From Flames, I Soar

by Kurenaino

With the Empire at the height of its power and the shadow of a greater threat hanging above all those who would oppose Palpatine, the Specters, led by former Jedi Padawan Kanan Jarrus, are forced to contend with the Sith Lord that set the galaxy ablaze. Sequel to In Chaos, I Thrive.

64. Visions and Voices

AN: God, you guys, 2020 has just been the shittiest, hasn't it?

I have a ton of excuses for why this has taken so long, the least of which has been having to rework this chapter from the ground up a few dozen times, to just the absolute insane amount of stress due to a GLOBAL PANDEMIC, but really, who wants to hear about that? What you want to hear about is the existential weirdness that is this chapter, and the thing that actually made me want to sit down and break out this chapter. So, if you wanna go thank someone, you can thank a particularly lovely lady over on TikToc by the name of thelastsavagesiren.

Little Madame here basically gushed about my garbage fire so spectacularly, that I forgot there was a Nightmare Life Situation and made me want to write everything ever. Thirty seconds or so really dragged me out of a funk and made me want to write again. Special thanks to you, friend, and thanks to everyone else who ready and enjoys this absolute train wreck. A few nice words make a hell of a difference to a little writer like me.

Keep well, kids, and enjoy. I'll be working to get the next chapter out as fast as I can.

Chapter 64: Visions and Voices

Kanan awoke upon the cold and dusty ground, the air he breathed thick and stale, and when he opened his eyes, it was so dark that he was uncertain if he had opened his eyes at all. Groaning as he pushed himself to his feet, he rubbed his eyes and wiped the dirt off his face, and with a deep breath of the musty air, he felt the Force wash over him, warm and strong and enveloping him almost protectively, as if he was being held in its gentle hands. He didn't know where he was, and when he thought back to how he arrived there, Kanan found his memory blank.

He remembered their escape from Thrawn's factory, a thing they likely only managed to accomplish with the aid of the Loth-wolves. He remembered climbing upon the back of the large white one that had come to guide them, but after that...nothing. Where ever they were, whatever their journey was that brought them to this place, Kanan couldn't remember. He supposed it didn't matter, not now. Not when he had no idea where they even were, not when they had yet to escape Lothal, not when Thrawn was certainly mobilizing his every resource to make certain they could never leave.

Looking around him as his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness and still unable to see anything but vague, uncertain shapes, Kanan ignited his lightsaber, the area around him bathed in blue light as pillars and archways and ancient walls materialized out of the shadows. The wolves that had brought them here were gone and had left no sign of their presence behind. No footprints upon the dusty ground, no distant howls or the sound of the pack moving amongst the ruins. Just darkness and silence and a mystery of how they had arrived in this place and if the wolves had been real at all.

"Oh, shit..." Kanan hissed under his breath as the blue light of his saber fell upon an unmoving body beside one of the pillars, the Jedi swiftly running to it and cursing himself for being so disoriented that he hadn't noticed that the two other men that were with him when he escaped the factory were nowhere to be seen. The blue wash of light in the otherwise pitch black room didn't allow him to see any details or distinguishing features on the body until he had knelt beside it, and pulling the limp form over, Kanan saw that it was Kallus, the former Imperial unconscious, but clearly breathing.

Undoing the top fastenings on the uptight man's uniform, Kanan pulled open Kallus' collar to check his pulse, and swiftly withdrew his hand when he felt that his skin was hot to the touch. Laying the back of his hand upon Kallus' forehead, Kanan frowned when he felt him slick with sweat and far too hot, and couldn't help but wonder if the method by which they had come here was to blame for the sudden illness when the man previously had been in perfect health.

"You don't need to worry about him," a soft voice spoke into Kanan's thoughts, and the Jedi quickly looked up peered into the darkness beyond the illuminating saber's range and saw two glowing golden eyes staring back at him. "For those unaccustomed to its touch, the Force can be...overwhelming. Even you, Jedi, were swept away by its flow."

"Kenobi..." Kanan sighed in relief as he stood, his saber held high as he walked toward the Sith Lord to illuminate his surroundings. "What happened? How did we get here?" He paused, frowning as he gestured with his lightsaber. "Where is here?"

"So many questions..." Kenobi said with a soft chuckle. "So few answers."

"But you know what happened," Kanan said as he stood at the Sith Lord's side, the soft glow of his lightsaber cast upon Kenobi's face almost making it seem as if his eyes weren't touched by the Dark Side's corruption. "There's no way you were overwhelmed, by the Force, you saw what happened."

"I...did, yes," Obi-Wan said hesitantly, his lips pressing into a thin line and his glowing eyes averting from the Jedi as he thought. "But as to what happened...I cannot say. It was almost as if..." He paused, shook his head and hissed a curse under his breath. "It was almost as if the kriffing wolves dropped into hyperspace."

"That's impossible," Kanan said flatly, and the Sith's glowing eyes turned back on him, a devious grin upon his face that looked sinister cast in the shadows of the Jedi's lightsaber.

"Is it?" Kenobi drawled. "You've come across deep space creatures that travel between star systems through hyperspace. You've encountered these wolves within the Force itself, and you mean to tell me that very obviously Force sensitive creatures can't manipulate the world around them to bring us here?"

"I-I..." Kanan stammered, his lightsaber lowering as he sighed in resignation. "I suppose not," the Jedi grumbled. "Nothing is impossible with the power of the Force, as Yoda used to say..."

"Just so..." Kenobi whispered as he bowed his head, his golden eyes turning to look out into the thick, oppressive shadows around them. "Qui-Gon describes the Force as a place where time is meaningless, past, present and future all flowing together as one. Perhaps distance is nothing to the past as well."

"To the Force, maybe," Kanan said. "But us? Should we be able to move through the Force like that?"

"Are we not of the Force, Kanan, as all life?" Obi-Wan asked with a wry smirk, and even in the blue wash of light the lightsaber provided, he could see the Jedi's eyes roll. "I'm not about to be the one to tell the Force what it can and cannot do." The Sith Lord shrugged. "As to where we are..." With a wide sweep of his hand, he gestured to the oppressive darkness that encroached upon them. "Look around you."

Holding his saber higher, Kanan peered through the darkness at the vague shapes that stood out from the shadows, pillars and archways that looked foreboding through the veil of darkness, all at once just like every temple he had ever seen, and like none of them at all. And yet, as he drew closer to one of the mighty pillars and ran his hand over the rough, dusty carvings upon it, he felt the warmth of familiarity flow through him, recognition in a burst of shimmering colors driving away the darkness and lighting up the room. It was grand in its simplicity, white walls in stark contrast to the carved and painted pillars, stylized etchings of Loth wolves decorating nearly every surface and the soft, ghostly whispers of robed spirits that roamed the halls drifting through the cold air.

It was as though he had stepped back in time, and though he had never seen this place so bright, so vibrant, so alive, Kanan knew that he had been here before.

"This is the Lothal temple," Kanan whispered reverently as the color and light drained from his vision, and he turned to face the Sith Lord once again, the two points of golden glowing light the only thing visible in the shadows that he so easily seemed to melt into.

"Just so," Kenobi muttered, stepping closer to the Jedi and back into the light of his saber. "A troubling thing in many ways."

"Many, yeah, the least of which being we're still on Lothal," Kanan grumbled. "We have no way to leave the planet, not with Thrawn looking for us. Some hyperspace jump that was if we didn't even leave the planet."

"I said it was like hyperspace, I didn't say it was," Kenobi scoffed with a roll of his eyes, his hand laying upon a pillar and slowly tracing his fingers across a carving of a small, round bird.

"No matter how far we travel, no matter how long we're away, somehow we're always led back to this place..."

"All roads lead back to Lothal," Kanan said in quiet agreement as he drew closer to the Sith Lord.

"They don't lead back to Lothal, Kanan, they lead back to here," Obi-Wan hissed. "To this Temple. Before I thought that everything converged on Lothal too, that this was the place where our rebellion would rise or fall, and when Thrawn made this his base of operations, I was certain that was why we were always compelled to return." With a frustrated growl, the Sith Lord laid his palm flat upon the carving of a Loth wolf's face upon the pillar, a three pronged marking upon its forehead that looked eerily similar to the symbol that Kanan had painted upon the armor on his shoulder.

"You think otherwise now?" Kanan asked, and Kenobi hissed a curse in Ancient Sith.

"It's far more specific than I previously believed," Kenobi grumbled. "The wolves you saw in the Force that aided our escape and brought us here. The vision Leia had that delivered us to Malachor. Your encounter with the spirit of your Master that blinded your eyes so that you may see the movement of the Force. Your acquisition of this," he said, a wave of his fingers making the saber hanging from Kanan's belt fly into his grasp and ignite with a snapping hiss and a burst of green. "Depa Billaba's lightsaber, a weapon that should have been lost long ago with her death on Kaller, somehow found its way to her student's grasp."

"I don't understand how, Kenobi, I can't explain-"

"No, but I can," Obi-Wan said firmly as he pointed at the Jedi with the green blade. "Any one of these things by itself means nothing, but taken together, the picture becomes clear. There's something here, Kanan. Something that calls to us and draws us back here time and time again."

"Yeah, but what?" Kanan asked, reaching out with the Force to call his Master's saber back to his hand when a tremor through the Sith Lord's arm made him drop the hilt. "And for what purpose?"

"That, I do not yet know," Kenobi muttered, his gaze turning away from the Jedi to look at a long, dark hallway past one of the many archways. "But I'm eager to find out." A sharp, panicked cry pierced through the darkness, and the two mens' gazes were swiftly torn toward the sound, and with a groaning sigh, Obi-Wan shook his head. "Though it appears that it needs to wait," Kenobi said, gesturing for Kanan to follow him as he began walking toward the previously unconscious Kallus, now fully awake and scrambling to stand in the dark, his shaking limbs refusing to cooperate and flailing as he fell back to the ground in a fit of coughing, unable to catch his breath in the musty air.

