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A Shift in the Force: Chapter Two: Memories of the Past

AN:And here's the second chapter of A Shift in the Force! I really, really should be finishing my paper, but I'm kind of obsessed, but don't worry, I'll have the paper done by tonight! The reason I've got this next chapter out so soon is because I had already written a bit of this beforehand, like years beforehand, so I figured to my few reviewers, favoriters, and followers, you might like this! This chapter is mostly filled with flashbacks, so you have my apologies, but there's some of Sabé's background that needs to be established. There will only be a little bit more of flashbacks after this chapter, at least, that's how I'm planning it. Anyways, enjoy!

Edited: 1/31/16


Awareness came slowly to Talik Shala, and when it did come, it was closely followed by pain. Granted, she had to admit, it would have been worse if her master had not shielded her. Though worry now gripped her as she forced her aching body up into a sitting position, glancing around her.

"Assess yourself, padawan," her master chiding her gently in her memory much to her chagrin.

Talik forced herself to calm down and checked herself for injuries. She had a sprained wrist, but no broken bones with varying cuts and enough bruises that she was glad she wasn't as pale as her master or they would have been more obvious.

The trade ship had been ripped apart by the explosion and she could still see a good bit of it fifty feet away. Where was-

Beep!

She gave a startled gasp as her master's precious R3 unit made himself known. "Arthree!" She rushed over to assist the astromech in freeing himself from the swamp lands. "Oh, Arthree…" He was missing a little bit of his plating and he was a little burned, but the R3 unit had made a miraculous survival. Well, miraculous, unless one considered just how fond Sabé was of the astromech and how willing she would be to throw herself between it and attack just as she would with any of her friends.

Arthree gave a doleful beep. Talik couldn't translate the sounds as well as Sabé could, but she could garner his meaning.

"I'm sure Master is fine," she assured the astromech –and she was quite certain that it was a bit more than machine, because it seemed to have a deep affection for its master-, but she wasn't sure if her voice was very convincing. "Come on, let's go search for her."

Without the use of the Force, it would have been much more difficult, but Talik was more than capable of using it to locate her under a large mass of metal. But locating her was not the problem; it was moving the metal itself. Talik almost burst into tears at the size of the durasteel crushing her master. No way was she going to be able to move that! Master would've been able to do it, she thought miserably, but not her.

But then her master's voice came to her once more. "One must not give up without first making an attempt," she had warned. "For that is true weakness of heart and of mind."

So Talik extended a hand before her and closed her eyes, drawing on the Force as her source of power. The strain was enormous and Talik felt as though a weight was pressing down on her arms, making them shake and tremble and cause a bead of sweat to form on her brow. The steel groaned as it was lifted slowly, but enough for her to see her master's form beneath it. Arthree wheeled forward, shooting out a wire that wrapped around her pale wrist before he wheeled backwards, dragging her out from under the wreckage.

"Master!" Talik cried as soon as the young woman was no longer in any danger, dropping the bit of the ship quickly to kneel at her master's side. "Oh, Master…"

But Sabé could have been dead to the world, she was certainly doing an exceptional impression of it. For deep within her own mind she dreamed of the past.


"You have made a very grave mistake."

As Qui-Gon Jinn left the initiate duel room he found himself gazing into the troubled eyes of Sabé Amidala. Sabé had changed much over the years; her Padawan braid was now strung with various beads, she had exchanged the traditional Jedi garb for tight pants and a matching top that made it easy to move, with a small vest covering her bare shoulders, a pair of goggles dangling from her neck and her two purple-bladed lightsabers hanging from her waist.

"How so, young Padawan?" Qui-Gon felt the need to remind Sabé of her place, but the girl never took notice- perhaps being out spoken was why Yoda had chosen her as his apprentice.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi," she said, following him briskly. "You both share a connection, yet you seek to deny him a bond that will define you both because of misgivings you have from your previous apprentice."

