CHAPTER 16: LIR SEY'LES

The World Between Worlds

Sey'les felt herself falling. The bright lights of her sister's house faded away as she fell into darkness, leaving everyone behind. The darkness was broken only by eerie glows and dim shapes. With an oof, she landed on her back, staring up at an unimpressive cloud of dark fog. And it was wet.

The echoing pitter-patter of dripping water gave Sey'les bad flashbacks of being in a sewer.

Groaning, the Bothan stood up on her two legs and shook off, trying to get the water off her clothes and fur. The water pooled up on the glowing pathway smelled musty and bizarre. Sey'les could not quite identify the source of the bizarreness, but it smelled like the water had all come into contact with a giant sweaty mammal of some sort.

"Ugh," she scoffed, twitching her nose as she looked around. "This place is… This place is worse than the Coruscant underworld!"

Behind her, the scene of Safyan's living room was visible through a gateway. Behind the gateway, and above, below, and in every direction was more thick fog.

{"It is usually quite lovely,"} Morai's voice sighed. The Convor landed next to Sey'les's right foot, staring at the water on the ground.

{"Yeah,"} Veryk agreed, now standing at Morai's side.. {"Stars as far as the eye can see… Clear vision to thousands of portals. It was beautiful."}

Looking around, Sey'les now thought she could make out distant white glows through the ominous fog—but barely. Perhaps those are portals…

{"We had a tragedy earlier,"} Morai said in a saddened voice. {"This is what prompted us to seek out your help."}

A water droplet landed on Sey'les's ear. Flinching, she opened her snout to say something and caught a drop in her mouth.

Hacking and coughing, she sputtered, wiping her tongue with her hands but only tasted more Bendu. Fur twirling unhappily, she spat on the ground.

"Shtak that's nasty!"

{"One of the greatest amongst us perished,"} Morai said, warbling sadly as she took tiny steps on the wet floor.

Sey'les's stopped her dramatic display at once. Looking at Morai and Veryk with an expression of dead seriousness.

"Prophets can die?" she croaked.

The realization had been slowly building up since rescuing two of them. Not omniscient. Not omnipotent. Not immortal.

Feathers ruffled, Morai batted her wings. {"We are not prophets."}

{"Yes we are,"} Veryk said matter of factly. Letting off a chitter, the Viverrid darted away into the mist. {"We travel through time and see the future. Isn't that what a prophet is?"}

With an uneasy hoot, Morai batted her wings, flying through the mist after Veryk.

Scowling, Sey'les followed them, looking down at the ground carefully to avoid tripping.

{"Isn't the future the other direction?"} the Daughter's voice asked.

{"Yes, but I sense… Something…"}

Veryk continued to lead the way, scampering on all fours. Occasionally, he would stop and stand on his hind legs, looking left and right.

Sey'les reached out with the Force as she walked behind Veryk, unsure what she should be sensing. Her danger sense was silent, although at several points she nearly tripped and fell.

Veryk's pace picked up, and Sey'les followed, jogging as carefully as she could through the fog.

To the left and right were empty portals. Many of them were cracked or even shattered, with bits of debris scattered onto the footpath between the portals.

A minute or so went by, then all the sudden a dim glow could be seen through the mist on the left.

{"My senses are right!"} Veryk's voice said with an excitement Sey'les had not heard from the Viverrid.

{"Curious,"} Morai added.

"What is it?" Sey'les asked, sniffing the air.

Despite the fact Veryk and Morai both spoke into her mind, the Bothan's ears were now perked up, trying to take in as much information as possible.

{"This is curious, but still, Veryk,"} Morai mused, {"quite inconsequential. This portal will lead to 14:01:13 GrS. Unless you want to wait around for two years and four days for Ahsoka, this portal is useless."}

{"Useless?!"} Veryk's voice gasped in affront. {"You are the last Convor I would ever expect to call a portal useless, Morai."}

Sey'les now jogged, trying to catch up to the two Prophets. She could hear their voices, but without seeing them or what they were talking about, was utterly confused.

{"I suppose you could also travel there, and then wait two years, five months, and ten days to stop Order 66."}

{"I thought that was now our objective!"} Veryk hissed. {"Why do you assume I would go against the will of the Council. Why—"}

"Order 66?" Sey'les growled, sniffing the air.

She could now sense and smell another presence up ahead. A huge dark four-legged shadow appeared in the mist. This presence was much bigger than her and smelled like—

"Knightfall," a canine voice snarled.

Startled Sey'les jumped, slipped on the wet ground, and fell face first into a black-furred Loth-Wolf.

Gripping the Loth-Wolf's furry side, she wobbled uneasily. She nearly fell over again but managed to tug herself upright.

"OUCH!" the Loth-Wolf howled.

"Sorry!" Sey'les whimpered, patting the creature's side.

As she touched the wolf, she could feel his power. Each angry breath pushed her hand back a few centimeters. His rib cage felt as solid as a speeder door—or a Wookiee. On all fours, he was about a head taller than her. Worse, she could sense him reaching out with the Force to her, trying to read her thoughts.

"Little Wolf thing… Nice talking Wolf…" she winced, continuing to pet the part of his fur she had tugged. "All—it's all better right? Are we good? Uh, Veryk?! VERYK! I THINK I MIGHT BE IN TROUBLE!"

"Who runs in the dark?" the Loth-Wolf snarled. "Who runs through pitch black mist—there are no railings here! If you fall, it is a long way down."

{"Zoltan is right,"} Veryk said, speaking into their minds from somewhere out of sight and up ahead. {"Running when you can't see is an accident waiting to happen. I would expect a greater degree of prudence from you, Lir Sey of Clan Ales."}

You were running… That is why I was running. I was trying to catch you. You little weasel of a Prophet!

