Chapter 55 – The Way Back Home

Author's Note: In which familiar faces show up. ;)

To Guest: Yeah, theoretically, Theseus could learn from Ulic Qel-Droma if he wanted another person to finish his Jedi training. But, of course, that would mean that he would want to finish his training as a Jedi and that he would want to train further at all… neither of which are guarantees. ;)

To Jayden: I'm glad that you liked this slower-paced chapter! There will be a number of those coming up. :) Also, I'm so happy that you feel him backing away from the fight is in-character for him! ^-^ And you're right. Chapter 54 was a transition from one era to another. I'm really excited for these next chapters, because it really sets the stage for the rest of the fic, and it really… develops Theseus as a character and as an important player in the galaxy's future. ;) Also, Revan will definitely continue to be a supportive, guiding figure as he has been… but maybe Theseus will learn to listen to him a little better? I guess we'll find out! :D Ngl, your review made me so, so happy. This is one fic which we've invested so much time and effort into, and we've been worried about the reaction it will get, since OC fics are generally not terribly popular. Lol.

Thank you all so, so much for reading and reviewing! ?

~ Amina Gila

It's hardly uncommon for people to move about with a hood pulled over their heads, so Theseus doesn't need to worry about looking suspicious in that regard. He moves as inconspicuously as possible through the streets of Odessen, hoping that his hood will at least conceal him enough that no one will look at him twice.

Two years. It's been two years since he first came here.

He knows the place now, the city, even if he's always kept to himself. He doesn't belong here, not really, but there isn't anywhere he belongs anymore.

Ahsoka and Rex never came back.

To be fair, Theseus didn't really expect that they would. They parted knowing full well that they likely wouldn't see each other again until Theseus left to join up with the Rebellion. He hasn't yet. He still isn't ready, and he wonders when he will be. Likely, it'll take something drastic to throw him back into the fighting. He's tired of it.

He has heard about it on the news, though. Sometimes there's a mention of a terrorist attack somewhere, so Theseus can at least see there's obviously a rebellion of some kind in operation, because he highly doubts that the attacks are random and sporadic.

But at the same time, they also certainly aren't getting anywhere in overthrowing the Emperor.

For now, at least, Theseus was intending to remain on Odessen. But now, he's encountering a slight problem in that plan.

The Empire is here.

They're slowly spreading their clutches to more and more planets, and now they're here, too. It's not likely anyone will recognize him, but it isn't a possibility he'll shrug off.

A prickle of unease runs through Theseus, though, as he keeps moving. Maybe it's just the sight of an occasional stormtrooper milling about, he doesn't know. (What happened to the clones? He doesn't know that either.)

He's only out here to buy some things that he needs for his mechanic's shop. It's not like there's anything unusual about what he's doing. Everything should be fine. He is just trying to live a relatively normal – and unimaginably lonely – life, after all.

He would have kept going to his shop, if not for the sudden commotion coming from right around the corner. People talking loudly – borderline yelling, really – and against his better judgment, Theseus rounds the corner to check it out.

There's a group of about half a dozen stormtroopers, surrounding a civilian. A Twi'lek.

"Take him in for treason," orders one of the stormtroopers to the others, one who looks like a superior. The Twi'lek protests something that Theseus can't quite hear, but the stormtroopers ignore him, and start shoving him away.

"No!" wails a much younger sounding voice, and he looks over sharply to see a much younger Twi'lek girl – around ten, maybe? – try to run after them. "Daddy!"

The stormtrooper in the back turns around, roughly knocking her to the ground before he turns to walk away after the others.

Theseus clenches a fist, anger surging as he watches them. Yes, this is the kind of government that rules the galaxy now. For a moment, he really wishes he had left with Ahsoka, but now, it's too late for that. He doesn't even know how he'd find her. He misses her all the time, but he misses everything all the time. It's just a constant ache that he always feels, somewhere in the back of his mind. He's accustomed to it now.

"Help them," a voice whispers in the back of his mind. It's what he should do, he knows.

His gaze darts between the now crying, and probably minorly injured, girl and her father, as the stormtroopers continue to shove him away.

And he can help them, even if it's a risk to himself. He wouldn't have to expose himself as a Jedi. He'd just have to probably ditch his cloak and find a different one.

Or he could walk away and pretend nothing happened, and forever feel guilty over not stopping something like this when he could have. It's not a hard choice to make. He's risked his life more times than he can count during the war, and this is nothing compared to that.

