I'll admit, there was a particular scene in here that I struggled with because I needed it in here, but I couldn't get it to where I wanted it-or rather where I felt satisfied-but after so long I decided that perhaps why I felt unsatisfied was because I was trying to do too much, so I cut back a little with this chapter and decided all right, that's okay. What I didn't use I'll put somewhere else in another form that will probably feel right when I do. So I got it as perfect as I could lol.

Please don't forget to review guys. I think my reviews/reactions have actually gone down, which is a real bummer for me, it kinda kills the motivation. I know some people are behind and just aren't this far, but I mean it when I say reviews/reactions are important and really help feed that finicky motivation part of me.

Enjoy!

It was well after her shift at work when the buzz from the home communications system sounded through the house, interrupting their dinner as both Zelina and Luke looked up at the sound. Zelina glanced at Luke, putting down her fork as she rose from her seat.

"Finish your dinner," she murmured, leaving the room after making sure he was going to stay in his seat.

Wondering who could be calling her, and sincerely hoping there wasn't trouble at the cantina that she would have to leave to take care of, Zelina made her way towards their living room, watching the blinking light that indicated the incoming transmission with curiosity until she was able to answer.

Of all the people in the galaxy to appear in holographic form, she hadn't been expecting this one.

"Obi-Wan?" she hissed softly, glancing back towards the main room and sincerely hoping that Luke wasn't sneaking around trying to eavesdrop and was still eating his dinner. "What happened, I haven't heard from you in far too long-I thought something had happened to you!"

"We were found, that's why we haven't been in touch-we didn't want to give you and Luke away," Obi-Wan said with a grimace, and Zelina felt a chill race down her spine. If they'd been found, then that meant that even contacting Zelina was a risk. Before she could protest the transmission, Obi-Wan rushed to finish, clearly seeing her alarm. "The Rebellion managed to find us a secure transmission, but it will only work for so long, so I have to be quick about this."

Zelina nodded her understanding, keeping her mouth shut so Obi-Wan could tell her about whatever it was that had prompted the call.

"We found a small source of kyber crystals-a very small source, enough so the Empire hasn't noticed it yet. I know your other lightsaber was destroyed, so I thought you might want to know so if you're so inclined, you can get one before the Empire has the chance to notice the source. It's on Christophsis."

Obi-Wan rattled off the coordinates, which Zelina started to repeat in a mantra in her mind to make sure she remembered.

"I'm afraid it's too risky to keep contact after this, Zelina. You're on your own, now. Pria wanted me to pass on the message that she's going to miss Luke," Obi-Wan said softly.

"I'm sure the feeling will be mutual," Zelina said quietly. "Take care of yourself, Obi-Wan. None of you better get yourselves killed before we can join the fray, all right?"

Obi-Wan snorted softly. "That's one way to say goodbye. Until then, Zelina. May the Force be with you."

"And may the Force be with you, too," Zelina replied, Obi-Wan's holographic form disappearing far too soon after she'd finished saying her goodbye.

Zelina crouched down in front of Luke, hands resting gently on his shoulders as they said their momentary goodbyes in the landing bay that currently housed the Millenium Falcon. After a day or two of consideration, and the obvious opportunity the Force presented her with when Han Solo and Chewbacca returned to the planet not long after Obi-Wan's transmission, Zelina decided that she needed to take advantage of Obi-Wan's information and head to Christophsis. She'd been collecting pieces for lightsabers for a while now, even though she didn't have crystals to make a real lightsaber, but now she knew why she'd acted on the whims. Or rather, why she'd acted on the prompts from the Force.

"Do you have to go? Why can't I come with you-I want to see space!" Luke complained as Zelina crouched down in front of him. Beru and Owen stood waiting by the bay doors, watching the exchange and waiting for Luke to come to them after he was done saying goodbye.

Zelina smiled slightly, ruffling his hair affectionately. "Because, Little Dragon, this might be dangerous, and it will be a quick trip anyway. Plus, you have school, and Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen need your help on the farm. I'll be back before you know it, I promise."

