Eighteen
They came sprinting at them as a single, synchronized throng, moving with a startling speed that belied their frail appearance. The unexpected agility the crowd displayed is what inevitably shook Obi-Wan and Ahsoka from their initial stupors. Muscle memory kicked in. They reared back into an automatic battle stance, the glowing blue blades of their lightsabers igniting simultaneously.
Anakin, however, made no move to reach for his own newly crafted lightsaber. It remained clipped at his belt as he rose to his feet with a strange, singular calm. He wasn't tense or alarmed. He stood his ground against the rapidly approaching army.
Abeloth wasn't expecting to subdue them with this attack. She had to know that he would cut through her soldiers as if they were little more than gossamer webbing. They would hardly serve as a challenge. This wasn't a battle she expected to win by any means. She only meant to preoccupy him, to slow him down. In essence, she wanted to waste his time.
That was all the confirmation Anakin needed that Luke and Leia hadn't been lost to him yet. While Abeloth might currently have them in her tentacle-like grasp and had successfully driven a wedge between him and his children, she hadn't managed to turn them quite yet. Anakin could think of no other reason why she might be stalling. The realization made him smile.
Obi-Wan caught a glimpse of that satisfied smirk in his peripheral vision and scoffed, "I can't imagine what you could possibly find so amusing at a time like this, Anakin! That crowd looks as if they want to tear us to pieces!"
"It certainly does!" Anakin agreed cheerfully.
His quippy retort was swiftly drowned out as the possessed horde began to swarm them like a hive of hungry insects. Within seconds they were engulfed by feral, clawing hands intent on ripping them to pieces. A powerful Force push from Anakin blew back the throng momentarily but they effortlessly absorbed the energy that reverberated from the blow, regrouped, and came charging back for more with even more fervor. Rather than deterring them, any use of the Force seemed to strengthen their resolve exponentially.
They moved in unison with one another and, instead of attacking individually, they advanced and countered as if they were a single entity. The movements of their limbs were synchronized like puppets being controlled by a puppeteer. And that was exactly what they were.
Anakin noted quickly that they were particularly focused on going after Ahsoka. At first their fixation seemed random but then it soon became apparent that they were determined to remove the mystical dagger she had clipped at her belt. Anakin belatedly realized that Abeloth didn't only want his children. She wanted the dagger as well. He became even more determined to keep it from her.
He and Obi-Wan were careful to keep Ahsoka between them. Their attackers encircled them from all sides. Together, they pushed them back in systematic waves, but the army would regroup again and again and push back.
It wasn't easy to subdue them. Any injury that one sustained from a lightsaber sweep or a particularly brutal Force push during the melee seemed to momentarily free the individual from the hive mind. But then they would recover and rejoin their comrades. It was almost as if the horde was temporarily severing a gangrenous limb, allowing time for recovery before reattachment. They seemed to understand on a primitive level that an injury to one could mean injury to the entire lot and, therefore, would rid themselves of anything or anyone that might hinder their success.
Recognizing that weakness, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka did their measured best to disable their mindless attackers rather than permanently incapacitating them. Anakin, on the other hand, responded without restraint. When he saw that they had no intention of stopping, not until they had all been left either maimed or dead, he made a conscious decision to choose the latter.
He wasn't driven by rage or a thirst for revenge when he cut them down. His actions were born from pure efficiency. From his standpoint, these people were lost already. They stood between him and his children. They also wanted the dagger and would not stop until they retrieved it. Simply put, they were a barrier and they needed to be removed.
Anakin had coolly dispatched more than a dozen, carelessly flinging their bodies aside as he opened a path through their dwindling ranks when Obi-Wan cried, "Anakin, you must spare them! They are innocent!"
"These people are dead anyway," Anakin replied, insensible to the dark side reasoning that had suddenly taken hold of him, "This is a kindness, Obi-Wan!"
Understandably then, his declaration horrified Obi-Wan and Ahsoka, but also the remaining faction of Abeloth's foot soldiers. Unexpectedly, the silver glow faded from their eyes abruptly and they all came out of their stupors. At once, the group turned and began to scatter in all directions, each one racing with breakneck speed back towards whatever vessel had transported them there. Anakin took hold of one fleeing individual in his Force grip, a disoriented Rodian who had already sustained a minor lightsaber injury to his leg and levitated his fragile body into the air. The Rodian's flailed his skeletal limbs ineffectually as he was drawn back towards Anakin with inexorable ease.
