A Shift in the Force: Chapter Fifty-Nine: Different Paths

AN: Sorry for the long wait, guys, but nursing school was quite literally reducing me to tears, but now I have time to finally update fics!

Don't worry guys, Ezra showing up in this fic is a long way down the road and several books away. We've got to get through the Clone Wars first, and, trust me, that's going to take awhile.

It's actually looking like book 2 is going to be split into three parts, I just don't know how long part 2 is going to end up being, so hopefully, you're all still enjoying it!


Caleb stirred slowly, the gleaming of crystal pure and bright behind his eyes, the last thing he could remember from his dream before it faded completely. He blinked a few times.

The ground was hard underneath him, but Sabé's jacket was warm over his arms.

"Don't whine at me," her voice echoed from close to the front of the cave. "You're the one that's still got your head."

Caleb scrubbed at his eyes, sitting up and keeping the jacket around him as scrutinized the cave once more. It was as cold as it had been the previous night, and the last thing he remembered was falling asleep in Sabé's lap, something that made him flush with embarrassment. His dreams had been flashes of color and emotions and words, a single name leaving his throat in fear, but he couldn't quite remember it now.

He turned to look at Sabé, seeing a large black object in her arms as she fiddled with a vibro-screwdriver.

"Come close to the front, Caleb," Sabé called to him without even looking up from her work. "It's warmer up here."

At the promise of warmth, Caleb stood eagerly and fell back down again with a muffled grunt of pain. He looked down at his leg where the bacta patch had been pasted. He'd almost forgotten the pain that had accompanied the slice, but now it throbbed and ached. He almost asked for help, but he remembered a story that Sabé had once left her padawan in binders for seven hours until she managed to get herself out of them; she liked it better if you helped yourself with the tools she gave you, at least, that was what Talik Shala had implied. What was life without a challenge?

He put his arms through the sleeves of her jacket, practically drowning in it, limping forward painfully until he could bring himself to sit beside her with a slight wince as he got himself situated.

"Can you fix him?" Caleb asked, noticing the head of the security droid she'd fought alongside until it had been cut down the previous day was in her hands.

"No," Sabé sighed, looking on the droid morosely. "I could insert his memory chip into another security droid, but he's not salvageable." Reconnecting the circuitry running from the neck to the body and covering the exposed wiring would be harder than just replacing his entire body, and that was the most disappointing part; Jay-Seven had been there to see her progression from Carina to Sabé once more, without knowing her before as Arthree had. And he was far better with a blaster than Arthree.

Caleb scrutinized her now; the beads tangled in her curls, the split of her cheek from where Maw's lightsaber had connected, the molten gold of her eyes that was so unfamiliar to him, the dark combination of metals that made up her false arm, which he realized he'd never seen before, as she'd always hidden it beneath a thick glove.

"You're as curious as you were at the Temple," Sabé said suddenly without looking up, and Caleb turned bright red. "You can ask, Caleb; there's nothing wrong with asking questions."

Caleb thought she needed to have a good long conversation with his Jedi instructors because he was sure they differed very much.

"Did a Sith really cut off your arm? Why are your eyes like that? Is Master Maw a Sith too? How did your quarterstaff do that?" The questions parted from his lips before he could stop them and he almost wanted to shove them back into his mouth, but she took his barrage with grace, sparing him with a smile that made her golden eyes glow.

Sabé lifted the arm, extending it to him. Caleb blinked, bringing his eyes to hers and she nodded. He reached out a hand to brush them gently against the metallic links that made up her digits and the plating the formed the arm. There was scarring where the metal met skin, like burns cauterized from a lightsaber.

"I was sixteen," she told him, "there'd been a poisoning at the Temple, and some younglings had been affected. Master Yoda wanted me to investigate the source, so I took Kit Fisto and Aayla Secura with me to the Works. They found the poison, and I found a Zabrak and lost my arm for it." Caleb's bright eyes widened in an almost awed fear. "I didn't know who or what he was, Sith, Darksider, or someone incredibly proficient with the 'saber, it was only after Obi-Wan told me about the Sith he fought on Naboo that I realized they were the same person."