Ah, so he had picked her because she was insightful, strong in the Force. Qui-Gon felt the smallest flicker of anger towards the girl, but then Padawan Amidala made a habit of making people angry.

"I have no connection to the boy," he told her. The look she gave him in return was oddly patronizing.

"The Will of the Force is a wonderful thing," she murmured, a slight smile present on her lips. Her eyes glowed with excitement. "Soon you will see."

She was starting to sound like her master. "What exactly do you intend for me to see?" he inquired.

"Obi-Wan is no Xanatos."

Qui-Gon's eyes narrowed further at the mention of his apprentice whom had left the Jedi Temple and gone to the Dark Side. It was a bit of a sore point for the Jedi Knight.

"Remember what I said, Master Jinn," she warned, stepping away from him. "Obi-Wan will surprise you, that much is sure."

"You're quite attached to your friend, young one," Qui-Gon told her calmly in an attempt to elicit a response from the child, but she surprised him.

She smiled congenially. "How can I not be attached to a boy I call friend?"

And with that she left him.


"Okay," Talik murmured, fiddling with the ties of her master's jerkin before pushing it aside, along with the fabric underneath it. Sabé Amidala's flesh was far from perfect. Talik knew that her body had a number of deep scars, but Sabé wasn't ashamed of them. Some were from past mistakes, serving as a reminder to the future of what she should be careful of, and some told the story of someone willing to take blows for those whom she held close to her heart.

Talik had to wince when she saw the shrapnel embedded in her master's stomach, the blood churning her own stomach. She reached down into her tattered robes, withdrawing a few basic medical aid supplies from her medpack that Master Yoda was insistent that all Jedi carry at all times. She pasted the bacta patch against the broken skin, wary of the damage she would cause by removing the metal from her flesh, before tying a bandage around her mid section enough that it would staunch the flow of blood, but loose enough that it would not embed the shrapnel further into her stomach.

Sabé stirred faintly, but she did not awaken.

"Don't worry, Master," Talik whispered as night fell around them. "I'll get us out of here."


"Master Qui-Gon?" Aayla Secura's eyes widened in surprise at the sight of the Jedi curiously without his companion. "Where's Obi-Wan? Sabé wants to try out a new fighting technique on him." Her smile turned a bit wry. "She's already sent us all to the medical ward."

Qui-Gon almost smiled, but it fell quickly, catching her attention instantly.

Her face fell slightly. "I see," she said quietly, before wincing, "damn…I was broadcasting; now Sabé knows."

"And where is she?" the master wondered for one of the close friends of his former Padawan.

Aayla frowned intently at something above his head. "She's caught between meditation and going to the Archives…I think she'll settle on the Archives. She always prefers to have something to distract her before meditation, if she's given the option."

Qui-Gon nodded in understanding. "I think I will go have a few words with her."

Aayla bobbed her head in agreement, watching him go.

Sabé Amidala was not so difficult to find in the Jedi Archives. She always sat in the same spot, as close to the middle as possible; Qui-Gon couldn't fathom why. Her face was tense as she pressed the buttons, making the images and the words on the screen in front of her shift.

She didn't glance up as the master sat down in the vacant seat beside her.

"Master Jinn," she murmured quietly, betrayal hanging in the air around her, though it was fading, albeit slowly.

Darth Plagueis…Darth Bane…

"You seem to have a rare interest in the Dark Side of the Force, young Padawan," Qui-Gon noted.

"Worried?" Sabé asked dryly, lowering her mental shields so that he might look upon her as she truly was.

Qui-Gon reached out into the Force, and then a slight smile graced his lips. There was no trace of the darkness that had plagued Xanatos, in fact, Sabé radiated purity, like most Padawans and all Initiates did.

"No," he said finally.

She smiled, but it was barely one as she pulled the datachip from the machine, rubbing a tired hand over her forehead. "I should be getting back to my mission," she decided after a long moment. "I just needed something to distract me, that's all."