"Do you promise you'll be back soon?" Luke asked with a sniffle.

Zelina pulled the young man into her arms, giving him a tight hug and cradling his head in her shoulder, hand on the back of his head. "I promise, Luke," she said softly, giving him a gentle kiss on the head. After a few more minutes holding him in her embrace, she pulled away, holding him by the arms again. "All right. Now go to your Aunt and Uncle. Behave, do what they tell you. I'll be back in a few days, okay?"

"Okay, Mother," he said glumly, nodding his head. "I love you."

Zelina felt her throat close at the proclamation, tears burning her eyes. "I love you too, Little Dragon. Now go on. Go on," she assured him, giving him a gentle push in the direction of his Aunt and Uncle.

Luke raced over to Beru and Owen, though he was still clearly unhappy with the whole arrangement. With every moment that passed, Zelina was finding the impending separation harder and harder-she hadn't realized just how attached to the boy she'd become.

How could she not get attached? He was all she had left.

"You ready?" she heard Solo call from inside the Falcon. That was her sign that she had to take her eyes off of Luke. it was time to go.

With more effort than she cared to admit, Zelina turned around, heading up the landing ramp with heavy feet and a heavy heart.

"I'm ready, Solo," she called back, barely managing to keep her voice steady. She'd hardly reached the top of the ramp when it started to close behind her, and she quickly headed over to the seating in the main chamber of the ship. As she sat down, she heard the ramp seal, and a sudden anxiety at the separation between herself and Luke swept over her.

What if something happened while she was gone? What if he needed her? What if the Empire managed to trace that call and they came to Tatooine? What if some of the criminal elements on Tatooine decided to strike where it would hurt her the most while she was gone? What was she doing, leaving Luke behind without her protection?

Stop that, she told herself fiercely, even as her heart suddenly throbbed from the separation. Stop that right now. You know why you're leaving, and Luke will be just fine without you for a few days. He'll be safe and looked after. You even have Ameenah keeping an eye on him while you're gone-he's in good, trusted hands.

That didn't make it any easier. It was still painful, and Zelina did her best to ignore the obvious-she'd grown extremely attached to the youth, dangerous, paranoid level. She needed to relax her grip so she wasn't white knuckling a leash she was keeping on him. He was his own person, he was going to get older, and just like she'd told Anakin years ago, you couldn't control everything-bad things were going to happen to the people you cared about one way or another.

But she could still do her hardest to protect Luke from as much as she could.

He still needed to have his own experiences, and as he got older, Zelina was going to have to accept letting him out of her sight more so he could grow outside of her.

That doesn't mean I have to like being so far away from him.

Maybe when he got older and was more capable of handling himself, this kind of separation induced panic would ease. Maybe. Hopefully. Right now he was just a kid.

Don't think about this right now. You're about to go find lightsaber crystals, and you know what that means. You need to be spending this time clearing your head before you go looking for the crystals.

Closing her eyes as she felt the Falcon lifting off to head towards the atmosphere, Zelina did her best to shift her focus from Luke to her breathing, running through whatever meditation routine happened to come to mind to try and calm down.

She still kept Luke in the back of her mind, the image of him standing in the landing bay looking up at the departing ship her incentive to make it back in one piece if there was trouble waiting for her on Christophsis.

"I don't see why you came all this way for...what was it? Christophsis crystal shelves? Or why you insist on being dropped off in the middle of nowhere now."

Zelina hummed in response to Han's complaint, only giving it half her attention, the rest focused on the navi computer to see where they were. "What can I say, they're sturdy and they look good. I figured they'd be a nice addition to the cantina. And I want to see the scenery."

She could feel Han's gaze narrow at her suspiciously. "These are pretty specific coordinates for sightseeing."

"I know a spot. I was here once, a long time ago. I want to see if it's still here." Zelina straightened as she saw they'd reached their destination, already turning to leave. "Just drop me off here. I'll call you on the comms when I'm ready to be picked up, between now and then, I don't mind what you do so long as it doesn't cause us to have to make a speedy exit."

