Chapter 51: The Chosen One (Part 1)
3 Years later...
"Supernova, what are you doing on my couch?"
The constant pest of Siri's life, shooting-up-like-a-weed Anakin Skywalker, lazes about in her apartment, probably after yet another petulant argument with Jinn, taking up space on her precious divine font of relaxation, like he owns the place. "Homework?"
"With your datapad haphazardly thrown on the table not in your hands?"
"I'm thinking about my homework."
"You're full of shit Skywalker."
"Well, I probably should go use the fresher..."
Siri snorts and walks past him to her room, fishing out her limited-use comlink, and sends out a comm-request. Might as well go badger the master if the padawan was going to be a pest. She was fine with Supernova goofing off in the dining halls, but this was her room. Which he had invited himself in again. Most importantly, she had been planning on lazing herself! Little shit wasn't allowed to beat her to it.
"Jinn here."
"Your padawan is being an annoyance again."
Jinn sighs, long-suffered. "Doing what exactly, Tachi?"
"Taking up my couch space, you have one in your apartment!"
"Must you always complain about him to me on trivial matters? It grows tiresome."
"I suppose you'd prefer stepping in to spar the next time the Council calls for a session? The only time we ever fought I recall putting a lightsaber through your liver rather easily. You could use the practice."
Jinn's response is crisp, "Anakin, as much as I think he spends far to much time with you, is responsible for and capable of making his own choices, as are you. If you truly want him out of your apartment, ask him to leave and he will."
He clicks off the comlink, and Siri rolls her eyes. "Definitely still sore about the liver."
She turns back towards her room, considering how she's going to drive off her little limpet today. Between him and Kenobi, she's running out of creative ways to send them running that don't involve just snapping at them and ordering them out. There's no fun in that! Yesterday, she'd walked out of her room towards her fresher in her undergarments, and that had been enough to send Skywalker skittering away flustered. That hadn't worked the first time it had happened awhile back, with the whole shameless slave thing, buuuut, the onset of teenage hormones were a new thing for the brat. Couldn't use the same thing twice though, wouldn't be fun.
Hmm...
Ah! She had it.
She sauntered back out, lifted the couch (with him still on it) up with the Force and put it against the wall.
"Hey!"
She put the table next to it. "I'm meditating, and I always sit in the middle of the room, deal with it Supernova."
He grumbled, but went back to lazing.
She sat on the floor cross legged and started to meditate, but not in a nice way. She didn't bother masking or containing her meditation to herself, letting the dark fill the room.
"Rude," called out Anakin.
She nestled into her meditation, not particularly on anything but drawing the dark around her and flaunting it around the room. A challenge, a dare. Just to see how long Skywalker would stay. Obi-Wan didn't usually stick around for these, or if he did, it was because he was trying to muffle it when she wasn't so she didn't 'bother' others. Made that a competition between the two of them sometimes.
No one besides her was impressed when they did that.
She felt Supernova rise from the couch, but there wasn't annoyance emanating from him, no, there was challenge fired right back at her instead, and a thread of something like waited anticipation. He approached, sat down a ways in front of her, and started delving into his own meditation. She winced as his presence flared in the Force, and a scowl crossed her face. That little shit...
"Could you meditate elsewhere, Supernova?" she said dryly, "Your presence is ruining my own."
"That sounds like not my problem," answered Anakin.
Siri held back her laugh. He definitely was spending to much time around her.
"But, since I'm feeling nice, I'll help."
It took Siri a moment to register exactly what Skywalker was implying. "Wait a second..."
To late.
Skywalker's meditation reached out barreled into her own, mixing in, and it was like a nova surged through the Force with them as the epicenter when he did. Like gravity, she was pulled into his own meditation without even wanting or trying to and...
And...
It was beautiful.
She let go of her own efforts and just watched, from within a star named Anakin Skywalker. If she had to give an analogy that wasn't nearly worthy enough: Normal Jedi and Sith saw a planet, perhaps a solar system if they were particularly strong. Skywalker saw a universe. The scope of what he could feel and see through the Force completely blew her away. Colors and shapes and whispers and sensation that she couldn't even begin to process. So deep and encompassing and full of energy and power she barely fathom, it was so overwhelming but she wanteditcravedithadtohaveitmakeithersownit...