"Did it hurt?"

Sabé appeared surprised by the concern. "At the time? It was excruciating. I was sixteen and afraid, and all my master could tell me was to release my pain into the Force, otherwise known as the least helpful suggestion anyone could give a sixteen-year-old Jedi padawan experiencing trauma." She rolled her eyes for good measure. Plo Koon had been the most helpful during those days, him and Keelyvine Reus, who had assisted her almost painstakingly in retraining her body. Adulthood had embittered her.

"My eyes," she said, returning to his next question, "well, who can really say why they are the color they are? They were brown when I was born and yellow when I fell to the Sith." She examined Jay-Seven's severed head, her face a warped reflection. The eyes were reflected golden, gleaming and eerie, even to her, and so very unfamiliar. "I like to think it's because I've reached a shade of grey that suits me." She could see the split of skin where Maw's 'saber had burned against her skin, and she knew it was going to scar.

"They're pretty," Caleb confided, and she threw a smile his way that made him duck his head, pink suffusing across his cheeks. "What about Master Maw? Is he a Sith?"

A snort echoed loudly from her lips. "No, definitely not." She almost seemed mildly insulted at the merest prospect of him being such. "He's more of a Dark Jedi, an acolyte of the Dark Side, one who hasn't given himself completely to it…the yellow eyes is a more obvious physical change that you see with Sith."

"Like you?" Caleb's eyes were curious, and he couldn't really stop the questions leaving his mouth. He really should've been working harder at it.

Sabé smiled grimly. "Like me," she agreed, placing Jay-Seven's head back on the ground to lift the severed halves of her quarterstaff, the slice where they'd once been connected was clean and charred from the lightsaber.

She held them out to him. "What do you think this is?"

Caleb took them, a bit befuddled. "A quarterstaff," he said flatly, as he said when spouting questions only moments ago.

"You're half right. It's a Force Weapon…do you know what that is?"

Caleb shook his head.

A wry smile curved Sabé's lips. "I wouldn't expect you to; it's not exactly a well-known ability for Force users." Caleb blinked at the use of the phrase; it was easier to consider those that could use the Force as being split into two categories, Jedi and Sith. "A Force weapon is made when someone…what's a good word for it? When someone sort of focuses the Force on an object. It means that if you've focused enough of it, you might be able to block a lightsaber strike." Her smile faltered slightly. "I'm not really a fan of lightsabers right now."

"Oh," was all Caleb could say. "Because you're not a Jedi?"

Sabé gave a simple shrug at that. "A lightsaber can be any being's weapon if you're clever enough to steal from a Jedi or a Sith. Obi-Wan –Master Kenobi, to you– likes to say they're elegant weapons of a more civilized age, of course, that could always be because he doesn't like blasters." Sabé snorted, a finger trailing against the butt of one of her blasters before reaching to hand him a ration bar at the sound of a stomach growl. "Any more questions?"

Caleb flushed crimson, but then he looked at her, and he couldn't find any annoyance, any discomfort, just open acceptance. He couldn't remember the last time he'd seen that on the face of someone answering his questions.

"I heard that you don't like the Temple," he found himself asking his final question around the ration bar.

"Hard to like a place that's been built over a Sith Shrine." Sabé grimaced. "The Force pouring into my head every night, really it was a wonder I didn't go mad."

She didn't elaborate, even when Caleb gaped at her, seeming not to notice the change in expression. Then her face relaxed, and she sighed bitterly. "It's easier now to admit my anger and pain than it was when I was younger," she admitted, and Caleb could see her flex the fingers of her metallic hand. "It was easier to lock my emotions down and feign being serene…in some ways Carina was liberating."

