Disclaimer: Star Wars belongs to George Lucas

A Shift in the Force: Chapter Forty-Six: Choices Made

AN: I'm not sure how much of Rebels you'll see incorporated into this fic, but I am currently debating the merits of Imperial Era in ASITF. And that season finale inspired me so much.


Talik bit the corner of her lip as she looked out on the grassy hill. She could see Sabé's silhouette, a dark spot of blue among the sea of green grass. She tried to get a sense of Sabé's Force signature, which had once been so bright and warm, but it was murky, light and darkness evening out. Before Sabé had visited the shrine it had been mostly darkness that drowned out her light.

Sabé had been so reluctant to call herself a Grey Jedi before, but now Talik couldn't help but wonder if that was because she'd identified with it more.

It was a murky grey now, her Force signature, humming like an engine, but it was lighter than it'd been when she'd first awoken, so Talik would take solace in that.

Obi-Wan came to stand beside her as she leaned her arms on the balcony.

"I shouldn't have been so…" his words faltered and Talik looked up at him. The conflict warring across his face made Talik so regretful of all the times she'd snapped on him while Sabé had been Carina.

"Probably not," Talik agreed, "but maybe it was something she needed to hear."

Obi-Wan arched a sardonic eyebrow. "About her abandoning you?"

Talik still remembered the dreams she'd had before Sabé had disappeared on her mission that had left her so twisted and hostile as Carina. Sabé had never talked about what had happened on Korriban, other than revealing that she'd taken possession of the Holocron.

Talik breathed out deeply, her eyes fluttering shut as she focused inwards. The Force hummed in her ears, a promise of the future, of diverging paths becoming one once more.

"She was prepared," Talik said slowly, opening her eyes, "she made sure that I was looked after in the case she couldn't. I don't think that's abandonment, do you?"

"Perhaps not," Obi-Wan conceded with a sigh.

"You can't exactly force her into a corner," Talik pointed out, "she's rather good at getting herself out of trouble, remember?"

She patted his arm kindly before taking the steps down to the grass, walking leisurely towards her old master.

Sabé's face was calm, her breaths deep and even and her eyes shut where she sat with her legs crossed, deep in meditation.

But she made a soft noise of surprise when Talik plopped herself down on Sabé's lap.

"You haven't sat in my lap since you were ten," Sabé mentioned, a slight smile on her lips as Talik leaned back to rest her head on Sabé's shoulder. "I daresay you're far too old now."

Talik shrugged and she knew that Sabé felt it. "I thought you didn't like me sitting in your lap."

She'd been rather closed off the last time Talik had tried it, so Talik had just stopped.

The brunette smiled faintly, her eyes still closed. "I don't mind it…I'd just had a particularly trying conversation with Yoda before you'd come along. But I think eventually I'm going to lose feeling in my legs."

Talik slipped off her and turned around to see Sabé's eyes glittering with a smile to match.

"Obi-Wan's sorry he yelled at you," Talik mentioned and Sabé's smile slipped slightly.

"I know he is," she said quietly, her eyes far-off. "But I can't deal with the Jedi Order right now. I'm too…jumbled."

"I thought you were doing better," Talik said carefully.

"I am," Sabé agreed, rubbing a hand against her abdomen, "but some wounds cut deep and take much longer to heal. I'm sure you're aware."

Talik was.

"Sabé…what happened on Korriban?"

Screaming, an electrostaff burning into her skin, cruel laughter echoing—

"Nothing good," Sabé said with cold certainty. "And certainly nothing living, not anymore."

Talik's eyes widened.

"At least nothing in my general vicinity when I broke out of the facility they were keeping me in," Sabé amended. "The Rakata of Korriban were known for being particularly cruel, savage, and arrogant…they caught me by surprise and kept me for six months."

"Six –six months?" Talik managed weakly. Sabé was more of a get-in-get-out Shadow mission-taker. Her missions before the one to Korriban were generally less than two months at a time. And Sabé had been Carina for a year; she couldn't imagine being locked up for half a year and tortured. "But –I thought—"

"I know, but I was a bounty hunter for less than five months and a member of the House Renliss for less than one." Sabé gave a faint smile. "The only consolation I can take is whatever lives I claimed as Darth were those that were corrupt and the like…but it wouldn't have been the first time I killed on a mission."

"House Renliss…that's a bounty hunter guild, right?" Talik knotted her fingers into the grass beside her, leaning forward with interest. "How'd you convince them to take you on?"