Ahsoka deactivated her lightsaber and rushed forward to take hold of Anakin's forearm, as if she meant to stop him from doing something terrible. "You can't kill him, Anakin! Please!"
He flashed her a mild look of irritation before shaking her off. "Why would I kill him?" he asked, "We need someone to lead us to Luke and Leia, don't we?"
The Rodian was clearly in no mood to be cooperative. As soon as his body settled against the ground, he immediately began trying to scramble away, muttering to himself all the while, "Not here. Not here. I cannot die here! Don't let me die here!"
Anakin roughly flipped the Rodian onto his back and crouched down to regard him with a piercing glower. "You don't have to die at all," he told him, "Tell me where I can find my children and I will let you go."
"You have no children here!" the Rodian spat, "We are all children of the Force!"
"I see," Anakin sighed in resignation over his fanatical reasoning, "I suppose if you won't volunteer the information, I'll have to take it from you instead." Predictably, Obi-Wan growled his name in warning. Anakin turned back to glower at him impatiently. "What?"
"I know that you are concerned for Luke and Leia, but you cannot afford to forget yourself," he warned softly, "Especially now."
The Son's earlier words to him floated through Anakin's mind, unbidden. To bridle the galaxy, we must bridle ourselves. He had said that the Servant had lost sight of that fundamental truth. That had been her true misstep, the moment when she had subsequently lost her way and started her transformation. Bathing in the Pool of Knowledge and drinking from the Font of Power had merely been the culmination of that grave oversight. She had been lost long before that action, just as he had been lost long before Mace Windu went hurtling from the Chancellor Palpatine's window all those years ago. If Anakin allowed himself to lose his focus again, he would be following in Abeloth's footsteps and repeating the mistakes he'd made in his past, whether he freely embraced the dark side or not.
It took a few moments for Anakin to harness the dark side energy that was suddenly rolling inside of him with voracious fervor. He was surprised by how easily accessible that power was after being repressed for so long. The knowledge frightened Anakin a little. In spite of how far he had come and how fiercely he had fought to become a better man, the tendency towards ruthlessness continued to rise up unbidden at times he didn't expect, like second nature to him. He could restrain his darker inclinations more easily now, but he remained a transformative work in progress.
Anakin might have been disappointed at that realization if he didn't hear the Son whisper, almost with an air of amused pride, Is that not the point? You will always be a work in progress. True growth and insight require a lifetime. You are yet a youngling. You have time.
He nodded in understanding, acutely aware that Ahsoka and Obi-Wan were both watching him intently, completely unaware of the profound, Cosmic conversation that had just unfolded. Anakin turned his attention from the muttering Rodian back towards a tense Obi-Wan and rose to his feet. "Alright," he said, stepping aside, "He's all yours. Do it your way."
Obi-Wan's disapproving scowl gave way to a frown of startled confusion. "That's it? No arguments? No tantrums?"
"I can be reasoned with, you know?" Anakin replied wryly, caught somewhere between amusement and annoyance over Obi-Wan's unconcealed shock at his accommodating response, "But, whatever you're planning, could you be quick about it? We don't have time to waste."
After a quick nod, Obi-Wan knelt down beside the cowering Rodian and asked, "What is your name?"
"I am called Sheerah," he said, "It means 'servant.' We are all servants here."
"I am pleased to meet you, Sheerah," Obi-Wan returned cordially, "May we tend to your wound, please?"
The Rodian bounced a wary look from him to Ahsoka to Anakin and back again before reluctantly agreeing. "If you like…"
Obi-Wan nodded to Ahsoka to begin cleaning and bandaging the plasma wound while he continued to speak to the Rodian in gentle tones. "I am Obi-Wan Kenobi," he said, "and these are my companions, Ahsoka Tano and Anakin Skywalker."
"I know who you are, Master Kenobi," Sheerah replied, barely flinching as Ahsoka wrapped his wound, "I served in your Order once…long before the Chosen One vanished."
Noting the intensity of Sheerah's stare, Obi-Wan followed his line of sight back to Anakin. He glanced back at Sheerah. "So, you know who he is as well?"
"We knew he was not dead."
