Reminder: Please kindly note that this is a remix of angelrider13's fic titled: Resist Order 66. This has been written with her permission and blessing.
- Part 2 of 3
Of Caleb, flight, and a Home that is Eternal
He runs until he can't breathe, and then he runs some more because that's what he's been doing all his life ever since he was found and brought back to a place that was Home. But Home is no longer there as the Force rages and propels him forward.
They killed her.
Branches give way to stones and the not-path he's been running on becomes bumpy; his feet catch on something and Caleb slides his way down the grassy incline. He reaches out, grabs air, and continues his descent until he hits ground.
There is a wild wild moment where he considers just lying there and accepting that the Force is screaming, his men are shooting, and the Jedi are dying.
They killed her.
The Force is raging and crying, scattering him like the leaves littering the ground he's lying on. But he can still hears his Master's final order despite the chaos and that's why he pulls himself up, calling... His lightsaber had flown when he had fallen endlessly downwards and it flies to him in silence. The weapon fits too easily in his hand and the metal etches the handle's pattern into his skin. He doesn't feel the imprint of it and he should be concerned, but he can only feel the vast emptiness of the Force that echos, echos, echos, and doesn't stop.
He wants to stop though. To rest. But he cannot when he can still hear his Master's voice even though she is dead and gone.
He has the sudden urge to slash against the tall tall trees until they are burning stumps but he resists. He has to be quiet and he runs in silence now, feet barely touching the ground. He thinks he's flying at this point as he continues his course to nowhere.
He has to be quiet.
He has to be quiet or they'll find him. He needs control, needs to contain himself, because he cannot afford to break apart now when the Force is also breaking around him. He cannot stay here where he can still smell the blaster fire, can still hear his men's voices, can still see the smoke on the horizon that can only mean the burning of a dead dead body.
They killed her.
He needs to get out of here. He cannot stay. He takes a beat to reorient himself. Then he's running again and this time, he doesn't stop until he's actually flying, curled up on the Starfighter's seat that is too high for his feet to touch the floor.
Space is quiet sans his own breathing and the Force's keening.
Caleb wonders if this is what it feels like to die.
He needs to do something. Anything. He fiddles with the Starfighter's comms and tries to ignore the darkness from outside space and inside himself. There is Chaos as every channel he switches to talks about the betrayal of the Jedi. The Jedi who are dying because someone had lied. Caleb resists the urge to smash the comms with his small shaking hands and switches to the Jedi frequency instead. Maybe, maybe, he is not alone. Maybe, others live.
The comm cuts in, a shining blue light forming into a familiar familiar figure.
"This is Master Obi-Wan Kenobi," the holo says and even from eons away, Caleb can see Master Kenobi's sadness carved into every line on his body. "I regret to report that both our Jedi Order and the Republic have fallen."
Not just the Jedi are gone then. But the whole Republic that they have all been fighting for three long long years. Everything is ashes now as Caleb continues to watch the holo with reverence.
"With the shadow of the Empire rising to take their place, this message is a warning and a reminder to all surviving Jedi. Do not return to the Temple." Master Kenobi pauses for a brief brief second and Caleb can see that the older is mourning with the passion of a thousand dying suns about the abandonment and ruins of Home. "The time has passed and our future is uncertain. Avoid Coruscant. Avoid detection. Be secret. Be strong. We will each be challenged: our trust, our faith, our friendships. But we must persevere, and in time, I believe a new Hope will emerge."
A new Hope. Caleb cannot even imagine that that can be any Hope at all in this galaxy when all he sees is Darkness.
"May the Force be with you, always," Master Kenobi says in a weary voice and within one beat and the next, his glowing figure vanishes, plunging Caleb back into silence.
Gone. It's all gone. The Jedi. The Republic. All of it.
He's shattering in stardust and what can he do but reach into the Force, hoping, hoping, hoping… Something sparks back in the distance and Caleb looks out the window to see the stars slowly winking back into constellations he knows and loves. He had felt it when the Force had paused in its mourning. There had been a familiar presence, more familiar even than Master Kenobi, and as he wipes his tears away, he knows without a doubt that he is not alone.
They did not kill her after all. His Master yet lives.
And as his Starfighter hums its way into open space, Caleb can only wonder where he goes from here.
On another Starfighter far far away, Master Billaba's finger twitches, a ghost of a smile gracing her face.
- One of the shorter chapters. Hope you enjoy~
Review=Love