"They were the ones convincing me." Sabé's voice was as dry as the deserts of Tatooine. "Jalindas Renliss approached me. I wasn't very interested at first, but it grew on me…it's the only bounty hunter guild completely made up of women and the only one that only takes hits out on men."

"Sounds interesting," Talik admitted.

"Depends on who you ask." Sabé reached a hand back to a spot between her shoulder blades where there was a black circular tattoo of the House Renliss, a requirement for admittance. "But there was a sort of camaraderie there that I hadn't felt in a long time."

"You miss it." The realization was startling.

Sabé said nothing to that. She wouldn't say that she hadn't enjoyed her time with House Renliss, because she had, perhaps more than even she was willing to admit. She'd gotten so used to how accepting the women of House Renliss were, such a contrast with the derision of so many Jedi in the Temple.

"I miss the people," Sabé agreed, "and I miss being accepted for who I was and what I was capable of."

Guilt pooled inside Talik.

"I didn't know you felt that way," she said quietly.

"Jedi Shadow isn't exactly the most revered specialization to have within the Order," Sabé pointed out wryly. Sentinels were certainly the smallest in number as their skills generally had little to do with the Force-abilities that Guardians and Consulars relied on, and the largest portion of them were the Temple Guards. The Slicers, Security Experts, and Tech Experts were smaller in number, though none as few as the Jedi Shadows, and Jedi Shadows had the requirement of having adequate understanding in the other three subsets of the Sentinels. "And I've gotten very good at suppressing my feelings."

Talik flinched and Sabé looked down, the Heart of Fire glowing warmly in her lap.

What should I do? She wondered to the Force, but the Force didn't answer her.

"Eighteen."

"Hm?" Sabé blinked in surprise. "What's that?"

"Eighteen," Talik repeated. "I'm going to hit Jedi Knight at eighteen."

Her old master's expression was surprised. Sabé had graduated to Knight at the age of twenty, but eighteen wasn't as common, though Padawans were rarely taken on before thirteen like Sabé and Talik had been.

"And you're going to be there to see it," Talik said with certainty.

Sabé's lips curved upwards into a smile.


Taria had outdone herself this time. Her fellow Shadow certainly had no idea of how much was too much, that much could be made plainly clear, given by how completely full of components of a lightsaber it was full of.

Sabé upended the box onto her bed, her foot kicking something cylindrical and hard under the bed, forcing her to pause in order to reach under the bed and grasp the thing she'd kicked, pulling it up in order to be seen.

The saberstaff Carina had used was clasped unassumingly in her hand. Sabé pressed the activation button and the 'saber gave a soft sputtering sound before dying abruptly.

Honestly it was a miracle it had even worked as long as it had for Carina given how old it was, nearly four thousand, by Sabé's reckoning, if it belonged to who she thought it did.

It was light in her hands and sleek silver. Her fingers roved over the grooves with a considering air.

She brought out the crystals, warm and bright in her hands.

"The lightsaber is a Jedi's weapon," Sabé said out loud. "Do I really deserve to possess one?"

The Force hummed in her ear, a promise, a whisper, an assent.

Sabé slid onto the area of the bed not occupied by the parts and closed her eyes, focusing inwards as the parts in front of her rose into the air. For a moment the air was full of every piece of metal, of cycling field energizers, of primary crystal mounts, of power field conductors. Her eyebrows twitched slightly, filtering what she didn't need out of the massive clutter and back into the box.

"This lightsaber is your life," Obi-Wan had always said to Anakin whenever he broke his and had to start from scratch again, but Sabé's beliefs about the 'saber were not so cut in stone. A lightsaber was a beacon that told everyone around you that you were a Jedi, and it was utterly useless on more than half of the missions she had found herself on.

But if the Force willed the weapon to her once more, she could not deny it…and it would be a weapon, not the symbol that Sabé had preferred for almost the first two decades of her life. The Force gave her life and was life, that had been her reasoning when she was ten, making the leaf-like markings into the hilt.

Life as a Jedi and a Sith had made Sabé jaded, she had to admit. Her optimism had faded into realism. She couldn't be the Jedi she'd hoped to be as a child, but Sabé had grown up and had accepted that fact; she wasn't even a Jedi.

The Force echoed in amusement in her ear and she tilted it to the side with a frown. What did that even mean? But she was offered no reply.

She thought instead of the saberstaff she had taken from Tython, and Githany's lightwhip. The lightwhip had been intriguing but Sabé preferred it as a supplement to another weapon…a neuronic whip would've been more use to Sabé. The saberstaff, though, that had potential.

Her crystals rose into the air, fitting among the pieces remaining, hovering before her eyes until it dropped evenly into her palm.

Brown eyes opened.