"Woah, easy there, buddy..." Kanan said, pressing his saber into Kenobi's grasp and grabbing hold of the Imperial's arm to carefully help him to his feet, keeping a tight hold on Kallus' belt to give him the additional support he needed to stand.

"Where are we?!" Kallus asked swiftly, clinging to Kanan's arm as his wide, wild eyes darted around the darkness that surrounded them. "We need to go, Thrawn-"

"We're safe, for the time being," Obi-Wan interrupted, flicking Kanan's saber into the air and holding it above their heads with the Force. "And the answer to your next question," the Sith quickly cut in again when Kallus opened his mouth to speak, "will only hurt your brain, so I'm not going to bother explaining it. Just know that for now, we're in an ancient temple on Lothal and out of Thrawn's reach."

"It won't stay that way!" Kallus snapped, hissing in irritation when he let go of Kanan and his leg buckled, but he managed to hold himself up. "Thrawn didn't just let us go, not this time, we actually escaped. That's an insult he won't take lying down, he'll tear this planet apart to find us. No ship is going to be able to get past him, we aren't going to be able to get off Lothal, and he will find us!"

"He might," Obi-Wan conceded with a shrug, unclipping one of the pouches on his belt and producing a small datacard. "But we have information now we didn't have before. We seized a victory against Thrawn today. Do not undermine the significance of that."

"I thought the datacard might have been fried," Kanan said, leaning in and squinting to observe the little device that floated above the Sith Lord's palm. "You think we got the information?"

"Only one way to find out," Kenobi said as he pulled out his datapad from the pouch at the back of his belt, the little datacard spinning and gently inserting itself into the port. The datapad flicked on, the quiet churn of processing electronics filling the silence for a moment before the three holoprojector nodes on the datapad's face switched on, the glowing blue projecting a small field over the face of the screen. Letting go of the datapad to let it rest in the hands of the Force, Kenobi stood back, his breath held as the information slowly displayed in the field, a slow, triumphant grin spreading across his face as he watched the small image of a ship materialize before them.

"Yes, Kanan..." Kenobi whispered. "We got the information."

"It won't matter if we can't get off Lothal," Kallus growled. "And it certainly doesn't help us now."

"We claimed more than one victory here today, Kallus..." Obi-Wan muttered, his eyes fixed upon the holographic ship and the data displayed beside it. "You look at this information and see data rendered useless out of rebel hands. I see proof that Thrawn can be defeated." His eyes flicked up to look at the agent, his face bathed in the blue light of the holoprojector. "Thrawn's good, Kallus," Kenobi whispered. "He's very good. But even he can't stop the spread of information, and by now, half the galaxy has heard that rebels ran roughshod over his base of operations and escaped on the backs of magic wolves in order to expose his secret project."

"The TIE Defender," Kanan said, leaning in and reading the information flickering in the air, a more full report than their hasty glance inside the factory afforded them. "I'm already sick of this ship. Just look at this monster! This is going to be a hell of a ship to beat."

"Hera and Fulcrum will figure something out..." Kenobi muttered. "We won't be able to sabotage the ship, but just knowing what we're up against will be enough for those two girls to devise a strategy."

"Fulcrum?" Kallus asked. "As in the Fulcrum?"

"As in, your boss, yes," Kenobi drawled, a smug smirk on his face as he eyed the agent. "She's unfairly beautiful. You'll like her. You know what blows my mind?" Kenobi asked, rapidly changing subjects and pointedly ignoring Kallus as he sputtered. "It took a blue alien to give the Empire the idea that maybe their principle starfighter should be protected by shields. You'd think they'd be able to figure that one out on their own."

"Could be that they lacked the technology to build a ship that fast and maneuverable with a proper shielding system," Kanan said, his hand passing through the projected data as he moved through the information.

"Or, more likely, our good friend the Emperor decided to divert the funding and technology into that secret project of his," Obi-Wan said quietly. "I doubt he sees a starfighter as important when measured up against something of the power and magnitude of what he's building..."

"A secret project?" Kallus asked, looking away from the projected schematic and looking at the Sith Lord. "Something besides this ship?"

"Something besides this ship..." Kenobi muttered absently, silence hanging heavy in the air as the former Imperial waited for the Sith Lord to elaborate, but Obi-Wan never did, instead simply standing there, his golden eyes glowing in the darkness as he carefully read the schematic.

"Kenobi, we know Thrawn highly values this TIE Defender or the factory and his plans there wouldn't be such a big damn secret," Kanan said as he inched closer to the Sith Lord. "If the Empire's throwing it's military funding and resources into this other project and stiffing Thrawn, there might be a frustrating conflict of interests that you might be able to exploit."

"My thoughts exactly, Kanan..." Kenobi whispered, the light of the projected blueprints illuminating the sly grin that spread across his face. "My date with the Admiral is fast approaching," the Sith Lord muttered, his fingers unevenly drumming upon the piece of blue, electricity resistant Stormtrooper armor he had strapped to his leg. "A little more research on what he has up his sleeve, and I'll be ready..." With a flick of his wrist, the holoprojector shut off and flew back into the pouch on Kenobi's belt. "But for now, to the task at hand! The Force delivered us here for a reason. Shall we have a look around?"

"Let's do this," Kanan said as he drew up to his full height, his hand extending above him to call his lightsaber, still suspended in the air above them, back to his waiting grasp, the blade shutting off with a hiss as it hit his palm.

"Let's...what?" Kallus asked, looking between the two other men, shadowed and barely visible as darkness fell back in around them, save for the glowing points of light that were Kenobi's eyes, and a faint, otherworldly silver glow that made Kanan's teal eyes smoulder like dying, verdant embers. "Oh, no, no, let's not do that!" Kallus snapped. "The task at hand is figuring out how to get out of here and escape Thrawn! Wandering around in the dark and exploring the lair of possible ghost wolves isn't the task at hand!"

"One thing at a time, dear!" Obi-Wan said cheerfully, slinging his arm over the Imperial's broad shoulders and patting the agitated man on his tight, tense chest. "We're here anyway, aren't we? Might as well check the place out."

"Our pressing concern," Kallus said between clenched teeth, "is escaping Thrawn! And maybe you're content to poke around here and forget we're being hunted, but Thrawn won't forget, and he won't stop until he finds us!"

"Ah, who knows, Agent Kallus..." Kanan drawled, sidling up to the Imperial's other side and laying his arm across the man's shoulders as well. "Maybe in exploring the Temple, we'll find what we're looking for."

"How very like a Jedi, to speak in riddles..." Obi-Wan said with a roll of his eyes, smirking at the frustrated gag in Kallus' throat. "But he's right," the Sith said as he nudged the stiff Imperial forward, an uneven jerk of his fingers pulling the lightsaber from his belt when Kallus' shuffling, reluctant gait made him pitch forward as he tripped, a snapping hiss illuminating the room around them in a red haze. "Come along, Fulcrum," Kenobi drawled, the saber floating before them as he and Kanan led Kallus toward one of the large archways carved into the walls. "The Temple awaits us."

"Thrawn awaits us..." Kallus grumbled under his breath, but he didn't fight it as the Jedi and the Sith led him through the archway into the winding corridor beyond, the air thick and heavy with humidity and dust and the stench of wet dirt and ancient stone, the darkness closing around them smothering the light of the saber until the red light illuminated little more than the ground just around their feet. Kallus slowed, his already uncertain steps faltering before the darkness, Kanan beside him slowing as well, his hand firmly upon his shoulder to guide him, though Kallus had the impression that the Jedi was keeping hold of him so he didn't lose him in the dark.

But the Sith Lord didn't seem to even notice how dark it had gotten, his step sure and certain as he led them deeper into the Temple, and Kallus couldn't help but wonder if Kenobi's glowing eyes lit up his vision and allowed him to see clearly in even the most oppressive darkness. Looking up at the Jedi beside him, Kallus squinted at the soft silver glow lighting up the white's of Kanan's eyes, saw his teal irises darting back and forth across the indistinguishable room, and he couldn't help but wonder what it was the Jedi saw in the darkness, if, like Kenobi, those glowing eyes could see clearly through the shadows.

They walked in silence through the cold and winding dark for what felt like miles, until Kallus' feet began to ache with weariness and his eyes stung with fatigue. This day had been the longest in the history of the galaxy, it seemed, a singular day spanning months and months and turning his entire life upside down with a single meeting, in a single instant. Kallus had been a Fulcrum agent for a little while now, wearing the uniform of an ISB agent while passing information to the rebels when he could, ever since that fateful day on freezing Bahryn with that damnable Lasat.

Garazeb Orelios, who had every right to kill him, to leave him for dead for his part in the genocide of his people, and had instead helped him, tended his wounds, saved his life and shook the very core of his beliefs...

Kallus felt his heart pound furiously in his chest, grateful for the dark when he felt his face heat with the rush of blood through his body. Guilt, he decided as his stomach twisted into knots, for his part in the genocide of Lasan, for his betrayal of the Empire, that his usefulness as a Fulcrum agent came to a swift and sudden end. More than guilt, perhaps, but Kallus swiftly pushed all the other emotions aside and clung to the one he understood best. Guilt, he could reckon with, but the other things he felt when he thought of the sudden turn his life had taken that day on Bahryn...

He looked up swiftly when Kanan stopped, and he found himself staring into the glowing golden eyes of the Sith Lord, and for just a moment, felt as if the man were staring right through him, that eerie gaze seeing every thought, every feeling that flitted through his mind, hidden things laid exposed before the man. In the suppressed red glow of the saber, Kallus could see the slightest smile creep across Kenobi's face, and the former Imperial had to look away, his face burning once again and wishing that the loss of eye contact would keep the Sith's eyes from piercing right through him. Even as he tightly shut his eyes, Kallus could feel his fluttering heartbeat pounding unevenly in his head, like the light touch of cold fingers peeled back his memories and gently grasped his every emotion, turning them over and carefully examining them.

"This is idiotic," Kallus growled through clenched teeth, hoping that the break in the silence would release him from the uneasiness he felt. It worked, his flitting, uneven heartbeat jolting into hard, irritated beating and driving the cold ache from his mind. "What the hell is the point of exploring this place when we can't see anything!" He paused, biting down on his lip for a moment before he looked up to once again meet Kenobi's eyes. "Can you see anything?"