It was a strange view to take, even to Sabé's own mind, but she'd grown up rather thoroughly repressed and definitely not in a healthy way. It also explained a good bit as to why Sabé had chosen the field of Shadow rather than anything else; Shadows generally spent very little time out of the shadows, Sabé had been an anomaly in that regard, choosing a Padawan so young when Shadows were often loners.

"Arthree, bring up a planetary map of Ryloth," she said, and Caleb blinked. Her eyes had gained a gleam of focus that hadn't been there before.

Arthree beeped at her, and she rolled her eyes, allowing a faint smile to appear on her lips. "Oh, don't be like that Arthree, you've had it stored in your memory chip since Talik and I came here, and that was years ago."

Arthree made a tooting sound in reply and Caleb stared in awe. "It doesn't always do what you ask?" he inquired.

"He," Sabé corrected, "is very temperamental."

This time Arthree made a short whirring sound in her direction, but his radar eye blinked with light briefly until a projection of light revealed an image of the planet, rotating before them, with a tiny red dot to indicate where they were on it.

"Hm," Sabé hummed thoughtfully, "we aren't as far out as I thought…maybe a week or two walk."

"That sounds long," Caleb muttered apprehensively and she laughed, light and amused, the Force swirling around her. Caleb wondered if she could feel it as much as he could, like a bright moon, always present, always watchful, always giving light to others' journeys, just like Anakin Skywalker's presence was as bright as a sun, scorching and powerful. She must have; she was far more powerful than he.

"Depends on your point of view," Sabé admitted before making a gesture towards him and it took Caleb a moment to realize that she wanted him to come closer so she could get a good look at his leg.

He winced as she pulled the bacta patch back to get a look at the slice. The good thing about lightsabers was that they cauterized wounds, but you could still die from them. Caleb had heard that that was how Master Qui-Gon Jinn had died. He could still see the slice along Sabé's cheek where Master Maw had slashed her when she was distracted by his scream.

"I'm sorry," he said, suddenly and regretfully, though still wincing as she examined the wound, inspecting the puffy, reddened area around the slice. She was frowning and he wasn't sure if that meant she was annoyed about the injury or how it was healing before she replaced the patch. "If I hadn't been... So reckless, so stupid, so curious. If I hadn't even gotten on the ship in the first place..."

"Don't beat yourself up over it," Sabé said, her words kind and her eyes understanding. "I've got a lot of scars, and this one is turning out to hurt the least while it heals."

Somehow, that only seemed to make Caleb feel worse than before.

"Darling," she said," giving Caleb the feeling that it was her favorite term of endearment. "Listen to me when I say this, you were used, you were a distraction, you are in no way responsible for what I consider to be a largely insignificant injury, all right?"

But still, Caleb frowned.

"Here, put this on," Sabé added, drawing something from her bag and handing it over to him, causing Caleb to blink. It was a shirt alike in design to Sabé's own, but instead of blue it was green.

His brow furrowed.

"I can easily pass you off as my son," she said, reaching out almost to brush her fingers into his hair but then thought better of it, bringing her hand back to run through her own curls. Caleb liked them better than all the braids she used to wear. "You'll get into more trouble dressed like a Jedi than you will like me. More likely slavers will try to sell you for a high price."

"I thought you said that slavers liked the Twi'leks more?" Caleb asked, still trying to wrap his mind around there being slavery in the Republic. Sabé had turned her back to him and he thought he saw her ripping something out of her nonfunctional droid's head as he changed his shirt, keeping her jacket, which he noticed she hadn't asked for back.

"They do, but if you think Jedi Initiates haven't disappeared and reappeared on the slave market then you should've stayed in the Temple, Caleb Dume," Sabé said wryly, like she had experience with a similar situation, standing and securing a bag on her astromech and another one on her shoulders. "Well?" she asked when he just stared at her. "You can always stick around, but I don't think you'll find Ryloth nearly as inviting as you might've hoped."

Caleb tried to scramble to his feet, but it was harder than it seemed when his leg felt like it was burning.

"I won't slow down for you," she added, standing at the edge of the cave, the sun making her eyes almost glow. Caleb imagined how it must've been to see her with yellow eyes.