It was similar in style and length to the one she'd found on Tython, sleek and silver with tri-pronged blade emitters on either end. It was longer than most saberstaffs, owing to the crease in the center, at which Sabé twisted, causing the single 'saber to separate into two.

Sabé pressed the two activator buttons, the blades flaring to life and Sabé smiled.


Anakin gave a soft knock on the door. "Mas–Sabé?" his words fumbled slightly. He'd gotten so used to calling her 'Master Sabé' that it was hard to kick the habit.

"You can come in, Anakin," her wry voice could be heard within and he pressed the button beside the door in order to peer inside curiously.

The room was illuminated by a bright purple light focused from the center where a twelve-sided object was floating. Anakin would've almost thought it was a Holocron, but he didn't think he'd seen a Holocron that wasn't cube-shaped, barring the projection of the pyramidal one that Sabé had shown Obi-Wan before, or one that wasn't blue.

Spreading out throughout the room was a planetary chart that showcased more round orbs hanging in the air than Anakin could count.

Sabé was frowning at the planets as though they'd done something to irritate her, but she spared him a smile, patting the spot on the bed beside him.

"Is that a Holocron?" he asked curiously, clambering to sit beside her.

"Yes," Sabé said, her tone sour as she brought her hands up, spreading them wide, causing the planets to zoom in.

"I've never see any Holocrons shaped like it," Anakin mentioned as Sabé cupped her chin thoughtfully, a movement reminiscent of his own master.

"Well, of course not," she said, a smirk twisting her lips faintly. "I created it."

Anakin paused and then he turned to stare at her rather dubiously. "You…you made a Holocron?"

He'd never heard of anyone actually making a Holocron. For all he knew, they simply popped out of the ground, fully formed. He didn't think anyone actually knew how to make a Holocron.

Sabé hummed in agreement. "And I downloaded all the data-files from the Archive before I left on my mission."

Anakin was definitely gaping at her now.

"I had a lot of time on my hands," Sabé's words came off just a touch defensive, "avoiding Obi-Wan isn't that difficult when you can shield your Force signature entirely."

"Is that what you were doing?" Anakin's eyebrows rose high on his forehead. Obi-Wan had been irritated back then, he remembered, and Anakin recalled one time when he'd managed to catch Sabé, only for her to brush him off quickly, something that was very unlike her.

"Are you and Obi-Wan still not getting along?" Sabé asked instead, looking away from the planetary charts towards him. The purple glow made her eyes seem lighter.

Anakin shrugged, annoyance bubbling. "Sometimes," he admitted. "I don't think he really understands me."

Understands what it means to be a part of a Great Prophecy, what it means to have people watching and waiting for you to fail.

"That's understandable," Sabé said, her eyes soft, "you're two very different people."

"You and Talik always get along," Anakin pointed out and Sabé's lips curled.

"True, our arguments are rare, but they do happen from time to time…usually about me getting myself injured." Sabé chuckled softly, her eyes glittering. "I argued more with Yoda by far."

"You and Master Yoda didn't get along?" That surprised Anakin, especially since when he'd ever seen them together, the respect for one another had been clear.

"Yoda is very old…he's seen Jedi come and go, but I don't really think he was equipped for training someone like me," Sabé said thoughtfully, a frown on her mouth now. "He was a great master and I did learn a lot, but he chose me as his Padawan, not the other way around, and I've always believed in the opposite…that was how I took Talik on at such a young age…an why he never approved."

Anakin blinked. "He didn't approve of Talik being your Padawan?" he asked stunned. But Talik was great! He might've been a little biased at that, but still, Talik was a rising star amongst the Jedi Healers and she had an exceptional mind, a skill she'd inherited from her old master.

"I suspect it was the same reason he didn't approve of Obi-Wan taking you on either," Sabé mused. "The four of us have a weakness for attachment."

A scowl burned across Anakin's face. "That's not a weakness," he countered.

"Depends on who you ask, but I'd agree." Her smirk spoke volumes. "But the Jedi have not changed their way of thinking in millennia, and I doubt they will anytime soon without a good kick to the ass."

Anakin struggled to stifle his laughter, but it was difficult work. "Obi-Wan doesn't believe in attachment."

Sabé actually snorted. "Did you miss him kissing me with reckless abandon?"

Anakin's face burned, but then Sabé's smile faltered.

"He probably won't like me telling you this…but Obi-Wan's always had a problem with attachment." Sabé stared at the planetary alignments once more before waving a hand, shifting the purple gleam to one of red, and Anakin looked on the strange lettering that hung in the air before them, not understanding any of it.