"Yet you said nothing to the Council," Obi-Wan replied in mild accusation. When it became apparent to him that Sheerah would not be cowed by guilt nor did he express any remorse over the choices he had made, Obi-Wan decided to try a different tact altogether. "Have you ever heard the name Jev'Tok Tun before?"
"He was a seeker," Sheerah recounted after a despondent nod, "He was lost to us as countless others have been."
"Are you the one who drew him here?"
"I do not have the power to draw anyone," he replied, "The Queen of the Stars draws us all. She has drawn you too…even if you don't know it yet."
"The 'Queen of the Stars'? Do you mean Abeloth?"
"Of course."
"She drew you to this place?"
"She called us home," Sheerah replied.
Obi-Wan didn't see the point in quibbling over that firmly held delusion so, he asked, "What is your true name?"
Sheerah frowned, as if it was the first time anyone had asked him such a thing, or perhaps because the information was so ancient that he couldn't readily access it. He cocked his head, pondering his answer for a long time before he finally spoke again. "I was once called Frossk Da," he said after a moment, "But that name was an illusion as was the Jedi Knight who answered to it."
"Why do you say he was an illusion?" Obi-Wan asked.
"There is no existence outside of the Force," Sheerah replied, pausing to gesture to their surroundings, "This is all illusion. Beyond shadows is all that there is, and I must return."
Ahsoka peered at him closely. "If you truly believe that and nothing here is real, then how do you explain your injury? Why are you so reluctant to die?" she challenged, "You were begging Anakin to spare your life a moment ago! You obviously fear it."
"I do not fear death!" Sheerah retorted empathically, "I fear eternal separation from the Force because that cannot be undone! If I'm to die, let it be beyond shadows where I belong!"
After a darting glance at Obi-Wan, Ahsoka hitched her chin towards the entrance of the biosphere. "Is that where all the others ran off to?"
Sheerah glared at Anakin in accusation. "He would have denied us eternal peace! We had no choice but to break away! He forced us to reject her!"
"Why did you attack us?" Ahsoka demanded, "Is that because Abeloth commanded you to do so?"
"You wish to destroy what you do not understand. That is always the way with finite thinkers."
"And I presume you are an infinite thinker?"
Sheerah nodded proudly. "As are all seekers."
Acutely cognizant of Anakin's growing restlessness, Obi-Wan wisely steered the conversation back to their most pertinent concern. "Sheerah, our intention is not to keep you from beyond shadows," he said, "But we have come here for a specific purpose. Can you please tell us where to find his children?"
Sheerah ignored his question altogether and, instead, focused his attention on Anakin alone. "Why would you wish to prevent them from becoming?" he asked in genuine confusion, "You are like her. You should understand better than most that the Force is all there is."
"You're right," Anakin agreed, deciding to indulge his delusion rather than argue, "Perhaps, you can show me. Open my eyes. Can you do that for me, Sheerah?"
"Yes, yes," he replied eagerly, his countenance shifting from confusion to gleeful excitement, "I can do that. I can show you the way."
When they finally emerged from the meadow, the winding dirt path that had taken them through it fell away and they were greeted with by a large, luminous lake concealed by a heavy, hanging mist on the other side of it. Leia couldn't quite suppress her unenthused groan. She didn't need for Gil'les to make his usual grand pronouncement upon their arrival, though he did so, nonetheless. The action was superfluous, however. Leia knew without being told that they had reached the Lake of Apparitions. As she watched the curling shadows that seemed to rise up from the surface and seed through the mist, she could understand why it had been named such. The waters were inarguably ghostly.
Leia didn't have a good feeling at all. Thus far, she hadn't been at all impressed with the bodies of water they had encountered in that strange realm and the "Lake of Apparitions" did little to improve her opinion on the matter. Every instinct inside of her was crying out to turn back. She wanted her mother. She wanted to run into Padmé's protective embrace and hide herself there forever. She wanted to go home, yet something inexplicable kept her feet rooted in place. She was being continually called forward, drawn by something primal even as internally she screamed to herself, "Run, run, run!"
"I feel like this might be a dumb idea," she muttered to Luke under her breath.
"I feel like you might be right," he countered with a sigh, "but it's too late to turn back now, don't you think?"
She surveyed the lake again, her dread at the prospect of crossing it doubling. "Mom would not approve." I don't approve, she added silently.