"Yes," Obi-Wan said flatly, his eyes flicking to the Jedi beside Kallus. "What do you see, Kanan?"

"Not what you do," Kanan muttered. "Sometimes I see darkness. Sometimes I see ghosts. You know." He shrugged. "The usual. I sure as hell don't see the Temple."

Kallus scoffed and waved a dismissive hand at the lightsaber floating in the air between them. "Lot of good that glow stick of yours is, Kenobi."

"That's a bit rude..." Obi-Wan drawled, his hand opening and calling his saber back to his shaking grasp, his fingers closing around the hilt, though he kept the blade held by the Force to keep the weapon steady in his unsteady hand. "But you're right. There's little point in using a light that doesn't help us see."

The prospect of abandoning the one light they had, minimal as it may be, was not at all appealing to Kallus, the sudden fear of being plunged into an even deeper dark gripping tightly in his chest. He stuttered, trying to give voice to his objection but he couldn't find his tongue before the red glow of the Sith's lightsaber hissed as it was extinguished.

But they weren't plunged into darkness. Instead, the moment the saber shut off, their surroundings lit up with pale, eerie blue light, ghostly white mist that rolling lazily across the ground. Kallus felt like his heart stopped, the air sucked out of his lungs, and swallowing hard, he looked up to see the Sith Lord examining his lightsaber, a perplexed frown upon his face.

"Well, that's a little backwards, isn't it..." Kenobi muttered.

"What, killing the lights to brighten the room?" Kanan said flatly. "Sounds about right to me, nothing in this place has ever made sense."

A sudden gust of chilling wind blew through the corridor in which they stood, swirling the mist at their feet and bringing with it the low, distant howl of wolves, a thing that reverberated through the air and chilled the three men, sending a shiver through them as they simultaneously sucked in the arctic air. In their ears rang the beating of their hearts, not just their own, but each other's as well in perfect, dreadful unison as if they for a moment shared a singular heart before it broke, scattered by a second gust of wind that cascaded along ancient torches lining the wall and lit them with blue fire as the ghostly breeze touched them.

"I think I'd rather take my chances with Thrawn than deal with this place for another second..." Kallus said in a small, shaking voice, and swallowing hard, he looked between the Jedi and the Sith, the two men still and silent as they stared down the hallway that was gradually being illuminated by the igniting blue flames. He shut his eyes tight, rubbed his face as if that would clear the strange things from his vision, but when he opened his eyes once again, he saw the pale blue corridor spread out before him, the bright blue flames igniting the last two torches before a large archway. Even from this distance, Kallus could see carved, ancient writing upon the archway begin to glow, first blue like the torches, then blinding white before settling on molten, bloody red that made a shiver run up his spine.

More ominously, however, was the faint, red glow in the dark beyond the archway, rhythmically pulsing like a beating heart.

"Do you..." Kallus began before he swallowed hard and took a cautious step forward to stand between the transfixed Force sensitives. "Do you guys see that, or have I gone completely out of my mind?"

"Can't speak for your sanity, Kallus, but your eyes don't deceive you," Kanan said quietly, and despite the nervous tightness in his voice, the Jedi flashed a reassuring smile at the Imperial. "This is real."

"This is spooky," Kallus said, his arms crossing over his chest as he shivered. "We've explored your Temple, are you happy? We should go back and figure out how we're going to escape this mess."

"We don't need to go back to do that..." Kenobi muttered, his voice strangely flat and his glowing eyes fixed upon the glowing red haze surrounding the pulsating light in the dark beyond the corridor. "I've been here before. I've seen this before..."

"I have too, this feels very familiar," Kanan said. "And not in a good way."

"All the more reason for us to stop exploring this place," Kallus whispered, suddenly feeling as though they were being watched. "I've got a bad feeling about this. All of this. We should turn back before we step into something we'll regret." He huffed, glaring at the pulsating light when he felt the hairs raise on the back of his neck at the realization that it was beating at the same exact same speed as his heart.

"What, after disrupting the TIE Defender factory, blowing your cover, attracting Thrawn's attention and walking aimlessly around an ancient spook temple, you still don't regret anything?" Kanan asked, a mischievous smirk on his lips as he looked down at the tense, frustrated, and anxiety-ridden Kallus. "Seems we aren't trying hard enough, then."

"Before we have more regrets, then!" Kallus snapped. "If you want to commit yourself to getting lost in this place, fine, but I'm turning back!"

The Imperial agent turned on his heel to walk back the way they came, and immediately found himself looking at a stone wall, blue shadows from the torches flitting across the smooth surface. For a moment, Kallus couldn't move, could only stare at the impossible barrier before him, a wall that hadn't been there before, couldn't have been there before, his heart seeming to still in his chest as he forgot to breathe. Slowly, he reached up and placed his hand upon the cold surface, felt the small rough patches beneath his fingertips on the otherwise polished stone, as real a wall as could be trapping them inside this eerie, otherworldly corridor.

"No..." Kallus heard himself whisper, though he didn't think he had spoken, his head shaking slowly as he took an unsteady step away from the wall that sealed them in. "No, this is...i-it's impossible..."

"We stand in a place that is strong with the Force," the Sith Lord said in an empty, hollow voice, and when Kallus looked at Kenobi, away from the wall that blocked the way back and toward the only way forwards, he could have sworn he saw the Sith's eyes glow as red as the pulsing light that lay ahead of them. "In this place, anything is possible."

"Stay close, Kallus," Kanan said, placing his hand on the Imperial's back and nudging him forwards. "Like Kenobi said, anything's possible here, and that isn't always a good thing."

"Sure it is!" Kenobi said flippantly, turning to face the pair as he walked backwards down the ghostly corridor. "Anything being possible means we could find a way to escape Thrawn, just like I said!"

"Or we could end up dying in these...these ghost tunnels," Kallus growled, his hand tightening into a fist at his side when Kenobi laughed and dismissively waved his hand.

"Well, if you think about it, death is a sort of escape, isn't it?" Kenobi said with a shrug. "From a certain point of view."

"Not that that's going to happen," Kanan said as he shot a glare at the Sith Lord. "Kenobi and I have been in this Temple many times before, and we have always managed to find our way out of it."

"Oh, don't listen to him, Kallus dear," Kenobi said as he draped an arm over the Imperial's shoulders and patted the man's tight chest. "This Temple is large and labyrinthian and entirely mysterious. I have no idea what I'm doing!"

"Great, fantastic, Kenobi..." Kanan sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Our fearless leader, ladies and gentlemen..."

"Come, boys," Obi-Wan said, stepping away from Kanan and Kallus to lead them down the corridor. The Temple awaits." As Kenobi turned away from them, Kallus swore he saw that carefree, amused veneer drop away, the Sith's face hardening and those glowing eyes flaring with piercing, chilling focus, more intense than he had ever seen him in all the times he had stood opposite the Shadow King in battle.

They didn't speak as they walked down the corridor, but it wasn't silent, the cold air echoing with the sounds of their footsteps and the chilling whisper of the wind across the stone that sounded like the hushed, wispy voices of so many ghosts, so real that Kallus couldn't help but look furtively around for the spectres he knew must be nearby. But he saw nothing, even though out of the corners of his eyes, at the very edge of his vision, he swore he saw pale, transparent figures walking past, only to vanish into swirling mist when he swiftly looked in their direction. A trick of the light, eerie shadows cast by the blue flames, he decided, and swallowing hard, Kallus resolved to keep his eyes forward, ignoring the spectral shadows that flitted just out of his line of sight.

As they stepped beneath the archway into the darkness beyond, Obi-Wan sucked in a sharp breath, his step faltering as the pulsating light came into focus, the swirling, red stained mist parting to reveal the familiar shape of a Sith holocron, it's capstones floating in orbit around it and the thick glass paneling parted to expose the bloody beating heart within, red light that filled the darkness around them with ancient, sinister whispers. They continued toward the red light even as darkness closed in around them, their steps slow but certain, their hands upon the weapons at their hips as they eyed the writhing dark, snarling and growling as if alive with bloodthirsty beasts eager to rip them to pieces should they drop their guard.

"This doesn't feel safe, Jarrus..." Kallus whispered as he inched closer to the Jedi, his hand tightening around his blaster when he swore he saw the flicker of yellow eyes deep in the darkness.

"That's because it isn't," Kanan muttered. "Kenobi, this is a Jedi Temple. What's a Sith holocron doing here?"

"You think there were no Sith holocrons in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, Kanan?" Obi-Wan scoffed. "Not just holocrons, but an entire Sith shrine. Sidious told him that ancient Jedi built their Temples on top of Sith shrines in either a misguided show of dominance over the Dark Side, or in the hope that their Temples could contain the darkness of the Sith."

"That seems like a terrible idea," Kanan said, and the Sith Lord chuckled softly.

"It was. The power of the shrine was too powerful to contain, and over the years, the Dark Side slowly weakened the Jedi, blinded them to the Dark Side of the Force." Kenobi looked back at Kanan and Kallus, the sly grin upon his face illuminated by the blazing glow of his eyes. "Why is it do you think that Darth Sidious could hide right beneath the Jedi's noses for so long without ever being detected?" Kenobi shrugged when Kanan said nothing, only glowered at him. "Or it could be as Yoda said. In places of great light lies great darkness. Balance and all that, you know how it is..."

"I don't remember Yoda saying anything like that..." Kanan muttered. "I don't remember any Jedi saying anything like that. Balance to them was, you know, the Force free of the Dark Side."

"Yes, well, Yoda got much wiser in the years after the Jedi fell, Kanan," Obi-Wan said with a roll of his eyes. "The Force free of the Dark Side..." he scoffed. "Never have I heard of anything so ridiculous..."