Theseus sprints forwards, rounding to the other side of one of the buildings in the direction the stormtroopers are going. He pulls himself up the side of the building, darting to the edge of the roof and looking down.

There's only six of them. It shouldn't be too hard. He jumps over the edge, kicking two of the stormtroopers to the ground as he falls. They fall, momentarily stunned, as he lands.

The other four whirl around with various exclamations of surprise, raising their blasters. He ducks under them, tackling the first one and throwing him into the nearby one. One of the others fires, and he dodges, before throwing the fourth to the ground. The sixth of them jumps him, knocking him down in the process, but the Twi'lek instantly springs into motion, slamming the stormtrooper over the head. The fourth one punches at him, which he hastily evades, hurriedly knocking him out.

He scrambles to his feet, hurrying to the Twi'lek, just as his daughter runs around the corner. "Here," he mutters, reaching down to remove the binders on his wrists.

"Daddy!" the girl cries, running over and throwing herself into her father's arms.

"You better get out of here, while you can," Theseus warns, throwing a furtive glance up and down the street. Many people saw this, and he isn't about to stick around and wait for more stormtroopers to show up.

"Thank you," the Twi'lek says gratefully.

He nods, before whirling around and sprinting back into the alley ways, taking a roundabout route all the way back to his home. Hopefully, anyone who was watching him long since lost his trail. And he had his hood up, so he can only hope that no one was able to identify him.

**w**

Theseus doesn't know what woke him first. The feel of danger in the Force, or BD beeping loudly right next to his ear. He's on his feet in a flash, instantly reaching for one of his blasters.

He can feel presences – malevolent ones – far too close for his liking, and he can hear voices and movement literally right on the other side of the door. What? Did someone break in?

The door his room abruptly slams open just as he reaches for it, and stormtroopers appear in the doorway. "Here's in here!" one of them calls.

"You're under arrest," one of the others snaps.

His heartrate instantly skyrockets, because did they figure out that he's a Jedi? But –

Oh. Uh. Right.

This could also be because of his attacking those stormtroopers the previous day. That doesn't mean they know anything. Either way, it doesn't matter. He's not letting them take him.

"Drop that blaster," orders one of them.

He fires instead, discreetly shoving their blasters aside, so the shots completely miss. And now they're blasting up his bedroom and destroying his house. Not that it matters, because he knows that after this he's going to have to move.

The first stormtrooper goes down, and he instantly tackles the second one, both of them ending up on the floor. His blaster falls from his hands. The Force flares in warning, and a blaster shot rings out, nearly taking his head off. He rolls out of the way, as several more stormtroopers appear in the doorway.

Great.

This isn't a fight he's going to win unless he does start openly using the Force.

He calls the blaster back to him, shooting the first couple of them, then jumps to his feet, flipping across the room, landing close to the window. He really wishes his lightsaber was somewhere accessible right about now.

They all shoot at him, and he leaps out of the way, letting the blasts shatter the glass behind him. Throwing up his hands, he Force-shoves several of the stormtroopers into the wall. "Jedi?" one of them exclaims in alarm.

A few more appear in the doorway, and he knows that if he's going to survive this, he needs to get out of here. He Force-jumps out the hole in the window, landing easily on the ground outside and takes off running into the shadows. The town is relatively unpopulated, so there aren't many lights out here at night. For as much as he misses Coruscant sometimes, he's suddenly very grateful for the dark.

Theseus can hear speeders firing up back near his house, but he doesn't slow his pace, and instead keeps running. He needs to find somewhere to hide, and then he can try and figure out what to do. He weaves his way in between the buildings, reaching out with the Force to see if he can feel if anyone is watching him. It's not always accurate, but sometimes he can feel eyes on him, and right now he can't. Good.

That will make finding a hiding spot easier. He could try sneaking into someone's home, but if he was caught there, that would be firstly, another illegal act, and second of all, he'd get them in trouble too.

Maybe he'll just have to stay outdoors for the night.

Finding a good spot isn't that hard, although he spends the next few hours dodging patrols and such until the horizon is just starting to get light. It isn't until then that he finally gets a chance to reflect on what just happened.

They have a fairly good suspicion that he's a Jedi, and so they're never going to stop looking for him now.

He can't go back to the life he was living before, much as he wants to. There wasn't anything great about it, but he'd grown accustomed to the pattern, and he didn't really want to give it up yet, even if he isn't losing anything. Not truly.

