Cloud of yellow gas filling the room, the young Bothan is choking, allergic reaction, got to get him out now. Running with the child out of the prefab, blasters firing wildly towards her, screams of panic and fear surrounding her.
"She's running. Get her!"
Looking down, the boy's mouth is frothing, turns his head trying to clear the pathways as she dodges blaster fire.
"She's got a hostage!"
She doesn't. The boy is dead. Pausing to lower the boy to the ground allows her hunters to surround her.
"Give up Jedi, let us turn you in to save everyone."
All the despair of the camp fills her, the screams from the burning medical hut as she looks up the filth that had spoken.
"No"
The cold tone at war with the inferno inside her as she leaps right at the speaker, a blade forming midleap. Stab and spin, let the body take the blaster bolts before she's on the next. And the next. They start to flee, time for them to be the hunted.
Within an hour all of them had been dead, their Captain cooling at her feet along with her rage in the quiet of their ship. Her body starting to shake as the adrenaline leaves her, she knows she's in shock but the gnawing feeling of horror as the reasons Tamith Kai had chosen her all those years ago became manifest.
'The hunting hound for the coven. A true Nightsister.'
'It had been so easy to surrender her rage'
She hated it, but a small part loved it.
All her attempts to be a Jedi, to be good, shown to be nothing in this moment.
But no time to dwell on it, go help the survivors and then use this ship to get to the Lucky Venture, drop out of the public eyes and kill any threads to find her for a while and figure out what to do next.
Anakin snaps fully upright from his bunk with a gasp, covering his mouth trying to keep the yell in as tears well in his eyes. Moving swiftly he heads to the bathroom and lets his uneasy stomach empty its contents.
"You okay Anakin?" he turns to see Ainlee his Gran crechemate and peacekeeper of the lot looking concerned from the bathroom entrance.
A shake of the head is Anakin's only reply while holding onto the toilet still shaking.
"Should I call for a healer?"
Another shake of his head. "Callera, Ainlee. Call Callera." the boys voice raspy from the acid that had burned his throat recently,
"I will fetch a Master then." Ainlee starts to head for the comms system.
"No Masters." Anakin's haggard voice brings the young Gran up short. "I saw," his eyes glaze over before he pukes again and then he looks back at Ainlee, "her. In a nightmare or a vision. She can tell me which."
"We can not just wake a random Jedi, Anakin. I am calling you a Healer." Ainlee's voice brooks no argument from his ragged fellow youngling.
In a few minutes time a semi-familiar sigh echoes behind Anakin while he keeps his arms locked on the edges of the toilet.
"What's the problem Anakin?" the steady measured tones of his Master's friend Healer Ky'sa reaches his ears.
"I was her, I saw her cutting down people that had no chance." his next words softer, making the healer strain to hear. "And feeling like she liked it."
Ky'sa reaches out and gently rubs the struggling younglings back, his muscles slowly relaxing them and his arms as he slowly lets go from the toilet before he looks the Healer in the eyes. Finding only sympathy and understanding.
"That actually happened?" His words hollow, the answer known.
"Let's get you some tea to help settle your stomach," Anakin starts to open his mouth to protest, "and wake Callera. She should be the one to explain what you saw, should she not?" His weary nod is all the acceptance she needs as she reaches in her robe to trigger her own comms.
*Buzz-click*
"What's the problem Ky'sa?'
"Anakin has seen something."
The seconds tick by like hours.
"If you can hear this Anakin, I don't know what you saw but I will explain. Ky'sa bring him to the Meditation chambers near my quarters when he's ready."
"We will be there in twenty minutes."
*Buzz-click*
Those twenty minutes felt like an eternity to Callera as she sits on her knees waiting for the two of them. Anakin must have seen one of two things to provoke such urgency. Something about when she came from or something far darker. She wasn't ready for either conversation, but the Force doesn't care if you're ready. It will just toss you a primed thermal detonator and your reaction is what it is.
Anakin looked a mess when Ky'sa brought him in, tightly wound, nervous, scared, and disgusted. He sits in front of her as Ky'sa moves off to the side to watch and support what is about to happen.
"Anakin, please tell me what you saw. Tell me so I may tell you everything about it."