Kenobi turned back around to face the holocron once again and stopped dead in his tracks, the Jedi and the Fulcrum agent stopping just as swiftly, an audible gasp torn from Kallus' throat when he realized that the three of them were no longer alone. Standing around the pulsating light of the open, floating holocron were three figures, still and silent and gazing at them with piercing, unseen eyes.

One, bare chested with gray, cracking skin that seemed as though it was held together by will and power that drank deep from a well of pain, the body of a dead man walking covered in wounds that would never heal and deep, hollow pits which contained white, unseeing eyes that saw everything. The other two were cloaked in heavy black robes, one a slender female, the other an imposing man, their hoods pulled up over his heads. The female's face was hidden by shadows, long white hair draped over her shoulders and falling down the front of her robes, an unassuming woman, though she exuded terrifying wisdom and a sharp, dangerous mind. There was the distinct impression that beneath the male's robes lay not a body, but power and hunger made manifest, and covering his face was a bone white mask with black, hollow eyes that was all to familiar to Darth Lumis.

"Nihilus..." Kenobi said under his breath, almost reverently, standing so very still as he gazed at the ancient Sith Lords. "Traya and Sion. That's the Sith Triumvirate, Kanan."

"B-bad news, I take it?" Kallus stuttered, and the Jedi slowly moved to stand protectively between him and the Sith Lords.

"Bad news, yeah..." Kanan whispered to the Imperial before taking a step toward Kenobi, his hand on the lightsabers at his hip. "These Sith are dead, Kenobi, you have Nihilus' mask! This is impossible, they can't be here!"

"This place is strong with the Force, and through the Force, anything is possible..." Kenobi said absently as he eyed the three figures. "But you're not wrong. Sith spirits don't manifest the way the Jedi can, they are bound to places or artifacts. I know where Nihilus was made, but I don't know where he or the other members of the Triumvirate perished." He glanced up at the Jedi now standing by his side and flashed him a sly grin. "I'll tell you right now, they sure as hell didn't die in this kriffing dump."

"S-so what is it we're seeing?" Kallus stammered, no longer attempting to conceal the fear he felt that twisted deep in his gut. "If these...these things aren't ghosts, what are they?!"

"I'd say they're visions if you weren't seeing them too," Kanan muttered, his brow furrowing in thought. "I've never heard of someone without a connection to the Force seeing Force visions or spirits. Could they be a projection of the holocron, Kenobi?"

"I wouldn't rule anything out at this point..." Obi-Wan said as he walked toward the Sith Lords, his step even and unafraid, his back straightening as the whispers of Ancient Sith fell silent at his approach. The three ancient Sith didn't move when Darth Lumis stood before them, didn't move when he reached out his hand and called forth the Dark Side, didn't move as the holocron snapped together, reforming into a glowing, humming pyramid. Only when the holocron flew to Lumis' hand did the ancient Sith Lords move, their heads turning and the empty voids of their eyes looking right at the intruding Darth Lumis before they turned to dust, their forms holding for only a moment before the fine grains scattered upon the sudden wind that swept through the room, carrying with it oppressive darkness and heavy, regulated breathing. A thing that all three men instantly recognized.

"Vader?!" Kallus said in a hushed, hissed whisper, his rapidly beating heart pounding in his ears as he drew his blaster, his eyes wide as he frantically scanned the darkness for any sign of the Emperor's enforcer that he so badly feared. "Vader's here?! How!"

"It isn't possible," Kanan said, not nearly so confident as he had hoped to sound, and swallowing hard, he took a step toward Kenobi, his hand tightening around his lightsaber. "He can't be here, Kenobi..."

"Of course he could be here," Obi-Wan said firmly, his shaking hand closing tight around the holocron. "But he isn't." He looked back at Kallus and Kanan, his glowing eyes the only visible light in the thick, heavy dark, and scoffing slightly, he rolled his eyes. "Put your weapons away, boys. They won't help you here."

A snapping hiss reverberated through the air, the darkness parting like a curtain before the sinister light of a red lightsaber, leaving them standing in a dimly lit steel gray room before a staircase leading up to a large, circular window that looked out into space. In the dark of space beyond was illuminated by flashed of red laser fire and green ion bursts and flames from exploding starfighters as a battle raged, a thousand ships swarming like insects in the space between larger vessels. Before the window was a single, simple chair mounted to the floor, a hooded figure in black robes sitting upon it, pale, sickly yellow eyes looking maliciously at them, and beside him, holding the lightsaber that bathed the area in red light, was Darth Vader, his regulated, mechanical breathing echoing around them.

Behind them, the cascading sound of several igniting lightsabers disrupted the even breathing and the gentle hum of Vader's weapon, making Kallus jump with a startled cry, raising his blaster and pointing it at the new sound. Kanan remained still, his eyes never leaving Vader and his Master, but Kenobi turned to look behind him and found himself staring at a wall of lightsabers held by figures too shadowed for even him to see, reds and blues and greens all pointed toward Sidious and Vader.

"Where are we?" Kanan whispered, his eyes fixed upon Vader as he strode forward, the red blade spinning in his grasp, but quickly found himself looking back at Sidious, uncertain which was the greater threat at the moment.

"It's less a matter of where than when," Kenobi quickly shot back. "This is a vision. Pay close attention."

"How can it be a vision!" Kanan asked, finally looking away from the Emperor and Vader to look back at Kenobi, his unlit lightsaber pointing at Kallus. "He can see it, how can this be a vision!"

Before Kenobi had a chance to respond, the hum of the sabers was drowned out by the roar of small engines, and the darkness lit up with a hundred small flames as an army of fully armored Mandalorian warriors came flying out of the shadows, blaster rifles braced against their shoulders as they fired at the Sith Lords at the top of the stairs. The thrum of the lightsabers, the roar of the jetpacks, the monotony of Vader's breathing, the whistle of blaster fire, all of the sounds that echoed off the walls of the chamber were suddenly muted, dead silence ringing in their ears louder than any explosion could have, the silence in eerie disconnect to the chaos slowly erupting around them.

Through the silence, the only thing they could hear was the cackling laughter of Darth Sidious.

A flash of blue light flooded the area, and in an instant, the Mandalorians fell out of the air, their armor clattering empty to the ground as thick, black ash drifted like snow down upon them. Looking up swiftly, Obi-Wan watched in horror as the last of the armor fell to the ground and saw the bodies that were wearing it turn charred and black before they fell apart like clouds of dust, the air around them turning black and heavy with the charred ashes of a thousand Mandalorians.

Obi-Wan stared at the ground, oblivious to the heavy steps of Vader as he began walking toward them, his eyes fixed upon the helmet that had fallen at his feet, the blue and white sullied with black ash and the distinctive markings of the nite owl etched upon it faded and worn. He sunk to his knees in thee ash, reached out with shaking hands and picked the helmet up, his trembling thumb gently wiping away the dirt and soot from the visor he knew all too well.

Even as malicious, cackling Sidious rose from his throne and held up his hands, electricity crackling between his fingers, Obi-Wan remained on his knees in the ash, staring at Bo-Katan's helmet, a dull, painful ache in his chest and silence ringing in his ears. He could feel the dull thud of footsteps on the ground as Kanan ran to him, could see in his periphery the Jedi draw and ignite his lightsaber as Kallus fired his blaster at Vader, who effortlessly deflected the shots. Blackened ash continued to fall from the sky on to Kenobi's shoulders, heedless to the danger behind him and the sound of Kanan screaming for him to come to his senses as his eyes raked over the fallen Mandalorian helmets scattered all around him, the tips of his shaking fingers dragging uneven lines through the thick layer of ash upon the ground.

In his chest, Obi-Wan could feel the Emperor's reverberating laugh, the familiar charge of electricity in the air, the many spidering scars across his body suddenly burning with the memory of the Force lightning that inflicted them. Holding Bo-Katan's helmet in his hands, he couldn't bring himself to care.

A flash of light filled the area, along with the acrid smell and snapping whip of lightning in the air, and Obi-Wan tightly shut his eyes against the blinding light, his hand closing around a fistful of ash as he clutched the helmet tight to his chest.

The ash in his hand quickly began to burn, and with a hiss, Kenobi withdrew his hand from the ground, squinting against the now persistent light and quickly focusing on the wisps of smoke as the helmet in his hand vanished. With a groan, Obi-Wan rolled his eyes and rose to his feet, rubbing his eyes as his bleary vision focused on his new surroundings. A vision, of course, as they had deduced before. The destruction of the Mandalorians made him forget himself, his focus on the vision broken in favor of the powerful pull of guilt and grief that had consumed him at the prospect of the deaths of his beloved Satine's family and people. That, if nothing else, could not be allowed to pass.

Brushing the sand off his shoulder, Obi-Wan looked around, his eyes squinting against the blazing of twin suns high about his head, a sea of golden sand dunes stretched endlessly around them in all directions. Off to his side was Kanan, the Jedi shielding his eyes against the sun and blinking against the fine sand grains that drifted on the hot, dry breeze that swept across the desert, and further down on the dune they stood upon was Kallus, the Imperial's eyes shut tightly as he blindly fired his blaster where Darth Vader had stood only moments before. He only stopped when the blaster overheated, the weapon falling to the sand when Kallus quickly withdrew his hand with a curse, his eyes flying open before he winced and hissed in pain, his eyes one again shutting tightly.

"Kriffing hell..." Kallus growled as he rubbed his eyes. "Where the hell are we? How did we get here?" A belated thought crossed his mind, and his eyes flew open, heedless of the blindness the bright suns overhead caused. "Where's Vader?! Did we get him?!"

"Relax, buddy..." Kanan soothed, placing a hand on the Imperial's shoulder. "Vader isn't here. He never was."

"A vision, like I said," Kenobi said as he sauntered up to the pair. "As to where we are," he said as he looked out upon the vast desert before them. "This is the Lothal Temple. We never left."

"...this," Kallus said flatly. "This is inside the Lothal Temple."

"It's a vision," Kenobi said in a voice strained with patience as he flicked the Imperial's forehead. "Do try and pay attention."