"I—I am," Sey'les stammered, turning her snout away from Zoltan's. "Wait… Why can you talk? What do you mean by 'nightfall' Night falls all the time… Does this place even have a sun?"

"Knightfall, with a krill," Zoltan growled. "Is she the one?"

He can spell too…

{"Indeed, she is the one,"} Morai answered, landing on Zoltan's head. {"Lir Sey might not look like much, but I believe she can convince the Republic Navy of Order 66 without alerting Sidious."}

"Maybe we can save Vitnir then," Zoltan panted, "and Caleb and the others."

{"We don't know Caleb is dead,"} Veryk's voice spoke optimistically. {"He could just be stuck behind one of the portals to the past for all we know."}

Order 66. Nightfall with a Krill, so Knightfall. Caleb. Nothing they were saying made any sense to Sey'les anymore. Feeling more certain that the wolf was not going to eat her, Sey'les looked around, trying to gauge her surroundings.

Up ahead, past Zoltan, was a glow, similar to the one Sey'les had seen earlier when she first arrived in this place. Only, this part of the mist was darker than where Sey'les had arrived. This was the only glow in sight in any direction. The only—

—Realizing she was still petting Zoltan, Sey'les pocketed her hands uncomfortably. She avoided eye contact with the wolf, scrunching her face as he sniffed her.

{"What are you guys doing over there?! Okay, Bothan meets Loth-Wolf. Loth-Wolf meets Bothan. Friends?"}

"All right, I am coming!" Zoltan howled, turning around with six dancing footfalls.

Morai squawked, batting her wings to stay in the air as Zoltan sprinted away into the darkness, leaving the Convor and Bothan in the dust.

Sey'les scowled, walking carefully forward through the darkness to make a point. You hypocrite. Get kriffed you stupid Loth-Wolf. You stupid little—

Gasping, Sey'les's angry train of thoughts stopped dead in its tracks. In front of her was a portal. The scene beyond, the Battle of Skor II, was one she had experienced before. More startlingly, she could see herself, standing next to a damaged LAAT/le, the Mon Calamari Jedi Nahdar Vebb, and the rest of the Republic taskforce.

{"We call this place the Vergence Scatter,"} Morai explained to Sey'les, landing at the side of the portal. {"It connects all points in space and time. With practice, one can manipulate the view the portal gives. Curious though..."}

{"I know,"} Veryk muttered in mutual understanding, mesmerized as he stared into the event horizon. {"Very curious. I've never been to Squibville."}

{"I have been to Skor II, but this is not my doing. Sey'les is controlling this portal, even though she just arrived—even though dozens of timeless Force users are present… Can you change it?"}

Sey'les walked up alongside Morai, Zoltan, and Veryk. Her gut grew tight as an LAAT lowered. What was about to unfold was one of the most difficult and troubling events of her life.

With a swish of his paw, the view changed from the orange smokey inferno to the interior of what appeared to be a pet grooming center.

{"Yeah, I can change it,"} Veryk said.

Beyond the event horizon, a past version of Veryk was lying on his back as a pink-skinned Zeltron female massaged soap onto his belly. The Viverrid purred happily, playfully grabbing at the hose while the Zeltron sprayed him down.

{"Oh yeah, that day was fantastic."}

"Wait!" Zoltan howled. "We can pull Vitnir back—If she was around in the past on that day, we can—"

"No," Sey'les gulped. "I need to see this…"

With a wave of her hand, the image in the event horizon changed back to Skor II. After recovering the Republic taskforce, the gunship was now taking off from the planet's surface. A burning skyscraper crumbled down in the background, nailed by the incoming wave of a tsunami.

{"All right, all right,"} Veryk's voice spoke placatingly. {"No views of me being happy. We get to see upsetting Clone Wars battles."}

"Change it Sey'les, please!" Zoltan pleaded.

{"I am sorry, Zoltan,"} Morai said in a teary tone. {"If we rescue Vitnir, it could cast the time-line into chaos. We can only consider rescuing Vitnir after we have resolved the Order 66 matter, lest rescuing Vitnir cause our efforts against Sidious to be undone. What if we only succeed because of Vitnir's absence? Paradoxes like these abound! These decisions can only be made after a full vote by the Council of the Cosmic Force. The wisest among us must have a say, and only then… Well, it is also possible Vitnir will appear again, should we eliminate Palpatine before he can ever kill her."}

A tear formed in Zoltan's eye as his head hung.

Morai waddled up to the Loth-Wolf, placing her wing on his paw in a vertically-challenged attempt to coddle him.

{"There there,"} Morai warbled. {"I feel fairly certain Vitnir, Caleb, and the other Loth-Wolves will be once again among us."}

"Really?" Zoltan growled.

{"We are getting so distracted!"} Veryk spoke in alarm. {"Sey'les, are you listening?"}

"Yes," Sey'les croaked, staring at the scene unfolding. Her fur was twirling unhappily.

{"Good. I will cut right to it then,"} Veryk said quickly. {"What happened earlier, you see, was that Sheev Palpatine came through a portal in a younger form. After being confronted by Vitnir, oldest and wisest of the Loth-Wolves—"}

{"Perhaps we just explain Order 66,"} Morai suggested, turning to face Veryk. {"All of this on Vitnir will require backstory, exposition—it will take all day!"}

Veryk hmm'd to himself, then decided take Morai's advice.

{"The problem is, about five months after from when we plucked you off Bothawui, the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, who is secretly a Sith Lord, will activate Order 66—"

"Knightfall," Zoltan interrupted.

{"Operation Knightfall,"} Morai added.

{"Sey'les, are you paying attention?"}

"Mmmhmm," Sey'les mumbled, still staring at the event horizon.