So he does. In graphic detail; the deaths, the blood, the feelings. And as he finishes he sees something he has never seen from his hoped to be Master, shame.
"You saw me at my lowest, Anakin." Her words stilted and broken, "But even that requires context. I told you I was not trained by Jedi at the beginning of my journey with the Force, the Nightsisters were my first teachers, survival of the fittest and dominate those below you. The only knowledge of the Force from them that stuck was my skill with 'Bladesinging' as I called it. So to them, I became a model hunter to be someone to target foes and eliminate them." Her eyes close briefly before locking them again with Anakin, "not unlike the Sith who killed your mother." Anakin's body tightens under that revelation. "But i did not want to be just a tool for death, I wanted to be more."
"So you became a Jedi?"
"With a few hiccups and blockades along the way, I did. But some lessons from the Nightsisters lingered in the background. That moment you saw, was my lowest point. We're losing a war to enemies we cannot sense or fathom, and they offered a 'truce,' give them all who could touch the Force and they would stop taking systems. So some of those we protected turned on us."
"They attacked that medical center just to get you." Anakin adds with sullen eyes.
"Yes, and that little boy died in my arms and my friends died in the complex. None of them could touch the Force, and the conquerors would not have honored any truce and just steamrolled even harder because we were not there to stand up to them, and in that one moment..."
"You broke." Ky'sa chimes in from the side drawing two sets of eyes to her.
"Yes, I broke and let every negative emotion i felt flow through me and into my blades."
"And everyone you felt was responsible." Anakin's eyes shine as he relives the weight of the memory.
Callera gets up from her kneel to pull the boy into a hug. "Before the Force brought me to Naboo, the conflict that caused my breaking had only been a handful of months. I am still coming to terms to what that war made me be, Anakin. I told you I was damaged and broken. And I..." her words trail off as tears hit Anakin's shirt, "and I now might have broken you with what you saw.
"You haven't broken me, Master." Just those simple words shift weight off of Callera's heart, "But were you going to tell me about this part of you? His words mumbled into her vest.
"Actually, I was." Pulling away from the hug so he can see her face both wet with tears. "You already knew that I had training outside the Order. Once your creche had more assignments in the Archives on other groups that teach the Force, I would have told you more about my background and the problems that come with it. As you got older and puberty started boosting hormones that can increase aggression, I would have added more. I wanted to build up to it; not to softsell what I did, but to aid in understanding.
"Understand what?"
"That stopping the people who were attacking the medcenter was the right thing to do, but that she did it the wrong way and for the wrong reasons Anakin." Ky'sa objective voice brings a nod from Callera. "My main question is how was Anakin able to see your memory so clearly, I know bonds in the Force can aid in the passing of thoughts and memories between people, but I have not heard of a connection between Master and Apprentice being this strong."
"The docking bay." Callera and Anakin both answer at the same time while looking at each other, a brief nod of Callera's head encourages Anakin to speak.
"I think it happened when she saved me. I remember pieces of her saying to let her skill guide my connection to the Force."
Callera nods, "Its the best explanation I can find, we blended fairly deep in that moment and I do not regret it, " she smiles wearily and gently musses Anakin's hair, "I do regret that you had to see that."
"Being dead or seeing your memories Master? Tough choice." Anakin's tired smile shining through."
"With all of that at least partially settled," Ky'sa looks at Anakin, "your morning lesson will be with the Grandmaster?"
He nods, "I will explain to him that you had a very disturbing vision and need some more rest due to the toll it took on your body. You will be expected to be at lunch and the following lessons and work sessions, understood?"
"Yes, Healer Ky'sa."
"Now off to bed with you."
Callera nods in agreement, "If you see anything else, never be afraid to talk to me "
Anakin staggers off with a nod.
"What happens if a memory shows him that you come from a future?"
"We'll deal with that when we can, but like with my past I hope to at least ease him into it."
"Any idea as to why that particular memory came to him?"
"Who knows considering the Force, but considering what we did yesterday with Obi-wan..." Callera's words trail off.
"It is as good an answer as any. Are you going back to bed?"
"Count Dooku is arriving a little after lunch, a few extra hours to try to settle myself before that dance, the better."