"This was a sacred place to the Jedi, a long time ago," Kanan quietly explained. "The Force is strong here, and in places like these, it's pretty common for the Force to bring visions to those with the sensitivity to see them." He paused. "Though why you can see them, I couldn't say. You aren't a secret Inquisitor, are you? Because my friend Kenobi here eats Inquisitors."

"Now, now, Kanan, don't lie to the boy..." Obi-Wan gently chided as he raised his hand in an effort to shield his eyes from the light of the twin suns. "I've only officially eaten one Inquisitor. The others I've just murdered or enslaved." He flashed a horrified Kallus a grin and patted the man's cheek. "But you have nothing to worry about, do you? If there was even a hint of Force sensitivity inside you, I would have sensed it long ago."

"So how, Kenobi, is he seeing this!" Kanan said, gesturing at the desert, and the Sith Lord simply shrugged.

"Who am I to say why the Force does what it does, hm?" Obi-Wan flippantly said. "Perhaps we'll find the answer to that here as well."

"Does it really matter why I'm seeing this?" Kallus grumbled. "What I want to know is where this is!"

"I told you..." Obi-Wan said with a sigh. "This is-"

"This is a vision, yes, I heard you!" Kallus snapped. "We haven't left the Lothal Temple, this is all...ghosts and illusions and spooky Jedi stuff, I get it." He jabbed his finger against the Sith Lord's chest. "What I want to know is why here. What is it we're seeing? There must be a reason we're seeing this place, so where is it?"

For a long moment, Obi-Wan stared at the Imperial, his eyes flicking over the hard lines of the other man's face, the resolute set of his clenched jaw, the fearless commitment in his eyes. "You're starting to quickly rise in my estimation of you, Alexsandr," the Sith Lord said quietly. "Are you trying to seduce me? Because it's working."

"You're not my type," Kallus said flatly, and a slow, sly grin spread across Kenobi's face.

"No, I don't suspect I am..." Obi-Wan drawled, a knowing smirk upon his lips that made more than the sun stain the Imperial's face. "To answer your question, dear, I believe this is Tatooine," the Sith Lord said flippantly, finally looking away from the uncomfortable Imperial to scan the heat-hazy horizon. Kanan swiftly tapped the Sith Lord's shoulder, and Kenobi looked up at him, saw the usual teal burning with that strange silver, otherworldly glow, and felt the hairs on his neck stand on end, a cold chill running through him despite the overwhelming heat. A moment later, the snapping hiss of igniting sabers echoed across the dunes, carried on the blistering wind with fine grain of sand that stung his face, and all three men swiftly turned around, the golden dunes flashing with the shadows of clashing sabers.

"As to why we're here..." Kenobi muttered, taking a few, cautious steps toward the direction of the thrumming sabers. "I suspect we're about to find out."

They walked slowly, carefully toward the sandy plateau they stood upon, Kallus bending down and snatching his blaster out of the sand and wiping it off quickly before he held it up before him. With a roll of his eyes, Kenobi placed his hand on the Imperial's blaster and lowered the barrel to point at the ground, giving Kallus a hard look.

"Shooting didn't do you any good before and it won't do you any good now," Kenobi whispered, and with a sneer, Kallus pulled the weapon away from the Sith's grasp. "Remember that this is a vision," Obi-Wan continued. "We aren't in any danger, nothing here can harm us."

"You sure about that..." Kallus grumbled as he inched closer to the edge of the plateau. "The Force works in mysterious ways, you said...who's to say that your creepy Force crap can't hurt us?"

"That's just...that isn't how the Force works, Kallus," Kanan said, sounding far less certain than he hoped, his fingers tracing lightly over his face where his own Master had struck him with a lightsaber during his last trip into this temple. His hand unconsciously drifted to the second lightsaber at his hip, Depa Billaba's actual lightsaber, another thing he had no explanation for. "Kenobi says we're safe, so we're safe."

"Good thing too," the Sith Lord whispered as he peered over the plateau to the sand below. "That's what we came here to see."

Creeping forward to stand beside Kenobi, Kallus and Kanan looked beneath them to see two figures holding red double sided lightsabers, the weapons rapidly spinning as they clashed against each other, the two combatants athletically jumping over each other and sprinting through the sand. High above them on a nearby dune stood another figure, cloaked in black and still as could be as they surveyed the battle below, the glint of glowing gold eyes like the twin suns above them clear as day in the shadows of their hood.

Before they had a chance to get a closer look, a large ship came out of nowhere, screaming above them so close that they could have reached up and touched the black hull, the roar of powerful thrusters kicking up a storm of sand as it shot past. Squinting against the sand and suns, they looked up at the ship, and with the light gleaming off the polished surface, they couldn't see the detail, but they didn't need to. The ship's profile was unmistakable.

"That's the Umbra," Kallus said, and Kenobi rolled his eyes.

"Thank you, Agent Kallus, but we know. I promise you, I'm not in need of having my own ship identified for me."

Before Kallus had a chance to respond, another ship shot past them, this time to the right of them and kicking up another sandstorm that, once settled, they could see the ship join the Umbra as it made a wide turn back toward them in the distance.

"The Ghost," Kallus growled with a roll of his eyes. "Why am I not surprised..."

"Where the Umbra goes, the Ghost is sure to follow," Kenobi said just a little too proudly, earning himself a swift shove from the Jedi.

"You better talk about the Ghost with more respect than that, Imperial scum," Kanan said, a slight smile playing on his lips as he watched Hera's ship join Kenobi's as they looped around each other. "That ship's leading the squadron that you're betraying the Empire for."

"What, the Ghost is leading the squadron?" Kenobi asked, a single eyebrow raised as he glanced over at the Jedi. "You're out of your mind if you think anyone's going to believe that. Everyone knows Phoenix Squadron follows the Umbra."

"There is no Phoenix Squadron without the Ghost, you Sith idiot!" Kanan growled through clenched teeth. "If you-"

The roar of another set of powerful engines silenced the Jedi as yet another ship shot past them, and once the sand settled around them, leaving the three men shaking sand out of their hair, they looked out to see the three ships circling back toward them, the screams of the powerful engines felt more than heard. The Umbra, the Ghost, and...something else.

"You rebels have a ship I don't know about?" Kallus asked, and Kanan slowly shook his head, his eyes never leaving the unidentified ship.

"We have lots of ships you don't know about," Kanan said almost absently. "But that ain't one of them."

"I hope not," Kallus scoffed, his nose wrinkling in distaste. "That ship looks fit for a junkyard, it's a wonder it's even able to get in the air at all."

"There's more to that ship than what it appears," Kenobi muttered, watching the ship as it flew beside the other two ships, every bit as fast as the reputably fast Ghost and Umbra. "Kanan, do you remember back when we first met, I took you with me on my supply run to Rajtiti?"

"Uh, no, I don't remember that," Kanan grumbled, scoffing at the disdainful glare the Sith Lord sent his way. "What! I was so drunk I could hardly stand, you expect me to remember a thing?!"

"They just don't make Jedi drinking partners like Quinlan Vos anymore, do they..." Obi-Wan sighed. "I went to Rajtiri looking for a very specific ship, fast enough to help us outrun the Empire and slip through their blockades. I think that's her," Kenobi said as he again looked out at the ships as they flew directly toward them. "That's the Millennium Falcon."

The three ships shot past them overhead, the engines howling as they flew upwards toward the binary suns, the men down below shielding their eyes against the blaze for just a moment before a shadow passed over the suns, large enough to blot out the entire sky. Blinking to clear the sand and the spots of light from their eyes, the three men looked up as their visions focused and collectively held their breaths when they saw what it was that was large enough to plunge the desert sands into darkness.

It rose from the horizon like a giant, low orbit moon, a massive, industrial gray mechanical planet the likes of which they had never seen before, a large, perfectly circular crater and a long, deep trench encircling the entire structure the only breaks in the perfectly round artificial planet. Kenobi took a few shuffling steps forward as he looked up at the rising metal moon, swallowing hard as he tried to understand, and felt his heart sink deep into his stomach when eight glowing points of green light suddenly lit up around the edge of the crater, the Force itself shrieking and screaming in pain as it did so, like a billion tiny voices all crying for help in perfect unison.

He had heard this before, Obi-Wan thought to himself as he watched eight bright green lasers fire from the edge of the crater to converge together at a central point, eight focused shots gathering energy to become one concentrated, focused beam of destruction. He had heard this before, when he had gone with Ahsoka to Eadu to scout the refining and research facilities of Doctor Galen Erso, the sound of kyber crystals screaming in agony as they were destroyed.

This was Project Stardust.

He felt Kanan and Kallus grab his shoulders, trying to drag him away from the danger that loomed above them, but Kenobi wouldn't move, only stared as the energy gathered between the eight lasers until it could no longer be contained, collecting into one large, singular beam that fired down at the planet it overlooked. The beam struck the sands at Kenobi's feet, the force of the blast sending sand and rock and fire into a massive wave high up into the sky, but the Sith Lord didn't move, only watched the artificial moon through the debris as Kanan and Kallus ran and took cover when a shock wave knocked them to the ground, the very earth around them disintegrating into nothingness.

And then it was over, the cracking roar of a breaking planet and the howling screams of the Force as it was torn asunder falling into silence as the golden sands dissolved into a black void, the mechanical moon above fading as well into wisps of smoke carried away on a gentle wind, leaving the three men standing upon nothing at all, no ground beneath their feet, no indication of what was up or down. It was just darkness, all around them, though Kenobi could see the other two men clearly as they helped each other scramble to their feet, as if an unseen light illuminated the entire empty blackness where they stood.

It was all terribly unsettling, a sudden chill running through the Sith Lord as he looked around the void and tried to get his bearings, tried to understand the unease that drifted upon the thick, chaotic tides of the Force that surrounded them. There was something there, something all around them that echoed loudly in the silence and caused faint ripples to spread across the waters of the Force, as far as Obi-Wan could see. Usually, the movements of beings through the Force faded, the imprints they left behind diminishing with time and distance, but here, now, they never ended, which threw his senses into disarray.

"It happened..." Kallus said in a shaking voice. "We've died."