"Yes, Master Amidala," he said quickly and Sabé winced. "Oh, I mean—"

"Call me Sabé or something like that, but it's probably best to stick to 'Mom' around other beings if I'm going to pass you off as my son," Sabé conceded. "I've never played a mother before, should be interesting."

And Caleb followed after her, the Force ringing in its clarity of two paths forming into one.


The hours passed into a full rotation and Taria's apprehension grew until she found herself sitting in one of the meditation rooms, only not meditating, her hands clasped together, the chip that Sabé had left her on Alderaan within the cup of her hands.

She'd said she would get back to Taria immediately and it had been far too long and Sabé would've reconnected if she could have. There was no other alternative.

But was she even alive? Taria could feel a flicker of fear at the thought. She and Sabé had been friends for so long and they'd worked beside each other as Jedi Shadows for almost as long; she couldn't imagine a galaxy where Sabé Amidala did not draw breath.

"You seem troubled, Knight Damsin," a voice regarded and Taria blinked, drawing herself out of her thoughts to tilt her head up to see Depa Billaba.

"Apprehensive might be a better word," Taria admitted before considering the Council Master. "I heard a little rumor that you've run into Sabé Amidala a few times in the past few months."

Depa arched an eyebrow. "And where did that rumor start?"

"Couldn't really say," Taria admitted mildly and without any concern whatsoever. It seemed to be a habit of Jedi Shadows.

Depa spared her a smile, shrugging her brown robe off to hang it up on the hook by the now shut door, revealing the tunic underneath. Hers was brown and longer, almost to her knees with no sleeves to expose a light tan garb underneath and matching her trousers.

She sat easily without the robe to hinder her, drawing her knees up on the cushion until she was sitting cross-legged.

"You are apprehensive," Depa prompted, "and you are asking about Sabé…those two things aren't necessarily unrelated."

"No," Taria sighed, her eyes distant, "but Sabé's—" Her words caught in her throat, remembering a time when she and Sabé were still new to the Shadows, just barely passing what Maw considered to be the entrance exam, otherwise known as 'if you can't handle torture then what's the point?'. Maybe it should've been obvious by then, but Sabé and Taria had both been young and naïve. "You and Sabé," she said suddenly, lifting her eyes to see Depa's dark eyes already on her, "you have some sort of…connection."

"We do." Depa saw no reason to lie; Taria admired that trait in a member of the High Council.

"Can you tell if she's still alive?" Taria asked flatly, and that caused Depa's eyes to widen in surprise. Taria doubted that Depa had expected the conversation to take such a dark turn.

Depa inhaled deeply, her eyes fluttering shut as she calmed herself, reaching out through the Force, stretching along the bond she and Sabé had unwittingly formed during their brief time together, such as surprise to the both of them given Sabé's history with bonds. She drew back to the start and felt the thrum of a beating heart.

"She's alive," Depa confirmed and Taria breathed easily. "What's this about, Taria?"

"It's complicated," Taria grimaced. "But I will say it's quite serious and the fact that Sabé, who I was in contact with until quite recently, suddenly cut out and told me that she'd respond in moments and now it's been a day, should tell you something."

Depa's eyes narrowed but then a grudging smile warmed her lips. "I see why you two are such good friends."

"Friends who crime together stay together," Taria said, almost solemnly, even though it had seen such a long time that the pair had actually done a mission together.

"Hm." Depa hummed in contemplation, still stretching her senses out into the Force. She could see Sabé in her mind's eye, wearing the same combat fatigues, a new scar on her face. There was no lightsaber at her hip, only blasters, and when she opened her eyes, they were an eerie gold.

Her form rippled before Depa and vanished.

Sabé's path was clouded from her in the Force like she was forging her own way, but one that the Force approved of. Sabé was never without the Force, it had been with her from the moment of her birth and it had never left her since.

"I trust her," Taria added, bringing Depa's thoughts back to the present, "even if others don't."