"No. She wouldn't approve. We can expect to be grounded for life after this."
"If we survive," Leia cautioned. She nodded towards Gil'les and Charan, who walked less than fifteen feet ahead of them. "We've been nothing but a headache to them. What if they're trying to kill us?"
"I doubt it. They're definitely trying to manipulate us, but I don't think they want to hurt us," Luke considered softly, "They want to deliver us to Abeloth."
"She wants that," Leia emphasized, "Shouldn't we want the opposite?"
"Don't you want to know the real reason she brought you here?"
Fear, anger, and confusion collided violently inside of Leia, making her hesitant to nod. She did want to know, but at the same time, she didn't. On the one hand, Leia was seething with the need to confront Abeloth about her treachery. While pretending to be her champion, Abeloth had methodically broken Leia's most precious, familial bonds. She had left her estranged from her mother and brother, the two people who loved her the most. She had fed into Leia's insecurity over her father's sudden return and stoked her paranoia regarding his past. On the other hand, she had also given Leia exactly what she asked for. The truth. That fact was the inevitable source of Leia's constant conflict. Nothing that Abeloth revealed to her had been a lie.
It was all cold, irrefutable fact. Anakin Skywalker was Darth Vader. He had maimed, murdered, and pillaged his way across the galaxy for years. He had transformed himself into an unconscionable, power-hungry monster to achieve his goals. What was even more disconcerting was that her mother had been fully aware of every misdeed he'd committed.
Padmé had full knowledge of the horrifying thing Anakin Skywalker had become, and she had married him anyway. She had conceived children with him. She'd loved him despite everything he had done. How could she? The knowledge repulsed Leia utterly even as she struggled to acknowledge that her mother's choice had resulted in her very existence. Had Padmé rejected Anakin Skywalker as she should have done, she and Luke would have never been born.
As confused and heartbroken as Leia was right then, she could not condemn her brother's existence. He was her rock, her anchor, her greatest champion. She would never be sorry that he had been born. It was almost an outrageous irony that someone so full of purified light could have come from someone so saturated with malicious hatred. Luke was the complete antithesis of their father. She, on the other hand, was every inch his daughter, and that was the truth that Leia hated the most.
She was the child that had been imbued with Anakin Skywalker's rage and lust for revenge. She was the one who had inherited his temper and wildly possessive nature. She had been the one blinded by her own self-righteousness. All the traits that she so thoroughly despised about Anakin Skywalker were the exact same qualities that Leia saw in herself. She was the absolute reflection of Anakin Skywalker's darkest impulses, and she feared more than anything that she might also follow his same path and become the same distorted manifestation that he had been…and likely still was.
It does not have to be, my child, Abeloth whispered, I can help you. I can save you.
You're a liar! You don't care about me! You used me!
Never. I love you, my Leia, Abeloth uttered with twisted sincerity, You are mine.
Leia shook away Abeloth's tender cajoling, closing herself off to the entity's cohesion. She thought of the Font of Power and the visions she had been granted when she had looked into the water. She had seen herself as a powerful Jedi, quick and cunning and able to vanquish all her enemies. In her vision, that enemy had been a dark figure. At the time, she had assumed it was Vader. But what if that was only what Abeloth had wanted her to think? What if her true enemy had been Abeloth herself all along? What if the only way to truly defeat her was to drink those waters?
"That's a lie," Luke warned softly, discerning her thoughts without Leia needing to utter a single word, "We'll confront her, but we'll do it on our terms. Not hers."
As if he had been privy to every word of their covert exchange or, at least, fully aware of its nature, Gil'les turned a grave look back at them over his shoulder. His expression was solemn. "We must cross to the other side to reach Abeloth," he explained, "There is a path of stones that lines the water. It is very important that you step only where I step."
Leia lifted her chin with a haughty defiance that had been conspicuously absent in recent weeks. "Why?"
Charan was the one to answer Leia's question, but neither guide seemed exasperated by her open suspicion in the least. "The lake is shallow except in a few places," she said, "Those places are very deep and very dangerous. If you fall there, you will fall for eternity. We will be unable to rescue you."
Luke raked them both with skeptical glances. "Is that what you're hoping for?"