"How close were you to my former Padawan?" The words were a past tense and they burned his tongue as he said them.

She frowned delicately and he could see that she was biting the inside of her mouth at the question. "Obi-Wan is very kind," she said finally, using the present-tense as a jibe towards him, "he had a lot of trouble with meditation and controlling his temper when he was younger. He noticed I was better at it than he was so he asked me for some pointers; that's how we became friends."

"That doesn't answer my question," he responded calmly.

An edge of her lips uplifted slightly in amusement, the smile making her eyes glimmer like quartz. "Well, Master Jinn, I suggest you find that out yourself."

.

.

"I thought this was a solo mission," Aayla's voice blared from the comlink from where she was opposite of Kit and perpendicular to Sabé.

"Master said I could bring two young Padawans if I wished," Sabé responded evenly, raising her scanner. "You didn't honestly expect me to leave you two alone, did you?"

"I wondered," Aayla muttered, because all three knew she was referring to Aayla's leave since she had returned from brush with the Dark Side. Sabé had barely left her side since then, but she had obligations to the Jedi that could not be ignored.

"You'll be fine," Kit's calm voice came over the com, directed entirely towards Aayla. "Sabé, I've finished over here, I'm heading over to Aayla's location."

"Got it," Sabé answered, glancing around the area she was searching. "I've got seven more blocks to check."

This mission in particular had them all on edge, and it wasn't because it was Aayla's first day back. Three younglings had been poisoned in the last week with a dosage that would have killed any who were not force-sensitive.

The Jedi Council was understandably enraged...or they would have been if they rage was a feeling they relied on. The particular poison had been traced back to the Works, an abandoned manufacturing center. Yoda had suggested Sabé take the mission because she was difficult to catch with her speed, hence why the three Padawans were searching the Works in the dead of night.

A tingle rose up her spine and she drew her blaster, switching her comlink to Arthree. "Arthree? Are you picking up any disturbances?"

Several successive beeps and whirling noises were his -if the astromech was to be considered male- only response, but she understood him perfectly.

Her jaw tightened. "I know what you mean," she agreed solemnly, her eyes scanning the darkness. "There's something off about this place."

Arthree gave a long, subdued beep and Sabé rolled her eyes. "I'm not going to get into trouble, stop being such a worrywart! It'll ruin your wiring..."

"Sabé? Do you copy?" Kit's voice echoed from her comlink.

"I copy, I'm here," Sabé said, raising her wrist to her mouth. "Did you two find anything?"

"There's a big empty box, over here," Kit told her grimly. "It's got the poison's residue all over it and Aayla's collecting a sample to help identify a cure."

"I thought there wasn't any left?" Sabé said, confusion laced in her tone.

"Barely," Aayla admitted, her voice growing louder as she no doubt moved closer to the comlink, "Just a few droplets, Sabé, I think the whole shipment has been used. That's probably why the attacks stopped; they ran out of supply."

The tingling had returned and this time Sabé could feel the Dark Side of the Force surrounding her, cocooning her...choking her off from the Light. She lifted her wrist to her mouth again. "I want you two to take my speeder back to the temple, find a med-droid, and then report to the Council right away."

"But then you'll be without transport!" Kit refuted, only to find himself interrupted by Aayla. "What's going on, Sabé?" she asked.

"Can't be sure yet," Sabé said, eyeing everything that surrounded her. "I've just got a very bad feeling."

There was a very pregnant pause and then Aayla said, "We'll be back as soon as we can."

Sabé shut off her communicator, steeled her nerves, and entered the main building. The engine room was ablaze with fire, fire that was throughout the structure, and on a main platform a figure in a dark cloak sat, his back to her. Sabé was suddenly reminded of a terrible vision she'd had when she was younger, of a man in a dark cloak, a man who had cut down youngling after youngling without a second thought. Unfortunately she did not have time to analyze the meaning behind the vision (as she never did) as the figure spoke.