"The trust of a Jedi Shadow must've been well-earned, then," Depa smiled, but for some reason, Taria's lips thinned into a line.

"So it would seem," Taria murmured only to stop at the sound of someone crying outside and they both moved to open the sliding door and step into the hall.

Anakin Skywalker was kneeling next to a small Togruta with white facial pigmentation over orange skin that was now blotchy with angry tears.

"Apologies, Masters," Anakin said, still trying to soothe the youngling, "she's upset about a friend of hers, she says he's gone missing."

"Missing?" Depa repeated. "This is another youngling, you say?"

"Caleb Dume," Anakin informed them both.

"No one's –looking– for –him!" The Togruta stamped her foot angrily, her words coming out stilted with how upset she was, but it looked as though the tears had stopped.

"Ahsoka," Anakin said, speaking directly to her and Taria knew how well-known Anakin was for his impatience, so to see him speak calmly to an emotional youngling was very surprising, "we are looking for him. The whole Temple has been searched, and there's no sign of him."

Ahsoka's face screwed up and it was more out of worry, Taria guessed than anything else, when she flung her arms around Anakin's neck –much to his surprise, if how he jolted was any indication– and Anakin carefully brought his own arms up and around her back.

I've got a bad feeling about this, Taria thought, not knowing if Sabé could echo the sentiment.


"Do you know where in the galaxy Ryloth is located?"

"Um…is it the Mid-Rim?" Caleb was still wincing with every step, but it helped that they made sure to stop every half hour to rest; Caleb was beginning to suspect that Sabé wasn't always as harsh as she appeared to be.

"Outer-Rim, actually," Sabé said, her eyes ahead, on the horizon, watching the sun lowering in the sky. "What language is mostly spoken on Ryloth?"

"Um…"

"Twi'leki."

Caleb's brow furrowed. "Is this like a class?" he blurted out. Sabé had been doing an awful lot of talking in regards to the planet they'd both been marooned on, and he was certain there was a purpose for it.

"Anakin was more of a manic learner, but Talik didn't mind learning in the classroom," Sabé mentioned almost to herself before blinking and looking down at him. "When you leave me to return to Coruscant you won't want to be behind your fellow age-mates, will you?"

Caleb turned pink and ducked his head, missing her smile before they settled down amongst the rocks with Arthree complaining something in binary that Caleb didn't understand.

"The person that we're looking for," Caleb said as he took a swig of water that Sabé offered him, "they're going to help us?"

"Hopefully," Sabé conceded. "It's been a long time since I've been to Ryloth…a lot might've changed. If so, we'll just have to travel to the center of the planet, that's where all the spaceports are, but it a much longer journey and there's enough Lylek between them and us to make me cautious."

"Lylek?"

"Let's just pray you never meet one, shall we?" Sabé asked wryly.

Caleb had asked so many questions throughout the day, and still, he had so many more he had yet to ask. There was a lightsaber in her pack, he'd seen it. Why would she have one if she didn't like them, if she distanced herself so much from the Jedi? Who is this friend of that was supposedly going to help them? If she hated Coruscant so much, then how was he ever going to get home?

"Miss Sabé?"

"Hm?" came her reply, still looking off into the sunset, her expression closed-off but seeming almost sad in a way.

"Would you ever go back to the Jedi?" he asked.

That got her attention and she turned to look at him, her eyes still sad but her jaw tight. "You can either be the stone worn away by time or you can be the stream around it, changing with the times and adapting to new obstacles."

That only left Caleb more confused than before, but all she did was smile and say, "Get some sleep, Caleb. We're starting fresh tomorrow and it's going to be a very long week."

Caleb was starting to see how she could've been Yoda's student. But still, he got the feeling that the Jedi and Sabé were not yet finished with each other.

Like the coil of a serpent, always coming back to the start. Like diverging paths becoming one once more.


AN: There's going to be a lot of questioning between Sabé and Caleb, so that's going to be really fun to write :)

As always: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!