"Whatever, you're the client," Han muttered. Zelina felt both his eyes and Chewbacca's eyes on her as she left the cockpit, heading over to the landing ramp.

It was already lowering by the time she reached it, the Falcon hovering over the spot Obi-Wan had told her about. Below her she could see a forest of crystals, most of it clustered in a way that it obscured the ground below. She made her way down the landing ramp, holding onto the floor of the ship's interior to stay grounded as Han shifted she ship so she was over a clear patch.

That was her cue.

Letting go of the Falcon and pushing off, Zelina dropped down into the crystalline forest below, landing feet first and folding into a crouch as she hit the ground with the same nimbleness that she'd used in the war, hands planted on the crystalline ground below. She straightened and turned around so she could wave at the Falcon to let Han know they could leave, remaining standing in place until the Falcon had disappeared from view.

Which meant she was now alone, free to find the kyber crystals Obi-Wan had mentioned, and to see if any of them called to her. If not...she'd be leaving empty handed.

Brushing her hands on her pants on instinct, Zelina surveyed the forest around her, trying not to be blinded by the glare coming off of the crystals. She'd forgotten how beautiful this planet was. Then again, last time she'd been here, it had been war ravaged.

Slowly, Zelina got down onto her knees, resting her hands on her thighs and letting out a slow breath, allowing her senses to open up fully to the Force, as she did when she trained on Tatooine.

The Force had been different ever since the rise of the Empire. Drastically different, and dark. On Tatooine she'd had the extra light of Luke's presence to help stave off that difference and bring some of the familiar comfort back. Now, she was all alone on this planet, in the midst of the dark galaxy, and it made her experience the Force the way any other lone Jedi surviving in the galaxy must have felt it.

There was still the familiarity that she'd always felt when touching the Force, but only because she'd had time to adjust to the change. At first, its answer had been sluggish, its presence strange, and darkness seemed to whisper along the edge of light wherever she went, no matter what part she felt. If she turned inward instead of outwards, however, she could find the peaceful aura she yearned for before trying to venture out into the darkened galaxy with her Force senses.

Slowly, Zelina calmed herself into a deep meditation, making sure she found her inner peace and was truly in tune with all of her senses. Once she felt the Force flowing strong and steady through every part of her, Zelina gave herself up to the Force's whims, stretching out to see where it wanted her to go.

Keeping her eyes closed, Zelina rose to her feet and simply started to walk, letting the Force guide her steps rather than her sight. Though she was trusting the Force at the moment, she still held a hand out just to make sure she didn't run into any crystal pillars.

She walked blindly for what felt like an hour, hand outstretched to keep her path clear, letting the Force guide her forward. Suddenly, her hand touched smooth crystal slanted downwards, and the Force would guide her no further.

Opening her eyes, she found herself standing in front of a crystalline formation. Slabs of crystal rested at the bottom of what only could be described as a mountain, as if there had been a rock slide-or was it a crystal slide considering the entire planet was crystal?

Zelina looked up the length of the mountain, wondering if the crystal she was seeking would be found up above, somewhere in the cliffs of the mountainside. She stretched out a hand to start her climb...and stopped. No...no, it wasn't up above. If she closed her eyes and focused, trying to center on where exactly the Force was trying to lead her...what she sought was below her. But how was she supposed to get down there?

Siphoning off the frustration she felt tug at her, she turned her attention back to the base of the mountain, focusing more on the piled crystal formations she had been drawn to in the first place. Perhaps what she needed-her way down-was over here.

Looking down at the base she found nothing, and feeling around the rock gave her no telling chills down her spine or revealed any abnormality in the crystal. There was no seam on the sides, and until she knew what she was doing and where she was going, she didn't want to start moving slabs.

Her hand trailed farther up, and she hesitated, looking at the peculiar placing of the fallen crystals, and the top edge of the slab in front of her. Maybe...maybe she just needed to go a little higher, before she could head down.

With that thought in mind, Zelina began looking for a foothold to climb the crystal slabs again, except this time she didn't have the intention to start scaling the entire mountain looking for kyber crystals.