Sey'les was paying attention, but not to any of the Prophets. Ears perked up, she listened to the muffled sounds coming through the event horizon.

The voices were difficult to make out over the roar of the gunship's engines, the howl of wind, and the audible crash of roiling waves and collapsing buildings, but Sey'les knew this was the moment.

Things at the time had been tense. Sey'les and her squad of Direct Action Operatives had been embedded with a Jedi, his Padawan, and two criminals. It was supposed to be an effort to get a Republic team smuggled onto the Separatist stronghold of Murkhana, but Sey'les never quite understood herself how going to Skor II or Merj for that matter would accomplish that goal.

Yet, she had eventually grown familiar with the two criminals, to the point she viewed them as members of her team. It was absolutely devastating when one of the criminals—Nebhir Traf'lab, leapt from the gunship, plummeting down to her doomed birthplace of Serwald as it was finally consumed by Skor II's seas.

Hearing Nebhir's shrill voice, Sey'les's eyes teared up. She knew exactly what was about to happen.

This is it.

{"There are others who could help us, Sey'les,"} Morai continued in a solemn tone the Bothan had long tuned out. {"But they have all failed us. In our first attempt to avert Palpatine's takeover, we tried to tell one Jedi, a Bothan Jedi named Kev Rel'skar—if I am not mistaken he was with you at the beginning of your mission to Skor II."}

"Uh huh," Sey'les muttered, concentrating with all of her power on the portal in front of her. You can manipulate the portal's view with practice, she thought, recalling Morai's words.

The portal's view shifted from side-on to one looking up from a few meters directly below the LAAT.

Aha! I did it. Sey'les braced herself in a crouch, ready to catch a suicidal half-Squib.

{"What are you doing Lir Sey of Clan Ales?"} Morai asked serenely.

{"Sey'les, this isn't huttball!"} Veryk snorted. {"If you want to catch something, you have to physically make contact."}

Morai squawked angrily. {"NO! WAIT! WHAT DO YOU—"}

In a moment where time seemed to move slower, the half-Squib fell from the gunship, dropping chest-first through the smoky, steamy sky. Falling silently with her teary eyes closed, she did not cry out as the gunship continued its climb towards the Acclamator overhead.

Physically make contact.

Once Nebhir dropped to the point she was only centimeters above the event horizon, Sey'les stretched her fingers through, tugging Nebhir's blue fur. Feeling the weight of the half-Squib slam into her outstretched hand, Sey'les recoiled, pulling Nebhir inside.

Yelping, they both fell to the hard transparent floor with a thud. Nebhir's chest slammed into Sey'les's as she fell down onto her. Their fleshy wet noses squished against each other as they met face to face on the floor.

Zoltan gasped.

Veryk squeaked in terror.

{"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"} Morai's voice screamed so loudly in Sey'les's mind it was deafening.

Wincing, Sey'les sat up and squeezed the trembling half-Squib in a hug. "I am saving her," she growled firmly.

"Se—Sey'les," Nebhir stammered, eyes wide and looking around in confusion and panic, "What happened?! Where are we? Did you die too?!"

"YOU HELPED HER!" Zoltan snarled, flashing his teeth at the Viverrid.

{"I did not!"} Veryk gasped in affront. {"Why I never—"}

{"You told her exactly how to retrieve someone!"} Morai shrieked, pecking Veryk on the nose.

"HELP!" Zoltan howled. "HELP! WE HAVE A TEMPORAL BREACH!"

{"Oh stop that!"} Veryk sneered. {"You sound like such a—"}

{"You're the one who caused a breach!"} Morai hooted.

While the Prophets hurled accusations and insults at each other, Sey'les continued gripping Nebhir firmly. Sey'les could sense the normally mild-mannered Convor was on the verge of panic.

Two more Loth-Wolves emerged from the mist, followed by a giant spider.

Sey'les's fur swirled nervously. She felt that whatever was going to happen to Nebhir was beyond her control.

"What is this place?!" Nebhir croaked tearily.

"It's the Vergence Scatter," Sey'les answered, looking Morai in the eyes for affirmation. "It's some sort of time-travel spot."

A huge dragon-like Mythosaur descended from the sky, blowing the mist out of the way as he beat his wings.

"Did someone say temporal breach?! Where's Sidious?"

{"Don't worry, Losko,"} Veryk said soothingly, {"it's not Sidious. Sey'les did it."}

"Which one is Sey'les?!" Losko snarled, arching his neck and lowering his face right in front of Sey'les and Nebhir. He was large enough to eat either of them in two bites.

"Me," Sey'les sighed, fur swirling with nervousness.

"Did I miss a vote on allowing Sey'les to save Nebhir and change the past? Did the Council of the Cosmic Force agree that changing the past even further was a good idea, while we are trying—no struggling—to keep up with the changes already made?"

"The kriff?!" Sey'les snarled, now feeling brave enough to stand up for herself. "You Prophets vote on this stuff?"

"Those of us on the Council get to," Zoltan explained. "You are supposed to—"

"THAT'S KRIFFED UP!" Sey'les yelped, fur bristling with rage. "YOU'RE TELLING ME THE NEXT PLAIN OF EXISTENCE HAS A SENATE?!"

"Are you sure we can trust this Bothan?!" Losko asked incredulously, frowning at Veryk.

{"She does sound a bit unhinged,"} Morai admitted with a nervous warble. {"Maybe the High Council made a mistake."}

Veryk stood on his hind legs, hissing angrily at the much bigger sentients {"It's too late for this! And you all agreed—are you listening to yourselves?!"}

"Bendu did agree to bringing Lir Sey'les in on this," Losko muttered. "The question I suppose is, can we trust the blue one who died?"