"Welcome, Sabé Naberrie," the man said, standing suddenly, for it had been a male who had spoken.

Sabé called her twin violet lightsabers to her palms. They whirred to life, humming with power as she ascended to the platform. "Very few know that name," she said, calmer than she felt, which a mixture of fear, anxiety, and nervousness. "How is it that you came by it?"

He turned swiftly, lifting his large hood back to reveal the face beneath. Sabé barely held back a gasp; she had heard tales of male Zabrak with Sith-like skin patterns and cranial horns, but she never thought she'd meet one. This one in particular was strong with the Dark Side of the Force; she knew that if they fought, she would lose.

"Yours is the name of a child destined for darkness," he said, his yellow eyes glowing malevolently.

Sabé's grip tightened around her blade hilts. She thought once more of her nightmare, only this time with her face being the one under the hood. She gave her thoughts a mental shake. No, he was lying. He was trying to illicit a response from her. "Clearly," she said, extending her foot and bending forward slightly into an offensive crouch, "you have me confused with someone else."

"I don't." he said with certainty, his cloak falling to the ground as he ignited his double-bladed crimson lightsaber...the color of the Sith. But Sabé didn't have time to think about that either as they both rushed forward, their swords clashing with a hiss. The good thing about being a Jedi Guardian was that you had more training in combat that normal Initiates, however, Sabé had hardly been taught any of the advanced techniques of the Guardians, having only been considered for becoming a Guardian within the month, but she could hold on her own, the only question was for how long.

She was on the defensive, blocking each blow -some more difficultly than others-, flipping and dodging to avoid some.

"You will not win against me," he told her, aiming a solid blow at her stomach that had her dropping to the ground and rolling out of the wall and into a standing position once more. She was weakening, and she knew it.

-Help- she whispered to the Force. -Can anyone hear me?-

Silence and then -Sabé?-

Sabé could've cried. -Kit!- she thought in relief. -Kit! I need help!-

-Trouble?- Kit asked, his voice resonating in her skull, before she flashed an image of her fighting the Zabrak male as quickly as she could without losing focus from the task at hand. –Aayla and I are coming.-

Sabé swung her arm down, using the Force to bring down a crate on the Zabrak, but moved it easily with the wave of his hand.

Sabé leapt up onto the railing using a series of somersaults to dodge his strikes. -I'm at the Works, inside the main structure. There's a man, I—She was cut off by a sudden strike that knocked her off of her feet.

There was a short silence on his end while she struck her blades against her opponents. -Help me, Kit- her thought whispered.

-We're on our way.- Kit assured her, his voice tinged with worry. –We'll be there in-

-Too late- she thought quietly as she was forced to her knees by the strength of his blows, his lightsaber growing closer to her skin with each passing second. -My time's run out.-

The Zabrak smirked as he sliced through her forearm like a knife through warm butter, delighting in the bloodcurdling scream that escaped her lips.


The sun was barely starting to rise over Naboo, but Talik was already awake with her master's head propped up on her lap. Sabé was capable of Force-healing, like many were, but she had said that Talik was not strong enough in her utilization of the Force for her to teach it to her yet, but to Talik's annoyance.

If only she had taught it to her before now, Talik probably would have her master awake by now.

"Are our communications knocked out?" she asked the R3 unit which had maintained a silent vigil through the night, checking the surroundings for any threats to his comatose master and her apprentice.

Thankfully there had been none.

Talik stared somberly down at the pallor of her master's face, noticing how her eyes were moving from under her eyelids.

"I say we give her thirty minutes," she decided, speaking to the astromech as if it was a human, "then we start moving."

Arthree beeped a response that she couldn't understand.


Aayla leapt out of the speeder, racing up the steps of the once great industrial center, searching for her friend's familiar presence.

-Ahead- the Force whispered, and without a second thought she raced up to the grated platform.

"Sabé!"