"I told you, fool, these are visions, nothing here can harm us," Kenobi snapped, the slightest twitch of his fingers pulling the Imperial's legs out from under him, and a wicked grin spreading across his face when Kallus struck invisible ground with an echoing thud.

"Oh, come on, Kenobi, was that necessary?" Kanan asked as he pulled Kallus to his feet and shot the snickering Sith Lord a glare. "I mean, after what we just saw, can you blame him? What was that?"

"Hush," Obi-Wan hissed, holding up a hand for silence, his eyes narrowing as he looked around the void, his breath held as he listened to the whispers in the Force. "Kanan, do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" the Jedi asked, walking slowly toward the Sith. "I don't-" The silence was broken by a deep, long howl, a mournful thing that carried across the emptiness to reverberate deep in Kanan's chest, the void finally breaking as ghostly mist began to swirl at his feet, the transparent pathway they stood upon finally outlined by faintly glowing white strips of light. "Lothwolves..." Kanan muttered, and the Sith Lord quickly whipped around to throw a quizzical look in his direction.

"Lothwolves?" Obi-Wan repeated. "That isn't what I hear."

"I'm telling you, I know what I heard," Kanan said firmly. "What do you hear?"

"Voices..." Obi-Wan said absently, taking a small step back as the mist began to take shape, twisting and forming into the ghostly visage of a man that both Kenobi and Kanan knew all too well, his posture straight, his bearing regal, and though his features remained unclear, there was no mistaking the curved lightsaber at his hip.

"Why, Darth Lumis," a deep voice echoed around them, and Kenobi couldn't help the shiver that ran up his spine. Words that had been spoken to him long ago flitted through the air now like he was back on Sereno during the Clone Wars."It almost sounds like you are afraid of these Nightsisters."

"I'm not afraid of anything..." Obi-Wan absently muttered, and for just a moment, he could feel his own voice echo around him, like the words he had spoken were spoken by another.

"Then act like it," the firm, resolved voice said. "Talzin, Savage, the Nightsisters, the entire cursed planet of Dathomir will kneel before the Sith, as will the entire galaxy. And if they do not, well, the price of betrayal has become very high as of late."

"Dooku..." Kanan whispered, drawing closer to the Sith Lord and laying his hand over his lightsaber. "Force visions show glimpses of the future, yeah? Dooku's dead, how can this be?"

"Not a vision, Kanan, a memory..." Kenobi said quietly, his chest aching as he watched the swirling mist continue to take shape around him, each one bitterly familiar, each one reopening old wounds carved into his heart. Beside him, he could feel Kanan stiffen, the Jedi's breath catching in his throat as he watched another ghost form from the mist. "This shouldn't be anything new to you, Kanan, with that freaky eye condition of yours. You walk the past all the time."

"Not like this..." Kanan muttered. "This feels different. These are more than just memories, Kenobi, this feels...real. Present."

"I agree, there's something bigger at work here," the Sith Lord said, and with a shuddering breath, Kanan tore his gaze from the ghosts around them and looked back at the Imperial.

"Doing alright there, Kallus?"

"Oh, yeah, never better..." Kallus scoffed, waving his blaster casually in the air. "After being attacked by Darth Vader and having a giant death laser shot at me, wandering aimlessly around the land of the dead is the least of my concerns."

"Well, it's good to hear you're keeping your hopes up..." Kanan grumbled. "Just...stay close."

"Are you kidding me?" Kallas asked, turning a disdainful look upon the Jedi. "I hate this spooky crap. You two couldn't get rid of me if you tried. Now, are we going to just stand here, or are we going to try and find a way out of this actual living nightmare? Those Defender plans aren't going to make it to Phoenix Squadron on their own."

"I'm telling you, Kanan, he's a man after my own heart," Obi-Wan said, the flippancy in his tone not quite able to cover the strain that lay beneath it, the easy smile upon his lips unable to mask the pain that radiated clearly in his golden eyes. "Let's get out of here..."

"If this is the assassin Dooku would send to destroy me, than fine, but don't bring my sisters into this!"

It echoed across the void, words that he had heard played back in his memories a thousand times, words that had been etched into his soul, moments that he had wished more than once that he could go back to so that he could have done things differently.

"Is this what the Dark Side does? It warps and twists everything good and makes it rotten. Look what it did to Anakin. Look what it's done to you!"

Obi-Wan swallowed hard, his hands shaking as he passed the ghosts of thousands that became stained red with blood as they crossed his path. He kept his gaze fixed forward, trying hard not to even look at the specters that surrounded them, but he couldn't help himself as he caught the sight of those he had cared so deeply for.

"There is right and wrong in the world, Obi-Wan. That's not to say your path was easy, because it wasn't. You suffer pain and grief in exchange for power, that isn't an easy thing to do, even if the power comes quickly. But that doesn't excuse what you've done."

Dooku, Ventress, Luminara, Padmé and Quinlan and sweet Satine, all of their spirits hovering just out of his sight, all their voices cutting through him even though he willed himself not to hear. But he did, each and every one of them, their voices clear to him even through all the other whispers surrounding them, all the voices that had once been and those that had yet to be, all Kenobi heard were the voices that quietly, delicately, effortlessly wounded him with the ache of their absence.

"Caleb, this is a battle we cannot win. You need to run. Go. I'll be right behind you."

Not all the voices were meant for him, of course. Some voices he had never heard before, some he was uncertain if the words have already been spoken of if they were an echo of things to come, but when he felt Kanan tense beside him with a sharp intake of breath, heard Kallus mutter a string of curses in a small, shaking voice, Kenobi couldn't help but wonder if, like him, his companions were hearing the things that hurt them the most.

"You're going to survive. There should be medical supplies in there with you, you're going to patch yourself up, and you're going to survive, no matter the cost. On that, at least, I taught you well. I could not have asked for a better Padawan, my Ahsoka. I am so proud of you."

The mist had faded, the ghostly figures disappearing into the darkness, but the voices only seemed to echo louder, the white light at the edges of the path they followed now shining bright and defined, the lines of light all around them, creating paths above and below them, twisting, winding things that ran vertically, horizontally, every which way without reason. Some lines branched off from the pathways, twisting into intricate circles and triangles, the designs stark and beautiful against the darkness of space that surrounded them.

"War is intolerable. You have all been deceived into thinking that you must be a part of it. Anyone who wishes to throw away their arms and accept peace is welcomed within the protected borders of my empire. We will not be victims of this conflict. We will rise above it."

"I hate this place..." Kallus muttered, his blaster holstered and his arms crossed tightly over his chest as he shivered. "Is this what you Force types have to deal with all the time?"

"Not all the time..." Kanan sighed. "We also, um..." He paused, considering for a moment as he looked around as his surroundings shifted around him, like space was orbiting around them. "Yeah, this is about it, actually. Hey, Kenobi," he asked swiftly, his hand on the Sith Lord's shoulder when he saw the man shudder. "You alright?"

"Never better..." Obi-Wan muttered, stopping in his tracks when he felt the Force stir, the voices that echoed around them silenced as the path they were standing upon shifted and left them standing face to face with six figures bathed in light, so bright they could hardly look at them. With a hiss, Kenobi took a step back, shielding his eyes against the light, but Kanan's eyes narrowed, his vision focusing upon them for a moment before he once again tapped the Sith Lord's shoulder.

"I think that's us," the Jedi whispered. "Those are the Spectres. It has to be." The pride Kanan felt swiftly soured into horror when two of the luminous figures disappeared, the light scattering into the darkness before fading completely. "Kenobi..." Kanan said in a tight, strained voice, looking back at the Sith Lord as he peered through his fingers at the now four beings. "Don't tell me that means what I think it means."

"You know better than most how misleading visions can be," Kenobi said, now staring directly at the figures, his eyes burning molten red as he watched light siphon off from the figures to form a new, small point of light, a fifth figure that joined the remaining four. "But we've lost Chopper, haven't we? This could very well be exactly what it looks like."

"No!" Kanan snapped, tearing his eyes away from the vision before them to glare at the Sith. "No, we haven't! You're going to get Chopper back when you deal with Thrawn! Right?!"

"...yeah," Kenobi said quietly, a small, sad smile upon his lips. "Yes, of course."

The snapping hiss if igniting lightsabers echoed behind them, and the three men quickly spun around to find themselves staring at a figure in black robes, the presence around him so dark they could feel the air around him lashing out, the eyes staring at them beneath the hood of his robe a malicious, bloody red. A red lightsaber glowed menacingly in his hand, and with a flick of his wrist, the saber spun out of his grasp to float in the air before him as two other sabers flew off his belt to float in the air as well, both of them igniting in a blaze of brilliant blue and deep, menacing black. Holding up his hands, the three sabers floating in effortless orbit around him, the veins beneath his skin began to glow blue as lightning danced between his fingertips.

Another snapping hiss from behind them, and they quickly turned around to find that one of the beings of light had stepped forward, green and blue lightsabers held in his hands as they spun at his side, one blade held out before him as the other came to rest poised high over his shoulder, the blinding glow of his body broken only by the even more brilliant silver glow of his eyes.

They rushed forward, lightning flying from the Darksider's fingers, only to be effortlessly batted away by the other's saber, and the path beneath Kanan, Kallus, and Kenobi's feet crumbled, sending them tumbling through the darkness as the sabers of the combatants far above them clashed in a blinding spark of light, the high-pitched thrum of sabers slicing through the air and clashing against each other the only sound that rang in their ears.

He landed with a hard, solid thud on dry earth, the gritty taste of dirt and sand in his mouth, and with a groan, Kallus rolled over, the high pitched whine of clashing lightsabers still ringing in his ears, and slowly opened his eyes, expecting to see the two strange beings still fighting overhead, and instead found himself looking at the belly of a low orbit Star Destroyer, the high whine of what he thought were sabers actually blaster fire screeching through the air and turbolaser fire striking the ground and nearby buildings.

Kallus covered his face and sobbed in relief. Finally -finally - something today he could understand.