So the Force didn't give her a prompt to stop her, which also told her she was on the right track.

Finding a foothold was tricky, considering the smooth surface of the crystals, but she managed to boost herself up using some smaller chunks of fallen crystal and grabbing onto the edges of the slabs, climbing her way up to the top edge of the slab the Force had led her to. She hefted herself up onto the edge, sitting down and using her new vantage point to look for a path she couldn't see from the ground.

There was one. Slim and perfectly hidden from aerial or ground observation, and practically impossible to see unless you were right on top of it, there was a gap between the crumbled crystal slabs, a gap that if she tried hard enough, she could slip through without showing any rock disturbance that might lead a well-trained tracker to this site. Which meant perhaps this spot could remain hidden from the Empire a little longer.

Sucking in a deep breath and holding in in an effort to make herself slimmer, Zelina carefully started to shimmy and lower herself through the crack with great effort, the stray thought crossing her mind that there was no way Obi-Wan had shimmied his way down here.

Until she remembered he had a very slim and nimble daughter that would definitely fit through a space like this. Perhaps it had actually been Pria that had found this spot.

Shaking the stray thoughts away once more, Zelina found herself clinging to the outside edge with feet suspended in the air in a place that was shrouded in pitch darkness. Sucking in a breath, Zelina forced herself to let go, trusting she wasn't about to impale herself right inside this opening to...well, she wasn't entirely sure what she'd found yet.

Reaching to her belt, Zelina unhooked the glowrod she'd brought with her-she hadn't expected to wind up in a cave, but had brought it in case she ended up searching into the night. Holding it high above her head, she activated the device, bathing the small chamber she'd found herself inside in light.

In front of her stretched a tunnel that seemed to slope sharply downwards, descending further below ground and beneath the mountain, the walls shimmering as the light bounced off of the crystalline surface. There was nowhere else to go but down, so Zelina didn't need the Force to tell her this was the way.

Keeping the glowrod held high, Zelina cautiously started to make her way down the slope, having to duck her head from the small height of the tunnel and taking great care to watch her steps considering even the ground was crystalline, and therefore smooth and slick in surface. The glowrod cast its light a decent way in front of her, allowing her to see the terrain and find the best footholds even on the steepest parts of her descent. It also allowed her to notice that the further down she seemed to go, the rougher the terrain became, and the more jagged and rough the crystal structures became, some of the crystals losing their shine with the dirt and humid air that came with the underground chamber, causing a corrosion to grow over parts of the crystals.

None of the crystals she passed sang out to her through the Force, or even appeared to be kyber crystals, so she kept moving.

After a disturbingly long and cautious trip downwards, Zelina suddenly felt a tingle of warning go down her spine, but before she could assess her surroundings to see what could possibly cause the warning, her foot slipped on a surprisingly wet spot of rock. Her hands instantly shot out in an effort to stop a suddenly steep a fast descent, feet skidding across the slick surface for purchase as her hand grasped for something to hold onto. a much stronger prompting zipped through her, and Zelina instinctively obeyed it, hands just barely managing to find a place for them to stick and suddenly stop her descent, one foot finding a solid surface while the other dangled partially submerged in...water?

Now that she'd finished sliding, Zelina readjusted her grip on the glowrod that had miraculously stayed in her hand during the slide, angling it down so she could see what her one foot was submerged in.

It was water, all right, and while normally she wouldn't see why that was dangerous, unless it was somehow poisonous or acidic, the light also revealed that she'd reached a mineral rich part of this underground cave, one that had been untouched by nature and had clearly grown without a care for living organisms.

Below the surface of the water and along the rim of the mostly shallow pool were thousands of crystalline stalagmites, stretching up to but not quite breaking the surface of the half meter high water, as well as pointing inwards along the rim of the pool and another half meter out of the water. They were like thousands of decently sized crystalline lances, and Zelina was rather sure that, pretty as the sight was when it was undisturbed, they would have easily punctured thousands of little holes in her if she'd happened to slide into the pool.