"Is that from the Sith Holocron?" Anakin's eyebrows were high on his forehead.

"A fragment," Sabé agreed.

"What's it say?"

"The Force is not fire. It cannot be passed from one user's lit torch to another's and another's, until the entire hemisphere is illuminated with a blaze of a million lights. When all carry a flame, no matter how dim or guttering it may be, they soon conclude they are the brightest stars, around which all others must orbit. Infighting follows, and Jedi victory becomes inevitable.

No, the Force is a venom. If it was poured into many cups, it loses its potency until it becomes so diluted it is merely an irritant. Yet pour those cups back into a single vessel and you will have the power to stop a Krayt dragon's heart."

Sabé smile was grim. "I can't say that I agree, but I can understand where they are coming from…the Force does seem very much like venom."

She rubbed her head, thinking mostly of the Force battering against her skull, too strong and too dangerous.

"What was I saying?" she asked suddenly. "I was talking about Obi-Wan's attachments, wasn't I?"

"You were trying to," Anakin said, his tone just a touch too wry.

Sabé smiled, flicking her fingers, the color shifting back to purple in a blink of an eye, small squares spreading around them, looking too much like an assortment of data-files, which Anakin suspected it might be.

"Obi-Wan has the biggest heart, he just tries not to show it because he wants to be the Jedi that Master Jinn thought he could be…and he doesn't do things unless he believes in them wholeheartedly. He left the Order when he was sixteen to assist a child rebellion and he fell in love with the leader of that rebellion, a girl who was sadly killed during a skirmish."

Surprise overtook Anakin's features.

"I know he and Siri Tachi felt strongly for one another at one point, even though they agreed to put aside their feelings in order to serve the Jedi…and he spent a year on Mandalore with the now-Duchess Satine Kryze and I have no doubt that if she'd asked him to leave the Order, he would have."

"Really? Obi-Wan leave the Order?" Anakin couldn't help but be stunned, even knowing that he had done so at sixteen.

"Yes, and Aayla might've pushed for him to study the art of Soresu, but the only reason he mastered it was because Ataru had no defensive stances that could've saved his master's life," Sabé said to him seriously. "Obi-Wan has always had a problem with looking to the past and he's trying to be more cautious with you because he doesn't want you to make the same mistakes as him, and the Jedi are watching him almost as much as they're watching you."

His brow furrowed. "What d'you mean?"

"I mean that the Jedi might think you're the Chosen One, but he's the Chosen One's master and your failings may reflect poorly on his teaching."

Anakin's voice failed. "Oh."

Sabé wrapped an arm around his shoulder, giving it a squeeze and pressing a kiss to his temple like his mother once had. "That used to be a problem for me, but the High Council should realize by now that you are two separate people. Obi-Wan probably isn't taking you on some missions because he thinks they're more diplomatic, not really your idea of fun."

"I never said—" Anakin realized, turning his head to look at her.

Sabé's eyes twinkled. "Talik talks a lot."

Anakin grumbled.

"Maybe you should just talk to him, or you know, have a very loud conversation, one of the two." Sabé shrugged. "I'm not particular."

Anakin rolled his eyes. "You sure you won't come back to Coruscant with us?"

Sabé looked back at the Holocron, a strange symbol like a gear hanging in the air.

"Yes," she said finally, "and I believe that is the right decision…there are still some things I need to figure out, about myself and…other stuff."

Anakin was briefly confused, wondering what other stuff she could be talking about. "Okay," was all he said and the smile she gave him was worth it.


"I am not abandoning Talik." Sabé's eyes were like steel, her arms crossed as she looked on Obi-Wan seriously, seeing them off. "But, perhaps, if I have trained her well, she will take care of herself."

Obi-Wan's eyes were soft and he held out his hands that Sabé took in a moment, his thumbs smoothing across her knuckles in a gesture that spread warmth from her fingers to her toes.

"I shouldn't have said that," he corrected, "it's not true and I know that you have always put Talik first."

Sabé leaned her forehead against his, warmed by his Force presence like she was bathed in sunlight. "I need time, Obi-Wan, time to sort things out on my own, and I need to do it without the Jedi, and without you."

Obi-Wan breathed out slowly. "I understand," he said gently.

Sabé leaned back, a sad smile on her lips as she cupped his cheek. "You don't, but thank you for trying."

Obi-Wan watched her like he was trying to memorize her face and she leaned in again, this time kissing him, and doing so far gently than the soul-searing kiss he had imparted upon her earlier. He cupped the edge of her jaw before she settled back on her heels again, sucking her lower lip under her teeth.