She dove in right into his meditation without hesitation, deeper, deeper and deeper and deeper regardless of the pressure and the heat and the beginings of pain. There was something she couldn't properly identify waiting for her in its depths, beyond where Anakin's consciousness dwelled, dark and light and blazing and pulsing with an energy she had never felt before, not even on a Force Nexus. Like... like a heart, it beat with a divine -thump thump-, and she reached for it... deeper, trying... to... reach...
Then it was like eyes looked upon her.
-Balance?-
Didn't... couldn't... understand...
-No-
Then everything turned into blazing pain as she touched it and the energy burned and rejected her...
Siri found herself being laid down in a bed in the Halls of Healing by Kenobi. Everything ached, not in a hurt way, but in a holy-shit-everything-is-hyper-sensitive kind of way. She felt something running down her face and shakily reached a hand up, coming away bloody. A lot of bloody. Way more than a simple bloody nose kind of bloody. She slow blinked stupidly at the blood. Why was she bleeding?
"W...wah... what?" she slurred out.
"Welcome to meditation with Anakin Skywalker," said Obi-Wan dryly, "Except you have no sense of self-preservation and, from what Anakin said, dove right in where he can't even stand to go yet without it going... I believe he says 'kablooey'."
She stared numbly at her hand for a minute before looking up at him. "W...wh... at?"
He gives her a concerned look. "Master Che is going to need to take a look at your head, and while I know you hate the binders, being numbed to the Force might help right now. Its like you are a burning throb in the Force, Siri."
"A... w... hat...?"
About twenty minutes later, a pair of Force Binders on her wrists, and Vokra Che having soothed the worst of it, but not nearly all of it, 'I'm not getting the afteraffects of that burn because of her own foolishness, Padawan Kenobi.' and Siri finally can think of more than the fact that her nose was bleeding. She tolerates the mild Force Suppression for the moment, because that's the only way anything is close to tolerable. She tries, and fails badly, to understand what the hell happened.
"Define 'kablooey'," she asks.
Obi-Wan takes a chair and sits down while Master Che is filling out information on a datapad in the doorway. "When Anakin tries to go deep into meditation things tend to... break, around him. He is learning well, extraordinarily even from what I've seen, but fine control of the Force is not one of his best traits."
But critically, no mention of Supernova ending up like Siri had. Which meant... which meant Anakin could harness that power one day...
The shock of it settles deep into Siri, only with her training does she mask how that roils through her. To realize just how vastly she had underestimated Skywalker. Him being the most powerful Force Sensitive ever born was a very poor allusion to his true strength. Chills settle into her bones, because she was wrong. So very wrong. Anakin doesn't have the potential to be stronger than Sidious, than Yoda, than anyone.
He already is.
He just doesn't know it.
Doesn't know how to tap into it.
Doesn't have the experience to do so.
"I see," was all she allowed out.
Yet more than pure power... he had been unique. Different. Strange. She had felt within him nothing she had ever felt from anyone else. Something... other. That deep into meditation he had felt... more Force than he did a sentient lifeform, it was bizarre. She had always taken Skywalker to be just a super powered Force Sensitive, but this... there was something more to this.
She needs to investigate, carefully...
Then the topic of their conversation barreled into the room with worry and guilt on his face. "Siri, you okay?"
She ought to have said something sarcastic, sassy, or cutting, but instead she finds herself remembering that moment, that heart of his meditation, staring at him and whispering, "What are you?"
"I'm a person and my name is Anakin," he answers back flatly, his concern melting away to annoyance.
Do something, her mind, no, the dark hisses at her. Covet, lure, tempt, posses, own...
Siri does nothing but stare at Anakin, slightly wide eyed. Long enough to make the boy shift from annoyed to uncomfortable.
Obi-Wan cleared his throat and standing up. "I think Siri needs a bit to orient herself after that. Resting here for the rest of the day and the night could do you good Siri, you presence still feels rough. Come, lets go Anakin."
Siri's eyes trail after Anakin long after he has left...
"I'll admit I was... a little unsettled by Siri's reaction to Anakin himself," said Obi-Wan, to a small gathering of Windu, Fay, Qui-Gon, and Dooku by hologram in a hastily set up meeting room.