"Okay...okay," Zelina murmured, shifting the glowrod in her hand once more in an attempt to take in her surroundings and try and find another way across the pointy pool.

If Pria had found kyber crystals down here, then she had to have found a way across. It looked like the needles were only around the pool of water, so she just had to cross the pool and then she'd be back into a relatively normal cave.

Relatively normal since across the pool she could see crystals protruding from all sides of the cave, including the ground, and they seemed to be increasing in size the further down it went.

Climb. That's the obvious answer, a little voice in her head said, and Zelina looked around for a good handhold. The cave was no longer made of the smooth crystal seen everywhere on Christophsis's surface, but was now jagged, rough, natural, and perfect for climbing. Pulling her foot out of the pool, Zelina braced both feet on either sides of the narrow tunnel wall, braced with her free hand, and moved the glowrod to her mouth to free her other hand for climbing. Once all four limbs were free and ready, she sought out her first good handhold, swinging around so her stomach was brushing against the cave wall with her back to the pool.

Now she just had to climb along the side of the wall without getting low enough to land on the needle like crystals until she reached the other side.

It was a fairly easy task, thanks to the fact she hadn't slacked all these years exiled on Tatooine, but had taken care of herself in every sense of the word. She slipped a few times due to the crystalline features of the wall and the sometimes water-slicked spots, but she managed to make it safely to the other side with only a few scraped knuckles from the rough walls. Once her feet were solidly on a safe surface, she breathed a sigh of relief, allowing herself a moment to cast the glowrod's light back over the pool and admire the beauty of the thousands of sharp crystals beneath the clear groundwater now that she wasn't in danger of impaling herself on them.

But she had further to go, and she didn't know how long she'd already been down here, or how much longer she had to remain in order to find her crystals. So she tore her gaze from the pretty sight, and returned it to the new small tunnel that now had crystals protruding from the walls in clusters. Zelina carefully walked around them, ducking and weaving where she needed to as the ground continued to slope downwards, her free hand trailing along the crystal surfaces half in admiration and half to steady herself.

Gradually the crystals grew bigger, and the tunnel grew larger, and far more crowded with the crystals, until she was climbing over large crystal beams and making weird backwards leans to avoid crystals sticking out of the ceiling. Finally, she turned a corner and found herself face to face with a maze of giant crystal beams and protrusions.

"Chaos take me…" she murmured, staring at the giant crystals that towered around her and pierced right through the center of the cave from all angles.

She hesitated a moment, unsure that she would manage to find her way through this maze until she felt prompted to keep going.

Which meant she was supposed to keep going.

"Alright...you're the boss...but I better not get stuck," she muttered, wondering if all these acrobats were the challenges she needed to pass in order to get her crystal.

She doubted that, considering she'd done this before and knew how dangerous and complex these tests could actually be. Anakin had to fight a vision of Maul, from what he'd told her when they were younger.

Focus, she chided herself once again, partially ashamed with how terrible her focus seemed to have become over the years as she shuffled forward and found a beam she wanted to try climbing around.

This climb was a lot more difficult, with Zelina slipping more often then she cared to admit, and several falls resulting in a bruised behind, and even a few times where she very nearly got stuck between two crystals or more trying to shimmy through spaces too small-or almost too small, since she managed to make it through a few of those spaces. Each moment she got stuck was met with the brief, heart-pounding fear that she would be stuck forever and unable to return to Luke before she managed to wiggle herself free and continue-after calming herself down once more, of course.

After passing the slippery, naturally constructed puzzle of large tunnels that went on far too long-and she was partially wondering how she was supposed to climb back up-Zelina finally slipped past one last gap between crystals, dropping down onto a corroded crystalline floor and into a cavern more spacious than the Room of a Thousand Fountains at the old Jedi Temple.

As well as, dare she say it, more beautiful.

Slowly, Zelina moved over to a nearby stalagmite formation, wedging her glowrod inside so that it cast its light into the room and freed her hands as she walked forward in a partial daze, amazed by the sight that met her.