To his everlasting surprise and confusion, Charan appeared genuinely pained by his mordant accusation. "Our sole reason for bringing you to this place is to save you, Luke Skywalker. We mean you no harm."
"You really do believe that nonsense, don't you?"
"Can you not understand that you are truly free here?"
"Charan, please don't be offended when I tell you this but, I think you're out of your mind!"
Unbelievably, she smiled at that. "You are not the first. Most do. But eventually, they come to see as we do. You will not be an exception."
She turned aside to begin her careful journey across the large, flat stones rose to the surface of the placid water. Gil'les followed wordlessly, mimicking her actions. Rather than immediately following suit, Leia leaned in close to Luke and mumbled, "Last chance to rethink this plan and run."
"Why?"
"Because I'm scared that if we stay here, there's a pretty good chance we're going to go crazy just like them!" she hissed.
"Leia, I don't know how to break this to you, but you have been crazy just like them," Luke replied bluntly, "For weeks now! You're still being affected too. Your thinking is all wrong! Abeloth is the one who did this to you. She's the only one who can fix it."
"You're not going to her for answers, are you?" Leia gasped, her eyes snapping wide with understanding, "You're going for me!"
"She did this to you," Luke reiterated fiercely, "I'm going to make her undo it too…all of it!"
"Luke, you're wrong," Leia whispered in a sorrowful tone, "Abeloth didn't break me. I think there was something wrong we me long before she ever came along. Maybe that's why she chose me in the first place! I have always been a problem and you know it. That's why Mom had to run when we were little kids…because she had to hide what I was."
"That's not true! You weren't being evil then and you aren't evil now! You were being protective because people were trying to hurt us! You were just a little kid back, and you didn't understand how powerful you were! You weren't trying to harm anyone! It wasn't your fault!"
Her expression darkened, filled with despondent self-reproach. "Our father made excuses for himself too. Look how great that turned out. I'd rather die before I turn out like him!"
He wanted to argue with her further about that fallacious line of reasoning or, at least, tease her about being dramatic to lighten the mood, but she had already turned away from him and was beginning to make her way across the lake in response to Gil'les and Charan's urgent insistence. Luke studied her retreating back with a woebegone eyeroll before grudgingly falling into step behind her. There wasn't time to hash out that argument now. They had much bigger problems to deal with at the moment, though Leia's plummeting self-esteem would need to be addressed. There was no way he was going to allow his little sister to come away from this ordeal feeling emotionally diminished, not if he could help it.
Charan was right about the lake being relatively shallow. They didn't truly need the stepping-stones at all. At most, the water would have reached their waists had they decided to forego the path and wade in. Despite that assurance, however, Luke was still hesitant to dip a single toe in the water.
The mist rolled away as they passed through, giving Luke an unobstructed view of the surrounding water. That was his first real indication of how truly vast the lake was. There was no visible border to the water's edge that he could see. It seemed to stretch out endlessly and could have very well doubled as an ocean given its enormous size. The water was so clear that it was practically lucent. It was very reminiscent of the glowing water that had characterized the Pool of Knowledge. Only in the lake, Luke didn't see the reflection of his future self. Instead, when he looked down at the surface, he could see straight down to the bottom…or rather he could see the calm, ethereal figures that floated directly above the lakebed.
In Luke's estimation, there looked to be an endless sea of people floating beneath the serene depths, easily a hundred on all sides of him if he had to make a quick guess based on what he could see. They were all of different species, all youthful and vibrant, the picture of perfection and health, and all seemingly locked in the peaceful repose of sleep. Luke might have thought they were doing just that were it not for the fact that they were currently submerged under water.
As he walked along the stones, strictly cognizant of his footing because he did not want to fall in, he was almost certain he glimpsed the face of the dead Mindwalker from earlier. But he couldn't be certain his mind wasn't playing tricks on him. Not a single person moved or opened their eyes as he passed. They floated silently like the dead and, given the lake's inauspicious name, Luke wondered if that was exactly what they were.
He also wondered if they were even aware of his presence. It didn't seem likely. The lake seemed more like a burial site than anything else. The figures beneath the waters were still, their hands folded demurely over their chest as they napped eternally in their watery grave. It was, by far, the creepiest sight he'd beheld thus far and, by now, Luke had seen plenty!
He called out to Gil'les who was just ahead of him with the rest of the group. "Who are all of these people?" he demanded boldly, "Are they dead?"