"Something to remember me by," she said with a cheeky smile as Obi-Wan blinked, trying to clear the fog from his mind, brought on from her kiss. "That'll be something else for us to figure out when we see each other again."

"I'll keep it in mind." It wouldn't be the first time a Jedi had fallen in love with another, but even now Obi-Wan was struggling. He couldn't deny the feelings in his heart, but he also couldn't deny his devotion to the Order that had forsaken Sabé.

"Did you and Obi-Wan have a nice chat?" Sabé asked loudly as Talik and Anakin came into view, both came into view with bags on their shoulders.

"Oh, yeah," Anakin said quickly, his eyes darting to Obi-Wan, scuffing his boot against the floor, "open communication and all that…"

Sabé arched an eyebrow and Obi-Wan's lips twitched faintly. "At this rate if I ever go back to the Temple I'm going to have to play therapist," she grumbled under her breath.

Talik laughed and Sabé turned to her, holding her arms out and Talik stepped into them easily, tightening her arms around her old master.

"Keep out of trouble," Sabé suggested, "and wipe the floor with those Jedi Healers that don't know how good you are."

Another laugh bubbled from her lips. "I will," Talik promised.

"Good girl." Sabé parted from Talik with a melancholic smile.

"I also found something of yours," Talik added, drawing two blasters from her bag, holding them out to Sabé, whose eyes had gone wide.

"My DC-17 hand blasters! Where'd you find them?" She took them from Talik eagerly, their familiar weight a comfort. Carina might've preferred assassination jobs that required a blaster rifle, but that didn't mean she'd run into some close-quarter issues that she hadn't preferred drawing her saberstaff to combat against.

"With Jay-Seven, he was probably keeping them for you." Talik's own blaster was strapped to her left leg, her two 'sabers dangling on the right side of her hip.

Sabé could feel Obi-Wan's disdain, and she turned. "One day, darling, you will realize that a blaster can be more handy than a lightsaber."

"One day," he responded doubtfully.

"Darling," Sabé said, speaking to Talik now, "if he ever annoys you, you can always shoot him."

"Sabé…"

"Just to keep him on his toes," Sabé added innocently, giving him a wink.

Obi-Wan pressed a hand to his brow as Anakin and Talik laughed. "We're leaving before you embarrass me further."

"That's not hard to do."

"Anakin, Talik, now."

"Wai- wai—" Ryoo toddled quickly into the room to squeeze Talik's legs. "I wanna say bye-bye to Aunt Tali!"

Talik smiled, leaning down to wind her arms around the small girls. "Bye-bye, Ryoo, keep an eye on Aunt Sabé for me, she likes to disappear on me."

Sabé rolled her eyes good-naturedly.

"Promise," Ryoo agreed seriously, linking her pinky finger with Talik's.

"Good." Talik smiled, sighing as she stood. "I'm ready to go home."

Sabé gave her one last hug and Anakin one before waving them goodbye, watching the speeder disappear across grass and water, her heart heavy.

"They grow up so fast, huh?" Sola asked, coming to stand beside her, holding Pooja in her arms.

"Something like that."

"Wish you were with them?" Sola asked instead.

"Surprisingly, no," Sabé admitted, "and that's for the best, I think." She smiled at her sister, taking the Force-sensitive child that reached out eagerly for her. "Any luck finding a job yet?"

Sola sighed. "There's nothing that really interests me…but I have to find something soon…any suggestions?"

"Well, if you're going for something that's not strictly legal…there's always slicing."

Slicers were skilled computer experts that excelled at working within a complex computer network, often extracting information without leaving a trace.

House Renliss' last slicer had tried to sell them out, so they'd been down a good one when Sabé had joined as Carina.

"Padmé said you were good with computers."

If Sola had been younger, if she'd still had Darred, and didn't know what Sabé did for a living, she would've said 'no' instantly, but Sola was older now, with a fire burning inside her.

"I'll think about it," she said.

Sabé nodded, rocking Pooja in her arms, the warm glow of the sun raining down on them. Pooja made a soft sound and Sabé hummed softly, closing her eyes as she did so.

He's playing the long game, came the whisper in her ear like a warning and Sabé's eyes flashed open.

AN: I'm still up in the air about whether or not I'll be making a series of one-shots off of ASITF, but the response has been largely positive, so maybe.

I have a lot of ideas about background characters and Sabé's path is still uncertain, but I'm sure you'll figure some things out sooner or later ;) In other news, this fic could quite possibly end up being my longest one in chapter length, which is ridiculous and impressive and you're all going to die.

As always: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!