But it doesn't matter anymore. They know he's here, and he can't stay.

Part of the reason he stayed here all this time was in the hope that Ahsoka or Rex might come back, or at least in the chance they did, they wouldn't have to worry about what happened to him. But it doesn't matter anymore. He'll have to find somewhere else to go on his own.

**w**

This is everything Theseus feared from the start. Now that the Empire has eyes on him, he has nowhere to lay low anymore. His only choice is to leave the planet, but he obviously can't use a registered transport for that. He can't leave without his lightsaber and armor and the last things he has left from Anakin, though. He won't, which drastically complicates things. It would be easy enough for him to steal a ship, but he needs to find the right one, and doing all that while trying to stay out of stormtroopers' eyes is exceedingly difficult. His home is going to be under close watch, and he can't go back there right now. (If Ahsoka was here, he'd risk it, but no. She's gone.)

He's trying to disappear into those in the city, doing his best to stay out of sight. He needs to get his injuries – however minor – treated, too. That's when something catches his senses in the Force. Someone is watching him.

He needs to keep moving to lose them without being obvious. Slowly, he starts moving down the streets again, dodging anywhere he knows stormtroopers are stationed. He's careful to keep his head down so the hood he's wearing covers his face.

Theseus senses the warning only a matter of seconds before someone jumps him. He dives out of the way, but the figure promptly tackles him, throwing him to the ground.

He recognizes the marks on the helmet the same time he recognizes the presence of the person beneath it. "What a way to greet your long-lost brother," Theseus quips, dryly.

"You again?" Anastasia asks, standing, offering a hand to pull him up.

"Unfortunately. What are you doing out here?"

"I could say the same to you."

"I actually happen to live here. Or I did," Theseus replies. "Why are you here?"

"I was in the area, and there were rumors about a Jedi," Anastasia replies. She reaches up, taking off her helmet, and he can see a look of... he can't quite label it, actually, in her eyes. "I was wondering what happened to you."

He grimaces. Right. She would have had no way of knowing that he was alive with everything going on. Going back to Mandalore never really occurred to him, and it didn't seem like a good place to hide anyway, given how much chaos the planet was still in. It wouldn't be somewhere he could lay low. "I've just been laying low."

"Well, you're doing a great job," she drawls, "And I don't think it would've hurt to at least drop by to let us know you were alive."

"I... didn't really think about it," he admits, "There was so much chaos, and I didn't want to risk it."

"It might be better than you didn't," she concedes, grudgingly, "But it looks like your cover here is blown away. What did you do?"

"Who said I did anything?"

"Because it's in your nature to do stupid things."

"Hey!"

She smirks. "So, what happened?"

"I might've gotten in a fight with stormtroopers and when they tried to arrest me, they saw me use the Force."

"Did you ever consider like wearing your armor?" She says it like it's the most obvious thing in the universe.

"Mandalorians tend to stick out," Theseus points out, "I was trying to do the opposite."

"I don't think that matters now. Where is it?"

"Back at my home. I can't go back there alone. I'm sure they're watching it."

"Then we can go together," Anastasia decides, "And then, you're coming with me."

He blinks. Well. Okay. It's been so long since he spoke to someone who actually knows him as who he really is. He almost forgot what it's like. It's only now that he realizes how much he's missed it. He missed her too, honestly, even if it was so lost in everything else that he never thought about it much. "... thanks," he offers, a little awkwardly.

She rolls her eyes, yanking her helmet back on. "Don't get all mushy on me. Let's get going."

**w**

Theseus tries to keep his head down as the two of them crouch on the roof of a building near his house, his sister listing off the positions of the nearby stormtroopers that she can see the best through the scopes on her helmet. There's a decent number, unsurprisingly, but it should be easy enough to move in after dark. Hopefully everything is still there.

It's not long after nightfall, when the city is just starting to quiet down, that Theseus makes his way towards the back entrance of his house. There's two stormtroopers moving about on the street, and as soon as he's close enough, he lashes out with the Force, throwing them hard into the wall. They slump to the ground, unconscious, and he races forwards, opening the door and hurrying inside.

The place feels about as much like home as anywhere could now, and while he doesn't want to leave... He's honestly excited at the prospect of going back to Mandalore. Even if he doesn't really fit there,either.

