke's stories.
Yet, the force was singing another tune.
"Obi-Wan Kenobi… and Anakin Skywalker… is this some kind of joke?" Jacen asked, looking between both Jedi and then at the Mandalorians at their back, all of whom still had their weapons drawn.
"Not to my knowledge, these are our names after all." Obi-Wan Kenobi said.
"Maybe its just a really weird coincidence?" Anakin Solo tried.
"No, its not." Jacen snapped. "There are only three Skywalkers who are Jedi, and we've met all three of them."
"Wait, did you say three Skywalkers?" Anakin Skywalker said and wasn't it weird talking to a man who might be their… grandfather. The force was certainly laughing at all of this. "I'm the only Skywalker in the Jedi Order, I know it for a fact!"
"No, there are three of them." Jaina said. "Seven if you count matrilineal lines."
"Really Jaina?" Jacen said.
"It never hurts to be thorough."
"That's impossible!" Anakin Skywalker said, and Obi-Wan Kenobi put a hand on the man's shoulder.
"It seems like we need an explanation here Anakin. Why don't you three, or four, introduce yourselves?" Obi-Wan Kenobi asked.
There was a moment of hesitation before Jacen felt Jaina mentally shrug through their bond.
"Jedi Knight Jaina Solo." Jaina introduced herself. "These are my brothers, Knights Jacen and Anakin, and this is a Sith Lord."
There were equal amounts of shock from their names and the mention of a Sith Lord. The Mandalorians immediately came on guard again, their blasters now pointed at the prisoner tied to the chair. He wasn't a threat with all the force suppressants on him, but it never hurt to be prepared for any outcome. Jacen also felt the shock radiating off of Anakin Skywalker in the force, the man not even trying to shield it, while Obi-Wan Kenobi seemed more surprised than anything.
"Sith Lord?" Obi-Wan Kenobi asked, deciding that the shock of more Skywalkers running around wasn't as important. Granted, Jacen didn't even know if Uncle Luke, Aunt Mara, and Cousin Ben were even still around in this new… timeline? Universe? Galaxy?
"Tried to kill us, so we disarmed him and bound him in the chair, and then you guys showed up." Jacen explained and patted the prisoner on the shoulder, earning some muffled screams of anger in return.
Anakin Skywalker still didn't seem to get over the shock of Anakin Solo's name or the fact that there were more Skywalkers running around, so Obi-Wan Kenobi took charge of the conversation. Jacen privately wondered if this was just some joint force vision of the past, or if time travel was a real thing. It all sounded ridiculous, but the force did work in mysterious ways after all.
"He wasn't that good though, and it was three against one, so there wasn't really any other outcome to this." Anakin Solo said and the Sith Lord let out a muffled scream of indignation.
"This is a rather interesting development." Obi-Wan Kenobi said as he stroked his beard in thought. "We were under the impression that there were only two Sith, a Master and an Apprentice. Though, that appears to have changed in recent months with Dooku's personal assassin, and now… him."
"Dooku?" Jacen asked. The name sounded slightly familiar in a way that Obi-Wan Kenobi's force ghost told all of his cryptic stories. No one could ever get a straight answer out of the guy.
"Count Dooku, the leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, and a user of the dark side. We believe that he is the Sith Apprentice, but we have not been able to determine who the Master is."
"Don't say anything Jacen, we don't know how telling them about Palpatine might change things." Jaina sent through their twin bond.
Jacen didn't like that, but Jaina was being insistent about it. His younger brother was also going along with this plan, so Jacen reluctantly agreed to it as well. They couldn't take down the Sith Lord that was Palpatine. He'd heard enough stories about the man to know that he was powerful, and even with the three of them working together, it wouldn't be enough.
"Well, it certainly isn't this guy." Jacen said. "His techniques were all sloppy, not controlled at all."
The prisoner let out more muffle shouts and glared at Jacen, but it was ignored.
"Either way, it is good that you three have apprehended him. I will admit that we didn't expect anyone to be in this temple." Obi-Wan Kenobi said.
"Well, we didn't expect to be here either." Jaina said. "But circumstances change, and the force works in mysterious ways."
"Indeed, it does."
"Okay, well, you three are coming with us, and the prisoner as well. We have to get back to Coruscant and question him, and I do have some questions for you three as well." Anakin Skywalker said, an intensity in his voice that seemed a little out of place.
"I'm sure we all have many questions, and we'll do our best to answer any that you may have." Jaina said.
"Good, because I need to know. You mentioned there being other Skywalkers, but I know that I'm the only one and…" Jacen didn't bother listening after that, more focused on getting their Sith Lord out of his chair. The force suppressant cuffs around his wrists and ankles would remain. The collar would stay in place as well and Jacen made sure to tell the… clone troopers about them.
His mind was still trying to wrap about the idea of, what was this time travel? Dimension travel? Force banthashit? Whatever this situation fell under, it certainly wasn't normal, and it would require some thinking on. But they had Solo and Skywalker blood in their veins, so it was basically expected that something weird would happen.
Uncle Luke was right about the disaster lineage after all, and time travel had to be up there.