Crystalline stalactites hung from the ceiling in various shades of blue, reflecting the glowrod's light and casting it further into the cavern. The ground had stalagmites of equal beauty clustered throughout the surface, but through most of the vast cavern was a perfectly clear pool of undisturbed water, stretching almost as far as the cave itself with some crystalline slab shores, such as where Zelina currently stood. She wasn't sure how deep the water went, thanks to the reflective quality heightened by the purity of the water and the crystal ground. And she didn't see another exit anywhere else in the cavern...so this had to be as far as she went.

So where were the kyber crystals?

Zelina…

A chill went down her spine at the whisper, so quiet it had to come from within her very mind. Her senses prickled to high alert, causing her to realize this cave far below the surface of Christophsis seemed to be steeped in the Force. That heightening in her senses also made her realized something in the room was calling to her-perhaps literally.

Focusing on the call, Zelina realized that whatever had led her this deep underground was centered somewhere in the middle of the vast pool of water.

She was going swimming, then.

Pulling her lightsaber from her boot to leave on the shore, as well as any other electronics, and stripping down to the bare minimum so most of her clothes could remain dry, Zelina stepped barefoot into the crystalline pool-hesitantly at first, to test and see if the waters were harmful in any way. When she wasn't met with instant pain or discomfort that hinted the waters weren't welcoming, she continued forward, eyeing the level of the water as it grew past her knee...up to her waist...chest…

Soon she was swimming through water that easily went past her head in depth, mindful of the underwater stalagmites as she navigated through the water. Her task was getting more difficult as she strayed farther and farther from the reach of the glowrod's light, the waters growing dark except for the shine and sparkle of crystals underwater.

"Zelina…"

And the voice grew louder...as well as clearer.

"Zelina."

Not to mention...familiar.

And yet she couldn't see anything. All there was around her was the silence of the cave, the water, and the crystals.

Something pulled her downwards. Not in the scary grabbed by the ankle and suddenly submerged kind of way, but in the Force her senses were guiding her down.

She needed to dive for her crystals.

Taking a deep breath-holding her breath underwater had never been her strong suit considering she came from a desert planet, so she needed all the air she could get-Zelina allowed herself to sink below the surface, opening her eyes so she could try and find the source of the call. Something glimmered brightly below her, far brighter than the other crystals around her, so she swam downwards, hand outstretched towards a stalagmite formation on the crystalline floor of the pool.

Darkness suddenly encroached on her vision, but not from a lack of air.

"Zelina!"

No, no, no, now was not the time to be having a vision! Couldn't the Force have given her a vision when she was safe on the shore, not holding her breath far underwater?

As the bright light she'd been reaching for disappeared with the last of her vision, Zelina felt something grab her shoulder and yank her back. She had the sense of falling through a veil, or perhaps a waterfall, as suddenly she landed hard on her back on dry ground, soaking wet, no water around her. Zelina coughed, eyes flying open to try and see what was happening, but it was too dark to see her surroundings.

"It's about time you and I had a talk."

A lightsaber suddenly ignited, and a blue glow illuminated the small cave she'd somehow entered. Holding the lightsaber was…

Zelina slowly got to her feet, a thousand emotions, each as sharp and painful as the last, lanced through her. Mostly pain, longing, loss, love lost.

"Vision...this is a vision. There's no way you can be here, you d...you're dead," Zelina said haltingly, instinctively backing away from the image that could hurt her so deeply.

Anakin stepped forward, lightsaber moving out beside him so it wasn't between them. "Vision or not, you're still going to listen," he said, much harsher than she'd expected to hear. This was not about to be a roll in a meadow kind of vision-it was going to be brutal and jarring.

"All those years you claimed to be on my side, to be my closest friend, to love me. Yet...where were you when I needed you the most?"

Zelina pushed herself up into a kneeling position, shaking her head as if to clear it of a fog. "You're not Anakin...I don't owe you anything," she murmured.

"Oh, I think you do," the not-Anakin said, roughly pushing her back down to the ground as he approached.

Definitely not Anakin. Even on the dark side he'd respected her more than this.