Can we trust Nebhir? Sey'les honestly did not know the answer to that herself.

At one point, early in the Clone Wars during their mission to Merj, Nebhir had poisoned not one but two Republic personnel. The only time Nebhir had begun to earnestly cooperate was when her life was in danger. She was also completely unreliable at tasks as simple as waking up early, keeping a schedule, or conducting herself ethically. The answer to the question was probably an emphatic no.

"I died," Nebhir whimpered. "Sey'les, I thought you said this wasn't the—"

"ZIP IT!" Sey'les interrupted, holding up a finger. "Can't we just put Nebhir back into a portal? She could use some…" rehabilitation for spice addicts... psychological counseling… help? Help. "She could use some help."

"Send her back?" Losko scoffed. "Are you insane?"

Nebhir sobbed anew, burying her snout in Sey'les's shirt. "This is it. I jumped and… I am sorry. You must have fallen too."

"No," Sey'les gulped, petting her dark blue mane. "You don't have to be sorry. You didn't die..." Well you did die actually…

At that, Sey'les blinked, regaining her train of thoughts. "We aren't in any afterlife. I am alive just… in the future. It's been over two years." Looking away from Nebhir, she locked eyes with Losko. "If we can't send Nebhir back, we have no choice but to trust her."

She flashed her teeth in Nebhir's direction, then gripped the half-Squibs hand firmly. If you put glass in anyone's drinks, I am gonna—why the kriff did I save you?

"Ye—yeah," Nebhir stammered nervously, "I mean you can trust me! If I help you, you help me. Will you help me leave this place?"

{"Sure! Now that that's settled,"} Veryk said optimistically, {"time to explain Knightfall."}

{"This will take forever!"} Morai hooted, landing in front of Sey'les and Nebhir. {"Veryk, I have an idea, but with the loss of my powers I shall require your assistance."}

{"Oooohhh… I like it,"} Veryk chittered, stepping up next to the Convor. {"Sey'les, take hold of Morai's wing like—yes, good work, now Nebhir, take the other."}

Sey'les frowned, wingtip grasped in her hand.

Nebhir did the same, round mouse-like ears perked up.

{"Now Sey'les,"} Morai hooted, {"relax. Allow me to project myself into your mind."}

Suddenly realizing she had been resisting the Convor, Sey'les sighed, feeling her stomach untighten. Relax. Morai doesn't want to hurt you. She's trying to help us—

Sey'les gasped in shock. The familiar polluted smell of Coruscant's air mixed with the smell of burning rubber and fuel.

Down below, a gut-wrenching and at the same time baffling sight was unfolding. Lines of thousands of blue and white armored Clone Troopers were marching up the steps of the burning Jedi Temple in lockstep behind a single robed figure. In the terrace outside, Jedi Temple guards were dropping like flies, gunned down by the troopers who outnumbered them ten to one. It was clear they were unused to fighting such numbers and had been caught off-guard by the sudden betrayal.

Sey'les's point of view changed to one inside the Temple. A group of younglings were hiding behind chairs in a tower as smoke rose all around the spire.

They emerged, cautiously approaching a Jedi Sey'les vaguely recognized to be Anakin Skywalker.

"Master Skywalker," one of the children started. "There are too many of them. What are we going to—"

{"I LIKE IT! I LIKE IT!"} Veryk's voice entered Sey'les's mind, booming loudly.

The vision faded, Morai squawking furiously as Veryk shoved her out of the way, gripping Sey'les and Nebhir's hands with his tiny purple paws.

"The Clones…" Sey'les panted, hearing the sound of her own heartbeat thudding.

{"What do you think you are doing?"} Morai asked Veryk haughtily. {"I nearly was at the point where it happened. From there, I would have explained what became of Sey'les and her people, and from there, what Ahsoka did. Why did you interrupt me? I had a plan."}

{"I have a better plan!"} Veryk chittered excitedly. {"Don't worry. Sey'les, Nebhir, I shall teach you everything about why we need to change time… From the beginning."}

o.o.o.o.o

The misty dark muckiness of the Vergence Scatter faded away, replaced by a peaceful green forest.

Sey'les opened her mouth to swear, but all that came out was a squeaky chitter. She looked down at her hands. They were the same ashy color, with her left hand a dark grey and black, and her right a light grey and white swirl, but they were hands no longer. She now had four clawed paws.

A tug on her side caused Sey'les to jump in surprise. Turning around with a squeak, she faced a bright blue Bothawui Savrit Cat with mousy ears.

Nebhir, Sey'les realized, recognizing this particular Savrit Cat. That must mean I am a Savrit Cat too.

Both Savrit Cats' noses twitched as they stared at each other.

Eyes darting to the right, Nebhir sprinted around an oak tree on all fours, digging and hissing.

Blinking in bemusement, Sey'les stood on her hind legs and stared at Nebhir, wondering what in the Galaxy she was doing.

A few seconds later, Nebhir returned with an acorn in her mouth and dropped it on the dirt in front of her.

What the hell, I guess this okay, Sey'les thought, eating the acorn off the ground.

Under normal circumstances, she would have never eaten something Nebhir spat out onto the dirt. Somehow, however, Sey'les just knew this was Nebhir's Viverrid way of saying I am sorry for poisoning two people, getting you in trouble with the Republic, and you can trust me implicitly. Look, I spat food on the ground.

In the middle of chowing down on the bitter-tasting acorn, Veryk emerged from the bushes, his purple fur standing out strongly against the green leaves and red flowers of his surroundings.