The sixteen year old had numerous burns covering her body, her clothes were ripped, and her goggles were dangling broken from her neck.

She froze for a moment; she was missing an arm.

"Sabé!" she rushed to her side just as Kit came into view, lifting her body from the platform slightly.

Kit leaned down beside her as well and brushed the back of his fingers against her temple and down her cheek, something he had learned at the Jedi Academy, to sense a Jedi's force-signature. He relaxed slightly.

"She's alive?" Aayla breathed in relief.

"She won't be for long if we don't get her to the Hall of Healing," Kit added a bit solemnly, causing the relief to be wiped from her face.

Aayla nodded seriously, glancing around. "She'll kill me if we leave without her lightsabers," she muttered, calling the silver hilts to her hands from where they had fallen several feet away while her companion lifted the slim girl into his arms, and they both returned to the speeder, racing it towards the Jedi temple.

.

.

When Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi returned from Melida/Daan they found a large number of the Jedi in the Jedi Temple rushing about. It didn't take long to recognize that the ones rushing were ones with abilities in the healing arts.

"Mace!" Qui-Gon grabbed his old friend as he moved past. "What the devil is going on?"

"The poison Padawans Secura, Fisto, and Amidala discovered is having highly negative effects on the younglings." Master Mace Windu gestured to the healers rushing about. "They are trying to limit the casualties, but there's more."

"Oh?" Qui-Gon asked, his worry spiking. He hadn't thought the poison the younglings had ingested had been that serious, but he should have known better, it was poison after all.

"Padawan Amidala is in the bacta chamber. She's sustained rather serious injuries," Mace said with a deep frown on his face, "she might not pull through."

Obi-Wan swallowed thickly, his heart beating rapidly against his chest. Sabé? What had happened to her?

"Her injuries were made by a lightsaber," Mace added, giving his old friend a meaningful stare.

"Worry them, you should not," a familiar wizened voice said, "now removed from the bacta, my Padawan is."

"Master Yoda," Qui-Gon said, giving the small Jedi a respectful bow, his two companions doing the same.

"Thankful, I am," Yoda continued, "that still a Padawan, I have."

"Is Sabé going to be alright?" Obi-Wan asked quickly, speaking for the first time since they had returned to Coruscant.

"Stronger than she looks, my padawan is," Yoda assured the boy. "Recover, she will." And then he gave a sly comment that slighted Obi-Wan. "Received much worse injuries from you, Obi-Wan Kenobi, she has. Overcome them as well, she will."

And with that proclamation Yoda limped away, leaning heavily on his walking stick, looking every bit his eight hundred or so years, and making Obi-Wan feel more miserable than he had in a very long time; and as sad as it was, it was all his fault.

Would she ever forgive him?

Understandably morose, Obi-Wan entered Sabé's room. Aayla Secura was sitting by her head, obscuring her face from view, but going by how she was moving her arms, she was re-braiding Sabé's hair. Obi-Wan almost smiled; Sabé hated having her hair down, no matter how many times her friends told her it looked lovely. Stepped forward and both Aayla and Kit looked up. Aayla's eyes were rimmed with red, contrasting with her blue skin and Kit was uncharacteristically tense.

Aayla's eyes narrowed in true anger. "What are you doing here?" she spat.

"I just-" Obi-Wan cut himself off feeling a bit hopeless as his eyes dropped to stare at Sabé.

He almost didn't recognize her. Her cheeks were as white as snow, making her eyelashes look much darker than they should have. Her arm was wrapped in bandages, and the other one was exposed, only extending to just below her elbow where a tight salve-soaked binding had been tied.

"How bad is it?" he asked weakly.

"She's had worse," Kit said, making Obi-Wan think that he, like Yoda, was referring to his leaving of the Order, because he knew that Sabé had never lost any limbs before.

"I would suggest a lot of groveling when she wakes up," he added seriously. "Her loyalty to the Order probably ranks higher than her loyalty to you, now."

And he wasn't wrong.

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