"You said you would always be there for me. Well, I needed you-where were you? Not there, that's for sure. Some friend. You left me to rot, you fell through every time. Not one of your promises to me were kept." Anakin made a sound of disgust as he loomed over her, and with no warning he suddenly picked her up and pinned her against the wall. "You promised you'd protect my family. You promised me Padme would live, but she's dead. You were there and you did nothing. My children were orphaned and split up. Not to mention all those promises about me and my own well being. Together to the very end no matter what? You left me behind. Do you even know what happened to me?"

"I don't," she admitted mournfully, hands gripping at the ones that held her pinned to the wall. "All I know is that you were in pain, so much pain...and then you were gone. You were dead. And I'll never know how. I tried, I tried so hard to keep us all together, to keep you with me, but I wasn't strong enough, I…"

"You what? You loved me? All the good that did me," Anakin snapped back, throwing her back to the ground. She hit the floor with a yelp, curling into herself and trying to ignore the sharp words he was sending her way. "I wasn't in love with you, if that's what you'd hoped. You disgusted me in the end. A sniveling failure is what you turned out to be, who couldn't keep any of the promises you made me. And you lie and act tough now that I'm gone, but just look at you: you're still that same, sniveling failure now, but worse, because now you don't have me."

Zelina ground her teeth together at the accusation, his claim that she was nothing without him cutting her to the bone. Because right after she'd lost him, it had been true, and she'd fought so hard to piece herself back together over the years. She wouldn't have even done that, if it hadn't been for one person still alive in the galaxy.

Slowly, she pushed herself back to her feet, tears stinging her eyes as she looked at the mirage of Anakin. "You're right. I failed you in every possible way, and I'll never forgive myself...not really," she said sadly to the mirage of Anakin. A rush of defiant anger surged into her veins, filled with an instinctual emotion she couldn't even put a name to that had everything to do with the one person she was still kicking around in the galaxy for. She held up a finger, pointing it in no real direction, but meaning to point back towards Tatooine. "But there's one thing I haven't failed you in. And it's a little boy, waiting for me back home, on Tatooine. A boy who loves me like a mother. A boy I've come to love as a son. And I'll be damned if I fail him, too. If not for you...Then for him."

A replicant of Anakin's flickering anger appeared in his eyes, a wounded expression crossing his face. "You've already forgotten me."

As out of nowhere as this new accusation was, it still stung. Now the tears spilled over, Zelina's hands twining into her hair for a few seconds in exasperation and pain before she dropped them. "I can't keep living in the past, Anakin! Its gonna destroy me if I do. But I will never...never stop loving you. There's a hole where you used to be... and it's never going to be filled." The old ache for Anakin filled her chest, reminding her that even with Luke, the space where Anakin had once been remained hollow and unfilled. Warmed by Luke's presence, yes...but never filled. Her gaze centered on the fake Anakin, all the more pained to see him standing in front of her and know it wasn't really him, that this was going to be the closest she ever came to seeing him again. "I love you. I always loved you, I still love you. And the fact that I can never see you again, never touch or hear you, I just…"

Anakin had stepped closer like he was going to say something else, and Zelina reached out with her hands, clutching at the fabric of his tunic in desperation, the detail of the vision-or perhaps her own memory-so precise she could feel the fabric beneath her fingers, exactly as it should have felt. And he was warm, too, as if he was still alive.

In the moment she touched him, she felt that space in her heart fill again, for the briefest of moments, as if he'd never left. Suddenly, the defiant anger rushed out of her, and she didn't want the vision to end, no matter how cruel it had been. Because for a few moments, she was whole, and in a way, he was here with her.

With a sob, she pulled herself close to him, clutching desperately to keep him with her so he could soothe the old pain, a thousand things left unsaid and desperate to be voiced bubbling up inside her, unable to all come out at once and, as a result, coming out in mournful cries.

As suddenly as he appeared, Anakin seemed to bleed away from her grasp. Her sobs turned to watery coughs, and instead of being planted in Anakin's chest, her face seemed to be pressed into the ground. Her hands were curled into fists...but they weren't empty.