"To my knowledge," came in Dooku's crisp voice, "She has never taken the Prophecy of the Chosen One seriously. Albeit the validity of that prophecy is still in question among even the Council, despite the return of the Sith."
"That might have more to do with Skywalker himself," said Windu, arms crossed and shooting Jinn a quelling look before he could speak, "For all the strength in the Force he possess, he is worse than you ever were Qui-Gon. His continual disregard for our rules and tradition. His acquaintanceship with the Sith over his fellows certainly hasn't helped matters."
"Perhaps if his fellows had been more welcoming...," began Qui-Gon.
Windu shook his head. "Perhaps if his issues and infractions were not so readily overlooked compared to the rest of the padawans and initiates..."
"Enough," said Fay.
One word, calm tone, but point made.
Fay turns her ageless eyes upon Obi-Wan. "What we believe of Skywalker is irrelevant to this conversation. What the Sith believes is this meeting's purpose. My understanding of them is that Skywalker believes he is 'helping' with your own efforts, and the Sith finds him as entertainment. Is this correct?"
"Mostly," admits Obi-Wan, "I... do believe Anakin considers them friends, but I don't know about Siri."
She peers closely at him, and Obi-Wan will admit it always unnerves him when her unblinking eyes watch him like that. "Sith do not believe in friends."
Obi-Wan bites back a retort, because for the most part, its true. But, Siri is... weird, by her own admission she's not typical or an 'perfect example' of a Sith, what with her own attachments. Regardless, Fay is not Yoda, and for all her reputation proceeds her, he still doesn't know her, he's not going to engage in that conversation with her unless he is forced to.
"Do you believe, if her opinion of the Prophecy, or at least the threat Skywalker may posses to her, has changed, that she will disengage on her deal with the courts and attempt to harm, kill, or convert him?" posed Fay.
Obi-Wan reflexively balks at that, even if it is a legitimate question towards a Sith. He takes a moment to acknowledge and release the feeling to the Force and consider the question. He gets a faint sense of approval from Windu at that, but nothing else.
"No," said Obi-Wan, "Cold logic dictates that being encircled by the Jedi Order is still her safest bet at staying away from Sidious and staying alive. If she breaks her word and flees from her parole, which she would have to do if she hurt Anakin, she will have the entire galaxy after her. Republic, Jedi, Sidious, and whoever he employees. She's roughly four years into her parol, I don't see her giving up on it without an extreme reason."
Fay hums. "And personally...?"
"She likes Anakin, as much as she can like anyone," who isn't Obi-Wan himself, "She is possessive and protective of those she likes."
"Do you expect such an attitude to continue if the person in question becomes a threat?" posed Windu.
"Unless Anakin attacks her, I don't think she'll knowingly harm him," answers Obi-Wan, "And there is an entire temple to keep an eye on both of them if she tries to convert him, but, I've been told she was truthful when last questioned about an apprentice. She doesn't want Anakin."
"I think speculation is a pointless thing," says Qui-Gon, "We can guess and predict, but Tachi has a habit of continually surprising us regardless. Live within the moment, watch, and see what she does."
"Well, it appears some of my wisdom stuck on you, Qui-Gon," mused Dooku teasingly.
Qui-Gon huffed. "Common sense you mean, Master."
"I also taught you to try to have a backup plan," continued Dooku, teasing turning into pointed focus, "I do not like the time Tachi and my grandpadawan spend together. If we are given any reason to, I believe a more lasting separation than 'don't interact', especially when your padawan wont even listen to it, may be in order. The boy is eager for missions, is he not? Bouncing him between missions and taking classes through the holonet could serve this purpose."
"That is an awful long time to be away from the temple," said Obi-Wan quietly.
Dooku nods. "It is, and wont be enacted unless necessary. But I have watched Skywalker, he has little tying him down here as it is. So long as he is with someone he is attached to, I doubt he cares where he is."
...fair point.
The thing about having Supernova barreling in all of the time is that he left plenty of evidence.
Siri hums to herself as she combs over her couch and starts plucking strands of his hair off it to put under a scanner later when the lights were out. All the while she is trying to control how wild the Dark is going in her. It is baying for Skywalker's power, going ballistic to own and posses it. She doesn't like how it is tugging at her, making demands and trying to bend her to its will. She hasn't felt this kind of heavy or intense pressure since she was a novice apprentice.