For the most part, his home looks relatively untouched, but he can tell they must've searched through it. There's a sudden furious beeping, and a certain very familiar droid scurries out of the shadows, running over to him.

"BD!" Theseus exclaims, reaching down and picking it up, "I was worried about what happened to you."

"I hid from them. Organics are stupid."

"Come on. I need to get my things," he orders, setting it back down and sprinting to his room.

Packing what he wants to take doesn't take long, since it isn't much. They never did find where he was keeping his lightsaber. He slips the hilt out, turning it over in his hands for a moment as he stares at it. It's been a long time since he actually took it out, not there's time to think about that right now.

He pulls his armor on next for the first time since he left Mandalore. It instantly brings back a rush of memories, of all the times he's worn it before, and he shies away from that. He can't let himself dwell on any of it right now. Wearing the armor is easier than giving himself something else to carry anyway.

He's just finishing collecting the last of his things when a blaster shot suddenly rings out.

Looks like the stormtroopers have figured out something is up. Anastasia can handle it, but he needs to hurry.

Throwing the last of his (Anakin's) tools into his bag, he sprints back for the door. His sister circles around the house mid-air as he flies out, shooting at several more stormtroopers who run into view, shooting up at her. Frankly, he has no idea how they noticed so quickly, but it doesn't matter.

Time to get out of here.

Activating his jetpack, Theseus takes off into the air, heading back for the ship. (The last time he did this, it was when he was crashing from the cruiser with Rex and Ahsoka.)

**w**

"What's been happening on Mandalore since I left?" Theseus inquires, as he and his sister sit in the cockpit of her ship, on the way back to the planet. He's hardly sure how he feels about going back there, after so long. It's been so long since everything. It's strange to not be alone again, to have someone here next to him other than his droid.

"Bo took over for a short time," Anastasia replies, "And then we heard about all this. The Empire forming and the Jedi being declared traitors. What did you do, anyway?"

"I don't even know what really happened," Theseus admits. He's about to say that he doubts the Jedi did anything treasonous, but then stops himself. He still remembers far too clearly that last conversation he had with Anakin, about the mission the Council had given him. Did something about that go wrong?

"Anyway," she continues, "Then the Empire decided that they wanted to rule Mandalore, and they managed to get Saxon installed as their puppet." She says the name with no small measure of disdain.

"I don't see how he could agree to that," Theseus mutters.

"Same way he agreed to serve Maul, I suppose."

"This just seems... even less Mandalorian."

"There was nothing 'Mandalorian' about serving Maul."

"I didn't say there was!" he protests.

"So, what are you going to do, once we get there?" Anastasia inquires, and the question catches him slightly by surprise.

"I don't know," he admits, "I still have to lay low. I'm a Jedi."

"You are, or you were?"

What's her point? It's admittedly a good one, though, because he doesn't even know anymore what he is. Not that that aspect of things will matter to the Empire, but he knows that's not why she's asking. "I don't know," he admits, "I never saw myself as being anything other than a Jedi before, and now..."

He's had plenty of time to think about it, sure, but he certainly has no answers. And being a Force user of any kind in this time is far from a good thing.

"Maybe you need to broaden your horizons," she drawls.

He gives her an odd look. "What is that supposed to mean?"

She shrugs. "You've been going back and forth between your Jedi and Mandalorian identities ever since you first met us. Maybe it's time you pick just one."

Oh. That's what she means. In all honesty, she has a good point.

He can't be a Jedi anymore – or even a Force user of some kind, really – because there's no one left to complete his training. Not right now.

And in a way, he's always had a certain attachment to Mandalore, even before he realized who his family was. Officially taking on his Mandalorian identity would mean... He doesn't know, really. It would only truly be a personal decision, one with only meaning to him, but it would change a lot. It would mean accepting that Mandalore is where he belongs, with what's left of his family.

His sister is the only family he has left, at this point.

Everyone else is dead and gone, and he still isn't ready to join the Rebellion.

He doesn't know where else to go. He's tired of being alone, and he's never had a real family before. He still wants it, like he once told Anakin he did. The Jedi are gone, and he can no longer live by their principles. It only leaves one choice open. There's only one path going forwards for him, and it's the one he has to follow. "Now that you mention it," Theseus says, slowly, "I'm thinking that's a good idea."

He reaches out, picking up his helmet and slipping it back over his head, right as the ship comes out of hyperspace.

Perhaps the name Marr Vizsla fits him better than he thought it would. And he's finally going home.

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