Leaping to his feet and drawing his heavy blaster rifle from the sling on his back, he crouched down low to keep behind the rubble scattered around streets he knew all too well. Spotting Kanan and Kenobi just across the way, the two other men keeping to cover and their eyes fixed high above them, Kallus rolled across the open street, ducking behind the remains of a home that had been blown apart by the orbital bombardment.

"This is Capital City," Kallus said breathlessly as he joined the two Force sensitives. "We're back on Lothal."

"We never left Lothal," Obi-Wan muttered, and before Kallus had the chance to utter an angry curse at the Sith, Kenobi rose his hand and pointed up at the Star Destroyer. "That isn't Chimaera. Any idea who we're dealing with?"

"The Chimaera isn't the only Star Destroyer under Thrawn's command," Kallus said stiffly, craining his neck around the rubble to look at the combatants in the street, squads of Stormtroopers shooting at an enemy he couldn't see from this vantage point. "The entire Seventh Fleet is under his command, he can call upon over twenty Star Destroyers at any time."

"And you really believe that Thrawn wouldn't personally lead an assault on Lothal?" Kanan asked, both hands shielding his eyes against the flashes of turbolaser fire as he peered up at the ship. "He's been chasing after us for a while. I'd have thought he'd want to be here."

"He'll oversee the assault, sure, but if it doesn't fit into his strategy?" Kallus shook his head. "I've worked close enough with the Admiral to know he doesn't care about glory. Only results." The remains of the building they were crouched behind was suddenly vaporized in a flash of green when a shot from the Star Destroyer struck it, and Kallus instinctively dove out of the way as dirt and rock shot up into the air. The screams of screaming civilians cut through the roar of war surrounding him, and clutching his blaster rifle closer to his chest, he quickly rose to his feet, his heart pounding in his chest as he looked upon Kanan and Obi-Wan, the Jedi and the Sith not having moved at all in the face of the orbital strike and now stood calmly in the charred ruins of the building, both men staring up at the Star Destroyer overhead.

Rolling his eyes and cursing under his breath, Kallus slowly shuffled back to the two men. A vision, he reminded himself. Only a vision. Nothing here could harm them.

"Thrawn could be on that ship," Kanan was saying to the Sith Lord when Kallus finally stood beside him. "Who said he has to stay aboard the Chimaera?"

"It isn't Thrawn," Obi-Wan said quietly, has gaze drifting to the destruction around them, the fleeing civilians, the Stormtroopers running through the winding streets. "The amount of destruction in a city full of civilians, with Imperial troops in the streets..." He shook his head. "No, this isn't Thrawn's style."

"It was on Batonn," Kallus said grimly, and the Sith Lord shot him a cold glare, his eyes narrowing as he examined the Imperial.

"I was there, Alexsandr," Kenobi whispered, and ever through the screams and explosions and blaster fire, Kallus could hear him clearly, like the words were spoken directly into his mind. "What happened on Batonn wasn't Thrawn. This isn't Thrawn."

"You just want to believe the best of your boyfriend," Kanan said with a roll of his eyes, and Obi-Wan flashed him a tight grin.

"With all the problems we've been having lately, if I didn't believe the best in him, I think I'd cry myself to sleep." The Sith's smug smirk quickly dropped off his face, his eyes narrowing as he watched three people emerge from behind cover across the way and vault over the rubble, and beside him, he could feel Kanan very subtly flinch away at the sight of two of the men in distinctive clone armor. Both of them were closely following behind the third, a man dressed in a black combat uniform that Kenobi hadn't seen before. They dropped behind another building, the three quietly conferring for a moment, a flash of glowing red visible behind the visor of the black-clad man's sleek helmet as he gestured toward other building, down different streets, the two clones nodding in understanding.

Another blast from the Star Destroyer, and the man in black ran out into the open street and stood still, looking up at the ship above the city as a the sound of armored footfalls filled the air, Stormtrooper commanders shouting orders as the Imperial troops converged behind cover around him, their blasters trained upon the lone man, though none took a shot at him, instead maintaining their defensive positions. The clones ran down another street, slipping past the Stormtroopers and vaulting over the ruined walls of yet another building destroyed by the Imperial assault as the Star Destroyer's turbolasers took aim at the lone man standing in the street.

The turbolasers fired, but instead of green plasm energy, lightning struck the ground with an echoing crack, the sky shadowed with the looming Star Destroyer instantly turning pitch black with sudden night. Around them, the ruins of Capital City vanished, their new landscape dark and bleak, the rolling hills and long, flat plains made ominous with the flashes of lightning that left long, deep cracks in the sky.

"Not Lothal..." Kallus muttered, and Kanan shook his head, his heart inexplicably and suddenly pounding in his chest, the sudden feeling of wrongness settling heavy upon his shoulders.

"Not Lothal," Kanan said through his too dry mouth. "This is Atollon. Phoenix Squadron's base of operations."

A sharp, piercing roar echoed through the sky around them, inhuman and savage and terrible in the way it seemed to reverberate through their bones, and the earth began to shake beneath their feet, the quite rumble becoming a jarring jolt when a long, pointed, insectoid leg rose up over the plateau on which they stood and stabbed into the ground. It was followed by another and another and another until the beast pulled itself up upon the ledge, a massive arachnoid with a cluster of six eyes upon long stalks above strong, pincer shaped jaws. After swiveling around every which way to survey the surroundings, each and every one of the slitted eyes focused right on the three men, the beast rising high on its legs as its sides seemed to undulate, and two long, serpentine heads extended up from its body, piercing red eyes set upon draconic faces snarling and hissing as their jaws opened to reveal lines of long, sharp fangs. The spined fringe upon the long necks rose high, a grating, rattling sound as hardened scales rubbed together making the hiss of the creature seem louder and more sinister, the warning of a predator ready to strike.

"We're going to die," Kallus whispered, swallowing hard as his gaze rapidly darted between the beasts many eyes, uncertain where he should be looking.

"A vision, Kallus," Kanan whispered, his voice far less confident than he had hoped. "No matter how frightening, remember, it's just a vision."

"We're safe," Obi-Wan said firmly. "Nothing here can harm us."

With a shrieking roar, one of the serpentine heads lunged forward, it's jaws open wide as it lashed out and caught Kenobi's arm as the Sith Lord too calmly stepped back, his golden eyes widening in fear and pain as long fangs pierced through his arm. With a shake of the monster's head, Kenobi was wrenched off the ground and thrown to the side, the Sith Lord's body hitting a nearby rock formation with enough force to crack it, and roaring in triumph, the serpent heads looked down upon Kanan and Kallus, dark red blood dripping off long fangs.

They immediately turned and ran.

That shrieking roar again shook the air, the beast's eight legs carrying it quickly after the Imperial and the Jedi as they sprinted toward their fallen comrade, it's jaws snapping after them and striking rock and dirt as they struck and missed with furious wails. Blaster in hand, Kallus fired blindly over his shoulder at the creature on their heels, his eyes fixed forward and cursing under his breath as Kanan rapidly pulled away from him, the Jedi's longer stride and Force enhanced speed making him far faster than the Imperial could ever hope to run. When the Jedi skid to a stop and bent down beside the fallen Sith, Kallus stopped as well, sliding in the dirt as he turned to face the massive, roaring beast, his blaster held in his shaking hands as he took aim and fired at the waving eye stalks upon the arachnoid body. Every shot, predictably, missed, those that had been shot actually on target missing their mark when the eyes twitched almost effortlessly out of the way, the creature still quickly rushing over the flat terrain.

Just as the beast was upon him, the serpentine heads rising and coiling to strike, Kallus found himself pulled off his feet, flying rapidly backwards through the air until he was unceremoniously dropped into the dirt beside Kenobi, the earth at his feet clumped and red with blood that pulsed out of the puncture wounds in the Sith's shaking arm.

"Nothing can harm us?!" Kallus shouted, his voice cracking as he watched the awful beast crawling toward them, its long legs tearing rivets and holes into the once flat ground. "This is a vision, Kallus!" the Imperial continued in a mocking, panicked voice. "We're safe, Kallus, none of this is real!" He pointed his blaster once again at the beast, a frightened, wild look in his eyes. "Is this real enough for you!"

"I confess, this is...unexpected..." Obi-Wan ground out between tightly clenched teeth as he rose to his feet, his hand tightly clasped to the bleeding wound on his forearm.

"Oh, unexpected?" Kallus asked. "Is that all? Unexpected?! What are we supposed to do!"

Eyes narrowing as he looked upon the beast, Kenobi felt the familiar sting as his irises shifted from gold to red, felt the tingling surge of current down his arm as his veins glowed blue with electricity, stray, sparking arcs shooting out of his open wounds as lightning began to dance through his fingertips. When the monster was upon him, the Sith Lord extended his hand, arcing bolts of electricity flying from his fingers and striking the monster, a pained shriek splitting the sky as lightning coursed down the serpents' long necks, through the body and down the legs into the ground, it's limbs twitching and the howls of pain quickly turning to roars of fury as red, draconic eyes looked down upon them.

"We run," Obi-Wan whispered, meeting the twin serpents' gaze and slowly taking his saber from his belt. "Now, go!" he shouted, shoving Kallus hard and running as fast as he could after the Imperial, the Jedi swiftly falling in beside him as they sprinted toward the faint lights in the distance. Fumbling with the ignition switch of his lightsaber with his blood-slicked, trembling thumb, Kenobi hissed a curse under his breath as he spun and threw the weapon at the creature, a swift command of the Force igniting the red blade with a snapping hiss, a spinning disk of red light that sliced through the air and severed two of the monster's six eye stalks.

The beast didn't even seem to notice.

The saber continued to spin through the air carried by the hands of the Force, sweeping across the creature's legs, the arachnoid body, the serpentine necks, but to no effect, the blows glancing at best, staggering a step or shifting its weight off center for a brief moment, but it wasn't enough. Tightening his fist, the electricity again dancing around his arm, Kenobi turned and sent the lightning arcing toward the creature, his lightsaber intercepting the bolts and absorbing the charge, the spinning red now dancing with erratic arcs of blue. But the creature had learned, and where the Force lightning had been effective before, it was now rendered nearly entirely ineffective as one of the serpent heads followed the saber and batted it away with its long, pointed snout, keeping the blade from hitting every target it was aimed at.