Coughing up water and wondering for a few moments how she'd gone from submerged in the middle of the pool to lying on stepped crystal slabs above water, Zelina pushed herself up onto her elbows, looking around to realize she was on the same shore as the entrance, feet away from the glowrod she'd planted in the stalagmite cluster.

Looking back down, she slowly opened her hands...revealing the bright glow of not one, but two kyber crystals.

"Can I see, Can I see?"

Luke bounced excitedly around Zelina in their home's living room, nearly climbing on top of her as he pleaded with her to show him what she'd been vigilantly working on ever since she'd returned from Christophsis.

Zelina smiled, keeping what he wanted so desperately to see just out of sight. "I will, but first you have to settle down. I don't want you to accidentally slice off a finger or a hand because you're jumping all over the place."

With great effort, Luke came to a squirming stop sitting right in front of her. He really needed to work on that patience part of his training, considering he was proving to be every bit as impatient as his father...

Once Zelina was sure he'd finished squirming, she brought out her two lightsabers, holding them just out of Luke's reach so he could appreciate them, but ideally wouldn't be tempted to try and touch. She allowed him a few minutes to study the hilts in awe before she pulled back and stood up, moving away from Luke so he was out of harm's way.

"Ready?" Zelina asked, thumbing the activation on both without pressing the button...yet.

"Definitely!" Luke chimed excitedly, already starting to bounce in place again.

Once he'd confirmed he was ready, Zelina activated both blades, watching them spring to life and bathe the room in their two new colors.

One, her original that she'd built as a Padawan, was now a deep, rich violet, much darker than her original blade. The other, her newly constructed one, was a vibrant cyan blade, the one that would be acting as her secondary in place of what had once been her Master's blade. When she'd gone into the cave on Christophsis, she'd only expected to come out with one crystal, considering she already had a lightsaber. Looking back, however, she realized that she had changed drastically from the idealistic girl who'd constructed that first blade. It made sense fr another crystal to call out to her, even if it had surprised her at first.

"Whoa," Luke breathed, the word drawn out as he drew closer to the blade, taking care not to touch-Zelina was still training him with sticks, after all, since he was brand new to the training process. "How did you find the crystals? I thought they were rare because the Empire took them all?"

So he was paying attention. Good.

Zelina deactivated the blades, hooking the hilts onto her belt for the time being as she crouched down in front of him. "One day, when you're older and it's time for you to make your own lightsaber, I'll tell you. Deal?"

Luke nodded eagerly. "Deal," he promised.

Zelina smiled gently at him, pulling him into a tight hug. "C'mere," she mumbled as she pulled Luke close, feeling the child's arms wrap around her in a return hug. She closed her eyes, holding on perhaps a little tighter than necessary. "I missed you so much."

"You've said that every day since you got back," Luke replied, voice muffled by the hug.

Zelina had to stifle a laugh at how close to a complaint his statement sounded. That was probably her sign to stop saying it, then. She pulled away, ruffling Luke's hair affectionately. "That means I really, really missed you, Little Dragon."

"I missed you too, Mother," he admitted with a tinge of pink in his cheeks.

"How about you go get the training sticks, and we'll go practice lightsaber forms out in the canyon. Sound like a plan?" Zelina asked conspiratorially. Luke almost nailed her in the nose with his head as he suddenly leapt up in excitement.

"Yeah!" he crowed, already scrambling to go find the sturdy sticks. Zelina chuckled softly, rising to her feet and watching him scamper off.

"You'd be proud of him, Ani," she murmured into the silence. "He's turning into a fine young man."

Feeling a sneaky tear slip down her cheek, Zelina quickly wiped away the tear so that if Luke returned suddenly, he wouldn't find her crying in the living room for no clear reason.

If there was one thing she'd learned in that cave...she needed to put her failure regarding Anakin in the past, and focus all her efforts on helping Luke grow. The pain was still there, and it would always be there, but she needed to learn to live with and in spite of it. There was nothing she could do to fix what happened to Anakin, but she could still do right by Luke.

As Shmi had once said…

Be brave, and don't look back.