She probably ought to be resting as Kenobi suggested, trying to get control of herself again.
But there is a steady pulse under her skin, a hum to the Force as a whole. There is a push, not of the Dark, but just... there. That this is important. There is something she needs to see, to understand. She finds she cannot bring herself to wait, to be patient. She needs this answer.
...but not badly enough to barge back into the Halls of Healing in broad daylight.
So she returns to her bed and lays down, staring up at the ceiling, lost in the memory of that meditation and riding the wave of Dark Side craving of it. She's managed to settle herself into eager mission-focus by the time night falls. She wraps herself in the dark, leaving an illusion of herself resting on her bed, seeding her presence in the area as she quiets and masks her 's had practice doing this without the Veil against Shadows in the lower levels as part of their exercises, but this will be her first attempt in a situation where getting caught will get her in trouble.
She slips out quietly, masking the sound of the door opening and closing, moving down mostly empty hallways. The Temple Guards and night roamers not seeing nor noticing her. She carefully enters the halls, taking note of the healer's present, and moves to a side room. She carefully rifles through drawers for a scanner and begins.
If she's honest, she should have done this years ago. She feeds the little machine she pulls out a few strands of hair and waits. Blood tests are far more accurate, but hair can be used in the species that have them to determine an estimate of a midichlorian count. A moment later it beeps and spews out an estimated number at her that flips her world upside down.
She gapes at the reading she gets. "Over twenty-five thousand?!"
The boy has just barely hit puberty and started growing. What the hells is his count going to be when his body has fully grown!? There is no Jedi, no Sith, over twenty, not Yoda, and not likely Sidious. Yet Skywalker is probably going to break thirty-thousand. She knew he would end up stronger than Sidious if he lived that long, but there was being stronger, and then there was ending up likely twice as strong as the most powerful Sith ever born.
Who in the hell were this kid's parents?
She checks for DNA, and is actually kind of surprised that the boy's mother does come up in a registry, no midichlorian count though. One child, Shmi, had been born in the Republic before becoming a slave. It pings a very old missing person's report for a ship bound for Outer Rim Territories. So the boy hadn't lied or anything about his mother. There is no last name listed on the birth certificate, certain parts of the galaxy were weird like that without clan names or the like. She is idly curious where and why Shmi came up with the name Skywalker, but pushes it off as irrelevant. Especially when she goes to look at the paternal DNA, and comes up completely blank.
Literally.
There is no paternal DNA.
"What the kriff?" she whispers.
She runs the report again, to be sure, same results.
"How?" she mutters to herself.
Then a voice speaks out calmly, "Through the Force, all things are possible."
Siri tenses and slowly turns to find Grandmaster Fay standing calmly in the doorway, staring at her.
Kriff.
"I'm pretty sure this is beyond the norm for such things," says Siri dryly, starting a 'casual' conversation as if she wasn't in shit for this, "He has no paternal DNA, yet reads as not near-human, not humanoid, but human, and not a clone. I'm rather curious to see what his DNA looks like under a microscope."
"The shape is normal enough, the Force fills in where other necessities would be needed," answers Fay, making a beckoning motion with a finger and levitating the machine out of Siri's fingers.
Fay regards her for a long moment. "He is born of the Force, that has never been hidden. I find myself curious, Sith, why you have a difficult time accepting this."
"Other than the fact I thought you all were full of shit for the last few years, I just barely discovered that Skywalker shouldn't actually be capable of living with all the DNA he is likely missing as a human," Siri answered flatly.
"And now?"
"I wouldn't suggest ever putting him in any kind of Force Suppression, it would probably have a lot worse of an affect on him than it would me."
"Answer the question, Sith," says Fay in a dangerously soft tone.
"I don't know what to think yet," said Siri, honestly.
"Will you harm him?"
"That would be the most stupidly suicidal thing I would have ever done in my life," she answered back.
"I have yet to hear no escape your lips, I know to listen for what is and is not said in what you say."
Oh she's dangerous, moreso than Siri thought. She can't ever actually recall talking with the stand-in Grandmaster one-on-one, by themselves before. "Read my lips then. N. O."
There is a single tap, no emotion's betrayed, against Siri's shields, and she lowers them to allow the Jedi to sample for the truth...