But it slowed the beast's rush toward its prey down, not much, but enough for the three men to reach the safety of the base, the Sith's hand extending into the air to call his saber back into his grasp as they made it beneath the protective roof of the command center.

For a moment, just a moment, all they could hear was their heavy labored breathing and the pounding of their hearts in their ears, their shaking legs buckling with effort and adrenaline as they dropped to the ground.

In the next moment, all they could hear was screams and the awful screech of tearing metal as the command center was torn open by large, savage jaws, the air filled with the stench of fire and electric burns and death as they looked up in horror at the twin serpents of the awful creature. Green energy gathered between those large, gaping jaws, and there was no escape as the world crumbled around them.

"My..." a soft, familiar voice spoke into the silence. "There certainly are turbulent times ahead."

With a soft groan, Obi-Wan opened his eyes, and with a sharp hiss of irritation, he closed his eyes again.

"One day, Qui-Gon Jinn, I will be rid of you..." the Sith Lord muttered, groaning as he sat up and rubbed his head and sending a glare toward the calm visage of the Jedi spirit before his breathing hitched, his gaze swiftly looking at his arm, still bleeding from the puncture wounds. "...impossible..." the Sith Lord muttered, his finger poking into the wound as he examined it. "No, it was...it was a vision, this isn't possible..."

"Kanan fought the spirit of his former Master and came away with eyes that can see into the Force itself," Qui-Gon said, gesturing to the unconscious Jedi laying on the ground. "Why should this be impossible?"

"Because the beast we saw wasn't real!" Obi-Wan snapped. "It couldn't be, it..." He growled in frustration, his eyes closing as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "It was," he said slowly, "a chimaera. Thrawn's coming to Atollon, and he's going to destroy us all if we can't stop him." He flicked his hand dismissively, the ground splattering with drops of blood. "The beast itself isn't real."

"Real enough to wound you," the spirit said, and with a roll of his eyes, Kenobi gave a slow, conceding wave of his hand.

"You have always had such wonderful insight, Qui-Gon..." Kenobi muttered as he tightly held the bleeding wounds. "I have an actual Force spirit eternally haunting my existence, and what do I get?" He held up his arm and waved it. "You're bleeding, Obi-Wan! Do you have to have sex with that woman, Obi-Wan? Maybe you shouldn't consume the life force of that human, Obi-Wan!" His gaze shot toward Kanan and Kallus as the two men groaned, slowly beginning to move as they regained consciousness. "All the mysteries of the Force, at your fingertips, and what do you do with it?" The Sith scoffed. "You nag me."

"I assure you, Obi-Wan, it is a terrible burden, but someone must do it."

"Well, nobody ever accused you of being useful," Kenobi muttered as he pulled an unsteady Kanan and Kallus to their feet, supporting the two swaying men as they slowly regained their footing.

"Every time I come here, I hate it more and more," Kanan muttered as he shook his head, colors dancing before his vision as the silver glow in his eyes slowly receded. "In the future, let's try to avoid this place."

"Couldn't agree with you more," Obi-Wan said. "But if we're going to never come back, first we have to get away. What do you suppose are the chances that Thrawn has us surrounded?"

"Come on, Kenobi, don't talk like that..." Kanan sighed, jumping slightly when he saw Qui-Gon's ghostly visage standing calmly beside him. "Master Jinn...good to see you again."

"See, Obi-Wan," Qui-Gon said softly. "That's what respect looks like. One day, you'll learn it."

"Kanan, stop talking to the ghost," Kenobi admonished. "His ego's bad enough as it is, if you keep it up, he'll be absolutely intolerable." He paused, looking the spirit over. "More intolerable than he already is, and honestly, I don't think my sanity can handle that."

"What sanity, Kenobi?" Kanan said with a roll of his eyes. "Master Qui-Gon, Kallus here could see the visions the Temple showed us," Kanan said, laying his hand on the silent Imperial's shoulder. "I didn't think it was possible to see Force visions without a connection to the Force."

"It...isn't," Qui-Gon said with a frown, walking over to stand before the Kallus' and looking into his face, though the Imperial looked right through him. "No matter how long I walk the Force, it continues to be a mystery. Perhaps there is a reason it allowed him to-"

"I saw how I die..." Kallus said in a trembling whisper, his eyes flicking to the ground as he drew a shaking breath. "I saw it..." he said again, his gaze rising to look at the Jedi and the Sith. "I saw it. I saw how I die..."

"...visions, Kallus," Kanan said softly as he laid his hand upon the Imperial's shoulder. "That's all they are. Visions of what could be, not necessarily of what will be. Not too long ago, all Kenobi could see was a vision of his own death, and when that moment came to pass..." He shrugged. "He's obviously not dead. These visions can be misleading."

"I felt it, Kanan..." Kallus muttered as he ran a shaking hand through his hair. "I...it felt so real..."

"More than anything else, visions granted by the Force are a warning," Obi-Wan said, looking at the Jedi spirit that the Imperial could obviously not see, no latent Force sensitivity in the Imperial granting them any explanation as to why he traversed the Force. "But!" he said cheerfully, clapping both Kanan and Kallus on the back. "We can't avoid that future if we don't get out of here, and I do believe we've overstayed our welcome. Finally, Kallus, it's time for us to leave."

"Was it worth it..." Kallus asked quietly, gesturing around the subterranean cave they stood in. "All this exploration, all this...this spooky crap. Did you find the answers you hoped to find?"

"Sith Hells, no," Kenobi scoffed. "In all my years, the Force has never given me answers, only left me with more questions."

"...is it always like this with you Jedi types?" Kallus asked, and Kanan patted him on the shoulder.

"Basically always," Kanan said with a shrug. "Let's find a way out of here."

"Master!"

The voice echoed through the cave, a clear, female voice that Obi-Wan and Kanan immediately recognized, but couldn't possibly be here, and the two men glanced at each other, both wondering if they were still trapped in the vision, but knowing they were not. Again, the voice called to them, one of the tunnels leading out of the cavern they stood in glowing with red light. None of them moved, none of them breathed, the echoing voice calling again and again growing closer, the light in the tunnel growing brighter until two figures wielding red lightsabers emerged, and instinctively, Kallus drew his blasters and fired, the bolts easily deflected and his blasters effortlessly torn from his grasp.

"Master!" Vitios said, the Chagrian gasping in relief and dropping her lightsaber as she rushed to the Sith Lord and knelt before him, her shoulders shaking with emotion she tried desperately to suppress. A sultry grin crossing her face, her red-skinned Twi'lek companion sauntered up to the Sith Master and knelt beside the Chagrian, reaching out to run her hands teasingly across Kenobi's hip. Glancing up at Kanan, the Twi'lek licked her lips and winked.

"Hey there, Jedi..." Vehemis drawled seductively, and with a snarl, Vitios pulled on the Twi'lek's lekku, forcing the woman to bow her head before the Sith Lord.

"We heard you had returned, Master..." Vitios said reverently, shuddering softly when Kenobi's hand rested affectionately on the back of her head. "Our deepest apologies that we weren't there when you awoke, but-"

"How can you be here," Obi-Wan asked, and the Chagrian looked up at her Master, the look of confusion on his face matching her own. Quickly, she glanced over at Vehemis, the Twi'lek every bit as confused as everyone else appeared to be.

"We...felt you, Master," Vehemis said with a nervous laugh, shutting off her lightsaber and returning it to her belt as she stood, her hand dragging slowly over the Sith's chest. "We were out here training and-"

"How can you be here?!" Kenobi snarled, grabbing hold of the Twi'lek's shoulders, and the woman shrunk away from him, uncertain of what to say and shooting a pleading glance to Vitios as she stood.

"How can you be here..." Kanan quietly echoed, his hand rubbing at the back of his neck. "We left you on Atollon, for months you two have been disappearing...how can you be here?"

"Where is it that you think you are, Jedi?" Vehemis asked, the soft, teasing lit that affected her voice whenever she spoke to the Jedi suddenly gone, and Kanan slowly shook his head.

"The Jedi Temple, on Lothal," Kanan stammered, looking between the two women as they looked at each other. "We...escaped Thrawn by taking refuge here..."

"The mission..." Vitios hissed, her forked black tongue flicking out between her lips. "Master..." she said softly, running a gentle hand down the Sith's arm. "You aren't on Lothal. This is Atollon."

"Atollon..." Obi-Wan whispered, his head slowly shaking as he stared at the tunnel the girls came from. "No...that's impossible."

Without another word, the Sith Lord ran into the tunnel, the others following closely behind him as he rushed through the winding, twisting caverns. It didn't take long before they emerged from the caverns and into the sunlight, squinting and shielding their eyes as their vision adjusted to the blinding sun. It took a moment to come into focus, but it slowly did, tall rock formations and intricate coral towers reaching high up into the sky from red earth, the air hot and dry, so unlike the temperate golden fields of Lothal's countryside.

They had, in fact, returned to Atollon.

"No..." Kenobi gasped, his eyes darting frantically across the arid landscape of Atollon. "This is impossible..." he muttered, turning back and walking absently past the others, his hand laying upon the rocks at the entrance of the cave they had emerged from. "This is impossible!" he shouted as turned back around and began furiously pacing back and forth across the sand.

"Kenobi..." Kanan tried gently. "I can't explain what happened, but from where I'm standing, we escaped from an impossible situation. Isn't that enough?"

"No, it isn't!" Obi-Wan snapped as he reeled on the Jedi, his gold eyes blazing with spikes of red as he took hold of the Dark Side. "Lothal is...is billions of miles away from Atollon! They aren't even in the same system! How," he snarled, grabbing hold of the Jedi's shirt and glaring up at him. "How, Jedi, could we have used the Force to traverse space itself?!"

From across the arid wilds of Atollon, echoing across the clear blue skies, they could hear the distant, mournful howling of Lothwolves.