{"Where are we and why are we Savrit Cats?"} Sey'les asked. She wasn't quite sure if she was communicating telepathically, or if she could now understand Viverrid squeaks. {"Did you make us into Prophets?"}

Veryk let off a pur which, somehow, Sey'les knew was the Viverrid version of a hmmm. {"You could say I made you a Prophet the moment I pulled you into the Vergence Scatter. You, in turn, made Nebhir a Prophet when you pulled her out of her timeline."}

{"Does this mean we're immortal?"} Sey'les asked more pointedly.

{"No, it does not,"} Veryk sighed. {"Alas, that is beyond my power."}

{"Still, I love this!"} Nebhir chittered, now climbing a fallen log. {"Look at what I can do!"} Scratching the log, she happily flung moss in every direction.

Big upgrade from being a Squib, Sey'les smirked, then buried the comment. No need to be an asshole. She just almost killed herself. Maybe she has a right to be excited about the little things.

{"What neither of you have bothered doing, is to look up. LOOK UP!"}

Obeying, Sey'les and Nebhir both stood on their hind legs, staring up into the sky. Sey'les had assumed it was broad daylight, but instead she was looking up at a sky so dense with stars, that it was brighter than moonlight.

A female voice from nowhere in particular called out "AHSOKA!" in an eerie echo.

{"Not yet, not yet!"} Varyk chittered, turning to face someone neither Sey'les nor Nebhir could see. {"We'll get to Ahsoka Tano later. I am explaining the Force."}

Are those stars? The blur of light seemed to be moving as if it were alive.

{"What you are witnessing,"} Veryk said happily, spinning back to face Sey'les and Nebhir, {"is the vaster reality of the Force. Those are midichlorians—"

"SIDIOUS!" the same voice interrupted, thundering through the whole world.

{"I'll get to him later too!"} Veryk squeaked in anger.

{"Who is that speaking?"} Nebhir asked, still standing atop a log.

Veryk shook his head, clambering up on the log beside Nebhir. {"It's only Morai, being her persistent Celestial self. Sey'les hop up too, we are about to see the evolution of the Celestials."}

o.o.o.o.o

Sey'les and Nebhir frowned in concern, staring at the sky as the titanic swarms of midichlorians shifted, danced, slammed into each other, formed walls, split apart, and drew together. All the while, Veryk narrated the rise, fall, and ascension of the Celestials, followed by the Gree, the Kwa, the Rakata, the Kiliks, and dozens more.

A worse method to teach Galactic history from the source was simply not possible.

{"And now, we come to the rise of the light side and the dark…"}

{"Wait,"} Nebhir stammered in confusion, ears drooping. {"I thought you said the Rakata harvested darkside energy."}

{"They did,"} Veryk nodded. {"But I am simplifying somewhat."}

Sey'les sighed angrily.

Veryk patted both Sey'les and Nebhir their heads, giving them rough noogies. {"Now now, you're doing good. Both of you are very good listeners. This is just the point in the story where the dark and the light become relevant. They always existed, but the differences did not matter."}

The color of the midichlorians in the sky suddenly changed. About half of the midichlorians were now crimson and the other half bright blue.

{"A group of beings who supported the lightside of the Force came together and formed a superconscious. You have both met some."}

{"Jedi,"} Sey'les and Nebhir answered in unison.

{"Now force-sensitive beings, like yourselves, have more midichlorians than other beings. Thus, when a large number—"}

{"I'm a Jedi?!"} Nebhir squeaked in a alarm. {"Sey'les! Sey'les, you're—"}

{"No, no… Not a Jedi,"} Veryk snorted. {"You are Force sensitive though. Sey'les already knew but just did not tell you."}

Sey'les shrugged her shoulders helplessly at Nebhir. {"I figured you were Force-sensitive too, but—"}

{"Can you teach me how to create glitterstim with my bare hands?"} Nebhir asked both of them, interrupting Sey'les.

{"That's—that's not how it works!"} Veryk chittered. {"Create Glitterstim? Oh my!"}

{"Or Ryll… Or credits,"} Nebhir smirked, rubbing her greedy blue paws together.

{"Matter can neither be created nor destroyed…"} Veryk explained in a ponderous tone. {"Perhaps I need to dumb this down further. We shall go back all the way to witness the Big Bang, and we will see for ourselves that the amount of matter has remained constant—the distribution, however, has changed."}

Whimpering, Sey'les ran a circle around Veryk, clawing nervously at the log. {"Please don't! I've had enough history. Let's just focus on Order 66."}

Veryk tapped his claws together. {"Hmmm. Back to the Jedi then."}

A dense cloud of nearly pure yellow pulled together, creating a noticeable vacuum of midichlorians, now dominated by red.

{"Distributions… The Jedi superconscious drew huge amounts of lightside midichlorians to the Jedi Order. As their numbers swelled, they began to have their own weight and affect the cosmic balance of the universe. Inevitably, some individuals within this cosmic convergence decided to go their own ways, as individuals."}

Within the dense pack of yellow, some red formed. Much of the red pulled away. Noticeably, a new but smaller cluster of dense red formed, orbiting the much larger blob of yellow.

{"The Sith continued for a few eons,"} Veryk continued, {"living parallel to the Jedi, but in much smaller numbers. Yet, while their numbers were smaller, individual Sith began acting out, manipulating the fabric of the universe to their own ends."}

A few of the red blobs and many of the white blobs in the vicinity of the big Sith sphere began darting around.

{"What you are seeing now is the general flight of midichlorians from Sith space, as the Sith both consumed the lifeforce of the cosmos, and drove midichlorian-bearing refugees away from their Empire."}

{"Oooh!"} Nebhir howled excitedly. {"The Sith are like ants! Or those wasps that stick larvae in the other buggies."}

Like ants? Wasps?

