"You're not going to believe this."
Luke looked up from his holocron calmly, and met my eyes with an odd kind of expectance. I guess he knew I'd be coming around sometime.
"Yes, Deseray?"
I smirked as I slammed down my data pad on the table on which he was sitting cross-legged. "I knew some Jedi, back in the day. Besides Tori, there were two more. One of them was the Master, the other, the apprentice." My smirk widened. "What was you father's name, Luke?"
I saw something in his eyes flicker, but it was so quick that I didn't say anything.
"Anakin." He said softly. "His name was Anakin Skywalker."
I laughed out loud, then pressed a few buttons on my data pad. A hologram, life-size, came to life out of a small, hidden generator in the side. I turned it so the hologram was in front of us both. Leaning on the table beside him, I fixed my gaze on the bluish image of a good friend of mine.
"I knew your father, Luke." I stole a glance in his direction. The holocron was forgotten in his lap as he stared, almost slack-jawed, at the image before him. "I also knew his master. I trust you've met or at least heard of Obi-Wan Kenobi?"
He nodded numbly. "How did you…?" He pointed to the hologram.
"I'm getting to that." I said matter-of-factly. "Me and Kenobi would meet up sometimes, having an adventure or two. Maybe me and Tori stealing Ani away for a few drinks. Purely against Kenobi's wishes, of course." I let out another laugh. "So, let's see what Obi-Wan here has to say." I flashed him a grin, but I don't think Luke saw it.
Pressing another button on the pad, the hologram flickered to life. First, a soft smile graced his lips. He always looked so nice when he smiled, too. Too bad there was a sad accent to his posture, or else he would have been as handsome as ever.
"Deseray Sequoia of Rosemary, Tori Miller of Zoicite, I apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused. You know what transpired in the Clone Wars, and you know what kind of heart Anakin possesses. You two saw it before I did, and now I fear that his anger has gotten the best of him. He works under the Light Side, and always has. But you both know his…" Kenobi took a deep breath, letting us see how nervous he really was. Luke had a puzzled look on his face as Kenobi went on. "Past. You know Ani very well, and what he is capable of. I'm afraid that I don't see much in the future for the Jedi, though. It's a very clouded path. This is why I've taken care of you two." My smirk faded quickly. Obi-Wan was the one who put us into stasis?
He bowed his head down and closed his eyes. "I'm sorry, Deseray, Tori. I had to get you out of harm's way. Remember when I went to talk to the Council about my visions?" His head came back up, and his eyes were troubled. "They didn't listen to me. Plain and simple, as you would say, they turned me away. I near panicked, and I had to do something. I guess Qui-Gon rubbed off on my more than I thought." A small chuckle escaped him. "I've gone against the council. Yes, I know what you would say, Dez. Saw that one coming…"
Obi-Wan's eyes drifted closed slowly, and he rolled his head back. He let out a sigh of such sadness that it could make any heart ache. Beside me I heard Luke gasp a bit. Emotion was vibrating through the Force so strongly it almost made me flinch. It made me remember what an unorthodox Jedi Luke really was. "The asteroid belt around Morbos," continued Kenobi, "should keep you both safe enough. That is, is should have kept you safe. I've foreseen both of you will keep in stasis safely for however long this lasts." He leveled his eyes with us again. "Hopefully it won't be long, but if it is… You know about the Queen. She loves Anakin with all her heart, but … if her children fall into Anakin's hands while he is this unstable, I fear the worst."
Abruptly, the hologram flickered out. After a long silence that stretched between us, I finally dared to speak.
"Kenobi wasn't always the best at making speeches, after all." I tried a grin, but it failed. I don't think it mattered in the least anyway, because Luke was still staring blankly at the space where the hologram once was.
In an oddly even and composed voice, Luke spoke. "He was so young. Barely a Jedi Knight when he trained Anakin, and just in his twenties during the Clone Wars. I… didn't realize he was so young." I nodded as my voice shook. "Yeah, that he was."
"Ben, I mean, Obi-Wan. Was he… and Anakin, my father, where they … your friends, or…." He took a deep, shuttering breath before snapping out of his trance-like state and jumping off the table. The holocron hit the floor with a sharp clatter, making me visibly wince at the sound. Looking me straight in the eyes, it didn't seem to me that Luke needed any sort of response. More like he was waiting for me to bombard him with questions. At the time, though, I was just as much at a loss for words as he was.
He stood there, in silence, for a long time. Just staring at me. And I stared back, knowing that with each passing moment I was showing more and more of myself than I had in a long time. Behind my eyes flickered memories of Obi-Wan and Anakin and I knew that Luke saw them all. The first time me and Tori tricked Anakin into drinking Corellian beer, and when Obi-Wan had walked in on it. When, while helping an alien humanoid species, Anakin had gotten emotionally attached to one of the boys. His reaction when the boy was knocked unconscious during battle was less than equal to that of a Jedi, and Obi-Wan's reaction to his outburst. The goods and the bads of it all, through the few short years we had together. It all passed through my memories in a rush.
It was a while before I spoke. "Tell me," I said weakly, at first, then stronger. "about Anakin. He's fine, I'm sure. That little boy could have won over the galaxy if he'd tried."
Luke's face fell. Only for an instant, then his Jedi mask was back. Anger flared inside of me, but that was one emotion I couldn't let out, not yet.
"He did." Luke took a deep breath as if to interrupt my questions that I wasn't going to ask. "He owned the entire galaxy, for a long time. Palpatine, the Emperor. He had a man to carry out his duties. And that man, Darth Vader, was the one who killed my father. Anakin Skywalker came back, though, in the end. He redeemed himself… through it all."
At first I didn't understand what he had said. He was talking in riddles, like the old Council of the Jedi used to do. Then it clicked inside of me, like a switch. My vision went black, then white, then clear, then swirling around me like the storms of Bespin. Pain blossomed in my chest like a flower, only far less beautiful.
Anakin Skywalker, Luke's father, the boy who was like a little brother to me… He was Darth Vader. Slayer of the Jedi, the one who Obi-Wan had hid me and Tori from.
I knew, as soon as my mind stilled and I could see Luke in front of me again, that I had to find Tori, or else I would truly lose myself in pain. I had to find the last of my only three friends. Closing my eyes, I let out a deep sigh.
"Deseray…" Luke's deep voice cut through my senses.
"I'm fine," I said, almost yelling. I looked back up at him and squared my shoulders. I knew what I had to do. "But, I'm sorry Luke. I have to leave."
He nodded solemnly, knowing what I meant. I turned slowly, heading out the door. At first, I hadn't a clue where to go, but I knew that there was something I had to find. Something Luke had waited to show me, something I didn't know about…
So I headed to the room that I awakened in. It still had the residue of my feelings in the air. Thick and panicky, and I could barley breath as I stood there. Something pulled at my mind, taking me out of the room and down the corridor. My feet seemed to walk on their own.
It brought me to a place, looking like the one I had just left. Only this room had a different feel to it. The panic and fear weren't evident nearly as much. There was a certain sort of confusion that was blinding after a few moments in there. And then I noticed the flows in the Force itself within the space. It was … odd. A presence, almost, inside of the room. A memory, a feeling, a conscience. It had been waiting for me, and now it was speaking words that would help me on my journey. All of it, like I should know something that I couldn't place. It was yelling at me, for me. Telling me to…
Come.
It was telling me to come.
No… She was telling me to come.
Tori.
End chapter 7