"Of course, they are," Gil'les called back with a laugh, "But not in the way you're imagining. What you see is not their physical bodies, but the essence of their truest identity."
"You're saying these aren't their corpses but their Force spirits."
Gil'les' smile widened, like that of a mentor whose student has finally grasped his lesson. "Now you are beginning to understand, young one."
Luke studied the faces below him once more. He was certain that he recognized a few people from his own childhood, Jedi who had served as rebel fighters with his mother and her band very early in the Empire's rise. But those Jedi had either gone missing or had been killed. Had they been transported here afterward or had Abeloth drawn them as she had drawn the rest? Luke had tried to keep a running tally of the familiar faces he had passed, mentally cataloging their names in his mind but he quickly lost count of how many he recognized. It was sobering to contemplate the number of people they had lost over the years.
"I know these people!" he called to Gil'les, "They fought with my mother! They were Jedi!"
"There are no Jedi here," Gil'les told him, his manner chastising, "Or Sith. There is only the Force."
"How did they get here?" Luke demanded, "Did Abeloth bring them to this place?"
Gil'les' scornful laugh wafted over him. "What do you think it means to become part of the living Force again? The energy returns to its place of origin."
"So, this is the place where all Force users come after they die? Is that what you're telling me?"
"Yes. This is the place."
The explanation made sense, but Luke couldn't fathom why Abeloth would be in such a place. His need to know who she was and where she had come from was gradually beginning to override his reason. Was she some sort of trapped Force spirit searching desperate for a means to escape her eternal resting place? Or was she a crazy Mindwalker like Gil'les and Charan, certain that true enlightenment could only be achieved through complete immersion in the Force to the rejection of everything else, even sustenance? What sort of person were he and Leia going to face?
Abeloth is different. Hadn't that been Leia's hedging warning to him when they first arrived on Corellia? Luke had dismissed her words back then because he had been annoyed and tired. If he was honest with himself, he hadn't meditated too deeply on them afterwards either. Abeloth hadn't frightened him, not as much as Leia's bizarre transformation into an insensible zealot had.
But now that Leia was regaining her wits again, Luke was beginning to seriously contemplate Abeloth's mysterious identity. Why was she in this realm, surrounded by the spirits of long dead Force users? And how had she managed to convince so many that she was the ultimate source of truth and salvation, even to the point where they were willing to endure a slow death by starvation to remain in this realm with her? Why did they refer to her as the "beloved Queen of the Stars" when she was killing them in inches?
"All very good questions," a voice suddenly purred from behind him, "You're not the first to ask them. But most die seeking the answers."
Luke spun suddenly but found no one standing there. He jerked a quick, startled glance towards the water, expecting to find one of the dead spirits standing upright behind him. But the people floating beneath the surface had not moved at all. He scanned the faces surrounding him. All were relaxed and expressionless.
Directly adjacent to where he stood, a fearsome looking, bald woman with sharp, angled features and facial tattoos floated tranquilly. As far as he could remember, he had never laid eyes on her in his entire life. Yet, there was something about the woman that drew his attention and held it. Luke crouched lower to the water and stared at her intensely, struggling to place her face and figure out where he might have seen it before.
"Stop dawdling, boy!" Gil'les called back to him harshly, "We are entering the Depths of Eternity now! We must stay together and move quickly!"
"The 'Depths of Eternity'?" Luke echoed, making a face, "Sounds like a great time. Can't wait."
Sure enough, just ahead of them, the water had lost its translucent glow and had become deep, unfathomable black. Even the mist that floated above had darkened to a deep, ominous gray. On the other side of the water there was a swathe of land, but they had to cross a long stretch of the unknown to reach it. From the distance that separated them, Luke and Leia traded an anxious glance.
Noting their worried reactions, Gil'les added in warning, "Mind your step and you'll be fine. If you fall into the water here, you will never resurface."
Luke swallowed thickly and started to nod, reflexively glancing back at the water as he straightened. To his alarm, he discovered that the woman he had been studying with avid curiosity only a few moments earlier was now gone. Frowning, he scanned the water, thinking that she might have migrated elsewhere, but he found no sight of her. Panic and fear immediately constricted his chest. He didn't know what had happened, but he knew it wasn't good.