{"Exactly, the Sith are quite a bit like those wasps!"} Veryk agreed. {"They have smaller populations than the Jedi, who are more bee-like. The Sith are less symbiotic with their environment and more parasitic. Sey'les, Nebhir seems to be quite sharp. I am glad you rescued her."}

Sey'les continued staring up at the cosmos in bafflement. The sphere of lightside-bearing yellow dots started looking a lot less peaceful as it slammed against the crimson darkside-bearing Sith dots.

{"Veryk I have a question,"} Sey'les piped up in genuine curiosity. {"Jedi often say shtak about a 'will of the Force,' or something. Here though, the midichlorians just seem to be connected with hives of… well bees and wasps… What do Jedi mean?"}

{"You've experienced sensations of being in danger, premonitions of the future, sight of things you cannot see correct?"} Veryk responded with a question of his own.

{"Uh… yeah,"} Sey'les shrugged.

{"That's usually what Jedi mean. They feel some response from the cosmic universe and believe that this is a signal of the Force's will. It's really all rubbish if you get down to it. The universe is an inanimate object. It has no—"}

"I DON'T AGREE!" a Loth-Wolf howled from somewhere.

Sey'les and Nebhir looked around, sniffing the air furiously.

"THE FORCE DOES HAVE A WILL AND IT'S—"

{"OH ENOUGH INTERRUPTIONS!"} Veryk hissed to the sky. {"Fine, Sey'les. There are some among us who are far more superstitious. There are those who have more Jedi-like beliefs about the Force. What anyone, I hope, would agree with me on is that the presence or absence of midichlorians which—"}

Veryk stopped talking and waved at the sky furiously, as if swatting bees and wasps.

{"Which what?"} Nebhir asked.

{"Which has nothing to do with the will of the Force. A high presence of midichlorians doesn't really mean anything about the Force, other than this particular being will be able to more easily perceive it."}

Frowning, Sey'les had no idea what to think about the will of the Force. Either way, she supposed, it didn't really affect her, Ahsoka, or anything regarding their mission.

In the sky, a large number of red and yellow dots were blinking out and reappearing elsewhere. The midichlorians were slowly starting to spread out again as Jedi and Sith, loaded with many midichlorians, snuffed each other out in wars.

{"We are nearing the last great Jedi-Sith conflict,"} Veryk muttered. {"Actually, we should view this from a higher vantage point. Follow me!"}

Sey'les leapt off the log after Veryk, following his purple tail into the underbrush.

{"Veryk, what does this have to do with Ahsoka or Order 66?"} Sey'les asked, squinting as leaves, grass blades, and twigs brushed into her face.

{"We are witnessing the past. The motivations for Ahsoka's—well, you'll see. Now, While we move, try to close your eyes and feel beyond what you see. I know you can do it."}

Slowing down, Sey'les closed her eyes, reaching out with the Force. The living presence of the plants in every direction lit up like lightbulbs, revealing paths of less resistance beyond her field of vision.

Sey'les left the grassy bushes and darted beneath a tree root, running through tunnel in the middle of a log. All around her, she could feel the presence of larva and beetles which made her fur crawl.

{"OH I AM DOING IT!"} Nebhir shrieked with ecstasy. {"I never knew—whoa what is this?!"}

Sey'les could sense Nebhir dig into the ground, scooping up a golden bracelet.

{"Ah, you have found some treasure,"} Veryk said proudly.

Nebhir reversed course, running up to a tree. {"I sense another one! This is so koovy!"}

{"I suppose we do have time to look for treasure,"} Veryk said happily.

{"But Veryk!"} Sey'les hissed. {"Treasure has nothing to do with Order 66!"}

{"We have time to find a bit of treasure,"} Veryk replied consolingly, darting past Sey'les on his way to Nebhir.

{"Will it be possible to find all the treasure?"} Nebhir asked, now prancing about with a golden necklace, two bracelets, and a pouch of coins slung around her neck.

{"Unfortunately not,"} Veryk purred. {"There is far too much treasure in the universe for a Bothan-Squib to remember the locations of."}

{"Awww… Okay, I want to find at least… Eleven treasures. Eleven is such a koovy number!"}

In the underbrush, Sey'les stood on her hind legs and frowned.

Two years ago, Sey'les had thought of her first encounter with Veryk as a miracle. Many Bothans in her Clan would definitely describe today's events as miracles.

But Veryk was an ass, and Sey'les had now seen the higher planes of existence for herself.

The last one was foggy, humid, wet, and generally unpleasant. This one was lush and much nicer in a mysterious sort of way. Yet, even here, all she could worry about were the potential cosmic implications of Nebhir and Veryk's impromptu treasure hunt.

o.o.o.o.o

Finally satisfied with her collection of treasure, Nebhir agreed to accompany Veryk and Sey'les to a point where they could observe the Midichlorians more closely.

Sey'les had not realized Veryk was being literal.

The three Viverrids now stood at the base of an obsidian and purple tower with spiky black extensions jutting from the walls. The tower seemed far more surreal than anything else Sey'les had ever experienced.

At first, she thought the tower was mostly crimson but polka-dotted with a clashy purple. Upon closer observation, however, she noticed that on the tip of each spiky extension, seemed to be a life-size statue of Veryk.

Also defying Sey'les's expectations on another level, the tower seemed to reach all the way to the cloud of midichlorians floating above, literally scraping the starry sky. The tippy top of the tower spread open like a black flower, petals casting midichlorian glow shadows onto the ground.

Those Midichlorian clouds are not very high up, Sey'les thought, standing on two legs as she gazed up at the tower's summit. I wonder if we'll get to touch them… Hopefully, they don't sting.

{"All right. Is everyone ready?"} Veryk asked.

{"Yes, I—"} Nebhir started, then stood on her hind legs. The silver tiara balanced precariously on the base of her tail, fell to the ground with a clang.