Siri is thrown against the wall instead and pinned there. "Make no mistake, Sith. I do not hold Padawan Kenobi's hopes for you. A different sort of Sith you may be, but a Sith you still are. You hold a careless disregard for life that you don't deem important that if it is not contained could cause far more harm then you currently have inflicted upon the galaxy. Padawan Kenobi seems to believe that your lack of any particular interest in your Order's 'Grand Plan' to wipe out the Jedi speaks more volume than it is actually worth. We both know better. Don't we?"
Siri glowered at her.
"Regardless of how you became a Sith, and yes, I do grieve for your loss and your suffering, you made your choices," said Fay, "You could have, and should have, chosen to die instead. You don't even have the excuse of being broken and dominated into this life. You chose to accept the Sith. How many have died, and how many will die yet, because of that choice I wonder?"
This one right here if she keeps it up.
Fay's chin tilted up. "You seem to believe it will be 'worth it' as you said to Padawan Kenobi if you kill Sidious. The answer is still no, its not, even if you do kill him. Why? Because if its not you, it will be someone else who defeats him. You are not indispensable, you are not absolutely required, no more than any other individual in the galaxy. Skywalker, Yoda, Windu, myself, a collection of others, or even something mundane as a simple accident or stray blaster shot. Darth Sidious will die one day, as will you, as will I. No one lives forever."
Fay let go and Siri fell on her ass on the floor., a scathing, "Had your fill then, Jedi?" escaping her lips.
"By the way, leaving a trace active for anyone attempting to dig into Padawan Skywalker's information was a rather simple and obvious thing to do," said Fay in that infernally calm tone, ignoring Siri's comment, "If you had not been so overeager I would have thought you would have considered that."
Clever bitch. Well, at least Siri hadn't been caught through the Force.
"We do though thank you for pointing out to us that you can project or leave behind an illusion of your presence at a distance," continued Fay, "We will be leaving a camera with infrared, motion, and the like outside of your door from now on, along with installing a sensor in your door to alert your watchers whenever it opens."
Fay waits, but Siri doesn't comment. Such things can be fooled or gotten around, but she's going to need to practice fine tuning control of her abilities in a way that she hasn't had to, or had the opportunity to, since she got here. Manipulating technology of that kind without triggering or obviously messing it up is delicate work. So, she's probably stuck in her room for the foreseeable future. Or, she could always walk an illusion into her room and generate heat around it while she stays outside, but thoughts for later.
"If you are done pressing into someone's private medical information, return to your room," said Fay, "For the price of it, I do hope you are satisfied with what you found."
Siri stood up and stiffly walked passed her.
She's not going to give the woman the satisfaction of the obvious answer.
That despite what she learned, she is walking out with far more questions than she had walking in...
Review Responses:
ItsJustaBook: Thanks. A lot of peeps like Palps, glad I did something mostly right there.
DarkSideVortex: O.o, thanks. I found a fan! First & Last's next chapter is almost ready ^_^.
RedShirt1453: From an outside perspective, yeah. We know whats coming. From their perspective, not taking a stand and running away is something the Jedi would never do. Only happened in cannon after Order 66 Genocide. Even then, Kenobi/Yoda still went after Sidious/Vader first.
Wulfmoe: Naw, its a different perspective from the usual. Hero stories are everywhere. Anti-Hero stories are common to. Actually dark/evil perspective stories aren't as frequent, and can flop pretty badly if messed up.
Yinko: A good point to make, but even if they wanted/tried to not be dark anymore, its so insanely rare and not well explored that most fallen wouldn't know how to come back. Nor have a strong enough attachment(love?)/reason to do so.
1saaa: Sidious is going to have fun with the Veil during the Clone Wars, it will be a major plot point during the 2nd half of the war.
Gendie01: Thank you, glad people enjoy our resident Sith Lord. Kreia was actually mentioned by Zannah to Siri in her initial chapters, though I think she was referenced as Darth Treya.
Nerdman3000: Zannah in... 2-4 more chapters. Depending on how long this Chosen One section lasts, Zannah is right after a timeskip post this section, I'm curious if anyone can guess how its going to go. C'baoth wont pop up until after Zannah and the uproar that mess causes. Yoda will also be back ^_^.