He started to scream out for Leia to run at the exact moment something like a hand rose up from the blackened depths of the water. Long fingers encircled Gil'les' ankle and then yanked him under. It happened so quickly that he didn't even have time to scream.
Charan did scream and pandemonium ensued. She erupted in a flurry of activity, leaping forward to yank Luke closer before hustling both him and Leia across the dark surface of the lake as if her life depended on it. She moved in a blind panic while their unseen assailant flapped around them like a predatory bird. Charan huddled over them protectively, using her thin body to shield both Luke and Leia as they skipped the smooth stones at a breakneck pace towards land.
"Abeloth will not be pleased with your interference!" Charan cried, furiously batting away their attacker, "This is not the way!"
"Abeloth has no authority here! What is she going to do about it? Kill me?"
Luke might have been intrigued by that unbothered response if he weren't so terrified. The only thing he wanted right then was to get Leia safely to the other side and to never lay eyes of the Lake of Apparitions or anything beyond shadows ever again! His terror only increased when Charan suddenly yelped from behind him. Her death grip on his shoulder was torn away as she was abruptly dragged backwards and pulled beneath the surface of the black water. Only a quick grab from Leia kept Luke from tumbling in after her.
As the children scrambled to regain their footing, a figure slowly rose from the surface of the dark waters that surrounded them. The water sluiced down over the shadowed features, gradually revealing their mysterious attacker's identity. It was the woman Luke had spotted earlier. Though he wasn't entirely surprised, he was horrified just the same to realize they were being stalked by a dead woman. Luke scurried backwards with a low hiss of recognition and reflexively shoved Leia behind him as the woman came fully into view.
"Leave us alone," he warned her in a quivering voice that he absolutely despised, "Stay back! We have no quarrel with you!"
The woman circled them, arcing over the surface of the water effortlessly as if she were an extension of its depths. "You are not like the others who have come before you," she scoffed, eying him with a scornful once-over, "I expected more."
Luke puffed out his chest with angry bravado. "I am Luke Skywalker, and this is my sister Leia. We have come all this way to speak with Abeloth, and we're not going anywhere until we do!"
"A fool's quest. You have no idea what you are seeking. You're only a child!"
"I will be thirteen in less than two months!" Luke retorted haughtily, "I am not a child!"
The woman favored him with a chilling smile. "Is that so?"
Luke resisted the urge to cover, especially when he could feel Leia trembling at his back. For her sake, he couldn't afford to show fear. "Who are you?" he demanded, "What do you want from us?"
"Who are you?" the woman countered cannily, "You and your fresh, freckled baby face. Why would those two sycophants bring you here?"
"Shouldn't you know? Isn't this your realm?"
Ice blue eyes flared wide with amusement. "You think that I'm Abeloth?" she scoffed, "Foolish child. You insult me."
"It wouldn't be the first time you've tried to trick us!"
The figure drew back in mock affront and pressed a hand to what would have been her heart were she alive. "Trick you?" she gasped, "Youngling, I saved you. And you've yet to utter a single 'thank you.' It's quite rude."
At that point, Leia found the temerity to voice her disbelief at that claim in the form of a derisive snort. The action earned her a sharp dig in her ribs from her brother's elbow. Undeterred by his silent admonishment, Leia glared at him and insisted stubbornly, "Well, it's true. She didn't want to help us! She wanted to hurt them!"
The woman's eyes flashed with something akin to surprised delight. "Aren't you a clever girl? And so forthright. I think I might like you."
Luke tucked Leia closer behind him, emboldened by the perceived threat to his sister. "Enough of your games!" he spat, "Tell us who you are!"
Hardly cowed by his bluster, the woman studied him again, more keenly, as if seeing him for the first time. "You mentioned before that your name was Luke Skywalker. Would you be any relation to Anakin Skywalker by chance?"
"He's my father!"
"Really? Has it really been that long? How interesting! The Jedi brat has gone and produced little brats of his own! Now I know the source of this absurd bravado of yours. Clearly, it's an inherited trait."
"How do you know my father?" Luke asked warily.
"How do you think? He's the one who put me in this hellish place." The woman smiled again, and the gesture only seemed to make her already harsh features even harsher. "Please…allow me to introduce myself. My name is Asajj Ventress, and I have been waiting for this moment longer than you know."