Veryk frowned ponderously as Nebhir picked the tiara up off the ground, then chased her own tail for a moment trying to place the tiara back.

A very small circular hole appeared in the tower's wall, no wider than two Savrit Cats.

Assuming we are Savrit Cat-sized, as opposed to really huge Bothan-sized Savrit Cats.

{"Follow me!"} Veryk squeaked, darting into the hole in the tower like a burrowing worm.

Sey'les ran after him, chasing his purple tail as she slithered up the stairs with her weasel-like body.

The spiral staircase seemed to go on forever.

Tiredness from walking as a Savrit Cat was a far more full-body experience than being tired as a biped. Her chest, upper legs, even tail, all soon felt a little cramped and tired.

Soon, Nebhir was panting in complete exhaustion, whimpering as she lost her silver tiara for the umpteenth time.

{"Veryk, why can't you just teleport us to the top?"} Nebhir asked finally, gold and silver treasures clanging as she laid down for a rest.

{"The journey is as important as the destination,"} Veryk sighed, breathing a little heavily himself. {"Look at Sey'les and I. It is far easier to climb stairs when you aren't hoarding junk."}

{"Junk? It's gold and silver and jewels,"} Nebhir sobbed. Lying on her side, she pawed at a tarnished Dathomir Witches' warfan. {"And in real life, moving valuables is easy when you have a big enough starship. Sey'les, could you please hold some of my treasure?"}

Sey'les scowled at her. She raised her lips, attempting to flash her teeth but just ended up looking like a pouty Viverrid.

Veryk walked in front of her, flouting his tail. {"I hope you realize, Nebhir, that you are metaphorically collecting baggage you do not need—baggage which is affecting your literal spiritual journey."}

{"OH FINE!"} Nebhir hissed, unclipping a huge necklace dangling from her wrist. {"I'll leave them… But I'll remember where I left them!"}
Yipping with laughter, Sey'les smiled at Nebhir. {"On the stairs? You'll remember you left them on the stairs? How hard can that be to remember?"}

With eleven koovy pieces of jewelry on the floor, Nebhir scooted them into a corner. Suddenly, ten of the pieces of treasure vanished. The last piece, a golden box, Nebhir held in one paw.

Sey'les's ears perked up. {"What the hell just happened?"}

{"You don't get it to you?"} Nebhir asked, snout sticking up in the air with pride. {"Can't you feel it? Those treasures are real. This place is more real than any other."}

Opening the golden box, Nebhir stuck her snout in it and snorted. She looked up, nostrils now covered orange with Glitterstim powder.

{"What?!"} Sey'les yelped. Her mind felt like it might explode. {"What just happened?! How can something be more real? Real is… It's either real or fake!"}

{"Nebhir, I—well I,"} Veryk stammered, pawing at the pack of his head with worry. {"I don't approve of your methods, or your use of spice in my realm. You certainly do not need to use Glitterstim to feel the force. But I will admit, your methods are ingenious."}

{"Thank you,"} Nebhir said proudly, wiping the narcotic substance from her tiny nose. {"And I know I don't need Glitterstim. It just takes the edge off, you know?"}

{"I don't understand,"} Sey'les whimpered, lower jaw trembling.

{"I don't understand your confusion,"} Veryk uttered with a worried chirp. {"Nebhir said she was hiding the treasure for later—telling you the message in perfect Shrayesh if I might say so myself."}

At that, Nebhir chucked the golden box into the nearest wall, where it disappeared. She and Veryk resumed their journey up the stairs, tails disappearing around the corner.

Snout open, the words I'll leave them, but I'll remember them echoed in her mind. Nebhir is… She's remembering the treasures? She just did Glitterstim. What does that mean? What— {"WHAT THE HELL DOES—Guys? WAIT!"}

Sey'les howled angrily, running up the staircase as fast as she could.

When she finally caught up to Veryk and Nebhir, they were standing at the very top of the tower. At this elevation, the midichlorian swarms hung so low that it was possible to touch them.

What had appeared to be individual midichlorians on the ground were, in fact, small swarms of midichlorians themselves. The groups of yellow and red specks were composed of tinier individual specks themselves. The gigantic blobs that were the Jedi and Sith, however, were nowhere to be seen.

Sey'les squinted, looking around intently, trying to find the Jedi and Sith.

Veryk pointed to a small clot of yellow. {"Now we are at the point where we can observe the Jedi Order as it is—or was, during the Clone Wars."}

{"Why is it so small?"} Nebhir asked.

{"While we were going up the tower um… Events unfolded. Actions were committed to which reduced the size of the Sith to near zero, and erased 99.5% of the Jedi order."}

Sey'les turned her gaze to Veryk. If she had been in her Bothan body her fur would have been swirling with intense suspicion.

{"What happened, Veryk?"} Nebhir repeated.

{"It's uh…"} Veryk laughed nervously. {"Well, someone—who shall remain anonymous—taught the Sith how to build a superweapon. Someone else found out about this, and told the Jedi, who traveled to the location of this weapon on the planet Malachor. A council was convened, it was determined that the best course of action was to do nothing. By this time, a certain someone had activated the weapon, conveniently killing all but one Sith and 99.5% of the Jedi Order, thereby eliminating the disturbance—"}

{"That's terrible!"} Nebhir yelped. {"You just… Set everyone up to kill each other."}

{"Someone who shall remain anonymous,"} Veryk corrected sternly.

{"VERYK! THAT WAS RUUSAN!"} Morai's voice interjected without warning, {"MALACHOR WAS MERELY A SETBACK FOR BOTH SIDES!"}

Veryk seemed almost chastened by the error, though he brushed off his embarrassment rather quickly, {"Well it's difficult to keep track of how many times the Jedi and Sith have almost destroyed each other anyways,"} he remarked, managing to cover his mistake. {"It was also far from merely a setback!"}

Sey'les frowned. It was clearer than ever that the Prophet of Fertility meddled in things he did not understand nor fully care about.

{"In any eventuality, we are now at the fall of the Jedi Order… 16:5:21 in the reckoning of the Great Resynchronization."}

One of the micro-clouds of midichlorians floated into view. This one was a mixture of both red and yellow, bigger than any of the others around it.

{"That is Anakin Skywalker,"} Veryk explained. {"He amputated Mace Windu's hands and then defenestrated him—"}

{"THAT'S NOT WHAT HAPPENED!"} a Loth-Wolf howled furiously. {"Skywalker cut off Mace Windu's hands, and then Sidious threw Mace Windu out the window!"}

Veryk sighed. {"Does it really matter? In any case…"}

The mix of yellow and red smashed into another cloud that was mostly yellow with a dash of red, scattering it into dust.

{"There goes Mace Windu,"} Veryk gestured to the sky, standing on his hind legs.

Sey'les frowned. She never liked Mace Windu very much, but having one's hands amputated and then being thrown from a window did sound like a rough way to go.

{"Clones… I'll color them green!"} Veryk exclaimed.

Many of the clouds now became green, each tiny and sparkling, most with only a few midichlorians.

The blob of midichlorians representing Anakin then slammed into more blobs, scattering them. Thousands of little green blobs joined in, slaughtering the collective consciousness of the mostly yellow sphere.

Mouth going dry, Sey'les gulped, standing on her hindlegs to watch the carnage closer. When it was over, the smaller sphere of yellow that had been the Jedi was no more, reduced to a few scattered dots spread across the stars.

{"They killed the whole Jedi Order?"} she asked in astonishment. {"All of them?!"}

{"No, here's Ahsoka…"} Veryk said, pointing to a lone cloud of yellow that looked big, but at the same time dim and sad. {"After the fall of the Jedi Order, the Galactic Empire rose. You became a Governor in the new order. Ahsoka lived on, joining a rebellion that eventually toppled the Empire… And then she met you."}

Sey'les's snout clicked open then closed. Governor… Empire… {"Did Ahsoka… Did I fight her?"}

{"Oh heavens no!"} Veryk chortled. {"You're not that stupid. No, but you surrendered and ended up in charge of part of the mess that followed. Years later, Ahsoka met you again, and you gave her the ability to travel into the future, though she would consider it the past."}

{"What did I do?"} Nebhir asked.

{"You uh…"} Veryk said uneasily.

{"You died,"} Sey'les sighed, putting a paw on her shoulder. {"You just died on Skor II when you—when you jumped."}

Nebhir's ears flattened against her head.

{"What—what happens now that Ahsoka's gone into the future, or past, or whatever?"}

{"We have no idea,"} Veryk muttered, waving his hand in the air. The sky seemed to reset, with the glow of Anakin and Ahsoka floating and a part of the greater Jedi collective consciousness.

The blob representing Ahsoka floated down low enough, almost low enough for Sey'les to touch.

Standing on her tippy-claws, Sey'les stretched her Savrit Cat neck, sniffing the air as she tipped her snout skyward.

Something in the cloud of midichlorians smelled very much like Wookie-Ookiees.

Sey'les had once had a multi-year affair with a Wookiee named Woshyrryagh, who had often brought her Ookies from Kashyyyk. The vanilla-ginger taste was absolutely irresistible to her Bothan palette. They smelled less sweet in her Savrit Cat nose, but still—

{"Don't touch anything—AAAH!"} Veryk squealed in terror.

Sey'les's wet squishy nose was already buried in Ahsoka's midichlorian cloud.

A pain flared up in her face and then the world went dark. Her head felt huge and still crammed.

A dim faint voice was talking, but then it drew nearer and nearer. She could hear herself chewing food, then a scream. Soon, she could open her eyes.

Sey'les found herself in a place she recognized—the Jedi Temple detention bloc. Her last days in the Republic Navy, Sey'les had been imprisoned after she admitted to selling psych profiles on various Jedi to the Spynet.

The colors were all wrong. It felt like she was wearing tinted goggles that blotted out some of the shades. The purples and blues all looked much more similar than they ever had through her Bothan or Savrit eyes. Worse still, her head felt stuffed. Like 6 or 7 decades of experience stuffed in a teenage Togruta's brain.

Most bafflingly, Sey'les could hear herself chewing, although she couldn't taste the food. A blue hand held up a half-eaten Wookiee-Ookie, shoving it into her mouth.

"Thank you Gungi," Ahsoka's vaguely familiar voice said. Her head lowered, bowing politely to a Wookiee child, who bowed back.

"Wuhu oh sheshli Maabus Ria." ["Have a happy Life Day,"] Gungi said happily, instead of a usual Jedi greeting.

"Back at ya," Ahsoka said, voice cracking slightly in an exhausted tone.

Holding her head, Sey'les screamed, shrieking. The boundary of what she knew, and what Ahsoka knew, melted.

And it hurt.

Screaming, she closed her eyes, falling to her back and tugging at her fur. After a few seconds, her fur felt thicker, more Bothan and less Savrit Cat. The dank humid smell of the Vergence Scatter flooded her snout, but she continued screaming.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!" an outraged Loth-Wolf snarled.

{"I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!"} Veryk squealed. {"She did it! She stuck her nose in Ahsoka's midichlorians! How could I have known?!"}

"Sey'les? Can you hear me?" Nebhir asked, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Come back to us."

Hooting worriedly, Morai landed at Sey'les's other side, rubbing her with a wing as if hoping to stir her.

While Sey'les continued screaming, her eyes began to glow bright white.